Thursday 10-7 over 350 people on Zoom and another 40 people safely distanced at Shiloh Baptist Church in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood listened to moving testimonials from Cleveland residents about issues that keep them awake at night — the state of their neighborhoods, gun violence and the criminalization of mental health and addiction disease. They turned and faced the Cleveland mayoral candidates Justin Bibb and Kevin Kelley and asked them whether they will act on those issues if elected mayor.

Candidates Bibb and Kelley were asked the following pointed questions:

• When you are elected, will you meet with Greater Cleveland Congregations by March 1st to negotiate and strategize with leaders on the specifics our constituents want to see in our five key Cleveland neighborhoods (Central, Fairfax, Lee-Harvard, Mt. Pleasant and Slavic Village)?
• When you are elected the next mayor of Cleveland, will you commit to make Cleveland the 6th city in Ohio — along with Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo and Akron — to join the Gun Safety Consortium?
• When you are elected mayor, will you make the new Mental Health & Addiction Crisis Diversion Center a true pre-booking center by eliminating the need for prosecutorial involvement before a Cleveland law enforcement officer takes someone to the Center? Will you enact this policy within 14 days of taking office?

Candidate Bibb and candidate Kelley each responded yes to the three questions. Note: Whoever is elected mayor on November 2nd will be held accountable to his publicly made responses!

Capping the successful assembly was the recruitment of 20 neighborhood captains who will join 58 existing captains to build relationships with up to 50 residents in GCC’s five key neighborhoods prior to the November 2nd election to act on their voting plans. If we reach our goal of recruiting 100 captains, we can potentially turn out 5,000 voters for the election! 

Here are the links to coverage of last night’s assembly:
https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/politics/elections/cleveland-mayoral-election/justin-bibb-kevin-kelley-discuss-violence-during-thursday-night-mayoral-forum-september-7/95-f0cba615-dc92-4785-945b-239dd04f679d

https://www.cleveland19.com/2021/10/07/mayoral-candidates-face-off-debate/

Greater Cleveland Congregations does not endorse, support or oppose any candidate for any political office.