CLEVELAND — Voters in Cleveland Tuesday narrowly rejected Issue 38, the charter amendment that would have allocated 2% of the city's budget every year for residents to decide how to spend it.
How close was the vote? In its unofficial totals, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections reports that 33,386 residents voted no, while 31,999 voted in favor of the issue. While voter turnout in Cuyahoga County was roughly 44%, the BOE reports that the turnout in Cleveland was at 29%.
The charter amendment was the result of months of work by the grassroots coalition People's Budget Cleveland (PB CLE), which believes that "residents deserve real power to make real decisions about how public money gets spent in their neighborhoods."
Under the People's Budget charter amendment, Cleveland residents, including unregistered voters and people ages 13+, would have voted on neighborhood level and citywide projects. An appointed steering committee of residents across the city would be tasked with planning a 12-month community process that allows residents to submit project ideas and then vote on them.
“We took bold action to change this city’s political culture, and we can rest assured that the next time city leadership tries to throw public money in the interest of billionaires, working people in Cleveland have another model for how to fight back,” said PB CLE Lead Organizer Molly Martin in a statement following the amendment's defeat.
Cleveland City Council, which had staunchly opposed Issue 38, released the below statement on Wednesday:
"The voters of Cleveland spoke last night at the ballot box. And their collective voices demonstrated they believe in quality services, public safety, and in the values of representative democracy. Our voters’ commitment to Cleveland’s future and commitment to responsible governance is truly commendable - and this body does not take your votes and your faith lightly. City Council is grateful for the people's trust, belief, and partnership in democracy.
"In this age of ever-evolving challenges, community involvement is crucial. The members of this body engage with our residents every day - from social media to run-ins at the grocery stores to ward meetings and beyond. Participatory budgeting, as an idea, sought to give citizens a direct say in how public funds are allocated. We recognize the need to engage the public and will continue improving how and when we do it as we move forward as a body.
"Though Council members were up front and center with our opposition to participatory budgeting, we know it took more than our actions and words to make it happen. We strategically worked with our safety unions - the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 8, Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, International Association of Cleveland Fire Fighters Local 93, Cleveland Association of Rescue Employees - as well as with our partners in organized labor at AFSCME Ohio Council 8, the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, and the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor to communicate the importance of voting no and to demonstrate how this issue would negatively impact safety and services here in Cleveland. Together, we demonstrated the power of a collective voice is much stronger than the voice of any one individual.
"Issue 38 revealed we need to do more work on civic engagement, participation, and awareness. We will build coalitions to make this happen. We are indebted to you - the voters - for your commitment and willingness. We will continue working with labor, partners, and most importantly our residents for a better Cleveland for all."
Leading up to Tuesday's vote, Cleveland City Council stated that a reallocation of $14 million could have the following consequences:
- Prevent hiring roughly 140 police officers "at a time when our Division of Police is dramatically short-staffed."
- Eliminate the entire Department of Public Health
- Eliminate all staff from the Division of Recreation ($10,537,247), the entire Department of Aging ($1,868,592), and $2M for salting winter streets
- Eliminate roughly half of the EMS staff
- Lose 13% of the Division of Fire staff
- Nearly eliminate the entire Division of Waste Collection staff
- Eliminate the entire Department of Building and Housing - leading to no inspections, Code Enforcement, or permitting
Here is the full statement from PB CLE:
"For more than two years, People’s Budget Cleveland has been organizing and advocating for Cleveland residents to have real power to make real decisions about how public money gets spent in their neighborhoods. The Issue 38 campaign tapped into so much left unsaid about the sense of powerlessness many Clevelanders feel. While we were just 1,388 votes short, the majority of Cleveland voters decided that now is not the time for a People’s Budget.
"No one expected us to make it as far as we did. Every single status quo politician opposed Issue 38 and many worked for its defeat. City Council even tried to kill a one-time pilot version of participatory budgeting that the Mayor endorsed in January - an indication of the defensiveness and inflexibility of an institution elected by just 1 in 5 adult Clevelanders.
"Nearly 32,000 Clevelanders voted for a policy that many learned about only in the last year and that expresses what they know intuitively: that residents deserve a say in how public money gets spent. Today, participatory budgeting is known across the state, and dozens of state legislators took action to keep the door open for participatory budgeting arriving in the future. Hundreds of residents learned more about how to catalyze change. And most importantly, thousands of Clevelanders expressed their needs and hopes for what the city can do to make their life better, an act of political expansion that will forever change what people expect from our city and how they see themselves in relation to it.
"This isn't the end of the story. The movement for a people’s budget is an early chapter in a much longer story that puts the needs of our communities at the center of policy making over corporate interests, while building power in the community for important fights to come."
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