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Good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to creating conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

It's Thursday, September 10th, and I'm Mark Ross, retired managing partner of PwC and president of the City Club Board of Directors.

I'm honored to welcome each of you to the 2026 State of the County with our County Executive Chris Ronayne.

Last October, when we met for this event, Cuyahoga County, like many counties in our nation, were facing unprecedented cuts to federal funding and proposed legislation impacting many aspects of the social safety net, including healthcare coverage and various other programs, creating a disruptive time for many of our leaders in Northeast Ohio.

In addition, local county developments, including the relocation of the county jail and the Browns, both from downtown to other county suburbs required significant attention.

Despite these challenges, the county executive announced exciting progress establishing the Cuyahoga County Welcome Center, the Child Wellness Campus, the Office of Violence Prevention, and a recommitment to our region's waterfronts.

Today we will first hear directly from County Executive Chris Ronayne about key accomplishments and the vision and priorities for the upcoming year.

Following the County Executive's remarks and before our audience Q&A, we will move to a coffee table conversation to reflect on the progress made, the challenges ahead, and what leadership means at this moment.

Joining us in a bit to moderate that conversation will be Randell McShepard, Vice President of Public Affairs and Chief Talents Officer at RPM International.

Now, members and friends of the City Club of Cleveland, please join me in welcoming your County Executive, Chris Ronayne.

Wow.

It's humbling to be with you.

Double thanks, double down on the thanks for my friend Ronnie Knight, DJ Ronnie Knight.

We met each other a year ago and he's been my DJ ever since and it's been a lot of fun.

I also want to advance thank San Gitano and really encourage you to come out to Playhouse Square Plaza afterwards.

They were my fave back in University Circle on the Wade Oval Wednesday days and we called them back for a party tonight afterwards.

Also to our good friend Ricky Smith with Something Good Social Kitchen.

He'll be serving it up today on Playhouse Plaza.

We love Ricky.

A hallmark of these last 4 years of our administration is to celebrate the work of our community partners.

And another partner I'd like to thank is Playhouse Square.

Let's give them a round of applause.

When I think of this beautiful theater, the Mimi Theater we're in, and all the theaters at Playhouse Square, I do think of the citizens in our community who saved this.

Who stepped up against the wrecking ball.

We could have lost this incredible national treasure, but it's here and we're here.

And I'd like to thank the entire team under the leadership of Craig Hassel.

This entire team invests their time, their talents into making these venues the neighborhood vibrant success that it is, not only in Cuyahoga County but across this nation.

It is nationally known, flanked by our friends at Cleveland State University to the east, our friends at Tri-C to the south and all the way downtown the Euclid Corridor and downtown with the new beacon of Sherwin-Williams Tower looking over us, over the city.

It's a spectacular place.

I want to thank every worker that works here, every Redcoat who saw us in and volunteers their time today and always, and I want to thank the sponsors who you saw on the screen who have invested in today's event.

From our large arts and cultural institutions to our individual artists and musicians, we're grateful We're grateful for everything you do to make our county a vibrant place that it is.

Today feels momentous in many ways for me.

It's my 4th State of the County.

Some of you have been to all of them, and some of you, this is your first.

But it's the first— the last of my first term.

And it feels like yesterday when I was standing up, sworn in, with my wife Natalie, and my daughter Audrey, and my son Joe at my side.

They've been at my side every day of this journey.

And I couldn't do this job without them.

I want to also thank my sister-in-law, Natalie's twin sister Maria, who's here today.

I can't see you, but wherever you are— okay, I see you.

Thank you, family, for being here.

And I want to thank our Cuyahoga County family, all 4,500 workers strong, for all you do in these most trying times.

I know how much is on your plate.

I know the challenges we're facing.

They sometimes seem daunting.

But we're in this together, and our future is bright.

I want to thank the family of Cuyahogans—you, 1.2 million strong.

We continue to welcome newcomers every day to Cuyahoga County.

Some we welcome back, like Travis Kelsey plus one.

Let's give Travis and Taylor our welcome, our warm Cuyahoga welcome.

Taylor, welcome to the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Cleveland Orchestra, the polka capital of the world, and the world of music with deep roots from jazz to hip-hop.

It's an honor to have you here, but it's an honor to have our 1.2 million residents every day, day in and day out, working together to make this county a better place, and our regional partners in the counties across this region.

Here in Cuyahoga County, together we are Cuyahoga County, of all races and faces, of all ages and ethnicities.

That's what I love most about this county, is our diversity.

Every minute of the last 4 years has been a privilege of a lifetime.

5 years ago, we launched our campaign for a new Cuyahoga, a new Cuyahoga which we meant.

Our goal was to modernize county government and lead with intentionality, to face problems head-on and move beyond a culture of silos, parochialism, and the way things have always been done.

We cannot and will not allow the old way of doing things to be a barrier in the new future ahead.

I want to thank our County Council.

I saw many of them out here today, led by County Council President Dale Miller.

Thank you for being here, council members, for your leadership and for your commitment, for making sure our government delivers for our residents.

I saw Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell out here every day working on Health and Human Services, Robert Schlepper out here, and the council members I didn't see.

Thank you, the 11 of you working strong together.

I feel like we've accomplished 10 years of work in 4 years.

I also want to thank our mayors.

So many I saw out here today.

Our city council members, our city managers and trustees in our communities.

No matter the challenge, there are no better frontline partners, as Congresswoman Brown knows, than our mayors.

Thank you, mayors, for the work you do across the communities of Cuyahoga County.

Some days I'm working on building efficiencies with you together, delivering new building services, a division of new building services for the county.

Other days I'm out on a bike having fun with you and our Mayor's Rides.

But 60 more miles of trails coming, that's what we're celebrating, the work we do together.

Whatever the challenge, whatever the opportunity, you're always there, mayors, and we're always here together.

I want to thank our foundation partners, especially the Cleveland Foundation, the Gund Foundation, the Mandel Foundation, for their investments in our communities and their support of bold ideas that pay dividends for our residents.

Coming off of Labor Day, I also want to thank our union workers for their extraordinary efforts here and throughout Cuyahoga County.

For our bargaining labor unions, we've shown what a healthy labor and management relationship can look like.

Just like the private and nonprofit sectors, our public sector workers matter.

Your work is often selfless, especially these days, yet you do the work for people without accolade.

I want to take a moment to honor one of the great public sector leaders we lost too early just last month.

Many of you knew Dr.

Flounsay Caver, who embodied the ethic of true public sector champion.

Dr.

Caver was the RTA's Chief Operating Officer.

Flounsay was my friend.

He was your friend, so many of you.

May his life and work, his purpose, motivate us all to keep doing better by those we serve.

Under a framework of health, we've focused on the health of our people, our communities, our justice system, our economy, our climate, and our government in this first term.

Over these past 4 years, we've delivered on the promise of a new Cuyahoga, bringing new solutions to age-old problems.

The conversation about a new county jail was inching along for more than a decade, and by 2022, it had come to a screeching halt.

We unstuck what was previously stuck, and we saved taxpayer dollars by not letting this conversation linger any longer.

Many of you have heard me say many times, I don't wake up every day wanting to build a jail.

No, what I want to build is a better justice system, and we are doing it by realizing it's an ecosystem that starts with education, justice, workforce development, and doing things differently.

As we build a new corrections center, we'll build a behavioral care center within its walls so that people who are in our custody can get the care they need while they're with us.

Just as important, We're developing the ecosystem upstream.

Last week we cut the ribbon with the centers and the Addams Board on the Glick Recovery Center.

Sister Judith Karam, you were there.

We together are opening a whole new frontier on East 22nd Street, just down the street from here, where people can walk in when they're having their most difficult days and they can get mental health and substance abuse treatment on-site 24/7, just down the street.

Building off of successful Heights Hillcrest co-response model, part of this ecosystem we're expanding, a program called First Call that started in Shaker Heights.

Funding for mental health specialists who accompany safety forces, we're expanding to 6 more cities.

Solon, Pepper Pike, Orange, Beachwood, Parma, and Parma Heights now join the 11 communities where we have an officer with a social worker when somebody's in need and needs the expertise of that social worker.

The overlapping circles of co-response, crisis and diversion, and behavioral care in partnership with our judges, our judicial partners, and the sheriff's department come together in a Venn diagram of modernized health and justice.

We need our police chiefs and our police officers to know about this system, and they do.

And now today, we're solving problems in a whole new way.

The new Cuyahoga means tackling ahead of the problems of youth in crisis.

We got to work with the centers to give our kids the space of dignity.

These are kids who are experiencing homelessness, but today and tomorrow they'll have rooms of their own with education and wellness specialists on-site at the New Hope Campus that the county partnered with on Lorraine Road to give our kids a space of dignity.

The Wellness Campus has become a state model that the Governor's Office used to launch and fund child wellness centers across the state.

I want to thank our legislators in the Ohio House delegation here.

I see so many of you out here today that helped us get that over the funding goal line.

A new Cuyahoga means a new commitment to climate.

2 years ago, we launched the Freshwater Institute on the pillars of education and research, advocacy and economic development.

And today, our alliance of water partners has grown to over 40.

We now lead the County Great Lakes Caucus across 215 counties in 8 Great Lakes states and 2 Canadian provinces, from Lake Superior to, yes, Lake Ontario.

I want to thank one of the partners I saw out here today, Cheryl Subler, who's with the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, working here in Ohio across the 88 counties, but also 215 around the Great Lakes.

Together, we are achieving a better water future together.

Congresswoman, we lobbied on the Hill for House reauthorization of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a commitment of $500 million for each of the next 6 years we achieved with the House for improvements to our Great Lakes.

Kai Hoggins, just like residents across the state are struggling with rising energy prices, here we are committed to clean, affordable energy.

And I saw some of our energy partners out here today.

Today.

We formalized Cuyahoga Green Energy and are working on our first independent district energy source in the city of Euclid.

Through these advances in clean energy and freshwater advocacy, Cuyahoga County has become a recognized national leader on climate action.

We've delivered on the promise to focus on the social determinants of health.

We are serious about the health of our citizens in Cuyahoga County.

When the federal commitment falters, We stand up for health for our neighbors.

Dr.

Christine Alexander of MetroHealth has stepped up to co-chair our upcoming Health and Human Services Committee.

And Dr.

Tom Mihaljevic and the Cleveland Clinic, Vicki Johnson, out here today with us, my angel, have joined in in contributing the first $500,000 to that initiative.

We're grateful for our partners, and we will not sit idle while our community members and neighbors bear the brunt of federal cuts.

Our hunger and Medicaid response teams have been active in advocating, sharing information, and responding to the crisis of hunger and healthcare access.

This is a community that cares at a most precious time, whether it's in support of persons with developmental disabilities or making sure our Health and Human Services teams can care for the children in our foster care, or provide meal deliveries for struggling seniors.

While the federal and state governments have cut their safety nets, our government will continue to invest in the basic, basic building blocks of fairness, equity, and support.

We, Cuyahoga, are the safety net.

We are Cuyahoga.

And not a week goes by when I don't think about a county that cares with that mantra, Cuyahoga Cares.

When it comes to the health of people in our communities, we proudly support all our residents, including the newest among us.

It's why we invested in the Newcomer Welcome Center, where we've welcomed more than 18,000 persons since they arrived.

I want to thank some of our partner agencies, from Global Cleveland to ResourceCLE, Catholic Charities, USCRI, and Mae Dugan, for being such partners in in our county with an attitude of welcoming to retain immigrants who continue to contribute to the diversity and prosperity of our county and region.

We launched the Office of Small Business at Cuyahoga County to flatten barriers to entry.

Since opening in 2024, we've assisted over 1,300 businesses and awarded more than $2.4 million in loans.

Next week, we are excited to launch our Business Boost microgrant program to support our small businesses.

Our fiscal office has been busy with our Great Estates program, keeping people out of probate court.

And if they fall into financial trouble, they can get help from the Treasurer's Office that just won a national award for taxpayer assistance programs.

This is what a healthy government is about, one that is first and foremost serving its constituents with outward-facing programs that meet constituents where they're at.

As strong as our partnerships have been locally, We continue to see state and federal governments pull back from supporting counties like ours.

I was proud to see this community rally together when the federal government shut down last year for over 40 days.

When they close, as our mayors know, local governments stay open.

Again, I want to thank Congresswoman Shontel Brown for her steadfast support for this county through that shutdown last November.

Thank you, Shontel.

Together, we partnered with the City of Cleveland, our sports teams, our foundations, and the Cleveland Food Bank to provide food for those who need us and to fight for residents to get their SNAP benefits.

As Thanksgiving and winter weather approached last year, this county stepped up.

The government reopened, but the cuts, the reductions, and the attacks on urban counties from other levels haven't stopped.

Looking ahead, I am very grateful to be the only name in my race on this ballot in November.

And if just one of you, maybe my wife Natalie, maybe just one of you would fill in that bubble, I would be excited to be a second-term county executive for you.

You'll see the many priorities of this term moving ahead.

We're not done yet.

We will continue to focus on residents impacted by SNAP and Medicaid cuts.

To continue to focus on our children and seniors that need our support, to continue to focus on excellent services for our residents, and to continue to invest in innovation.

We will need to be smarter, nimbler, and more innovative in our funding as we seek funding support as costs rise.

We will continue to implement the charter as you, the people of this county, voted for overwhelmingly in 2009 as we turned a corner on corruption.

I strongly believe that this government is a model for other counties in Ohio.

And you did it.

And we continue to take calls and visits from other counties who are trying to learn from our best practice.

Our charter is just 16 years young.

We're a teenager as governments go.

And I look forward to engaging all of you in the Charter Review Commission process next year, because the public deserves input on the government they created.

That's you.

I encourage all of us to learn more about the charter amendments on the ballot this November, especially the amendment to codify the duties and responsibilities of the Law Director and the County Prosecutor that was agreed to by both teams.

I want to give special thanks to Law Director Rick Manteloff— I saw him on the way in, I know he's here— who is stepping down from his role.

He's served with us since my first year in office.

Lawyers know what a lawyer Rick is.

But he's a friend to us.

He's an advisor.

He's a partner on some of the county's most important work.

And as he moves to his next chapter, I want to thank him for the legacy he built in just 3 years here serving the county law department and throughout county government.

Thank you, Rick.

We cannot— we'll clap one more time for you, Rick.

He deserves it.

We cannot achieve our goals without partners.

It's my message for today.

I often say the best public-private nonprofit partnership in the land is here.

It is with those partnerships that we will once again grow as a community.

That means welcoming newcomers, whether they're from our state next door or whether they're from a country on the other side of the globe, because we build stronger, more vibrant communities with newcomers.

This means a new take on childcare that treats it not just as a nice-to-have, but as a matter of economic necessity to improve affordability for our families and and ensure we have the workforce we need for a modern economy.

It means tackling issues of transportation and mobility so that our residents can get to work and our seniors can go to medical appointments.

And it means building a community with a high quality of life at a reasonable cost of living.

My vision for this county remains one of health and wellness, and in my second term, we'll lean in on further growth and prosperity.

This county can and should be the center of growth and sustainability, in one of the most sustainable places in the country.

If we protect our natural assets like our fresh water and we build on our potential, we can grow again, Cuyahoga, in people, in jobs, in housing, and in income.

Just as we focused on the social determinants of health these past 4 years coming out of the pandemic, join me in continuing that work, but in also focusing on the social determinants of work.

In New Cuyahoga, one where together we focus on workforce training opportunities, we focus on access to quality child care, we focus on reliable transportation, we focus on accessible housing options and a cleaner, more affordable energy portfolio.

Together, these are the foundational pillars to success and prosperity.

We will remain a healthy Cuyahoga, and we will grow as a county as we flatten the barriers to work.

We will assure our position as a healthy and sustainable place that attracts and retains people and jobs.

We won't give, give up the ship, especially on this day, the Battle of Lake Erie.

We will, as a new Cuyahoga, continue to chart a bold new course with our citizens of Cuyahoga County.

Thank you for having my back.

I have yours.

As our County Council and thousands of county partners know, We're in this together.

I look forward to even more progress ahead with you.

I want to end with one more message of thanks.

Thank you to the Cuyahoga County team, to our residents, from our kids to our seniors, to our teachers, to our labor leaders, to our frontline workers.

Thanks to our business owners who take a chance on us, our civic innovators, and our civic instigators.

And it's our nonprofit leaders and all the doers in this community Thank you for continuing to produce and push this region forward.

You continue to be those who believe.

At my first inaugural address, I quoted John Wesley, who said, do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can.

That's what you are doing every day, and I'm grateful for all of you, and I look forward to even more partnership and progress ahead.

To the next 4 years and to the future ahead.

Thank you.

Kai Hoggins.

Well, good evening everyone.

Good evening.

If there's anyone that doubts his commitment to saving county taxpayer dollars, ladies and gentlemen, I am the poor man's Russ Mitchell tonight.

We got to get you a raise.

So, uh, welcome, Chris.

I thought you did a wonderful job.

Welcome, uh, residents of Cuyahoga County.

So many familiar faces, although we can't see them.

That's right.

But, uh, I saw many of you coming in.

Um, my pleasure to be here, Chris.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you for being here, my friend.

Yes, yes.

We want to hear a little bit about your reflections as a county executive, some of the challenges, some of your hopes and aspirations, and I'm sure there'll be some tough questions from the audience.

So, all right, I did want to start out though by asking you, as you near the end of your first term, what has surprised you most about the role of Cuyahoga County Executive?

You got it.

Well, Randy, before I answer that, I just, I want to thank you for your decades of service to this community, your decades of friendship to me.

You have served this community, sometimes I forget you have a day job, but what you have done from the earliest years I met you at City Year to what you've done with Policy Bridge and the Urban Agenda, Riddall, you're everywhere, including a new grocery store, Sister Judith.

So thank you.

And I'll say that as a segue to your question.

You know, it is about— I shouldn't have been so surprised coming in as a county exec, but what I see every single day when my partner Sabrina Roberts brings me out of the office to see what's happening in the community and see our frontline partners, that's what I shouldn't be surprised about, but what I've been completely humbled by in the last 4 years is the work you all do every day in our community on the frontline.

It is extraordinary, the partnership that we have in this county.

And how we get things done and why we get things done is because of the people I'm looking at and this incredible network of doers.

Outstanding.

I saw your lovely wife in the audience.

I don't know if I've ever met your children, but I'd like to know what has this experience been like for your family?

Well, it's funny because my kids have grown up, and now our kids have grown up kind of in this space now in the last 4 years, and every public official who's got kids growing up while they're in office, it's an interesting odyssey.

First, I want to thank my wife, who the combination of grit, of humor, and empathy— Patience.

And patience just floors me every day, but particularly Natalie has this ability to exercise humor just when I need it.

Thank you to Natalie Ronayne.

Our kids, one's just gone off to college and one is working and trying not to lose his first job, so he said, I got hours tonight, Dad.

But it has been fun to watch them sort of see through the lens as a window into what we do in public service.

From the early days of parading as little kids to kind of starting to see policy changes and sort of take some intrigue in what's happening.

Now they have school peers that are in our Freshwater Institute.

And then getting the occasional heckling when now they're driver age.

And what the heck, Dad, is your name doing on a gas pump?

And why is the gas so expensive?

So I always say it, I don't price it, I just weigh it.

But it's been fun to watch them kind of, these vignettes of how they experience our public life through their lens.

That's pretty cool.

Chris, there's, from my view, and I'm sure from the view of many of the people in the audience, there's always a lot going on with the county, right?

And you faced some pretty big issues over the last few years and some criticisms that I think comes with the territory.

We've talked about, even in the opening comments, you know, the jail, the Cleveland Browns issue, the sheriff issue, the levies that need to be passed.

I mean, I can go on and on.

Why don't you share with us what you see working at the county and what you see as needing room for improvement or needing some positive change?

You know, I think, as I said in the speech, we are a teenage government.

So with teenage years comes growing pains.

And I think what has been, you know, at times trying is sort of growing into that new role of a new county government.

And that's why I say new Cuyahoga.

Looking through the windshield, not through the rearview mirror.

And I think there are times when at just various stages with various issues, there's just differences of readiness for change, right?

Change is hard.

And so if I think of some of the occasional sort of divergent points of view, that's okay.

We can agree to disagree and honorably go on with the next thing.

A former county official, Commissioner Hagan, used to say, a friend of mine out here today, Joe Simperman, used to say, you do have to break some eggs to make some omelets.

You've got to be bold.

Sometimes it's lonely out there on the front line when you are making change, but I am— look, I work for you, and my oath of office, which I will take again, I think, in January, was to honor the charter that the Cuyahoga County citizens brought in, you know, in 2009.So holding fast to that and holding steadfast to what you ushered in is my job.

And there are people who have active disagreements on certain aspects of our county government.

You've read about that disagreement.

But that's okay.

I mean, it's a healthy discourse.

And next year, as I mentioned in the speech, is the opportunity to together review our county charter.

And if there's something you see wrong or something you see we can change, let me know.

Let our county council know.

So it's— I think it's occasional divergent points of view, but it's a healthy exchange.

And these are growing pains that come with teenage years.

But I'm holding fast to the charter that you guys ushered in back in 2009.

Thank you very much.

As a person who served on the executive committee for Cuyahoga County Government Reform, I would encourage all of you to please be very active in that reform.

Process.

Go to those meetings, share your input.

It's going to be very important.

I have to credit you, Randy.

I remember those days.

Not everybody was here to vote for that in '09, but a lot of you were.

One of the things Randy McShepard did is he demanded that it all happen in public view and that we brought this charter together out in the open.

You had a lot of critique on that from some members of that charter commission.

You brazenly said this needs to happen in the sunshine, this needs to happen in public view, and you won that argument, but I know it was a hard one for you.

Same thing when you're on the forefront of making change.

Absolutely.So to switch gears a bit, Mr.

Ronayne, what is one assumption that people make about you that is dead wrong?

I don't really like the— I hate to draw to the negative.

I'm always told don't do that, But I don't really like the critique about he doesn't collaborate.

I've kind of been seeing that out there, and I don't know.

I feel like a full collaboration with all of you.

You don't collaborate?

I get that on occasion, but again, it's this issue of the complexity of occasionally, and I know mayors can appreciate this, being one of one.

You're a person that's got to make a decision, and sometimes people fall on the other side of that decision, and therefore we didn't collaborate.

I just believe that honorable people can agree to disagree honorably and then move forward.

That's an assumption I think I'd like in the second term to really prove out that we are a collaborative body of people.

Looking at private and nonprofit sector folks out here and my public agency partners, we don't get anything done without each other.

Sister Judith says that all the time.

It's the old proverb that we go further together.

So I feel a great collaboration with the community, but occasionally I think when we make a tough decision, it's, wow, they made a unilateral decision on us.

But sometimes you got to make a decision.

You do.

What's your proudest moment of your first term?

Man, there are many of them.

It's hard to choose, but I will go back to the very first month of our first term.

Our Health and Human Services team is out here today.

David Merriman, Jackie Fletcher, and others I saw come in.

We got a call in January of the first year of my term— first month, I should say.

It was a cold winter day.

You've heard me say this before.

A 14-year-old young lady that had found her way down to Jane Edna Hunter by way of an ambulance that dropped her off.

Her health insurance had run dry.

She did not have a guardian, and she found her way to sleep in our government building.

A week later, a schoolchild, 6 years old, was dropped off by a school bus.

I don't blame the ambulance driver or the school bus driver.

They could not find anybody for these kids.

But these kids deserved a better place than a government office building.

Our staff, God bless them, found them food as you would any kid that was at your door, found them bedding.

But this has not been an irregular occurrence.

For me, I think my proudest moment is ahead.

Fully open the new center, the Hope Campus with the centers, because we said we're going to do things different.

We are going to give kids the dignity of their own room, a front door, an education specialist, mental health specialist when they are experiencing trauma.

And a kid who is experiencing homelessness is experiencing trauma.

But as we open the doors, and we're soft opening now, we've got kids with us tonight at the Hope Campus, that's what I'm most proud of, that we did not turn our back on our kids.

What will be the capacity of that?

Well, we've got rolling openings, but overall we'll have over 20 rooms for our kids that need us on any given night.

So, and I am proud that the team that's already there is already housing kids, and we may need to expand.

You know, we may need to expand.

We have 2,000 kids in our, technically in our custody.

When I say that, The state puts to the counties the responsibility to steward kids who cannot be in their home or are homeless.

On any given night, the numbers range, but we could have 50 homeless kids in our community and 2,000 kids in our custody.

I'm just grateful for the workers that every day, our social workers that are out helping our kids find a path.

By the way, good news on the 14-year-old, if you hadn't heard this from me before.

She not only went to her prom, she graduated from high school.

She's on her way.

Thanks to you and your wonderful team.

What are you most looking forward to, Chris, as you look ahead at the second term?

Well, I think it's some of the things I referenced.

You know, we've been so focused on health.

One of my stops to our hospital systems, I tried to listen 4 years ago as we were moving into office and Somebody at MetroHealth said, you know, pay attention to health.

Our biggest problem is the issue of isolation, which naturally leads, as people were in pandemic, isolated, remote commuting, remote working, remote buying, everything remote, people were getting isolated, and it leads to mental health challenges, addiction challenges.

And so you've heard me focus with our partners, our nonprofit partners, on solving those challenges in the ecosystem upstream with First Call and then the new crisis center.

Center.

So we paid attention to health, the health of our people in our communities.

Doubling down from those social determinants of health, I'm excited about working on these social determinants of work.

I want to ask employers out here today, kind of a call to action, we need to flatten those barriers to work.

As any of you who've been around a while in public service know, some of the barriers that were then barriers are still barriers— transportation and childcare.

I wanted to just reference, there is a promise down in Alliance, Ohio.

It's called the Alliance Promise, but the chambers come together, and Beiju, a good partner out at GCP, I'll be coming to you soon to talk about this, but it's a partnership where employers help defray the cost of childcare, and it matters, and it was a pledge, the Alliance Pledge, and I would like to see a Cuyahoga pledge where we say let no worker not work because of the barrier of childcare.

Is a disproportionate cost right now out there.

It should be 7% of family income, and in some cases in our community, it's a third of family income.

We gotta find a way to get a path back to get to work.

So, I'm excited to work on those social determinants of work, whether it's housing, whether it's childcare, whether it's transportation or workforce development, working with Greater Cleveland Works.

Outstanding, yes.

So, what will it take to reverse the negative trends and the headwinds facing Cuyahoga County so that we can reach our highest aspirations as a county and really see the outcomes that we all dream about?

Well, to start with just that.

I mean, I think getting more workers back into the workforce is something that we, we can achieve.

I think people naturally want to work.

It's just a matter of helping flatten those barriers.

But I also think, you know, we were a community once— Cuyahoga County was 1.7 million people.

We're 1.2 million million today.

This center city of Cleveland that we were in was once 914,000 people in 1950.

We have room to grow again.

We have infrastructure to house people.

We have streets and we have plenty of place to bring people back.

I'm glad Travis and Taylor decided to come here, right?

But I think we need to be intentional about how we do that on all the things that I've mentioned and more, and your ideas I want to welcome.

What can we do to attract population?

Nobody revels in climate crisis and change, but we are seeing it in the West.

We are seeing wildfires.

We are seeing, you know, really, really severe weathers in the Southeast and the West and other places.

These Great Lakes states are a beacon, I think, with 21% of the world's fresh water supply.

I do think in the long view we are going to be the place to be, so we ought to be readying ourselves with workforce training.

You know, Dr.

Bastian out there from Tri-C, I mean, that's a part of the readiness, is getting the programs ready in our community colleges and our universities to have ready workers.

Let's be ready.

Let's be ready for, I think, population growth all over again.

We also got to sell ourselves, and you guys all do a great job of that, but I think continuing to position this region as the place to be, it really is.

If President Braxton was here right now sitting in this seat, he'd say, give it up for Tri-C.

Yeah, exactly.

They're out there, and all of our universities.

We appreciate it.

And all the universities, of course.

Working together.

Working together.

You know, I won't go on about that, but the Freshwater Institute, I'm getting just wonderful participation from your alma mater, Baldwin-Wallace, Cleveland State down the street, Case Western up the road, Tri-C down the road.

Probably missed a few, but they all came together with the Argonaut Davis Aviation High School, and they want to build a maritime training ecosystem to really take advantage of the economic development opportunities.

These Great Lakes.

So applaud you guys for working together in collaboration.

Fantastic.

Fantastic.

So for the audience and for the viewers at home, Chris, what do you want the citizens of Cuyahoga County to know about Chris Ronayne that they don't already know?

Wow.

My wife would say I'm a pretty open book, so whatever you don't know about me, hard to figure out how to answer that.

Well, I want to, you You know, I go back to high school.

I had 2 high school teachers, Carol Bush and Lois Kalmus, and my journey started with their opening sort of my eyes and the doors to a future.

Lois Kalmus taught civics class and in a funny path got me interested in my first real job, which was city planning.

Carol Bush got me into one of the job interests I had, and I guess this is something you might not know about me.

I wanted to be a journalist.

Caitlin Durbin, you're out there today, and I saw Mike McIntyre.

I wanted to be in your world, and I think journalism is so vitally important.

So I'm a voracious consumer of journalism, and I do want to say, in these really complicated times, journalism matters, you know.

And so maybe that's something— I worked in the high school newspaper back when I thought I was gonna go off and be a journalist.

Somehow I became a city planner and ended up a county executive.

But it is that love of news and fact-based news and journalism that I think really upholds democracy.

Absolutely.

Well, I think I have time for one more question.

And that question would simply be this, Chris.

What would you say about the current state of democracy, and what can we all do to protect it?

Wow.

Well, I'm going to rewind to that last question and say— I do think one of the big pillars of it is journalism.

I will also say, and again, credit to my partners at Tri-C, we worked together on a Your Voice, Your Vote program, which I know you appreciate.

You worked all these years with younger people in the City Year program.

I think it does start with working deeply downstream in generations with youth.

About the power of voter engagement, about the power of civics, like my civics teacher taught me.

I'm actually optimistic.

I am optimistic about next gens coming up.

I don't want to broad brush, but from what I see through the lens of what I hear from my own kids and what I hear from their friends, there's a level of engagement that's high.

I also see a tolerant generation coming up.

I see a worldly generation coming up.

I see a generation that's smart and maybe There's ups and downs of social media, but maybe one of the upsides of it is it exposes you to more of the world.

And so I think if we're intergenerationally talking with one another and listening to kids, not just talking to kids, but listening to kids, I think you're going to see that engagement rise.

Democracy right now, we cannot sugarcoat it.

It's in a precarious place.

And you hearken back to that idea, if we can keep it, If we can keep it.

You know, I think that was Franklin's mantra, if you can keep it.

And we, I think, you know, this county, look, let's be a beacon of democracy.

Let's show that we can turn out greater voter engagement.

We did our part in a small way at Cuyahoga County.

I thank my public works team.

We brought you a brand new Board of Elections at 1801 Superior.

We didn't want to see people out in the rain and the snow and any deterrent to elections.

At the surface of it.

Going deep, I think you've got to go intergenerationally and listen to people.

I hope candidates get out in communities today and meet people really where they're at, and it's not a flyover air war over those commercials that you and I hate.

I hope it's people actually talking to people in their communities about what it's all about.

Fantastic.

Ladies and gentlemen, our county executive, Chris Ronayne.

Thank you, County Executive Ronayne and Randy McShepard.

We are about to begin the Q&A with the audience.

As many of you know, direct questions from the audience have been a hallmark of City Club forums since our inception in 1912.

Hi, Chris.

My name is Craig Coffey.

I'm a Cuyahoga County resident, but I'm here in my capacity as the president of the board of Cleveland Angels.

We're a nonprofit that serves the foster care community.

Here in the county.

As you know, and as you mentioned, more than 2,000 children are currently in the county's foster care system.

Just to give a sense of scale to the folks in the audience and the folks who might listen to this later at home, that's enough kids to fill this theater twice.

While the county plays a primary role in supporting these children, a network of roughly a dozen nonprofit organizations help fill critical gaps in care and service.

One of those organizations is the one I represent.

When this network of public and nonprofit support is strong, it can change the trajectory of a child's life.

When it weakens, the consequences can be severe, contributing to poverty, homelessness, addiction, and too often another generation entering the foster care system.

Given your proposed property tax levy, how does your administration plan to work with nonprofit partners to ensure continuity of care and critical support services for children in foster care Regardless of the levy's outcome.

Craig, thank you first of all for what you do.

As you said, you head up the Cleveland Angels, and David Merriman and Jackie Fletcher and I actually call our foster parents angels and saints.

You know, they really are.

And you took the time to have a cup of coffee with me to talk to me more about your own journey in foster care, and I'm grateful.

I, as you guys know, hope I'm accessible to any of you to talk about what's on your mind.

We do, as Craig said, care for some 2,000 kids a year.

About 7,000 foster parents in the state of Ohio, and we are grateful to every one of them.

And many of them are foster parents to more than one child, and many of them are repeat foster parents.

So, our angels and our saints, I thank you.

You gave me an opportunity to quickly mention the HHS levy.

In a public forum, I have to just be citizen Chris Ronayne, But I can tell you that it matters, and I hope you read the facts, that $2.5 mils, the ask, will stave off the cuts I talked about, that Congresswoman Brown knows across the aisle sometimes what's happening to the cuts to counties.

$10 million in SNAP benefits, cuts to our Medicaid program, the Group 8 insurance program that was ushered in that brought 100,000 persons, Chicago County, new medical benefits, and of course foster care, boarding care.

I mean, all of this is what is paid for out of the generosity of neighbors like you.

And I ask neighbors like you to really seriously— I can't tell you how to vote.

I can tell you to vote and get educated on the levy that's coming up this November.

But it matters.

It matters to us from a budget standpoint.

We are not alone as county government.

Governments go that face budget adjustments, but the costs have risen 5 to 6% every year since the pandemic above what is capped as an HHS levy.

So I see my partner Jason Joyce out there from the Adams Board and so many of you that rely on that, of that wonderful partnership that we have with HHS.

But back to foster care, we couldn't do it without you.

This is the epitome of that.

Public-private partnership I talk about.

Cuyahoga County has adopted a sustainability provision within its investment policy that allows the county to consider a number of sustainability factors when making investment decisions, including things like human rights, labor practices, and climate.

Uh, I hope— I wholeheartedly applaud that move, and I believe that reflects the tireless efforts, advocacy of those speaking out against the Gaza genocide, along those fighting for the environment and those helping to protect the safety and dignity of our immigrant neighbors.

So my question is simple.

You adopted this policy.

Will you support its implementation, even if it means fighting against federal and state officials?

Mo, thank you very much, and thank you for living in the Eco Village.

We years ago showed some officials from the City of Chicago your neighborhood, and they made a whole playbook out of it in the City of Chicago.

Let me say this, uh, to the context, I think, of your broader context of your question, Mo.

We, we want the same.

We want a path to peace in the Middle East.

Um, I do want to say, uh, that the sustainability, to your direct question, uh, the sustainability portion of that investment policy is something that I asked for.

Our Chief of Climate, Janita McGowan, is out here.

We talked about it.

Brad Cromis, our Treasurer, And we did it.

In January of 2025, we put a sustainability provision in our investments.

It's essentially social investing, which is to say we're gonna invest, Reparator, I see you out there, responsibly as it relates to sustainable practices.

So we put it in place.

It's now been internationally looked at as a best practice.

It was certified by the International Treasurers Association, US and Canada, as a best practice in investment policy.

We're the only county in the state that has it, and to answer your question, we put it there, we're sticking to it, and I'm proud to be implementing that policy.

Thank you.

The Social Security Administration estimates about 1 in 4 able-bodied adults will experience either a temporary or a permanent disability before the age of retirement.

Are there efforts being made to increase housing inventory with universal design in mind for those who want to safely age in place, and for those with disabilities or family members with disabilities that currently face a lack of housing options for accessibility?

Thank you, Tracy, for your advocacy and for your question.

I don't pick the questions; the City Club does.

But I'm glad to get these questions.

I do want to say yes.

My last job at University Circle, we worked with Maxim.

Accessible housing on universal design, that anybody of any mobility challenge can get through a door at a grocery store, can get through a museum exhibit, has housing accessibility that works for them.

We have Tony Scott here, our housing director, today.

We need more housing, period, in Cuyahoga County, but we need more accessible housing for all the reasons you mentioned— persons who need mobility and need access to universal design.

So we're committed to it.

I need to continue to work on product offerings whereby, and no offense if you live in another county, we love you all in the region, but where we're competitive in Cuyahoga County, that we don't lose people for mobility challenges or for issues that seniors confront.

We need to create more product that keeps people here.

I'm wedded to the idea of universal design.

We can go on about this in another forum, maybe we should, but it's the idea that people should be able to access what they need in their in their daily lives no matter their mobility, right?

And you live that.

It's a lived experience for you.

I'm wedded to that.

I think we should start, mayors, to inch into the building codes about how we bring forth codified universal design in the building codes.

We have a new county building services manager and we can talk to that person about that.

But let's work together on more accessible housing here in our community.

Thank you.

So my question to you is, Cuyahoga County ranks 12th in the nation for per capita exonerations according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

How is your administration using county resources such as public defender funding, safety initiatives, community oversight to address systemic disparities and protect residents in public housing communities like Outway Homes?

Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for the question.

And I think we need to really work with CMHA on exactly that issue, and, you know, we're leaning in sometimes, salmon swimming upstream against federal policies that make for very difficult circumstances.

I mentioned our newcomers.

I mean, to have a policy that disallows an immigrant to move into public housing is just, I think, antithetical to the American way.

As far as exonerations go, I mean, our work, we continue to try to create opportunities, second chances, our Office of Reentry, the same, constantly focused on making sure that our system, as I said at the outset in our, in our, in the speech portion of this, upstream, that we are working on justice system that creates just housing options for those who need it every day.

My stepfather was a successful product of public housing, came here from war-torn Europe, Lived at Lakeview Terrace, ended up raising 5 kids in Old Brooklyn, and married my mom years later.

We believe in you.

We believe that housing is a right of our citizens here in Cuyahoga County, and I would like to work with you more on the project of creating more expanded opportunities.

Last 2 questions about housing.

More, more, more.

Thank you.

Hi, Mr.

Ronayne.

My name is Tyler Court.

I'm a local small business owner, and I've lived in the county for 11 years now.

And I've actually been mentored on that small business by Mr.

Mick Shepherd, so it's so good to see you, sir.

Mr.

Ronayne, when you ran, you were opposed to extending the quarter percent sales tax increase without a vote of the people, but then raised it with a vote of the council, and then later sought an increase to pay for Gateway, and now RTA, HHS, and developmental disabilities are all coming to voters for levies of their own.

My question is, how high is too high when it comes to the sales tax in the county, a regressive tax that impacts low-income people and small business owners like me, and is already the highest rate in Ohio?

And will you pledge to not seek more tax increases during your second term?

On the last question, no.

Look, costs go up, sources are needed, right?

I mentioned also, you know, at the question and answer with Randy, I talked a little bit about journalism and facts.

And on some of the things that were said at the outset of your question, I want to continue to challenge people to go back and look at the facts, and even our own journalism community, on what is said and what wasn't said.

But we'll get into that later.

I do want to say, on the many things you mentioned about upcoming levies, yes, there's an HHS levy.

I mentioned costs rising, lack of federal support.

When I'm looking myself at a budget cut on my desk that I stared at and stared at and stared at and couldn't make sense of it, sisters.

It was the cut to the Senior Meals on Wheels program.

I said to myself, what am I going to do?

Am I going to cut senior meals and starve a senior on a weekend?

No.

I encouraged with County Council President Miller and the council members who are here today and all of our council members to go out to our neighbors because we couldn't do this.

It was an untenable premise.

Starve our seniors.

So, I appreciate the framework from which you asked the question.

Times are tough.

The developmental disabilities levy that's in front of you, they haven't been out since 2005.

They haven't been out since 2005, but the woman that just spoke about housing, that's where we want to put resources, into accessible housing and independent living.

So, I can't pledge to not support any tax increase in the future, because I do believe that there are things worth paying paying for.

Thank you.

Leave it at that.

I'll leave it at that.

Let's invest in our people.

Thank you once again to County Executive Chris Ronayne, Randy McShepard.

I'm Mark Ross.

Our City Club Forum is adjourned.

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