It's the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public media.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for joining us.

There's a new plan to reclaim a long neglected section of Cleveland's East Side, replacing rotting, empty factories with a manufacturing jobs hub.

University Circle's new master plan seeks connectivity with surrounding neighborhoods and pedestrian safety, while state officials wrestle with data centers unpopular and many communities, Cleveland nixes the plan to site one in Slavic Village.

Tax collections are way up in Ohio.

What do they do with all the extra cash?

And congratulations graduates, it's mortarboard season and I'll deliver my crowdsourced commencement speech, every line contributed by social media followers, for the Class of 2026 Joining me for the roundtable today, class president Matt Richmond, who covers criminal justice issues for Ideo stream.

Hello, Mr.

President.

Good morning.

Very good to see you this morning.

And also with us as valedictorian, Abbey Marshall, our local government reporter.

Hey, Abbey.

Hi, Mike.

Happy Friday.

What a brain on you, Thank you so much.

Crazy.

In Columbus, a woman who, as an Otterbein student, was voted most likely to memorize the Ohio Constitution.

Karen Kasler.

Hey, Karen.

And good morning.

You've got it all committed to memory.

I'm sure.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

I have nothing else to do with my time.

All right.

You can share your thoughts with us via email.

SOI@ideastream.org is the way to get through to us.

And let's get ready to roundtable.

Can hundreds of acres of abandoned industrial land on a neglected section of Cleveland's East Side become an economic eng providing accessible jobs where employees can walk or bike to work on new multipurpose trails?

That's the strategy behind the Midline, an ambitious redevelopment project announced this week And Abbey.

All the movers and shakers were there.

It's under this big tent over on the East Side.

The key to the redevelopment are the jobs the city hopes to bring.

Let's talk about that.

What's the goal?

What kind of jobs?

Yeah.

When you look at the numbers on this, they're pretty staggering.

And this is something that Cleveland officials are touting as the biggest development project.

in the history of the city, a recent history.

So you look it up 350.

We're talking about 350 acre swath on part of these, neglected East Side neighborhoods.

That's the Norfolk Southern Line corridor.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And so we're talking about 101, sorry, 1.5 million square feet And they say that that will generate 2,500 direct jobs and also $100 million in direct tax revenue back to the city.

So that's a huge boon for for the city.

What's amazing about this is there was this press conference.

There were all of these movers and shakers there, but this is not something that somebody said yesterday.

Let's talk about this tomorrow For a good while now, using rescue plan act money, There has been a nonprofit assembling these properties.

Millions have been spent.

And we saw on video a moment ago to the abandoned buildings that are being taken over and will be, you know, part of this renaissance.

Yeah.

So the city had used, I believe it was about $50 million in American Rescue Plan funding, dollars, which was those pandemic relief dollars that were under President Joe Biden that came through and they set up this Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund is what it was called.

So it's now a nonprofit.

But basically the idea was, let's remediate some of these vacant brownfield lands and let's make it ready for developers and manufacturers to come in and basically like set up a factory so they don't need to come in and pay to fix all the environmental issues.

They don't need to pay to remove harmful chemicals for workers or anything like that.

So it's something that the city has already been doing for years.

I believe it was launched in 2023.

So this is a long term strategy the city has been looking at.

And because that land has been set up, it is ready to go basically.

And that's the quiet work that doesn't make headlines.

You know, we we got a deal on the property.

Then we went in and got rid of all the junk.

Yeah.

They're not a company a company wouldn't pay to do.

They would say, well I'm not going to site there.

I'm going to go to a suburban, open space or a rural open space.

In this case, they're saying, okay, yes, this has been degraded land, but it's now ready for your use.

That's something really a nonprofit.

And government have to do if you're going to attract those businesses.

That's their argument.

Absolutely.

And when you talk about a city like Cleveland, where 30% of residents don't own cars, having jobs that are close to home or at least close to transit options is extremely important because, as you mentioned, they could just go to some rural area or they could go to Columbus or wherever else.

But having those jobs will be really, really important to the residents, you know?

What does that mean, Matt, when we talk about having accessible jobs, this isn't just building, bringing in new manufacturing businesses, but really a network of transportation that isn't car related.

Yeah.

Well, you know, one of the interesting things I think so often when you see these industrial parks getting built by cities or towns, they're out by the freeway.

They're kind of just disconnected from the rest of where everybody lives.

This is a patch of land that's right off of Chester, behind, the Cleveland Foundation going all the way up to to the Opportunity Corridor.

So it's right in the middle of Cleveland, and there's lots of neighborhoods around there.

And part of it will be, the two and a half miles of trails, like a multi-purpose trail, biking and walking.

So it's a place that, you know, you can travel through on your, you know, way from one spot to another, whether it's to, to a job or from one neighborhood to another.

So it'll be really connected to the residents of Cleveland, which I think is a great idea.

What we didn't hear Abbey at the press conference was, here are the five companies we have lined up to come in there.

There's this is basically sort of an if come, like we're going to get it ready and we think it's going to bring in investment, but we don't have anything to announce yet.

Yeah.

It's taking it's taking a big bet on this project for sure.

But they've, they've kicked around a few ideas of what they would like to see.

And it's something that Mayor Justin Bibb brought up a couple times.

He wants to see food manufacturing, biomedical products, companies that already exist, industries that already exist in Cleveland.

He wants to see more of it.

But we're also talking about, businesses that already exist.

So along with that, another 150 acres of the Midland area, are already occupied with businesses like, the Orlando Baking Snap Gourmet Foods, Pierre's Ice Cream.

So there are existing businesses to kind of kickstart it.

But the idea is, yes, let's create this space of land, show how it can be done and the businesses will come.

One thing you think what would not be sited?

There won't be a data center.

They said they want places that employ a lot of people.

Immaculate transition.

Yes, yes, yes.

That is a big concern for Cleveland officials right now is is Cleveland has a ton of vacant land, but they want to make sure that vacant land is being used to help residents and be used to create lots of jobs, not just a few.

And you mentioned it is a transition because we go from aspirational development to unwanted development, namely the data center that was planned for Slavic Village.

Cleveland denied a permit that would have made the largest hyperscale data center in the city on 35 acres, in the Slavic Village neighborho a reality now council, not council, but the city itself, is saying we're not interested.

Yeah.

And this is something that it was it was quite interesting the timing of this, because a council member had proposed a data center moratorium, a one year moratorium, saying we are not going to approve any permits just to get our our affairs in order.

Basically, let's assess the zoning code.

Let's look at what guardrails we have in place, for these data centers and how it might impact residents.

Let's basically not try to just go through and get the train back on the tracks later.

Let's let's get it.

And then a week later, we have this proposal for this massive data center campus.

Really?

It's three buildings.

35 acres is a lot of 35 acres is a lot.

And in the proposal, it said 150 megawatts.

Now, for reference, that is equivalent to more than 100,000 residential homes, the energy usage there.

So there were a lot of concerns for residents is that even though maybe, this is a dormant, area, there are lots of residential implications, not only the houses nearby in that neighborhood, but it could stretch to the entire city when we talk about the power grid and environmental concerns.

So it's something that got pretty immediate public outcry, and it seems like the city did not say why they rejected this permit application.

It just didn't make it past the zoning admin review.

But I was told by city spokesperson that the mayor does have serious concerns about these hyperscale data centers in neighborhoods.

And actually, he talked about that on social media this week.

He did.

And I'm going to actually pull up because I was actually pretty astounded by the numbers on this post.

But last week, after the proposal was made, he said, you know, this is something as the city grows and as it changes, as we're bringing in new development, we're going to get a lot of proposals and we are taking it seriously.

He promised to be transparent in the process, but when they announced that this data center had been rejected, it has almost 12,000 likes on just Instagram alone and on Facebook.

There were tons as well.

It was something that people were plotting the city for.

There were lots of posts saying, you know, people were organizing rallies and coming to speak out in public meetings.

So it seems to be something that, politically was a good move for the mayor in the city.

And for those who aren't familiar with social media, 12,000 likes is a lot of likes.

It is a lot of likes, like, for example, your travel videos that you do, they they only get like 10,000.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Social media.

Yeah.

Far reach 12,000 is.

So indeed people are, are attuned to that and keyed into it.

And by the way, if you want to join our conversation, I think I was remiss, I don't think I invited you to do that.

So you can feel free to send email toSOI@Ideastream.org.

Tell us about data centers.

So tell us about the new aspirational development plans on the East side.

Let us know what your thoughts are or any of the other topics that we address during the program today.

And Cleveland joins a number of communities where data centers are being protested or rejected.

In this case, they're talking about a moratorium as well.

It's an issue state lawmakers are paying attention to.

A new bipartisan committee of the legislature will focus on data centers as public concerns grow around the mega sites, use of energy and the data industry pushes back on that as well.

And Karen, who are the lawmakers spearheading the formation of this committee?

What are they hope to do?

Well, these are two Republican lawmakers, Brian Chavez, he's a senator from Marietta and, Republican Representative Adam Holmes from North Port, which is in rural Ohio.

Never heard of it, but now I know.

Yeah.

And actually, if you if you look through a lot of the hometowns of lawmakers, you'll find a lot of names you've never heard of, but, there are six Republicans and two Democrats on this joint committee.

And I should state that there's a difference between a committee and a commission, because there's already a bill that would create a data center study commission, which would look at data center information.

This was seen, I think, by the lawmakers, as a faster way to move forward on what they want to do.

They call this a fact finding group.

And the whole idea is to try to bring what they call our app, sorry, accurate, relevant and useful information about data centers forward because there's a lot of discussion about data centers, a lot of it has been dominated by the opponents of data centers who are concerned about environmental damage.

You know, land use, the jobs that are created, the, the tax incentives that are offered, the lack of transparency around these, things.

So this feels to me like, an effort to allow the data center industry to be more aggressive in really kind of pushing back on some of those arguments that we've heard from opponents.

But Representative Holmes is in Muskingum County.

It's rural.

There's been a lot of pushback there.

So is there an indication that he's wanting to give, more of a voice to the data center side of this or to the constituents that he's serving?

Well, I'm going to be talking to him next week specifically about that.

But I'm curious, because we have seen the data center industry really start getting more involved in some of these things because of the moratoriums and because of this constitutional amendment push that, volunteers are trying to gather signatures to make the ballot this fall for an amendment that would ban large data centers.

And so, you know, the data center industry has been talking about what they bring to the table in terms of economic development and that sort of thing.

And so, this group is going to meet publicly.

It's going to be on the Ohio Channel.

So you could see these committee meetings, and I'll be interested to hear what arguments are brought forward and how this committee comes up with what they deem to be accurate and relevant and useful information.

And then how do they disseminate it?

And what does this do to the other committee that you talked about, the ones that's already been created to look into issues regarding data centers?

Well, it's only half created.

It was passed unanimously in the Ohio House.

And this a commission doesn't really do the same things that a committee does.

And I can understand how people would look at both of those and say, this is just government, not at work.

But, you know, the committee at the committee here was seen as a faster way to get information out than the data center study commission, which is legislation that's still in process.

We have heard about a number of efforts to ban things in Ohio and how hard it is to get there with the number of signatures you need.

There also is an effort to ban data centers.

Where does that stand?

Yeah, the hunt for the constitutional amendment that would ban data centers using more than 25 megawatts mon That is still in process.

The volunteers that are running that effort are gathering signatures as as quickly as they can, but once again, they need 413,487 valid signatures.

And that means you have to gather a lot more than that.

Most efforts gather around 700,000 signatures to make sure that they have the total that they need in terms of valid signatures.

And the deadline is July 1st.

So it's a really, really big hill to climb for these volunteers, even if it's an issue that people are talking about and people are supportive of.

It's a lot.

Half of Ohio's counties, you have to get signatures from.

So it's a real difficult project.

All right.

We'll keep our eye on data centers and what's going on locally and at the state level as well.

And another development related issue.

we're talking about today is Cleveland's planning commission.

will get a look today at a new plan for University Circle, looks into, how to remake the area known as Cleveland Second Downtown, how to make it more accessible and safer for pedestrians and motorists alike.

And, Abbey, this is an incredibly busy area.

It can be intimidating for visitors, and there's some data, too.

And people have been, have been struck while, while walking in that area.

It's a beautiful cultural gem.

But what they're looking for in this master plan is a way to make it a safe, beautiful cultural gem.

Yeah.

In addition to culture, I mean, all the hospital campuses are over there.

Some of the biggest industries in Cleveland are located in that area.

So we're talking about 70,000 employees, 6,500 residents, millions of visitors.

It is hugely busy.

If you ever have to go over there for appointments or to see the art museum or anything like that.

But yeah, because of that massive amounts of amount of traffic we're talking between since 2016, the University Circle Incorporated says that within their service area, there's been 203 bike or pedestrian crashes.

So they really want to make sure that with how many people are coming into that area every day, the people that live and work there are also safe.

Matt.

One aspect that will not change with this plan is the police force for University Circle.

Yeah, that's sort of a separate, kind of entity.

I don't know what the exact terms, but is basically there's a, there's a fee based on, you know, property.

And, you know, frontage.

How much?

Space you take up in University Circle and you put in a certain amount of money and, you have sort of a say in their, in their police department, and they, they expanded it.

They have like a group to meet semi-regularly to sort of set the priorities of the police department.

And that is, kind of separate from, from what's going on with the city.

When you hear that, you think, oh, they're hiring a private security force.

No, this is a police department.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, you, you know, University Circle already had a, department, and this was just sort of a way to make sure that they had a solid foundation of, funding and to expand it a little bit.

Because you was growing and and they came to an agreement with the city of Cleveland, can expand the area that they that that department, University Circle department is allowed to, to patrol.

So they wanted to make sure that they had a steady stream of funding to, to do that.

They have, an area they're, already known as the Harrison Dillard Bikeway.

A lot of people don't even know about it.

That's one of the things I learned by reading Steven Litt's story.

And they want to make that, more of a focal point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

To to to improve it.

It's sort of part of a larger system of, of trails that goes from, from, Lake, Lake Erie all the way out to Shaker Lakes and it runs along, MLK.

And he is for people who don't know, he's a four time gold medalist in track in 1948 and 42, in the Olympic Games.

He was also a Cleveland Press columnist, radio show host, and worked at Cleveland schools as a business manager.

And so they he built the trail in 1997.

And it you know, basically the idea is to make a nicer to sort of, make it, kind of make improvements to it and then display it better.

So people really notice that this is the, Harrison Dillard Trail when he worked as a business manager at the Cleveland schools, I think he still could have beat any athlete in any high school, in any place in Northeast Ohio in a race.

Terrific.

When you take all these plans together, this one, the Midline, the various waterfront plans that we've talked about.

Abbey, the river and the lakefront.

Cleveland is, it appears at least aspirationally undergoing a generational makeover.

Yeah.

Cleveland's going to be a great place to live in 30 years.

No, I'm just kidding.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

I live here every place now.

I yes, I live here.

I love it here.

But, of course there are.

There are lots of problems.

Like a lot of residents live in poverty.

The schools obviously we're going to get to we they're facing budget cuts.

So the city has to make decisions right now that will have longevity and increase the tax base to bolster schools, bolster jobs, bolster the economic development and and this is when you look at all of these things, it's going to be great not only for residents but for visitors, which will also be a boon to the city.

And even in just the four years that I've lived within the city, I've seen it change a lot, into meaningful ways.

And I'm excited to see some of the things.

I can't wait until I can put my paddle board in and on the river and check out, you know, Irishtown Bend.

There's a lot of great things that are coming.

So, I'm excited.

As someone that lives here.

Very good.

I am too, is someone that lives Cleveland adjacent.

Sherwin Williams will finally cut the ribbon this week.

Or finally did cut the ribbon this week on its towering new headquarters in Downtown Cleveland.

The building is the fourth tallest building in the city.

The sixth tallest in Ohio.

Company announced plans for a new headquarters in 2019.

For a brief time considered moving out of state, the opening was slowed by construction delays, and I felt like when they cut the ribbon, I was like, finally, but people are in it.

And in fact, Sherwin Williams told employees, you've got to come back to work.

We're not hybrid anymore.

So we've got a hub of people downtown.

Yeah, I have a few friends that work for Sherwin Williams, one of whom who has been in the building, and she says, it's just it's it's amazing.

It's a really state of the art building.

And when you look at these pictures, it's it's pretty incredible, especially when you look at the fact that the city said that they were considering out-of-state options when they decided they needed a new headquarters in 2019.

With the impending, Covid that happened, which really decimated a lot of downtown office space and kind of forced cities to think about how downtowns need to change, it's really interesting that, we're seeing a big company invest in downtown and say, you know, not only are we going to build this great new building, but you guys are going to come and work in it.

So that's also going to transform the area around that.

You saw a lot of businesses and restaurants talk about how they they were hit during Covid and they never fully recovered.

But when you have thousands of people every day now coming downtown to eat lunch, to park, to do all of these things, it's really going to change that area.

And it's not just Cleveland, although this is the global headquarters, it's a huge building, but they've got a much bigger footprint in Northeast Ohio.

Yeah, there's about 3,100 people that work in the new building.

But the company also opened its 600,000 square foot, research development center in Brecksville last year.

And that has about 900 employees there.

Okay.

The 10th District Court of Appeals in Columbus will decide whether using public education money for private school vouchers violates the state constitution.

A three judge panel heard arguments this week, on a lawsuit filed in 2022 by a coalition representing more than half of the state's school districts and Karen.

Three Democrats on the court heard the arguments.

It seemed like they were leaning a certain way.

But did you get any indication on how those arguments landed?

Well, I've talked to enough lawyers, and I respect a lot of lawyers.

I respect lawyers in general, who have said don't assume or presume anything about what a judge thinks.

So I think the questions were really interesting.

And it is worth noting that the three judges who heard this case are all Democrats.

Two of them are former state representatives David Leland and Kristin Boggs.

And, you know, the questions were interesting because the case is about whether vouchers are constitutional and the more than half of Ohio school districts that are part of this group, vouchers heard Ohio say that vouchers are not because the Constitution guarantees that the state will provide a system of common schools, and vouchers are taking money away from that effort.

And on the other side, you have the state and various conservative groups who are saying that this is about choice.

This is about parents being able to choose what the right opportunity and need is for their child.

So this is a case that, is certainly going to go to the Supreme Court, which it's also worth noting is right now six Republicans and one Democrat.

And even if the election this fall changes, that composition is still going to be potentially five Republicans and two Democrats.

So that's worth noting.

At least a Franklin County judge had already determined that this was unconstitutional.

So this appeals court will make its ruling.

But as you said, everything ends up in the Supreme Court.

Yeah.

Especially when you start dealing with an issue this big, because this is about the Ed Choice voucher program.

Ohio has five voucher programs Ed Choice and the Ed Choice expansion, which made that choice vouchers universal.

Any family who wants a voucher can get one, though the payment is on a sliding scale.

This is specifically about those two voucher programs with that voucher program.

And the judge who said that vouchers are unconstitutional had allowed the voucher program to still continue even as the litigation goes forward.

I suppose the appeals court, if they ruled that vouchers are unconstitutional, could change that.

But that seems unlikely because we're talking about more than I think it's a 100 and some thousand kids who are in this program, 140,000 kids, I think, who are in these two programs, who would be kind of uprooted or their families would have to pay their tuition in place of their voucher if this were not continued.

That was one of the questions the judges had, which is whether these voucher programs actually provide more choice.

But they also then asked whether striking down the vouchers would actually give more money back to public schools.

Yeah, and that's an issue, of course, because legislators can do what they want with that money.

And so if indeed the billion plus dollars that are spent on vouchers, are that money's not spent on vouchers because vouchers are unconstitutional, that doesn't guarantee that that money would go to K through 12 traditional public schools.

And that was a question that was brought up.

But, it's certainly the argument that the voucher opponents have been making is if you already put that toward vouchers, you are definitely not going to put that toward public schools.

Okay.

The monitor overseeing the U.S.

Justice Department's consent decree with Cleveland, meant to improve policing, offered an 11 point plan to get Cleveland in compliance with the federal decree last week.

Just after we finished this show a federal judge rejected the city's bid to exit the 11 year old consent decree, saying they had a ways to go.

So, Matt, let's back up, discuss, first of all, why Judge Solomon Oliver denied the city and the Justice Department's request to end this work well, so he he released Judge Oliver, released a 74 page order on this, and just laid out all the ways, you know, based on the information that he receives primarily from the monitor, about how the city still has a lot of work to do.

And he went, you know, almost point by point, but they're basically that, you know, they're not where they need to be.

On police officer discipline.

They're not where they need to be as far as like engaging the community and doing the parts of the consent decree, that kind of revolve around, you know, going beyond, having a conversation with, with somebody as you're walking down the street to really engaging the community to kind of, chart the course for the police department.

It gets pretty complicated, but it really is about, working much more closely.

And they're not doing that just yet.

And then even in the areas where the city has talked a lot about the progress that they've made, the judge said, yes, you've made a lot of progress.

But in, for instance, search and seizure, you're not taking the information you've gotten from the monitor about a disparity in stops based on race and really examining it the way that you're supposed to do.

And so, you know, in the future, if you find that in this case here, you know, there's huge disparity, a lot more black drivers are being pulled over than, than non-black drivers.

And, and, you know, he says that you're not taking that information, really taking a close look at it and trying to understand why it's happening.

You seem to have just sort of brushed it aside.

And that's not how things are supposed to work, kind of once this is all over.

So it's clear to us, to me, as Judge Oliver, that you still have work that needs to be done.

And then we have the monitor who then puts forth this sort of 11 point plan and how to get there.

She's, essentially works for the judge.

I mean, there's an affiliation there.

What it's essentially what you just said is what she lays out that still needs to be done.

Are there specific concrete steps?

Well, so so she does are the monitoring team the margins Christine Cole that she has, you know, several people working for her.

And they do these things called assessments.

And that's where they, they take a really close look through, you know, using data, using the reports, using body camera footage, and kind of looking at the way supervisors follow up.

But they, they take a really close look at the way, the, the Division of Police is doing its work in each of the areas in the consent decree.

So they've done one on crisis intervention, on the way the department responds to people in mental health crisis.

They've done one on on use of force in the new policies.

On, on use force during the consent decree and how that's kind of been changed within the department search seizure.

So the 11 upcoming assessments get into the way that the accountability system works.

So the way when officers violate policy, how does the how does the and the supervisors and administration in the department, how do they respond or how do they handle promotions?

And, you know, what are the things that are really valued in officers who are moving up the ladder?

And specifically, you know, what they're looking for?

Is that more of the, more of the things in the consent decree will be looked at as kind of, requirements for, for promotion.

And then one of the big things is they want to see the city work much more closely with the community Police Commission.

And it's kind of been a adversarial relationship pretty much since the beginning in the.

And the monitor is going to take a really close look at, at how they're cooperating, because that whole community engagement part of it, that's the other thing.

There are all these kind of elements in the in the consent decree that are meant to, really change the way the department interacts with the community.

And the CPC is central to that.

So, you know, they're going to have to improve that part of it.

And the Community Police Commission did not want an end to this consent decree.

They wanted to continue to do this work.

They're happy now to know that it continues.

But secondly, that perhaps there will be a little bit better coordination.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's the idea.

And you know, one of the issues that they brought up is that that there was a motion filed back in February, I think now, by the city and the Justice Department and the consent decree and the CPC and others in the community said, you didn't you didn't even like bringing this to us.

You didn't let us know that you were doing this.

How about have a community meeting or two to see before this motion goes into the court, and it kind of becomes out of our hands.

So that was, you know, one of their complaints about the way this was handled, if you would like to join our conversation.

SOI@ideastream.org is the way to send email.

I've got a few here.

I'll read one of them before we go to our break.

And this is on the data centers from Tom, who says, let's be clear, the purpose of every data center is not to create jobs, but to replace human workers and also mass surveillance.

Those outcomes are bad enough and there's cost to the region.

Massive water and electricity consumption, heat and noise production and pollution.

Tom, not a fan as many people are not of data centers.

And as we've said, that's going to be looked at at a state level and locally.

The data center in Slavic Village was nixed by the city.

There's more stories to come here on the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable, including my crowdsourced commencement speech for the class of 2026.

That'll be at the end of the show.

Now, though, the valedictorian of The Sound of Ideas, Stephanie Haney, will tell us what's planned for the next week on The Sound of Ideas.

Hi, Mike.

Here's what we have coming up Monday through Thursday on The Sound of Ideas.

Next week it is graduation season.

So on Monday we'll talk with a new high school and college graduate about their hopes and concerns for the future.

We'll also talk with some people who have been in the workforce for a while to share their insight and perspective.

On Tuesday, we're talking with leaders and vendors from the West Side Market.

It's been about two years now that the market has been operated by a nonprofit organization.

So we'll hear about some changes that have already been put in place and what's to come for the future.

Then on Wednesday, we're revisiting a conversation on gardening.

We had so many questions that we didn't get to the last time we had a segment about this.

So we're bringing it back so you can get ready to plant ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

We'll wrap things up on Thursday talking about Avery's law, which is related to Ohio regulations on dangerous and vicious dogs.

So we'll learn about how that's intended to make people safer.

Also, liability for owners and the impact this has on rescue groups, animal shelters and dog wardens.

Of course, it's all subject to change.

If there is breaking news back to you in the studio.

Thank you.

Stephanie, you're back with the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Ideastream's Executive Editor Mike McIntyre.

And before we get back to the news, I just want to share some thoughts on the passing of Bob Tayek.

Bob was a longtime journalist and news manager on radio and television.

He served as a spokesman for a long time, as well for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

I know Bob from those professional endeavors.

Many of you, though, likely knew Bob from his voice.

He was the public address announcer for the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field.

He announced all the batters at home game since 1999.

Health issues forced him to step away in April from his ballpark announcer duties.

He was 75.

And if you know Bob, and I did, he'd be saying, hey, you have more show to do.

And so back to this week's news with Matt Richmond and Abbey Marshall of Ideastream and Ideastream.

Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler, Ohio is collecting more in taxes than projected.

Way more.

$1.2 billion more.

And Karen, how is it that Ohio is so flush right now?

Well, you've got an increase that's largely being driven by up gains in, salaries and wages, about, $56 billion collected in this month.

April is a big month because it's tax month anyway.

And those collections have been going ahead.

But also you've got sales tax, sales tax on everything.

But cars has been up a lot as well.

And now some of that could be related to inflation.

But those things together have really shown that the tax collections are moving up.

Another thing that I think is interesting here too, is that state spending is below the target by about $240 million.

So that also allows the state to have a little bit of extra money here.

And a lot of that is related to Medicaid.

Medicaid had the largest percentage underspend in all of the categories there, which is attributed to declining caseloads in Medicaid.

And what about that?

Why are there declining caseloads?

Well, I mean, certainly the argument can be made that that's because it's there's there's regulations and rules that now need to be followed to actually qualify for Medicaid.

I mean, certainly you've got folks who say declining Medicaid caseloads is a good thing because it could signal that the economy is doing well.

But yeah, there are a lot there are some things with regard to work requirements that, really make it difficult to make sure that you qualify for Medicaid and you have to prove that you qualify.

And I know if I was coming into money like that, I'd have to decide what to do with it.

Clearly, it's buy a boat, right?

Even though I don't know how to drive a boat and wouldn't want to maintain a boat.

But no.

What would you do with the money?

So that argument is going on now.

There are the buy the boat people.

There are the, buy more food for the people.

People.

And there are the let's shove this into a box and put it underneath the bed, because we might need it later.

Where does the argument come down?

What are we going to do with that money?

Well, as I understand it, you need about $1 billion to get a boat.

Good point.

People talk about they're just, they're just Money pit, so to speak.

But, yeah, the state is now talking about how to potentially spend that money.

Now, we are only one year, not even one year into the two year budget cycle.

And so there's a whole other fiscal year that that's ahead that starts on July 1st.

And so, you know, there are some things that have to be worked out and looked ahead for.

And, also, it's important to remember that the state does have a capital bill, which is an investment bill in infrastructure and things like that.

And there's some Medicaid money that needs to go to that to take care of some back bill, so to speak.

So there there's a lot of things that are already crying out for attention, so to speak.

And when we talk about a rainy day fund, what constitutes a rainy day have be decided that yet?

I don't think so.

The rainy day fund I think right now is at its maximum.

And I believe the rainy day fund is the kind of thing that you only transfer money into once the budget is over.

When when the fiscal year, the two year cycle is over and there is that extra money left over.

But I believe right now the rainy day fund is full.

And so lawmakers would look at other uses for that money.

All right.

The Akron School Board approved the layoffs this week of 17 district employees.

The cuts are part of $11 million in budget reductions.

The latest round.

It's the second time the board was asked, to, after rejecting a much larger number of staff cuts before.

Abbey, how did the district come up with, with these particular cuts?

Yeah.

So they spent about two months deliberating how they were going to come to these.

This, as you mentioned, was the second plan that had been presented.

Because the administration first proposed cutting more than three dozen staff in the board, of course, balked and said, you know, no way.

And so they went back to the drawing board and they ended up using, cutting deans, paraprofessionals, library aides and art therapist.

But it also cuts open positions, and it holds off on purchasing items such as lab laptops, textbooks and individual budgets for departments will be slashed by 6.5% across the board.

So it's not just personnel.

There are going to be cuts.

And we see this is is you know, it's smaller than the original ask you.

I wonder if there's going to have to be more cuts later on.

And Akron's not alone in this situation.

At the same time, voters clearly signaled they're not in the mood to grant new funding.

That's, you know, when you look at all these levies that were failed as well, that's got to be something that's weighing on the mind of school leaders who are saying, we're not getting a budget rescue from anyone.

Yeah.

And advocates say that state funding, has not kept up with the rising costs or any of the issues that schools are currently facing.

But at the same time, voters are feeling pressed.

Residents rather are feeling Preston in many other areas, inflation, rising property taxes.

So they are not eager, as we saw in this past primary, to pass these tax levies.

So the city of Akron, Akron said, you know, we passed this levy in November 2024, and they're hesitant to go back to voters, and they're not confident that they could even get that money because everyone is signaling that they are feeling overtaxed and they aren't necessarily seeing where that money is going in the schools.

And we're talking 17 layoffs.

I moderated a conversation Tuesday with leaders of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, where there are more than 300 cuts that are being made and staff are being close to cut off and buildings are being closed.

Is the Building Better Futures program?

And the folks that were there, the administrators, doctor Warren Morgan, Sarah Ellicott, who's the president of the board, talked about the need that this is a national trend that this is, you know, we've got to make tough decisions.

They did break a little news at that as well.

When I asked about administrative costs, he announced it.

More administrators are being laid off in Cleveland than we previously knew.

Yeah.

So they sent layoff notices to another 51 full time central office administrators over the last month.

Adding to that 315 layoffs.

But they did also say that they're going to be able to bring back 60 teachers that had previously received layoff notices.

Yeah, they'll be like super subs.

So they'll still get their benefits and be a substitute teachers.

In terms of the administrators, there had been a state audit that said you should lose 77 administrators.

Well, now we're talking about more than 80.

So they have complied with that part of the audit as well.

It's interesting to hear the crowd, the teachers union was there.

There were obviously, school administrators, a bunch of students as well, and thoughtful questions about what's going to happen to the programs.

But also it seemed, a civil, discussion about something, a reality that is facing not just the Cleveland School district that we see in Akron and it's so many others as well.

Yeah.

And this is something, again, as you mentioned, isn't just facing urban districts.

There are rural districts dealing with all sorts of problems, too.

And to the point of what Karen is talking about as well, we have all these school vouchers.

So a lot of people are actually leaving public schools.

And so there are a lot of concerns for people that remain.

Okay.

The family of a Euclid police officer killed during an ambush responding to a domestic violence call has sued the city and a dispatch center.

The family's attorney says the young patrol officer's death was preventable.

Matt, let's talk about the subject of this lawsuit.

What happened, and then what is the family claiming?

Is it makes, the police department and others at fault.

So it was it was filed by, Euclid Officer Jacob Durbin's family.

And, he was responding to a to a domestic violence call.

May 11th, 2024.

And the the lawsuit, kind of lays out a lot of things that they allege went went wrong from the very beginning.

So, first of all, Durbin was a very new officer, and they felt that he was not properly trained for this sort of situation.

Then the the call that he was responded to sort of there was evidence that it was more dangerous than what was presented by the by the dispatcher.

Initially it was kind of put as a, not a not a dangerous call.

And there's, you know, this person had the the guy was there who had shot Durbin and then committed suicide a day or two later after a standoff.

He had come into contact with officers before he was a suspect in shooting.

So so the lawsuit alleges that there should have been more information shared with the officers who arrived.

And then the more senior officers, his, his supervisors, should have kind of come up with a better plan.

And then finally, when it happened, sort of Durbin went, was ahead of the other officers and was going into the backyard of a neighboring house and he was shot by the by the, you know, the the assailant at that point and then the other officers from behind him after Durbin was hit, then fired back.

And at that point there, there, Durbin's laying in the in the line of fire.

And there were questions raised by Durbin's mother about whether it was, in fact friendly fire, or at least some friendly fire that that hit him.

And they felt that they never got a full answer to that.

The have no one to indication.

We don't.

We have no one indicated it was friendly fire.

Right.

But the medical examiner said there's no evidence that it was friendly fire.

But, you know, in the lawsuit they said we we want some closure on that question.

And then just in general, it's not the that officer probably shouldn't have been firing back with, with Durbin lying, laying in the, in the line of fire.

And so the there's the lawsuit just kind of says that they, he was not properly trained or supported and as young as 23 or.

Yeah.

And this, this could have been been prevented with some better policies.

So the city is obviously saying this is this lawsuit isn't appropriate and they're going to fight against it.

But police officers as well, though there's been a huge pushback, that, that what was done in the field was done, incorrectly.

Yeah.

The the investigation was turned over to the to the attorney general, to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and their findings were brought to a grand jury, and the grand jury did not, file new charges against any of the officers involved.

The police depart.

I mean, the city itself has not, just sort of said this is a horrible tragedy.

We we want to try to move on.

The, the police union in response to this, to this lawsuit really came out strongly to say that there's no there's no culpability by these officers.

This is a this is a, what were the words they use, the attempts to assign blame to responding officers who were and supervisors forced to make split second decisions during unfolding and highly dangerous situation.

And so, yeah, they they've pushed back very strongly in defense of their, their officers.

Governor Mike DeWine selected his Department of Public Safety director as the state's new attorney general.

Andy Wilson will fill the remainder of Dave Yost's term.

He also leave the position next month to take a job with a Christian legal advocacy group.

Karen, we talked last week that governor could have tapped auditor Keith Faber, who's running for the job, in November, and then that would have had a cascade of other open positions and all kinds of jumbling at the top, in state government.

But he went instead with somebody in his own cabinet.

Why do you think that is?

Well, he was specifically asked if he considered Keith Faber, and he said, yes, he did.

And he supports Keith Faber in his run for attorney general.

He's the Republican nominee for that office in November.

But you're right, to appoint Faber would have potentially opened up the auditor's office, which Secretary of State Frank LaRose is running for.

That would have opened up the Treasurer's office, because you've got Robert Sprague, who was running for secretary of state.

So you had would have had this whole domino effect, potentially.

And while that would have been historic and dramatic, DeWine said that that just didn't look like the right thing to do.

So he elevated one of his cabinet level people in terms of Andy Wilson, who this is the second time he's actually moved him up.

He he obviously, appreciates his work.

And right now, Andy Wilson with Department of Public Safety runs a lot of agencies, including the State Highway Patrol.

So he's experience with law enforcement.

And of course, he is a lawyer, and it's only a job for the end of the year.

I mean, you'd have to, what, run again in order to get that job or how does that how does that work?

He can't I don't believe he I don't believe he can run again.

He certainly couldn't be a party nominee because the primaries already decided that, and I don't know that Andy Wilson necessarily had a desire to run anyway, but, yeah, this is a placeholder situation.

Wilson says he's going to go 100 miles an hour over the next couple of months and try to do everything that needs to be done.

But, yeah, he only has a very limited time in the office.

Okay.

Governor DeWine also unveiled measures to reduce Medicaid fraud, including GPS verification of home health visits.

Medicaid takes up a lion's share of state and federal money in the budget, with more than $43 billion budgeted last fiscal year.

Karen.

What tell me about these measures.

And one of them is the GPS basically saying you did have a home health visit.

What are some of the other measures the governor has suggested?

Well, the governor, he actually was responding in a way to some comments that House Speaker Matt Huffman had made specifically about concerns of fraud in Medicaid and in-home health care and these sorts of areas.

And so DeWine said that he wants to, he's asking he's ask his people to ask the Trump administration for a six month moratorium on enrolling new home health care and hospice businesses as Medicaid providers, also suspending payments to high risk providers and new rules on that electronic visit verification.

But he also said that Ohio already has a lot in place that does try to prevent fraud.

And he this is a fairly lengthy press release he put out talking about all the things that Ohio has done.

And then he also shared on social media some comments that Vice President JD Vance, who is from Ohio, former U.S.

senator from Ohio, talked about publicly that Ohio has done a good job in terms of coming up with things that fight fraud in Medicare, Medicaid.

So, you know, this it's interesting that the Trump administration has suspended new companies, enrolling, new providers, enrolling in Medicare because of the concerns about what's happening in Medicaid and where Ohio is saying, hey, we've already been on this, we've been taking care of this, and we're we're going to if there's fraud, we're going to find it.

All right.

Invite your feedback.

SOI@ideastream.org is a way to do it.

That's what Dave did.

Dave sends in quotes all the time.

He's like, he's a quote machine.

This one is, referring to, teachers and layoffs and those types of things.

He says teachers do what judges do, only with tougher juries.

I think that's probably that's probably a fair quote.

Thanks, Dave.

Appreciate that one.

Cleveland Cavaliers are one game away from the Eastern Conference Finals.

Sloppiness aside , crisp passes please gentlemen.

The Cavs stole a victory in Detroit Wednesday night, rallying from nine points down with two minutes to go to beat the Pistons 117-113 in overtime.

Game six, which could decide the series if Cleveland wins, is tonight at Rocket Arena, and the Cavs have not been to the Conference finals since 2018, when they made a fourth consecutive appearance led by LeBron James.

Also a Guardians game this evening.

I think it's the 10th anniversary of the 2016 World Series team.

Corey Kluber is going to be throwing the first pitch to Yan Gomes, who was the catcher in that era.

It's going to be busy downtown, man.

Yeah, yeah, that's pretty exciting.

And the, it's on Amazon Prime, I believe.

So everybody's got to come downtown and watch the game.

Exactly.

Watch it on the big screen somewhere, in some watering hole.

Or get Amazon Prime if you happen to have that.

But, but, Cavaliers are you I forget a basketball guy.

yeah.

Okay.

I watched that game It was amazing.

Yeah all kinds though.

Yeah.

It's one of those kinds of games.

And I've got my son there and I'm I think he's like, can you just settle down a little bit on, like, how do you lose that ball?

How do you not make that free throw?

Oh, I will never yell at James Harden to do something with the ball before the shot clock is down to 10 seconds agai Okay.

He knows exactly what he's doing.

All right I hope that's true tonight too because this is a big game this evening.

So, Cleveland, gird up, even if you're not a sports fan, big night in Cleveland with the Cavs and the Guardians downtown For birding enthusiasts.

It's in Ohio.

It's a big week.

It's like the NBA finals, Super Bowl and World Series all in one.

It's known as the biggest Week in American Birding, a festival based in northeast Northwest Ohio near an Oak Harbor.

It's a story brought to us this week from the Ohio Newsroom's Erin Gottsacker and Abbey.

What is it?

What?

Why is this the biggest week in American birding and why is it here?

You know, I actually first heard about this last year when I did a story about, snipe Hunt in Chagrin Falls.

Oh, yeah, I remember that April Fool's Day, and I was talking to these birding enthusiast, and they were they were so excited about this.

So I was really happy to see this story because it's so interesting.

But it celebrates the spring migration of millions of birds across Ohio, including dozens of species of warblers.

And they attract this huge following.

It's because we're so close to Canada and the Great Lakes and all that intersection and time of year.

So these are not swimming birds.

And so if you're going to fly across a lake, you might want to stop right at the edge of the lake and get a little rest, some food.

And then so that's why we get this opportunity.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And this attracts 80,000 people to the region for specifically birding.

Yeah.

So it's it's it's really, a huge deal.

It's a big, big draw.

Let me, address one other major story that we had to address today, and that is that Kent State University students are Chipotle champions.

Apparently, according to data from Chipotle Mexican Grills Chipotle U Reward Kent ranks as the top college town in the United States for taco orders.

Not burritos, but tacos.

And I thought to myself, my college go to was pizza at BG.

It was Myles, Polyeyes, Pisanell And I was, I could go on.

Abbey, what was your, your college feast?

Well, I went to OU, Ohio University down in Athens, so there were tons of options.

But if we're talking burritos, I have to say Big Mama's burritos.

But, yeah, not the Burrito Buggy.

Burrito Buggy is pretty good, to You know, I worked at Donkey Coffee.

Shout out if anyone knows.

And so we always did exchanges with Big Mamas late at night.

All right, I like that.

And, Matt, what did, where did you go to college, by the way?

The University of Oregon.

Okay.

And what was, what was on the menu there?

There.

A friend worked at a at a, Mexican restaurant, and they had server.

They had basically all you could eat chips and salsa.

And so I don't know how many meals I had that were just chips and salsa, just using salsa.

I appreciate that one.

Good job kids at Kent.

You've made us proud.

The greatest taco eaters that there are.

My thanks to Abbey Marshall, Matt Richmond, and Karen Kasler for your insights.

Stay tuned for our crowdsourced commencement speech.

If you missed any part of today's show, you can hear a rebroadcast tonight at nine on 89.7 WKSU.

You can also find every episode of The Sound of Ideas wherever you get your podcast.

And on the Ideastream Public Media YouTube page to get the last word on today's topics.

Send an email to SOI@Ideastream.org.

You can find us on Instagram.

We're at Sound of Ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks so much for listening and stay safe.

And you know, we end each show with a song.

And technically we're doing so with one today.

Pomp and Circumstance The graduation song.

It accompanies my annual tradition, a crowdsourced commencement speech stitched together from contributions submitted by my followers on Facebook.

After I asked for just one line of advice for graduates.

So here it is to crowdsource commencement speech for the class of 2026.

You know, this doesn't feel right.

I feel like I should be behind a lectern, maybe with a cap and gown.

Hang on just one second.

Yeah, yeah, that's better.

To the class of 2026.

Pay attention.

Exercise your listening skills.

Hearing is not the same as listening.

Be curious.

There are no bad questions.

Don't go seeking happiness.

Seek wisdom, growth, and give yourself grace along the way.

In the end, finding ways to make others happy will bring you happiness, Turn off radio, TV and digital.

Engage.

Navigate this life with your mind and heart wide open and joy will surely find you.

Your thoughts are magic spells.

If you think you're great, you're great.

Be you.

The chat bot will make you more basic and suck your creativity dry.

Try asking real people for answers instead.

Don't wait to be ready to begin something.

You'll never be ready enough.

Sometimes you've got to say, why not?

Try cutting your own hair.

It's the only way to learn: You shouldn't cut your own hair.

Never take yourself too seriously.

Fail big.

It's the only way to succeed.

If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving is not for you.

Call your mother.

Ask your dad for help.

Spend some time with your grandparents.

Ask questions.

Hold their hands.

Strive to make your ancestors proud.

Every family has an uncle who ruins Thanksgiving.

And if you don't, it's.

you.

Gain financial literacy now.

Buy stock.

Start saving in your 401 K. TSA Touchless Pre-Check will be the best $78 outlay you will ever make.

Sometimes it's better to have effed around and found out than to have never effed around at all.

Stay involved.

Vote.

Your generation needs to be heard.

Being a good guy isn't nearly as hard as the bad ones make it seem.

Things are rarely as great as you make them out to be, and even more rarely as bad as you make them out to be.

You will never be prepared for all the things that worry you, so don't waste your time.

Your learning doesn't end at commencement.

Give 'em hell.