County Council 2025 Year in Review

January 16, 2026

Lots of action at County Council in 2025! Here are some of the major things that happened:

1. On January 2, 2025, I was chosen as the fourth County Council President, succeeding C. Ellen Connally, Dan Brady, and Pernel Jones, Jr. Yvonne Conwell was chosen as Vice-President.

2. In March, Council passed legislation updating Section 501 on procurement after more than a year of work in collaboration with the administration. The changes will enable contracting and procurement to proceed more quickly without sacrificing Council oversight. Most notably, the threshold value of contracts that require submission to the full Council rather than the Board of Control was raised from $500,000 to $750,000.

3. In April, Council approved legislation for Cuyahoga County, following the City of Cleveland, to join as a member of the Downtown Cleveland Improvement District. Improving our relationship with the City of Cleveland was one of the themes of the year.

4. In June, Council passed five Community Development grants, funded from casino revenue, for Birthing Beautiful Communities, Habitat for Humanity, Cleveland Public Theatre, City of Berea Coe Lake Improvement, and the Land Bank/District 10 Housing Improvement. Earlier in the year, Council passed Community Development grants for the Circle East project in East Cleveland and the African Town Plaza.

5. In July, Council passed $80,000 in ARPA community grant funding to the Hunger Network to keep 17 hot meal sites running in the City of Cleveland. The Hunger Network's program had been sincerely impacted by federal cutbacks.

6. In August, Council passed legislation approving an amendment to our contract with the City of Cleveland, providing an increase to the per diem rate that we receive and approving actions that will decrease the amount of time that people can spend in jail without charges being filed. The City of Cleveland approved the amendment a few weeks later. This was another significant accomplishment in improving our relationship with the City of Cleveland.

7. In September, Council approved legislation to provide $7 million from the Opiate Fund for construction of a new Behavioral Health Crisis Center, to be run by the Centers. The center will start same day mental health service for people in crisis and will have capacity to server 1,000 people per month. The center is scheduled to open in phases, starting in September, 2026.

8. In December, Council approved the 2026-7 biennial budget. Inflation and other adverse financial trends caught up with the County. We were forced to make cutbacks but avoid substantial cutbacks in service. The Council worked closely with the Executive, and the final version closely tracked the version introduced into Council by the Executive. The Council made some changes, restoring the MetroHealth subsidy back to the $35 million per year approved in the prior budget and adding funding for the Canopy Child Protection Team, the Workforce Development Scholarship Program, and Closing the Achievement Gap.