It’s hard to be so arrogantly condescending that a room full of fellow politicians simply laughs at you, but former Shaker Heights Mayor Judy Rawson managed to pull that off with a flourish at a Cuyahoga County Council Planning forum on April 28.

            Billed as a discussion of the “role” of the new county council created by passage of Issue 6, the downtown forum featured Rawson, a self-proclaimed “framer” of the new county charter, and Kent State political science professor Pete Crossland, a veteran member of the Summit County Council. The forum began with repeated warnings to the audience, which included a number of council candidates, to behave themselves and be “respectful” – perhaps because Rawson herself and fellow “framer” Martin Zanotti had just dissed the candidates for council en masse all over Cleveland media as nothing but a bunch of retread hacks.

            Only thing Judy Rawson was missing was a tricorn colonial hat and a frilly wig as she waxed philosophic about how she and her fellow “framers” viewed the role of the council under the new charter – which amounted to no role whatsoever. Rawson seems to believe the charter created a board of trustees, not a legislature, despite Section 3.01 of the charter itself explicitly stating the council is a “co-equal branch of the County government with the executive branch.” When Rawson proclaimed the ideal staff for the entire 11-member council should be “2 or 3 people,” the room audibly snickered. 

            Crossland, himself a county councilor in Summit County for over two decades, contradicted Rawson on almost every single point, based on his own belief that a county legislature of the type created by Issue 6 really ought to be a “co-equal” branch of government, particularly given the number of governmental offices Issue 6 eliminated.

            During the Q&A, I asked Rawson who these “framers” of Issue 6 were, and she immediately barked out, Harriet Applegate of the AFL-CIO and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge. This would be news to them, given that both Applegate & Fudge endorsed against and fought to kill Issue 6. I then asked Rawson if there was any record of drafts of the charter, or these discussions among “framers” about their “intentions.” Rawson point blank said, “no”. I asked why. Rawson said they didn’t really expect a new charter to pass, and besides, that’s in the past, let’s move on.

            Rawson would like us all to believe that there is no document, electronic or on paper, no email traffic, no evidence of a single changed, revised, or discarded word from any draft of any part of the charter, anywhere, in the possession of any of these self-proclaimed “framers”.  

            Given that Rawson has lied to this newspaper about her knowledge of gambling trips Martin Zanotti took with Kevin Kelley, it’s not surprising Rawson would deliver a blanket whopper this laughable on its face in front of a room of potential county councilors. 

Who said county reform wasn’t entertaining?

-Tim Russo