Mike DeWine makes a principled decision to use his veto power on transgender bill: Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill last week that would have denied gender-affirming care for minors or banned transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.

We’re talking about DeWine’s rare show of strength against the cultural warmongering of his party on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

Our readers offered new year’s resolutions for elected leaders, and the consensus on Mike DeWine was to show some spine. He did just that at the end of last week, using his veto power on a transgender issue. What did he block, and how did that bring him some ire from Donald Trump?

Speaking of our reader’s new year’s resolutions for elected leaders, DeWine was not alone in our readers’ thoughts. What did they offer to Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, Senator JD Vance and state senator Jerry Cirino?

Let’s talk about Brent Larkin’s column about everything that appears to be wrong with the naming of a new president at Youngstown State University, from the secretive selection process to the wholly unqualified guy who got the job.

We discussed DeWine’s veto of the transgender bill, but he signed everything else that came his way, including another gigantic smooch to the state’s utilities on the backs of the taxpayers, once again proving that Ohio’s elected officials serve the business interests, not the constituents. What will that bill do, and why does DeWine constantly cave to this industry? Didn’t he veto this very thing earlier in the year?

DeWine also proved his no friend to home rule by cities by signing a bill that further restricts the rights of city residents to self-govern. What does this bill do, and given that no city official wants to do what this bill prohibits, is there any likelihood of a challenge to it based on home-rule authority?

It took forever, but one of the worst judges to sit in the Cuyahoga County bench finally got the boot. Who is he, and what did the Ohio Supreme Court say about his outrageous behavior in the courtroom?

The numbers are in, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol really did step up with traffic enforcement in the Cleveland area in 2023, while dropping its work elsewhere in the state. What do the numbers show?

This is a bit of a stunner, but who is the chief roadblock to a drop-in center in Cleveland for youth – many having aged out of foster care – who need some help?

We talked about our reader’s new year’s resolutions for public officials, but let’s end our first podcast of the new year with a little discussion about hope. You both listed your thoughts for the new year in an Editorial Board roundtable on Saturday. What did you say, and, given you have no space limit here, please talk a bit about your thoughts behind what you wrote?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:01.36)

Today in Ohio is back ready to have thoughtful discussions about the news analysis about the news throughout 2024. It’s guaranteed to be a momentous year with big state election, big federal election, lots of other stuff. And we’re happy you’re with us. Let us begin. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin and Leila Tassi. Laura Johnston is taking a vacation to start the year. God bless her. She’ll be back a week from tomorrow.

Lisa (00:20.332)

and let us begin. I’m Chris Quinn, here with Lisa Garvin and Lingo. And that is the conclusion for this group stage. We’ll start here. We’ll be back in a few minutes tomorrow. Our leaders often do use resolutions. So we’ll have to do some of the things that we can do.

Chris (00:29.2)

Our readers offered New Year’s resolutions for elected leaders and the consensus on Mike DeWine was to show some spine. Lisa, he did just that at the end of last week using his veto power on a transgender issue. What did he block and how did that bring him some ire from Donald Trump?

Lisa (00:47.956)

Well, on Friday, Governor DeWine vetoed House Bill 68, which would have banned gender affirming care for minors and disallow female transgenders from participating in sports. He said when at a press conference, he said, if I signed, Ohio would be saying that government knows better than parents what’s best for their child.

He said he talked to parents who said their kids would likely be dead without gender affirming care. He also spoke with doctors and counselors about the issue and he said it was ultimately about protecting human life. Now, lawmakers may override the veto. They certainly have the votes to do it, but they have the end of the year to override that veto. They would need 60 of 99 votes in the House and 20 of 33 in the Senate to override the veto.

But DeWine says he will consider a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors. He says it’s not routine, which is true. He said that hormones and puberty blockers were more common and they wanna collect data on surgeries in both kids and adults, and they also wanna prevent pop-up surgery clinics from occurring.

Chris (01:58.34)

And it was a surprise, but Donald Trump thought this was a very bad idea.

Lisa (02:02.796)

Oh my God. Yeah, he basically said, quote, he went on his little thing, Truth Social, and he said, DeWine has fallen to the radical left. I’m finished with this stiff. And he says, I won’t introduce him at my political rallies anymore. He says, hopefully the legislature will overturn this veto. And he said, do it fast, in all caps.

Chris (02:22.684)

This is a very illustrative story of the division in the Republican Party. Mike DeWine is your old-fashioned Republican, the kind of guy that you used to see in the Republican Party all the time. He’s very conservative, but he’s true to most of those old values. The Trump side of the party is completely nuts. I mean, they’re just going crazy. Mike DeWine is saying the most important person in a child’s life is the parent. That has been a Republican…

fundamental principle since the beginning of time. But it’s no longer part of the Republican Party dogma. The Bernie Morenos, the Frank LaRoses, the Donald Trumps, they don’t believe that anymore. They believe they should tell people what they can and cannot do. It’s the authoritarian side of the government. I salute Mike DeWine for taking what appears to be a principal stand. We’re gonna slap him around in a minute over the utilities. But.

Lisa (03:05.255)

They will be based on what they have never seen.

Lisa (03:11.546)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (03:18.704)

But with the death penalty, with abortion, with this, he is true to himself. He’s true to the principles that he’s long espoused and he deserves some credit for doing it.

Lisa (03:28.616)

Well, and I think he realized this was a childcare issue and he’s always been for children, especially young children. And I think in the end, he’s like, oh yeah, this really is an issue about their health and their life.

Chris (03:40.156)

But Ohioans should look at this as they go to the polls this year. What do they want? Do they want the Mike DeWine kind of principles, the old style Republican principles, or do they want the nonsense that gets spewed by the Frank LaRoses and the Bernie Morenos? There’s a real choice here. In the Republican primary, Matt Dolan and Bernie Moreno are going neck and neck. I think Frank LaRose is out, but because Moreno got the Trump vote. But that’s a choice because Matt Dolan is not

the fire breathing Trumpster. He fits much more with Mike DeWine, and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Speaking of Reader’s New Year’s resolutions for elected leaders, the line was not alone in our readers’ thoughts. Laila, what did they offer to Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronane, Senator J.B. Vance, and surprisingly, State Senator Jerry Serino?

Leila (04:34.922)

Well, when it comes to Justin Bibb, Reader suggested that the mayor resolve in 2024 to do less for deep-pocketed developers and more for the citizens of Cleveland and the neighborhoods. Although there was also the sentiment mixed into those suggested resolutions that he do more for the business community and make it easier for developers to execute on projects. But Reader’s want him to say no to any subsidies for Brown Stadium and once suggested that he spend less time.

flitting about the country attending events just to kind of pad his resume for future job prospects. For JD Vance, one reader suggested, I just love this, that he resolved to read a certain book written by a certain younger author that came from his home state. That book, of course, is Hillbilly Elegy, which was Vance’s bestselling memoir of his climb out of Ohio Appalachian poverty and how he acquired money and influence but never forgot where he came from.

And our reader said, you know, this author really had something to say. I implore JD Vance to read this book and let it engulf his heart, soul, and mind, then emulate the younger man who wrote it. So that hopefully JD Vance will look back into his own past and take that piece of advice.

Chris (05:51.112)

That, of all the things we received, that to me was the most thoughtful. That was somebody that really, really went deep and pointed out the economy of J.D. Vance. J.D. Vance is one of those fire breathing Trumpsters. He’s going to completely to the dark side after being an anti-Trumpster back in the day. And there are people that would like to see that J.D. Vance come back. And it was written quite well. We quoted a giant piece of it.

Leila (05:59.01)

Yeah.

Leila (06:15.794)

It was. Well, then for Chris Ronane, the resolution was to return to the Chris Ronane of his good years, to talk less and do more. For Serino, they’d love to see him become the representative he thinks he is. I thought that was a great line. A representative who’s bringing a businessman’s common sense approach to governance. But overall, I think the feeling among readers is that this should be the year when our elected leaders remember who they work for.

that they’re paid to represent us, not their own interests or personal belief systems or political parties.

Chris (06:52.344)

I was surprised at the number of people that wrote about Sereno because he’s just the state senator and he doesn’t even represent Cleveland. He’s out in Lake County and Joga County. I guess he has a piece of Cuyahoga County, but it’s small. And we didn’t get anything on Sherrod Brown, but we got multiple things about Jerry Sereno and they were pretty much the same. That this was a guy who campaigned on being a smart business person, a fiscal conservative.

And he goes to Columbus and he turns into one of the fire breathers. I mean, he’s done all sorts of nonsense since he got down there instead of being the guy who ran, which I was surprised that readers picked up on. I did get complaints. Why isn’t there anything from Sherrod Brown? Well, the readers didn’t send us anything to Sherrod Brown. Something I could do about that. But it was interesting how many people said the theme you said, represent us, stop putting in your loony ideas. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Leila (07:33.747)

Yeah.

Chris (07:47.268)

Let’s talk about Brent Larkin’s column about everything that appears to be wrong with the naming of a new president at Youngstown State University, from the selective secretive selection process to the wholly unqualified guy who appears to have gotten the job Lisa, this was a great column by Brent.

Lisa (08:05.176)

Yeah, he was in full fire breathing mode, that’s for sure. And who can blame him? Congressman Bill Johnson, the Republican for Marietta, has accepted the offer to become president of Youngstown State University. He will resign from Congress before taking the job in March. The Youngstown State University board voted 8 to 1 back on November 22nd. The only board member to vote no was Molly Seals.

three members who voted yes contributed to Johnson’s reelection campaigns in the past. So this job has a $400,000 yearly salary and Larkin pointed out that Johnson never spent a day working in education at any level. And of course he will always be remembered for voting against certifying the 2020 election results in some states, citing credible election fraud.

Chris (08:57.608)

Yeah, the idea that they’ve taken somebody who’s not an educator, who is anti LGBTQ issues, who really has no business having the job is surprising. And Mike DeWine and the board all support him. And you just scratch your head and think what becomes of Youngstown State with somebody of his philosophy running it.

Lisa (09:21.484)

Well, and it kind of falls into that bill that Serino wants to pass. Maybe he’s going to be the one, you know, bringing, you know, parody to college campuses. But students, faculty, and alumni, thousands of them are furious about this, including actor Ed O’Neill of Married with Children and Modern Family fame. He’s returning his YSU degree. He wants them to remove his name from all publications and he’s ending his donations. He says, quote, I’m ashamed of them.

And then Phantom Fireworks CEO Bruce Zoldan recently donated $5 million for a new building and he says he may have his name removed from that building and he said this was a slap in the face.

Chris (09:58.864)

What would you think if you were a gay student attending this school and the president of the school is Vowed anti you I mean, I just don’t understand The principal here and we talked about Mike the wine in the beginning of this Taking a principled stand to help children and to keep parents in charge of children But then he supports something like this. It makes no sense I mean if you care about education, you should have an educator running the university and I just don’t see how

this university will continue to succeed with people feeling this way about it.

Lisa (10:33.672)

It’s interesting that Johnson would give up his seat on Congress, which I think was probably a lock if he’d run again. But yeah, this just seems to be part of that agenda that they’re trying to push in public universities across Ohio, where they want to, you know, do what they will. Re-education.

Chris (10:52.964)

Yeah, but the students won’t come. We’re going to see a shakeout, as we’ve talked about, in higher education. We have too many colleges. So you just made yourself non-competitive. And I don’t know. Brent said that the board is hoping that the anger goes away quickly and people forget about this. But he pointed out that does not appear likely to happen with people like Ed O’Neill on fire about it coming out hard against it. I

I don’t imagine the students are going to sit still for it once this gets fully gone. Anyway, good column by Brent Larkin. Check it out, outs and you are listening to Today in Ohio. We discussed DeWine’s veto of the transgender bill, but he signed everything else that came his way, including another gigantic smooch to the state’s utilities on the backs of the taxpayers. Once again, proving that Ohio’s elected officials serve business interests, not us.

What will the bill do Layla and why does the wine constantly cave to this industry? Didn’t he veto this very same idea earlier last year?

Leila (11:57.758)

Yes, he did. He did. DeWine had used his line item veto authority to strip out a similar proposal from the state’s two-year budget plan earlier this year, but this past week he did an about face and signed House Bill 201. This bill was originally written to prohibit the Ohio EPA or local governments in the state from restricting the sale of gasoline-powered cars to promote the use of electric vehicles. But under language…

that was added by lawmakers just before the bill passed, both the House and Senate. Gas companies can charge Ohio’s 3.7 million gas customers up to $1.50 per month for up to five years to extend gas lines to sites that could potentially be used for megaprojects. Even if no buyer has been lined up yet, sites or projects would only be eligible for the fee if they are supported by the state’s economic development nonprofit, Jobs Ohio.

or regional affiliates of Jobs Ohio or the Ohio Department of Development. So an earlier estimate suggested that this fee on natural gas customers would cost them about $67 million per year, but that was based on a higher cap of $3 a month rather than the $1.50. The idea they’re selling here is to create shovel-ready sites for companies like Intel, which is building that $20 billion computer chip manufacturing complex near Columbus.

Competition is tough for projects like that, so they want to create sites that are ready to accept them. But gas companies have already been allowed under Ohio law to impose a monthly charge for what they call prudently incurred costs. House Bill 201 lets them charge fees to help develop these potential megaproject sites, and there’s no promise that building out this infrastructure will have the effect of attracting big economic development projects to Ohio.

A spokesman for DeWine said the governor signed the bill after vetoing this proposal when it appeared in the budget bill because the language this time around was more palatable.

Lisa (13:58.612)

Hehehehehehe

Chris (13:59.861)

Which is just nonsense, but okay. We did hear from Bill Seitz after we discussed this bill a couple of weeks ago before we took our break. He sent along a couple of things that he said we’re missing the point on, that it’s not a new fee. It’s not going to cost us anything because like you said, we’re already paying a version of it and that it can’t build pipelines to nowhere.

because Jobs Ohio has to approve the sites. Like Jobs Ohio wouldn’t approve a pipeline to nowhere. The first argument is nonsense. The idea that it’s not an increase, it’s like the argument that Armin Budish made when he wanted to extend the sales tax by 40 years in Cuyahoga County. He’s saying, oh, you’re already paying the tax, it’s not an increase. It’s like, no, we had a finite set of taxes we had to pay.

Leila (14:28.846)

I’m gonna go to bed.

Lisa (14:29.686)

Ha ha.

Leila (14:40.935)

Right.

Chris (14:48.92)

you’re extending it by 40 years, that means we’re paying more taxes, more means an increase. This is the same thing. They’re going to be able to use our money on stuff they couldn’t use it for before. That’s an increase. They could only use this money before if they could show what they were spending it on. Now they can just make it up as they go. It’s a bogus argument. And what Cite sent us, I have questions about.

Leila (15:09.119)

Yeah, on a whim.

Chris (15:13.796)

where that came from. It might have come from a utility company. So we’re going to check that out. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Dwine also proved he’s no friends to home rule by cities by signing a bill that further restricts the right of city residents to self govern. What does this bill do Lisa and given that no city official wants to do what this bill prohibits, is there any likelihood of a challenge based on home rule authority?

Leila (15:17.725)

Oof, oof.

Lisa (15:42.188)

There probably will be some legal challenges to this. On Thursday, Mike DeWine signed bipartisan bill SB 91, that blocks many Ohio cities from approving participatory budgeting. It cleared the house and Senate unanimously. DeWine had no comment on why he decided to sign after having a press conference. The ban was added to a bill that involves new requirements for reporting waste, fraud and abuse by government employees.

The amendment includes all local government expenditures must be approved by the city’s legislative body and not solely by a residents vote. This was pretty much in direct response to Cleveland’s People’s Budget Initiative, which would have given total control of $14 million, about 2% of the city budget to residents. They say, Democrats, the reason why they went along with it, they said this

would not apply to Cleveland due to technicalities in the bill. In fact, charter governments have the flexibility to set local laws. And Mike Skindel, the Democrat from Lakewood says the bill does allow resident input. It is similar to other cities in that respect, but he says it won’t affect Cleveland because they cannot preempt a charter government. Now, this all grew up from an original bill. The original bill in the summer was Senate Bill 158,

That one had explicit language applying to charter cities. And there are about 250 charter cities in Ohio out of 926. And Cuyahoga has a bunch of them. They have 50 charter cities.

Chris (17:19.464)

I just, there was no reason to pass this because there’s no government trying to do it. When it was proposed in Cleveland, the leadership of Cleveland fought it, stopped it, voters voted it down. It wasn’t a blowout, but they voted it down. And Jerry Serino, who proposed this whole thing, doesn’t even represent Cleveland. He has no business sticking his nose into it. And it just feels like another one of these attempts by the Republicans in Columbus to dictate.

to people what they can and cannot do instead of realizing that the power of government emanates from the people.

Lisa (17:56.76)

Well, and Jerry Serino was kind of explicit. He said that this was kind of a deterrence. He said, those who want to siphon off taxpayer money for projects selected by quote, these unelected people will be discouraged from pursuing participatory budgeting in other cities. So he sees it as a deterrent.

Chris (18:15.056)

It’s interesting to see if anybody will challenge it. This, I’m pretty sure, does violate the home rule provision of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has had a really wacky way of interpreting these things, so you’re never quite sure which way they’re going to go. But this one feels like this is a home rule issue. So if it went to the Supreme Court, they very likely would say this law is illegal. But who’s going to fight it? Because nobody wants participatory budgeting.

that runs a city. They all feel like this is my job. I’m not going to have the people do it. So this law could stand just because nobody wants to challenge it.

Lisa (18:51.532)

Well, and to be fair, I mean, that Molly Martin, who we talked to, she’s the head of the People’s Budget Initiative that failed in November. She says actually she thinks that Senate Bill 91 is broad enough to allow charter and our non-charter cities like to pursue participatory budgeting as long as there’s buy-in from the governing body.

Chris (19:11.12)

Huh, well, it’s an interesting one. I was a little bit surprised the governor signed it, but you know, it’s what the reader said about Spine. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. It seemed to take forever, but one of the worst judges to sit on the Cuyahoga County bench finally got the boot over the holidays. Well, who is he and what did the Ohio Supreme Court say about his outrageous behavior in the court?

Leila (19:38.086)

We’re talking about Judge Dan Gall, who’s been on the bench since 1991. The Ohio Supreme Court decided unanimously to remove him from the bench and suspend his law license for a year. And that’s because Gall was found to have made derogatory comments to several defendants. He improperly jailed the defendant for disrespecting him in court. And he coerced a man to plead no contest to a murder that the man would later be found not guilty of committing.

So the board of professional conduct began investigating Gall in 2018 for a string of incidents. In one case, he compared a man who was acquitted of a drive-by shooting, acquitted of a drive-by shooting but convicted of illegally possessing a weapon to a mass murderer who gunned down dozens of people at a Las Vegas concert. He also remarked how unusual it was that the man who was black and whose name was DiMaggio

had an Italian first name and an Irish last name, and he said, but you’re a brother. He also implied that Callahan beat a murder charge and referred to him as a remorseless predator. So Gall was also found to have committed misconduct when he forced Carlton Heard to plead no contest to attempted murder and other charges on the day that he was set to go to trial before Gall. Gall then sentenced the man to 14 years in prison. He appealed.

arguing that Gall coerced him into the plea and he won a new trial, and that case was assigned to a different judge, and the jury found him not guilty. And so then Gall went on to later tell the producers of the serial podcast, which did an entire series about the criminal justice system here in Cuyahoga County, he told them that Heard was just a defendant who manipulated the system to beat a murder charge. So just really demonstrating that he lacks the impartiality required to be a judge.

And his attorney argued that while Gall would admit that he is intemperate, it’s important to note that he was only accused of misconduct in eight cases out of the more than 30,000 he presided over during his career on the bench. But that argument didn’t hold much water.

Chris (21:46.056)

That serial podcast came out before the pandemic. So we’re going back at least four years. It might’ve been five or more. And it was outrageous. They had him in his own voice and words saying outrageous things. It brought shame to Cuyahoga County. It was really one of the best parts of that. That podcast drew on a lot of our coverage stories over the years, but the part about Gaul when they were in the courtroom was really strong. And yet he remained on the bench for year after year after year. He got reelected.

Lisa (21:53.304)

It was outrageous. They had everything. These old rules in the world were very outrageous things.

Leila (21:56.636)

Ugh.

Chris (22:15.816)

And this is another case in a long line of cases where judges do reprehensible things. They have people in their hands. They control the lives of people in their courtrooms. And when they abuse that authority, it’s hugely damaging, but it takes forever to get them out. We’ve had it in municipal court in Cleveland. We’ve talked about Judge Grandel in Jogga County. And Betsy Sullivan, our opinion director, talks about this all the time.

This is a broken system. If you are this egregious in your behavior, you shouldn’t, it shouldn’t take five years to remove you from the bench.

Leila (22:52.558)

Right. And this was really the 11th hour of his career. He was term limited. This was the end. I mean, he, I think he only had 2024 left on the bench before he was going to be forced to retire. And that, this should, this come up and should have come sooner for him.

Chris (23:09.676)

Yeah, I just it’s too long. How many people appeared in his courtroom in since then? And look, they say it’s only eight cases. Many people who get abused in a courtroom don’t file complaints and just take what they’re given. He’s bad news. He’s been bad news for a long time. And how many people how many lives is he affected? It’s a bad system. It took way too long. You’re listening to Today

Lisa (23:11.149)

I just want to say one thing. How many people have been in this program since then? I don’t know. They say it’s a little expensive. Many people have been using the program.

Lisa (23:34.88)

in Ohio. The numbers are in, and the Ohio state is drawing. We did step up traffic in the first week of the season. They’re in. We’re in.

Chris (23:35.624)

The numbers are in and the Ohio State Highway Patrol really did step up traffic enforcement in the Cleveland area in 2023 while dropping its work elsewhere in the state. Lisa, what are the numbers show us?

Lisa (23:47.492)

Yeah, interesting. The State Highway Patrol wrote 11,830 tickets in Cuyahoga County through December 4th. That’s up a whopping 46% from 2022. There were more citations for nearly all offenses. And of course, this comes on the heels of an increased presence by the State Highway Patrol over the summer. At Cleveland’s request, they asked Governor DeWine to bring people to deal with the gun violence that had sp-

racked our city over the summer and they made dozens of arrests while they were here. But statewide, they actually wrote almost 1900 fewer tickets across the board, 4,000 fewer seatbelt citations. They say citations have dropped statewide for all offenses except for DUI, which is right about the same. They say the reason for the fewer citations statewide is due to an officer shortage.

They’re at about 1,353 offices currently. They’d like to be at 1,600 and they’ve actually been changing their recruitment rules so they can get more people to apply. They actually up the hiring age from 34 to 40 and they’re allowing troopers to wear long sleeves in the summer to cover any tattoos.

Chris (24:58.144)

Well, you live on the west side, Lisa, you and I are on the east side. Did you see any state troopers doing traffic enforcement in 2023? You did?

Lisa (25:04.888)

On 271, yeah.

Leila (25:07.082)

I don’t recall, but you know, I don’t get out that much, Chris. I go to work, I come home.

Chris (25:12.888)

I would love to see a geographic breakdown of where this was, because clearly the numbers showed they very much stepped it up. I mean, you can’t debate those numbers. I just wonder where, because we all get around a little bit, and I just did not notice a huge presence. I wonder if they were focused mainly in areas that are suffering from some of the gun violence, figuring that their presence might be a deterrent.

They probably should do a public records request to try and do a geographic mapping of where all those extra citations were issued. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. This is a bit of a stunner, they look, but who is the chief roadblock to a drop in center in Cleveland for youth. Many of these youth having aged out of foster care and they need some help.

Leila (26:01.642)

Yeah, this was pretty stunning, frankly. The person who’s standing in the way of this project, primarily, is former housing court judge Ron O’Leary. Since 2004, he has owned a house next door to the site of this proposed youth drop-in center on Franklin Boulevard in Ohio City. And he’s argued in his lawsuit that while he supports the concept of this project, he doesn’t want it next door to him.

The concept here is that this would provide a place for youth from ages 16 to 24 to get a shower, do laundry, and access services because many of them, as you said, have aged out of the foster care system and they’re at high risk of falling into homelessness without any support. The center is an initiative of A Place For Me, operated by LMM, and in partnership with the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland and the county’s REACH Youth Action Board. It’s been in planning for a number of years.

And it finally appeared that it was going to become a reality when they identified this site in Ohio City and the local block club approved it and the board of zoning appeals granted LMM a variance to make changes to the building. As part of the variance, the drop-in center had to agree to certain conditions such as establishing a safety plan for the center and limiting its hours of operation to 10 hours per day, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. So it is not an overnight shelter. This is not a homeless shelter. But

O’Leary believes that it would bring more crime to his neighborhood. He cited an incident where a woman was the victim of an attempted carjacking near the site, right outside his home, and the assailants had been loitering around the LMM site beforehand, according to O’Leary. So he’s just sort of, it’s conjecture. I mean, he has no real reason to believe this other than, but these things happen in Ohio City. It’s an urban setting. It happens. So he just, he kind of was like, I love the idea and maybe somewhere, but not here.

Chris (27:54.244)

Look, I can understand where he’s coming from. His investment is in his house. He worries about what it would be. They never build these kinds of things out in Beachwood for sure. But it is a serious problem. We know from our work with the late Amber Donovan that his kids leave foster care. We kind of abandoned them. That’s what her whole movement was about, building groups of adults to help these kids as they move on into adulthood. And this is a center that would be a huge.

Leila (28:08.045)

Yes.

Chris (28:23.941)

for them and we need to put it somewhere.

Leila (28:26.55)

Right, right. And it has to be a place that is easy to access from public transportation and has amenities nearby that young people could use. You can’t put people in an industrial complex or something like that, far removed from society. And Ohio City was welcoming this. It’s just not Ron O’Leary.

Chris (28:50.248)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. We talked about our Reader’s New Year’s Resolutions for public officials, but let’s end our first podcast of the new year with a little discussion about hope. You both listed your thoughts for the new year in an editorial board roundtable on Saturday. What did you say? And given that you have no tight space limits on the podcast, like you do on the newspaper page, please talk a little bit about your thoughts. Lisa, you go first.

Lisa (28:53.207)

Thanks for listening to

Lisa (29:17.704)

Well, did you read mine? Because it wasn’t very optimistic. I basically said I’m girding my loins for 2024, because this is going to be a messy and chaotic presidential election year. And on it, quite honestly, I think the future of our democracy hangs in the balance and there’s going to be a lot of, you know, war of words from the right and the left, it’s just going to be crazy. But I did say in my roundtable that.

Chris (29:20.425)

No, it wasn’t very helpful.

Lisa (29:42.588)

I need to find those small joys in life. My garden, listening to birds, enjoying our wonderful regional park system and that kind of thing. But the only resolution I could come up with is I need to hydrate more.

Leila (29:56.246)

That’s a good one. Well, so my resolution was this. I said, as my three daughters, who are 12, 9, and 3, discover where they belong in the world, there’s little I can do to protect them from the volatility of this place. But I can resolve to be a better parent, with a strong back and a soft heart, more capable of toggling with ease between discipline and affection, and less apt to overreact. And so here’s my thinking here. Last year,

Chris (29:57.725)

Laila.

Leila (30:23.422)

I resolved to wake up before dawn and do an intense workout with a group of women from my community who do that every morning. And since I made that resolution, I didn’t do it a single time. So this year, I really wanted to aim for something that was within reach and also really critical to the well-being of my family and my kids’ mental well-being. Life can be so stressful, right? And it’s just all too easy to take that out on our kids in the name of instilling discipline or what have you.

Chris (30:28.604)

Remember that.

Lisa (30:29.227)

Oh, that’s right.

Chris (30:34.443)

the

Lisa (30:36.377)

Hehe

Leila (30:52.854)

and yelling at kids is terrible and we do it too much. And I just recognize that I need to approach them with more compassion because, you know, that’s the very best way to approach anyone, especially our kids who are the most emotionally vulnerable among us. So it was either pursue this earnest resolution or start smoking a ton of weed to chill out.

Lisa (31:06.409)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa (31:11.316)

Hehehehehehehehehehe

Chris (31:15.256)

Yeah, I thought the roundtable was quite a good one. I was glad that we did it. So heading into the new year, first episode of the year is in the books. Thanks, Layla. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks to everybody who listens to Today in Ohio. We’ll be back on Wednesday.