EAST CLEVELAND, OH — Auditors discovered $1.5 million in outstanding bills owed by the City of East Cleveland to vendors who performed services or provided goods to the city, according to the chairwoman of the city’s Financial Planning and Supervision Commission.

And now, confusion over who’s running the city following Mayor Brandon King’s felony convictions last week is delaying a proposal to raise East Cleveland’s spending limits in an effort to settle those delinquent bills.

Here’s what we know about who’s in charge of East Cleveland

Here’s what we know about who’s in charge of East Cleveland

“I’m very hesitant to approve a resolution when we do not know who’s in charge and who will be making these decisions,” said Barbara Mattei-Smith, chairwoman of the fiscal recovery commission.

Interim Mayor Sandra Morgan said some of the city’s unpaid bills date back to 2021 and include $500,000 owed to the company East Cleveland contracts with to pick up residents’ garbage.

Morgan was appointed Interim Mayor after King was suspended earlier this year following his indictment.

East Cleveland gets new mayor

Interim mayor for East Cleveland appointed

But East Cleveland Council President Lateek Shabazz believes the city’s charter puts him next in line for the mayor’s office.

The question of who’s in charge will likely be decided by the courts, but residents like Will Tate feel caught in the middle.

“You’re going to hear the same old, same old here in this city,” said Tate. “Nothing ever gets done.”

Tate, who is 64 years old, said he grew up in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood dreaming of living in East Cleveland.

Now that he lives in the city, Tate said he’s heartbroken by what’s happened.

“In the last 35 years or 30 years or so, man this city done went through it,” said Tate as he sat on his porch.

He said, despite the city’s decline, he believes in East Cleveland’s potential.

But he wants city leaders to stop fighting among themselves and start fighting for a better East Cleveland.

“Do better, that’s all I’m going to say,” said Tate. “Y’all can do much better than y’all are doing in this city.”

The Financial Planning and Supervision Commission voted to table the proposal to increase the spending limits to allow the city to pay overdue bills to vendors.

The group, which aims to help the city recover from financial emergency, is scheduled to meet again next month.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — June is here and a big warmup has arrived in Northeast Ohio — but just how hot will it get before a cold front moves in?

A hazy, hot day is on tap Tuesday with temperatures climbing into the mid 80s. Sunshine will be filtered through smoke that is drifting into the region from Canadian wildfires that are burning in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

That wildfire smoke is expected to stay mostly in the upper atmosphere and will filter the sunshine through a whiteish haze in the afternoon. The potential exists for increased near-surface smoke concentration later in the afternoon and into the evening, according to forecasters with the National Weather Service in Cleveland.

Visibility isn’t expected to be impacted, though air quality in the region has already ticked up into the “moderate” range, meaning those who are unusually sensitive to particle pollution should consider reducing activity levels or shortening the amount of time spent active outdoors.

On Wednesday, temperatures will really heat up as the air is compressed ahead of a cold front that is expected to move through in the evening. Temperatures are forecast to climb into the mid to upper 80s, with Cleveland expected to fall just short of the 90-degree mark.

Unsettled weather moves in Wednesday evening

Most of Wednesday will be dry ahead of the cold front, which will help clear out any lingering wildfire smoke but could bring showers and even a rumble of thunder to the region by late in the evening. While severe weather isn’t expected, the atmosphere will be primed for periods of heavy rainfall, with high moisture levels and moderate instability. This raises the potential for localized flash flooding, particularly where storms “train,” or repeatedly pass over the same area.

The cold front is expected to drop south of the region and stall out, meaning showers and even a thunderstorm could be possible on Thursday and again on Friday.

Temperatures will be noticeably cooler behind the front, with highs reaching into the more seasonable mid 70s on Thursday and Friday.

While showers and storms could stick around into Friday night, they should die down by daybreak Saturday.

Current odds favor fair weather over the region for the weekend, with sunny skies expected both Saturday and Sunday, with high temperatures in the low to mid 70s.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have an interesting offseason ahead.

The front office doesn’t have to break up its roster to be a championship contender next season, but it could make a couple of moves to give itself flexibility moving forward.

As it stands, the Cavaliers will have a payroll that qualifies them as a second-apron team heading into next season.

Sam Quinn of CBS Sports believes the Cavaliers could trade Isaac Okoro to give themselves a better chance of re-signing one or both of their key free agents this summer.

“Cleveland is already far beyond next year’s projected second apron, and that’s before potentially re-signing Ty Jerome and/or Sam Merrill,” wrote Quinn.

“The Cavaliers will look to save money somewhere, and Okoro’s playoff disappointments make him an obvious dump candidate.”

Cleveland drafted Okoro with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 draft. He had high potential as a 3-and-D type player, and he has largely developed into that player.

Ice shot a career-high 37.5 percent from behind the arc and recorded a defensive rating of 115 last season.

However, the Cavaliers already have players ahead of him on the depth chart, and his streaky shooting could be seen as a liability, too.

If Cleveland is motivated to bring back Jerome or Merrill and give themselves a chance to stay out of the second apron, then it would make sense for the front office to trade Okoro for a future draft pick to shed some payroll.

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