Cleveland consent decree

The two finalists - Karl Racine and Renee Hall - are a former attorney general in Washington, D.C. and former police chief in Dallas.

The companies, Hogan Lovells and J.S. Held, will appear at public forums in Cleveland next week. Whichever company is selected will take over the contract held by former monitor Hassan Aden.

Bibb chose Leigh Anderson, an assistant professor with experience working on police oversight in several cities, to lead the office.

Bell Hardaway began working with the Cleveland police monitoring team in 2015 and currently serves as deputy monitor.

Aden has served as monitor for three years and spent two years as deputy monitor before that.

The two sides are far apart on whether the city is making sufficient progress in addressing issues involving the excessive use of force by Cleveland police. It's ultimately up to a federal judge to decide when the city has met the terms of the consent decree.

Consent decrees force cities to change abusive police tactics. But Cleveland still has work to do.

Mayor Justin Bibb says officials are working as "quickly" as possible to end the seven-year-old decree signed after a federal investigation found a pattern of excessive force by officers; Ohio's schools are struggling to fill teaching positions as more people are quitting the profession due to high college costs and being targeted by extremist politicians ... and more stories.

Cleveland City Council's Safety Committee held the proposal after raising several concerns about non-municipal police departments in the city.

White says it's a good time for him to leave the job as "fresh eyes" are needed.