In a continued effort by Mayor Justin Bibb to modernize City Hall, Cleveland will spend $1.5 million to hire a consultant to audit the city’s operations and develop a 10-year strategic plan.
But members of Cleveland City Council, who approved the plan Monday, weren't happy about the decision. President Blaine Griffin warned the administration that the body was feeling “consultant fatigue.”
“I cannot just see again hiring another consultant who’s going to tell me what I already know,” said Councilmember Mike Polensek during Monday’s finance committee meeting. “What I already know is that we don’t have enough people in critical positions.”
Polensek said he believes the city should instead invest in more personnel to fill the vacancies at City Hall.
Councilmember Kevin Conwell jumped to the administration’s defense, saying each department should have a blueprint laying out goals and benchmarking progress in regular reviews.
“How are you going to put people in job spots if you don’t have a strategic plan?” he said following Polensek’s remarks. “You could bring in 50 workers and if they don’t know where they’re going, it’d be like Alice in Wonderland, just going around in circles.”
Others maintained in-house directors and commissioners could do the job over an outside consulting firm.
“I have all the faith in the wonderful directors, commissioners and chiefs that exist here right now,” said Councilmember Anthony Hairston. “I think they can fulfill these duties and get the job done.”
Ahmed Abonamah, the city’s Chief Financial Officer who presented the plan before council Monday, agreed about the value of city staff, but noted that daily operations can delay processes and long-term progress at City Hall.
“We could never anticipate or expect a consultant to come in on its own and tell us how city hall has to be structured. Those ideas will come from the people who are here,” he said. “The directors and the staff will continue to be very involved in this work … but there’s a lot to do in our day-to-day jobs.”
Despite complaints, council gave the administration the stamp of approval to hire Ernst & Young, a consulting and accounting firm that has worked with other local and state governments across the country.
The city will use a $500,000 grant from The George Gund Foundation toward the plan. The other $1 million will come from Cleveland’s $512 million pot of American Rescue Plan Act funds, a once-in-a-lifetime investment from federal to local governments recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
Bibb unveiled his spending priorities for the final round of ARPA dollars last week. Following negotiations with council, which included the approval of the mayor’s 10-year strategic plan and funding for council priorities, Griffin said he was on board.
Along the campaign trail and throughout his tenure as mayor, Bibb has promised to modernize the city's operations. Previous ARPA investments were used to make updates to the city's 311 call center, and Bibb recently announced plans to replace coin operated meters with a digital parking system.
This 10-year strategic plan will dig in further on problems that exist and pose solutions, Abonamah said.
