CH City Council can't approve an incomplete 2025 budget

According to the Cleveland Heights charter, the mayor is responsible for preparing the city’s budget “in such detail as the Council may require” (Article IX, Section 1). City council’s role is to carefully review the proposed budget to ensure it meets the city’s needs and is financially responsible before approving it. This ensures that the administration engages in high-quality budgetary and financial management. To fulfill this duty, council members must be fully informed by the mayor about the city’s financial actions, status, goals, and plans. Without comprehensive information, council cannot make decisions that best serve the city and its residents.

The mayor’s proposed 2025 budget is incomplete and disorganized, raising significant concerns. A strong municipal budget should present clear, measurable goals, detailed departmental spending estimates, and separate operational and capital budgets for transparency. The mayor’s proposed budget, however, lacks clarity on the administration’s goals, his administration's adherence to financial responsibilities, and plans for delivering essential services within the city’s limited revenue. At just 17 pages, it is far shorter and less detailed than prior budgets—for comparison, last year’s budget was 84 pages.

In response to these shortcomings, council members identified key areas needing clarification and submitted a list of questions to the mayor. Despite several lengthy meetings (notably Dec. 5, 9, and 16), as of Dec. 17 only a small fraction of those questions received adequate responses.

Key missing information includes:

• Status of 2024 Capital Budget items: Council needs to understand what capital projects planned for 2024 were completed, which remain unfinished, and how these will carry over into the 2025 budget.
• 2025 Capital Budget: The proposed budget includes almost no capital expenditures, despite the mayor’s acknowledgment of significant capital needs. These should be planned and budgeted up front.
• Reserve funds: While the 2024 budget detailed the starting and projected ending balances of reserve funds, this information is absent from the 2025 proposal.
• Personnel costs: With a contract renewal for city service workers looming in 2025, council needs to know whether the budget’s significant personnel cost increases account for these anticipated expenses.
• Deficit-reduction plan: The proposed budget already reflects a $1 million deficit, which could grow once capital needs are fully understood. The mayor has stated that he intends to draw from reserve funds, which will have long-term negative ramifications for the city.
  
  

Council members have been clear, detailed, and transparent with the mayor about the information they need and what needs to be rectified before they can approve the budget. At the time of this writing (Dec. 17), the mayor has not met these obligations. 

To keep the city running, council asked the temporary finance director to create a temporary budget covering the first three months of 2025. This would allow time for the mayor to prepare a full budget council can approve. However, the mayor stated he will not provide the necessary information to create this budget.

Council’s demand for more information is not an obstacle but a vital safeguard for Cleveland Heights’ future. Residents should support their council members in holding the mayor accountable for presenting a budget that reflects thoughtful planning and prioritization. This is not just a matter of fiduciary duty but about protecting the city’s financial health and ensuring a high quality of life for everyone in our community.

[This opinion was updated on Dec. 17.]