Last week, Documenters gathered details about a medical debt forgiveness initiative. They also heard public comments about child abuse prevention and about the ongoing West Side Market repairs saga. Plus, almost 18 months after residents voted for stronger civilian oversight of police, Cleveland City Council received an update on the progress. Get the details in this week’s episode of the Public Meetings Report from Signal Cleveland.

Listen to this week’s Public Meetings Report here:

Show notes:

-Cleveland City Council approves medical debt forgiveness plan for thousands of residents

–RIP Medical Debt

-Council Member Kris Harsh Explains Medical Debt Forgiveness 

-Ordinance No. 532-2023 on funding repairs to the West Side Market  

–Opposition To ARPA Funds For West Side Market

-Eugene Miller Robocall In Opposition

-Don Whitaker’s Comments On West Side Market Repairs  

-Cleveland Community Police Commission Public Meetings Information

-Finance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee 4/24 Recording

-Cleveland City Council Meeting 4/24 Recording

-Safety Committee 4/26 Recording

Side Hustle: Mikael Ellis works four jobs focused on the LGBTQ+ community (video)

By Jeff Haynes

Mikael Ellis has purposely decided to work at businesses that either primarily cater to LGBTQ+ patrons or have a large clientele from this community.

YouTube video

The Public Meetings Report is a weekly five minute audio rundown of what happened in local government meetings here in Greater Cleveland. The show is based on the work of Cleveland Documenters — residents like you who are trained and paid to document these meetings for the public. Produced by Signal Cleveland, Cleveland Documenters and WOVU 95.9 FM. 

Cleveland Documenters pays and trains people to cover public meetings where government officials discuss important issues and decide how to spend taxpayer money.

Gennifer Harding-Gosnell, Freelance Audio Producer(she/her)
Gennifer is a news writer returning to her first love, radio. She holds a MA in Journalism from Kingston University in the UK, and has spent the last couple years as a Cleveland Documenter.

Managing Editor, Community (he/they)
Lawrence, a 2022 Stanford JSK Community Impact Fellow, was most recently field coordinator for Cleveland Documenters, where they led the recruitment of more than 600 Greater Cleveland residents. They bring a wealth of knowledge about journalism, civic engagement and technology. Lawrence has worked in non-commercial media for over 28 years, including 11 years at Ideastream where they focused on civic engagement and media production.