Cleveland-area politicians can’t stop talking about the old days. In Cuyahoga County, memory lane usually winds back to the county corruption scandal, which led to the overhaul of county government in 2009.
This week, two County Council members debated the legacy of Gerald McFaul, the last elected county sheriff. McFaul, who died in 2022, resigned from the job that he held for decades and later pleaded guilty to theft in office.
When voters upended the structure of county government, they made the position of sheriff an appointed one, not an elected office. But the road has been bumpy. Many appointed sheriffs have come and gone.
Now County Council is considering dueling charter amendments on the sheriff. One would make the sheriff elected again. The other would restore the county executive’s power to fire the sheriff.
Council Member Michael Gallagher, a Strongsville Republican who wants to return to electing the sheriff, tried to polish the tarnished memory of the late McFaul. Judges and county commissioners listened to him, Gallagher said.
“He was actually a great sheriff,” he said. “He was a difficult gentleman to deal with. He had a personality that was bigger than Cuyahoga County, but he didn’t do anything in office that was illegal. They got him on a campaign finance thing.”
Council Member Sunny Simon, a South Euclid Democrat, couldn’t let that stand. She rattled off details of McFaul’s 2010 guilty plea — that he pressed employees to sell tickets to his clambake political fundraisers, took money from his campaign fund and appointed his son as a special deputy.
“I will never minimize what happened and what brought this new government into fruition,” she said.
Gallagher replied that he stood corrected. But he didn’t back down.
“He was an interesting guy, no doubt about it,” he said. “I’m a Republican, so, I was [a] Democrat at the time, so I more likely than not voted for him.”
Then he added with a laugh, “And would today, because he was a good sheriff.”
Council is expected to vote later this summer on whether to send either of the sheriff charter amendments to the ballot.
Let the campaign cash flow
One charter amendment that County Council won’t be considering this year: campaign contribution limits.
Candidates for council and county executive can accept donations of any size, unlike their counterparts running for Cleveland or state offices. For instance, the limit for a Cleveland mayoral candidate is $5,000 from an individual and $7,500 from a PAC per calendar year.
By contrast, Ronayne received a $25,000 contribution in March from business owner Robert Kanner, a recent campaign disclosure shows. The county executive also reported a $15,000 contribution from Rock PAC Ohio, a political action committee funded by executives from Dan Gilbert’s galaxy of companies.
Council Member Martin J. Sweeney proposed giving County Council the power to set contribution limits. He didn’t find much support from colleagues at a committee meeting this week.
Council Member Pernel Jones Jr. said he makes decisions based on what he thinks is best for people in the county, not what a few lobbyists want him to do.
“I can do that with a free conscience and not influenced by anybody else’s money because I don’t need it to get elected,” he said.
Sweeney agreed to withdraw his amendment.
A longtime Democratic insider, Sweeney is familiar with big checks. He brought in $15,000 last year from Park Corp. founder Raymond Park and $10,000 this year from Minutemen Staffing CEO Jason Lucarelli, according to campaign disclosures.
He said he’d prefer a county contribution limit matching the one for state candidates. That’s $16,615.67 per election period.
