Dean DePiero weighing return to public office

Former Parma mayor, state lawmaker and Democratic power broker Dean DePiero is eyeing a return to elected office. DePiero, who left office at the end of 2011, recently pulled paperwork from the elections board to run for Cuyahoga County Council in District 6, which is a large, J-shaped district that stretches from Mayfield, south to Solon and west to Broadview Heights, where DePeiro lives. Four-term Republican Council Member Jack Schron of Chagrin Falls currently holds the seat. 

Since leaving office, DePiero has been building his law practice and raising his two children. (His late wife, Kathleen Cochrane DePiero, a former Fox 8 news reporter, died unexpectedly in 2017 after a short illness.) He is also law director in Aurora and assistant law director in Broadview Heights, and he is on the Cuyahoga County Library board. 

“I’ve been encouraged to run, and I’m kicking the tires,” DePeiro told Signal Cleveland. “My law practice is busy, and I’m weighing whether I can do it all. I’ll make a decision next week.” 

The filing deadline for the March primary is Dec. 20. 

Late Judge Ray Pianka honored

Raymond Pianka served as a Cleveland City Council member and the longtime judge in Cleveland Housing Court. 

He also moonlighted as a tour guide in his Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. Pianka could walk down streets such as West Clinton Avenue, where he grew up, and rattle off the history of the homes there. 

That knowledge came in handy on the bench, where Pianka found himself on the front lines of the mortgage crash. He was a major character in a 2009 New York Times Magazine piece on Cleveland’s struggle with the unfolding crisis. 

Pianka died in 2017. Now his name will grace the street signs on West Clinton, which City Council has dubbed Judge Raymond L. Pianka Way. 

Jenny Spencer, who now represents the area on City Council, said there are plans to unveil the new street signs next summer. 

Mortgage money to help those facing evictions

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland got some love – and money – last week for its work to help low-income renters facing eviction. 

The Rocket Community Fund, the philanthropic foundation related to Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage (a Dan Gilbert company), gave $1.25 million to the Cleveland Eviction Defense Fund. It’s managed by the scrappy legal nonprofit, which has been the driving force behind Cleveland’s 2019 Right to Counsel law guaranteeing that people facing eviction can have a lawyer by their side in housing court.

Laura Grannemann, executive director of the Rocket Community Fund, announced the donation at the Cleveland Foundation, which, along with the United Way of Greater Cleveland, was an early supporter of Legal Aid’s effort. Grannemann said the Rocket Community Fund is planning to do more with Cleveland and Cuyahoga County around the issue.  

Cleveland Housing Court Judge W. Moná Scott, U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster, county and city officials and representatives of the philanthropic community attended the event, which included the presentation of a study examining the impact of Legal Aid’s Right to Counsel program. 

Prior to the law, less than 2% of people facing eviction were represented in court. Now, Legal Aid represents 79% of all Cleveland households facing eviction who are eligible for assistance. 

“With an attorney by their side, many families are able to find their way forward that does not involve losing their home or risking the health of their children,” Legal Aid Society Executive Director Colleen Cotter said.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who was not in office when the law passed, praised Council President Blaine Griffin for his support of the program.  But Bibb also gave a shout out to Griffin’s predecessor, Kevin Kelley, who was the architect of the law and key advocate. 

“But also, we must give homage to [the current] council president and the former Council President Kevin Kelley because in 2019 they had the foresight to make Cleveland a national model for right to counsel,” Bibb said. 

Kelley, now a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge, often cited his support for the program during his bid for mayor in 2021, which he lost to Bibb.

From Lake Erie to the Persian Gulf

A delegation from Greater Cleveland represented the Forest City last week at COP 28, the United Nations climate conference in Dubai. 

The group included Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronanye, the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Baiju Shah, representatives from Cleveland City Hall, and Environmental Health Watch CEO Kim Foreman.  (You can watch them talk about Northeast Ohio’s climate efforts here.) 

At one panel in Dubai, Ronayne talked up the county’s long-discussed microgrid project. Last week, County Council approved a 10-year contract with the Los Angeles-based Compass Energy Platform to develop the small-scale county electric utility. 

Before jetting off to the desert heat, Ronayne took some political heat from council over the trip. The Gund and Cleveland foundations paid his way. 

In climate news back home, Cleveland recently starred in a series of U.S. Department of Energy videos highlighting the efforts by businesses and City Hall to go green.

Note: The Cleveland Foundation is a funder of Signal Cleveland.