Sept. 26 – Cleveland City Council
Covered by Documenter Chau Tang

Angela Hines, an employee at St. Vincent Charity Medical Cente
Angela Hines, an employee at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, speaks about the impact of the hospital’s decision to end in-patient care. Credit: Cleveland City Council YouTube

What happened: Kareem Henton, of Black Lives Matter Cleveland, urged City Council to oppose the proposed construction of a county jail on an environmentally toxic site. The decision rests with Cuyahoga County Council, but City Council President Blaine Griffin serves on a committee that is set to meet and vote on the proposed site today.

Speaking on St. Vincent restructuring: Three community members focused on the impact of St. Vincent Charity Medical Center’s decision to stop offering in-patient care and to replace the emergency department with urgent care. Along with reducing services at Cleveland’s only downtown hospital, the changes could cost nearly 1,000 people their jobs. “We are disgruntled. We are hurt,” said employee Angela Hines. She said she and her co-workers did everything they were “supposed to do during this pandemic. My concern tonight is that this is heartbreaking to the community.”

You can review Chau Tang’s live-tweet of the meeting here:

Watch the full public comments or read transcripts on Public Comment CLE (website created by Ohio City resident Angelo Trivisonno).

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