Cleveland Heights council questions mayor’s accessibility and Facebook remarks; no formal action taken

Cleveland Heights City Council members met in a special Committee of the Whole on May 23 to discuss the mayor’s recent unavailability and a Facebook video the mayor released, and to seek legal guidance on whether council could assume mayoral duties if the mayor were inaccessible.

The discussion mattered because the assistant law director said the city charter contains a provision — Article 4, Section 10 — that could allow the council president to act as mayor when the mayor is “absent or inaccessible,” but that applying that clause in a strong-mayor charter raises separation-of-powers issues that need careful legal analysis.

Assistant Law Director Chris Helsel told council: “the inquiry circles around, article 4, section 10 of the charter, which states that when the mayor is absent or inaccessible or is unable for any reason to perform the duties of mayor, the president of council shall act as the acting mayor with the same powers and duties as the mayor, but shall not…