Votes at a glance: committee approves contracts, transfers and pay-band changes

Oct. 13, 2025 — At its Finance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee meeting, Cleveland City Council approved several ordinances and amendments. Below are the items the committee considered and the committee outcomes recorded in the transcript.

Ordinance 10-82-2025 — Heritage Health Solutions, Inc.: Authorized the directors of public safety and finance to enter one or more contracts with Heritage Health Solutions Inc. for inmate medical billing services for the departments of public safety and finance for an initial one-year period with two one-year renewal options exercisable by the director of finance. City staff said six proposals were received; staff recommended Heritage Health as the best and lower-cost responder. Historically the division budgeted about $750,000 annually for prisoner medical claims and administrative fees; staff said that figure was an estimate and not tied to a prisoner count. Committee action: approved.

Ordinance 12-16-2025 — Establish local government test fund (Ridge Road transfer station): Created a special revenue fund required by a change in law to reserve funds for closing and potential EPA remediation of the Ridge Road transfer station. Staff described the fund as a required backstop; the initial amount identified was approximately $200,000 and will be updated by an annual independent audit. Committee action: approved.

Ordinance 12-24-2025 — Transfer/amendment for firefighter headcount: Emergency ordinance to transfer $350,000 within the general fund to cover the temporary assignment of 12 firefighter positions (funded by transferring vacancy dollars from police to fire) so the city can bring the firefighters on immediately. Directors said this is a temporary in-year transfer; headcount and funding will be revisited at year-end and adjustments made based on attrition. Committee action: approved. Committee members cautioned that future public-safety budget movements should be routed through the Public Safety Committee given implications for patrol staffing and the statutory Community Police Commission allocation.

Ordinance 12-98-2025 — Pay-band amendments: Amendment to pay-band ordinance sections 30, 40 and 45 to (1) replace the buyer classification with a procurement specialist (minimum $50,000, maximum $105,000), (2) adjust the veterinarian salary band (recommended minimum $70,000, maximum $200,000) to assist with recruitment, and (3) increase a temporary hourly cap for certain positions in section 45 in line with recent living-wage action. Committee action: forwarded to full council for consideration this evening (hearing recorded for full council; committee approved to advance).

Ordinance 12-17-2025 — Granicus LLC legislative management system: An emergency ordinance authorizing the clerk of council to contract with Granicus LLC for a cloud-based integrated legislative management system. Committee approved an amendment adjusting the fund and object codes and then approved the ordinance as amended.

What the record shows: Committee discussion included cost and budget questions for Heritage Health (with a $750,000 annual budget estimate noted), how the Ridge Road subfund will be calculated by independent auditors and held for remediation only, detailed questions about the temporary firefighter transfer and how the city plans to return headcount/funding to police, and human-resources questions about recruitment for procurement and veterinarian roles. Several directors answered technical questions; some council members asked for follow-up on the Community Police Commission formula and on school-guard recruitment and compensation (separate item discussed under human resources).

Committee outcomes are recorded in the transcript as approvals or advances to full council; where the record noted individual votes during committee, the transcript recorded Councilman Kevin Bishop as a no on the golf-cart ordinance (Ordinance 12-15-2025). Other individual roll-call tallies were not specified in the committee transcript; action lines in the minutes read as committee approvals or as items advanced to full council.