Op-ed: City services could suffer if Issue 38 passes

There are times when I’m not a fan of the City of Cleveland. In fact, as a union official I’ve been intricately involved in several successful legal actions against the city, including public records lawsuits, unfair labor practices, and arbitrations. 

But I’ve also spent 17 years working the streets as a paramedic and with that comes perspective. I remember the last recession when all city departments took 10% cuts. In EMS, we went from staffing 21 ambulances to 15. After several long responses and the inevitable bad outcome, I would wonder if the patient would have fared better if we had gotten there five or 10 minutes sooner? 

While we’ve come a long way in terms of EMS staffing, so too has our call volume increased – it’s up 37% over the past decade. There is more demand now than ever before, not just for EMS, but for a variety of city services. 

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This presents a huge problem, because when city budgets are cut it doesn’t hurt City Council or Mayor Bibb’s office; they still get their paychecks. It doesn’t hurt the stadium owners either, because the tax money for the stadium deals largely comes from other sources outside of the general fund. When city budgets are cut, the people it hurts the most are those who depend on city services. And often, it’s the most vulnerable among us that suffer. The seniors who depend on the Department of Aging. The families without air conditioning who wonder why the pools aren’t open. Those walking to work in a snowstorm wading through deep drifts on unplowed streets. Those suffering a medical emergency waiting for the ambulance that won’t get there in time. 

I’m not against participatory budgeting in theory, but the current Issue 38 is not set up in a way that would allow it to fund the salaries of city workers year-over-year to carry out the basic tasks we expect of our government. In lean economic times, we could be cutting city workers that provide essential services in order to fund pet projects. Cleveland.com recently published a “no on Issue 38” editorial saying exactly that. 

During the recent People’s Budget debate at Cleveland Civic Auditorium, Jonathan Welle of PB CLE spoke eloquently about a friend who missed her favorite block party because of a diabetic emergency. He urged us to vote yes on Issue 38 to fund neighborhood projects such as her beloved block party. While the mayor and council are far from perfect, the reality is that Cleveland is still a very poor city and our leaders frequently must make tough choices regarding what to fund. At the end of the day, if the choice is to fund a senior’s favorite community event, or the EMS providers that saved her life during her diabetic emergency, I’d fund EMS first every single time. 

Because of this I’ll be voting no on Issue 38, and I urge everyone else to do so as well. There are other, better, ways to express frustration with City Hall that won’t impact those who depend on city services.