On September 9, five candidates will compete for the position of mayor of East Cleveland. On November 4, the two top candidates will compete for the position of mayor in the main election.
The candidates are Sean L. Ward, Juanita Gowdy, Vidah Aminah Saeed, the current mayor, Lateek R. Shabazz, and Sandra Morgan, the former acting mayor. The only people who participated in endorsement interviews were Morgan, Shabazz, and Ward. Shabazz and Morgan were interviewed together, but Ward was interviewed separately because he was not called for the interview due to a mistake. Attempts to contact the other two candidates via phone and email were not answered.
Given the urgent issues facing East Cleveland, this year’s mayoral election is especially crucial. In 1950, the city had a peak population of 40,047. With 13,792 persons now, it has the lowest median family income ($37,500) in 2023 out of all U.S. cities with 5,000 or more people.
Three former East Cleveland police officers received prison sentences for in-service violations in April. Then-Mayor Brandon King was barred from public office for seven years after being found guilty in May of one count of larceny in office and four counts of having an unauthorized interest in a public contract.
Morgan served as interim mayor until King’s conviction in July when Cuyahoga County Probate Judge Anthony Russo suspended King as mayor while the criminal prosecution against him was pending. Shabazz, the president of the City Council, then assumed the role of mayor in accordance with the charter.
Morgan, 63, was a Kent State University official and a lifelong resident of East Cleveland. She graduated from Euclid High School and went on to obtain an executive MBA from Kent State and a bachelor’s degree from Smith College. Shabazz, 71, has been employed by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District as a substitute teacher. Ward, 60, is a self-employed senior project manager in information technology and, like Shabazz, graduated from Shaw High School. He went to Baldwin Wallace, Fort Valley State, and Capital institutions.
The first goal of Morgan’s is to organize our finances; the second is to ensure that our police and fire departments are adequately financed; and the third is to ensure that there are enough [streetlights].
Shabazz is concerned about the safety of our residents. He acknowledged that there have been some problems with the city’s police force in the past. However, don’t let one poor apple—or even a few bad apples—destroy the entire bunch.
Ward promised to make City Hall more receptive to the public, particularly those who phone with issues that City Hall ought to be taking care of. Additionally, he stated that the city ought to be a bit more thorough in its assessment of applicants for police positions. Are they genuinely interested in ensuring the safety of this community?
The proposal of merging with a neighbor to ease East Cleveland’s precarious financial situation was rejected by all three as impractical, unnecessary, and not what the people of East Cleveland desired.
Regarding his candidacy, Shabazz remarked, “I grew up here.” The folks sense that my heart is here. We sense you, they also tell me. You are real.
Morgan made the case that voters ought to support her as she stands for something novel and innovative. She declared that it was time to change the course of our city and promised motivated leadership, intelligence and creativity, teamwork, and a wealth of administrative expertise.
It’s true that Morgan would bring new ideas and excellent leadership to East Cleveland. However, Ward’s experience as a project manager and his strong ties to the community make him more likely to make a noticeable impact on the city’s problems.
I am capable of organizing a team and planning a multi-tiered transformation strategy, which he stated would entail addressing numerous issues at once.
Ward promises voters systemic change and seems to have the ambition, connections, and energy to truly impact East Cleveland. In summary, it is the main reason why residents of East Cleveland should support Sean L. Ward in the Sept. 9 primary for mayor. Voting has started in advance.
Two of the five contenders for East Cleveland mayor in the September 9 primary were interviewed by the editorial board on August 13 as part of its endorsement process: While public corruption charges against suspended East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King were still pending earlier this year, Sandra Morgan filled in as interim mayor for just over five and a half months. Lateek R. Shabazz, a former president of the City Council, was elected mayor following King’s conviction last month. Two other primary candidates, former East Cleveland Council member Juanita Gowdy and radio host Vidah Aminah Saeed, did not reply to the board’s Microsoft Teams invitation to the meeting or to outreach via phone and email. Our editorial board then invited Sean L. Ward to participate in an endorsement interview on Monday, August 18. In this race, Ward, a senior project manager, was unintentionally left off of our invitations to the group interview on August 13. We appreciate Mr. Ward’s involvement and apologize for the oversight.
Note from the editor: The two interviews’ audio is not yet accessible. Kindly return in a day or two.
About our editorials: The editorial board of Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, as well as the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff, express their opinions through editorials, including endorsement editorials. Editorials are unsigned and meant to be interpreted as the news organization’s voice, as is customary.
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Additional voting resources:
Voters’ handbook, League of Women Voters Vote411.org.
