Cleveland Finance Director Ahmed Abonamah Resigns

After a breezy two-and-a-half years with the Bibb administration, Ahmed Abonamah, its director of finance since 2022, announced his resignation over the weekend.

Besides a recap of Abonamah’s accomplishments during his tenure, and plans to install assistant finance director Jim Hartley come July 19, a press release from City Hall did not elaborate on Abonamah’s reasons for the abrupt (at least from the outside) exit.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished and confident that the city is poised for continued success,” Abonamah wrote in the release, recapping his two years.

He went on: “Since Mayor Bibb’s inauguration, the city’s financial condition has steadily improved as evidenced by consecutive structurally balanced budgets, the City’s first merit-based credit rating upgrades in decades, and record cash reserve levels.”

On Monday, Abonamah told Axios Cleveland that his adios to City Hall was a mere “anodyne job change,” and therefore nothing controversial. The time was right for a “compelling opportunity,” he said, though he didn’t elaborate further.

A confident advocate who aimed to modernize Cleveland’s budget book, Abonamah was a part of several major city plot points since Bibb hired him.

He helped oversee the spending of Cleveland’s $512 million of American Rescue Plan Act dollars, aided Cleveland police in navigating a transition to 12-hour shifts and delved, most recently, into lakefront plans and the future (or not) of Cleveland Browns Stadium.

In late 2023, Abonamah flanked Development Director Jeff Epstein to convince City Council that a Shore-to-Core-to-Shore tax increment financing (TIF) district would help speed up Downtown Cleveland’s evolution.

The city’s assistant director of finance for 17 years, Hartley was a real estate tax professional before that, along with managing a $12 billion budget as Ohio’s Chief Investment Officer. Abonamah called him “an ideal leader to continue the city’s recent financial successes.”

Hartley will officially take over the position July 19.

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