CLEVELAND (WJW) – Members of the Cuyahoga County Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to approve a grant that will help the homeowners association in Cleveland’s Edgewater neighborhood purchase new security cameras.
The HOA’s pursuit of the $25,000 grant from the county created controversy among some Clevelanders because the county’s top elected official lives in Edgewater, and because the neighborhood organization was seeking public tax dollars.
It was concerns about safety in 2012 that prompted the Edgewater homeowners association to initially install their own security cameras.
But after a series of violent crimes in recent years, including a deadly shooting outside a bar on Clifton Boulevard one year ago, the homeowners association discovered that their cameras were outdated and not effective in helping Cleveland police track down lawbreakers.
The HOA applied for the grant from Cuyahoga County to help cover the $47,000 that the organization is paying to install seven Flock safety cameras, including two that can read license plates in heavily traveled areas of the neighborhood.
“It’s a deterrent, but more importantly catching the bad guys and once we catch enough bad guys, the folks aren’t going to want to come down to Edgewater, Clifton, Detroit and then hopefully it can expand a little further,” said councilman Martin Sweeney, who sponsored the legislation.
The request for public funds for the new cameras prompted questions about the HOA having possession of the cameras, instead of police, and whether they might be invading the privacy of innocent Clevelanders passing through the neighborhood.
“I think it’s there to catch the bad guys and if they have information and you’re a good citizen, you should have nothing to worry about,” said councilman Sweeney.
The grant came from funds left over from the pandemic-inspired American Rescue Plan Act (or ARPA.)
We asked councilman Sweeney if the purchase of the neighborhood cameras was what ARPA was meant to do.
“Absolutely,” he responded. “What we had was the return of funds from the federal government for loss of revenue and once we got the loss of revenue, the council president said ‘we’re going to do some good things in the neighborhoods’ and this is a very good thing.”
Some eyebrows were raised about the county’s involvement in the grant because county executive Chris Ronayne lives in the Edgewater neighborhood.
However, Ronayne’s office issued the following statement:
“The funding request predates executive Ronayne’s time in office and he has not been involved in any discussions related to the request. In fact, he was unaware of the legislation until it appeared on county council’s agenda. Executive Ronayne recused himself from the process and does not plan to sign the legislation.”
After council approved the grant for the Edgewater HOA on Tuesday night, councilman Sweeney assured critics that the county executive played no role in the awarding of the grant.
“He said ‘Sweeney, I don’t need to get in trouble on this, this is your baby with them’ and I said ‘absolutely, Chris, and you’re going to be a resident, just as everybody else is in that neighborhood,” he said.
Jack Shea
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