Cuyahoga County opens its new Administrative Headquarters
Cuyahoga County's administrative headquarters.
(Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday voted to recommend for confirmation of two nominees to County Executive Armond Budish's cabinet.
Council's Committee of the Whole voted 9-0 to give an early green light to Eddy Kraus as director of regional collaboration, and 10-0 to do the same for Mike Foley for director of sustainability.
(Council members Yvonne Conwell and Anthony Hairston were absent for the first vote, and Conwell continued to be absent for the second.)
While council won't officially confirm the pair until a March 10 meeting, the votes suggest both have the necessary support to clear the 11-member council.
Kraus is an attorney and former assistant county prosecutor. He has served on Solon City Council since 2001, a job he will keep. Foley is an attorney and former state representative from Cleveland who left office at the end of last year due to term limits.
During his confirmation hearing, Kraus fielded a few skeptical questions from councilman Jack Schron about whether Kraus' council position might pose a conflict of interest with his county job. Budish's predecessor, Ed FitzGerald, had required his cabinet members to resign their elected jobs first.
"It will not be a conflict for me," Kraus said. "I've been in the community for 14 years on council. I'm hoping to use it as a strength."
Kraus said he would recuse himself if any issues were to arise that posed a conflict between his two jobs. Otherwise, he laid out for council his vision for the office. He said he will likely encourage communities to share services, rather than merge with each other, and that he sees opportunities for collaboration in law enforcement and economic development, among other areas.
During Foley's confirmation hearing, he said his priorities for the office will be to try to help people pay to modify their homes and businesses, such as installing solar panels or LED light bulbs, to make them more energy efficient.
He said he would seek outside funding to do so, but said he also may request additional money from council in the future.
"I think there is a real thirst in the community to figure out how to reduce our costs, and reduce your climate and greenhouse impact of the community ... I think one of our jobs will be figuring that out for people," Foley said.
The sustainability department, created in November, so far only includes money for Foley and an assistant and little more.
Foley also said he'd like to use the department to create 'green' jobs, like those performing energy audits of homes and businesses, and to focus on improving water quality in the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie.
Councilman Dave Greenspan said he supports the mission of the sustainability office, but asked Foley to lay out more specifically his goals for the office before the March 10 final confirmation vote.
Schron asked numerous skeptical questions about environmental policies in general, and raised concerns about the county trying to create a market for 'green products.' But he eventually voted in favor of confirming Foley.