Executive Orders

1. Overview

The policy goal of the City of Cleveland’s flagship Lead-Safe Certification ordinance and resulting Certificate Program administered in the Department of Building and Housing is “to help prevent the poisoning of children by requiring that the presence of deteriorated lead-based paint on the interior and exterior of residential rental structures build before January 1, 1978, be identified and be correctly addressed by reducing and controlling lead-based paint hazards which may be present, in order to prevent human exposure to these hazards.”

Since 2019, the rates of Cleveland children with lead poisoning have remained stagnate over the time in which the Lead-Safe Certificate Program has operated. At 11 percent, Cleveland’s lead poisoning rate is more than double its peer cities. Lead testing and lead poisoning are not equally distributed across Cleveland, with lower testing rates and higher poisoning rates among Cleveland’s East Side and higher concentration and density of poisonings on Cleveland’s West Side.

Over the course of the City’s Lead Safe Certificate Program, tens of thousands of units have been issued two-year Lead-Safe Certificates, but less than 200 parcels have met the 20-year abatement standard. The City’s progress on lead safety is predominantly judged by how many rental units are in compliance with the requirement to receive a Lead-Safe Certificate or exemption.

The City Administration has grown increasingly concerned that the applications received for a two-year Lead-Safe Certificate that demonstrate a passing Lead Clearance Examination may not be an indicator of a functionally lead-safe unit for the duration of the certificate period. While the Department of Building and Housing has imposed requirements, such as mandating photographic evidence to determine if peeling paint or bare soil is present for rental units and drafting technical guidance for lead-safe professionals submitting an application, those requirements are not present in the City’s ordinance and face difficulty in enforcement.

Even when interim controls of lead paint dust, such as painting, maintenance, or cleaning, are used to pass a clearance, those controls may not provide tenants or owners certainty of lead-safe living environments. Instead, a clearance examination, which involves dust swipe samples of friction surfaces such as windowsills and doorways, showing no identification of lead at the time the sample was taken, serves only to demonstrate lead safety at that singular point in time. The very next day, the same surface may not pass a clearance. As soon as a cleaning is not as thorough or is deferred, and maintenance or painting of a pre-1978-built home deteriorates again, the unit is no longer lead-safe during the two-year certificate term. Abatement (or removal) of lead costs more money but is effective at reducing lead paint dust exposure and lead poisonings, providing certainty to Cleveland families that their unit is, in fact, lead safe.

The ineffectiveness of the current Lead-Safe Certificate Program to reduce and control lead-based paint hazards is demonstrated by the progress in issuance of Lead-Safe Certificates, the stagnation in lead poisoning rates and the discovery of eleven (11) instances where lead poisoning occurred in a home despite the home passing a lead clearance test and having a Lead-Safe Certificate. Ten (10) of those poisonings occurred during the 2-year certificate period, some within mere weeks of each other.

To fulfill our collective goals to reduce childhood lead poisonings in Cleveland, we must use all the City’s available tools to give Cleveland families and property owners confidence that their home is lead safe and the actions that they can take to get the lead out.

The City of Cleveland recognizes the good faith compliance and pending Lead-Safe Certificate applications of many thousands of property owners of rental units, and the challenges the public faces when navigating the complex processes around lead safety. This Executive Order provides for continued recognition of that compliance and simplified pathways to abatement.

The City is committed through this Executive Order to use the City’s available funds, authority, partnerships, and authorizations to engage in the long-term work required to abate lead in Cleveland. This acceleration toward abatement will require a number of process and staffing changes which will ultimately reduce year-over-year lead poisonings.

The overarching goals of this Executive Order are:

• Public Disclosure of Risk Assessments: Disclose Lead Risk Assessments and remediation plans for rental properties that are not yet lead-safe, to the public and tenants living at the affected properties.
• Reduce Lead Paint Poisonings: By creating meaningful pathways to lead abatement and providing resources to assist property owners, the City expects to see a year-over-year reduction in lead paint poisonings.
• Abatement: By implementing program changes that encourage lead abatement over interim controls, more meaningful lead safety can be achieved.

2. Responsibilities

City of Cleveland employees of all departments and offices that are involved in lead poisoning prevention and remediation are responsible for supporting the ongoing improvement of city processes around lead safety and abatement of lead hazards.

The Director of Building and Housing shall be responsible for the following:

• Processing pending Lead-Safe Certificate applications and any new applications with clearances or risk assessments performed through October 18, 2024;
• Processing any new applications for a Lead-Safe Certificate that include a risk assessment as the basis for the application;
• Continue processing Lead-Safe Certificate exemption (“20-year exemptions”) applications and provide a clear method of submitting that application through Accela;
• Creating and distributing materials and web content that provide guidance on navigating the Lead-Safe Certificate process for the public; and
• Developing metrics to measure performance and results of changes implemented.

The Directors of Building and Housing and Law shall be responsible for the following:

• Using code enforcement discretion and Residents First authority to require compliance by use of a risk assessment and lead hazard control plan as the basis for any compliance schedule;
• Using code enforcement discretion and Residents First authority to target properties in hot spots with obvious lead hazards;
• Overseeing the drafting of proposed legislative changes to the Lead-Safe Certificate Program to meet the goals of this Executive Order.

The Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, Commissioner of Information Technology Services, and Director of Urban Analytics & Innovation shall be responsible for the following:

• Implementing upgrades to the City’s Accela system that allow the public and all relevant City departments to have visibility on any Certificate’s status and steps remaining to project completion; and
• Developing the opportunity for property-specific risk assessments and State of Ohio data on lead poisonings to be visible to the public on the City’s Open Data portal.

The Directors of Public Health, Building and Housing and Law shall be responsible for the following:

• Prosecuting Lead Hazard Control Orders considering the goals of this Executive Order; and
• Developing a method to quickly relocate families of poisoned children at properties with Lead Hazard Control Orders that leverages the City’s expertise from the Home for Every Neighbor initiative.

The Directors of Community Development, Building and Housing, and Public Health shall be responsible for:

• Coordinating and cross-referencing Certificate application information, enforcement compliance schedules, the 2022 property survey, demolition opportunities, poisoning data, home repair and abatement applications for specific properties to accomplish the goals of this Executive Order;
• Efficiently utilizing available home repair and abatement funding to assist property owners in achieving lead safe compliance; and
• Sharing staff members who may access sensitive, confidential, and/or protected data to prioritize and target properties for the most appropriate governmental intervention to accelerate the City’s progress toward abatement and fewer lead paint poisonings.

3. Implementation

The City recognizes that implementation of process changes, staffing adjustments and associated technology takes time and will be iterative. The Chief of Integrated Development and Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, in consultation with the Directors of Public Health, Building and Housing, Community Development, Urban Analytics & Innovation, and the Commissioner of Information Technology Services, shall establish a plan for implementation that includes a clear timeline. As implementation takes place, it is expected that divisions will encounter new information that may change how the city adopts, adjusts, or omits specific recommendations. However, all parties shall work collaboratively, under the guidance of leadership, to accomplish the goals of the process overhaul.

4. Effective Date

This Executive Order shall go into immediate effect upon my signature and shall remain in force until modified or rescinded by me or any of my successors.

I signed this Executive Order on __________________ in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

___________________________________

Justin M. Bibb

Mayor | City of Cleveland

I. Scope and Purpose

Evaluating the feasibility of project labor agreements for City building and other public improvement projects, and articulating standards and establishing reporting requirements to evaluate the responsibility of public contractors, further the following public purposes:

1. Promotion of better quality workmanship on City building and other public improvement projects, which in turn saves tax dollars and protects the public health, safety, and morals;
2. Promotion of labor peace during periods of time when public buildings or other public improvements are under construction, which likewise confers a significant benefit to the public's health, safety, and morals; and
3. Promotion of using public funds for the benefit of the public.

II. Project Labor Agreements Required

1. This section shall not apply when otherwise prohibited by federal, state, or local law or ordinance.
2. For any proposed City building or City public improvement project when the estimated total cost is $500,000 or greater (“Project”), it shall be presumed that a project labor agreement for the project will advance the City’s procurement interest in cost, efficiency, and quality by promoting labor-management stability, as well as compliance with applicable legal requirements governing safety and health, equal employment opportunity, labor and employment standards, and other matters.
3. The director of the department responsible for a given Project may rebut the above presumption for that Project, based on their assessment as to whether a project labor agreement would sufficiently promote the goals stated in this Executive Order. This shall be memorialized in writing and approved or disapproved by the City’s Chief Operating Officer or their designee.
4. If the presumption is not rebutted, then for the Project in question:
   1. The bidding documents for each such Project shall contain a written provision requiring the successful bidder, and all of the bidder’s contractors and subcontractors, to comply with and adhere to a project labor agreement for the Project, a template of which is attached to this Executive Order as Exhibit A.
   2. The City shall not enter into any contract with the successful bidder unless the contract contains a provision requiring the successful bidder and all of its contractors and subcontractors to comply with and adhere to a project labor agreement.

III. Effective Date

This Executive Order shall go into immediate effect upon my signature and shall remain in force until modified or rescinded by me or any of my successors.

I signed this executive order on _____________ in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Justin M. Bibb

Mayor | City of Cleveland

Project Labor Agreement Template

1. Overview

Every building or structure that is built, rehabilitated, or significantly improved in the City of Cleveland generally requires a permit. Permits at the City of Cleveland may be reviewed and approved by up to ten, and potentially more, City departments and divisions, which often includes Building and Housing, City Planning, Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects (MOCAP), Division of Fire, Water Pollution Control, Division of Air Quality, Urban Forestry, Public Safety, Cleveland Public Power, and Cleveland Water, Bureau of Traffic, Traffic Engineering, and others. These approvals ensure projects are safe for the public, code compliant, and built to improve our neighborhoods, among other specific goals held by each body.

The City of Cleveland recognizes the challenges the public faces when navigating these complex processes to permit construction projects in the City, and is committed through this Executive Order to overhauling the process for projects of all sizes. This overhaul will require a number of process, staffing, and technology changes which will ultimately make permitting easier to navigate for the public.

The overarching goals of the permitting process overhaul are:

• Predictability: No matter the size of a construction project, applicants will know what permits are necessary, what information they will need to apply for these permits, who will need to review their application, and roughly how long it will take to get approved.
• Visibility: The public and city staff across departments will be able to check online to see where a project is in the permitting process, what comments have been made and by whom, and what steps remain to get a permit.
• Efficiency: By implementing process changes, technology upgrades, increasing review staff as needed, and improving cross-departmental communication, overall time from starting the process to starting construction will be decreased.

The City commissioned an independent analysis by the firm Baker Tilly which outlined recommendations and a roadmap for a streamlined and efficient permitting process. Baker Tilly’s report contains 39 individual recommendations and calls for improvements in four areas:

• Application & Intake Process
• Staffing & Training
• Local Codes & Policies
• Technology

Through this Executive Order, the City administration is committed to implementing the recommendations in the report and addressing the challenges outlined in the report in an iterative fashion. By doing so, we will make Cleveland a better place to do business, with systems in place that better support customers and internal staff alike.

2. Responsibilities

City of Cleveland employees of all departments and offices that are involved in the building construction permitting process shall assist with the implementation of changes, as requested by the Chief of Staff and/or the Chief of Integrated Development, to support the ongoing improvement of permitting processes.

The Directors of Building and Housing and City Planning Commission shall be responsible for the following:

• Overseeing the implementation of new processes related to permitting and monitoring the ongoing evaluation and efficacy of the measures adopted to ensure improved customer experience
• Dedicating staff time to Accela record creation, testing, evaluation, implementation, and ongoing governance
• Creating and distributing materials and web content that provide guidance on permitting processes for the public
• Establishing a higher-touch customer experience with improved response times
• Developing metrics to measure performance and results of changes implemented

The Commissioner of Information Technology Services shall be responsible for the following:

• Implementing upgrades to the City’s Accela system that allow the public and all relevant City departments to have visibility on any project’s status and steps remaining to project completion.

The Directors and leaders of other departments and divisions involved in the permitting process (including but not limited to: MOCAP, Division of Fire, Water Pollution Control, Division of Air Quality, Urban Forestry, Public Safety, Cleveland Public Power, Cleveland Water) shall be responsible for the following:

• Promoting the consistent usage of Accela for permit workflow tasks among all relevant staff
• Dedicating appropriate staff time to participation in the Accela Governance Board
• Dedicating appropriate staff time to timely review and regular participation in pre-development and development review meetings as needed

3. Governance

City staff across multiple departments and divisions will work collaboratively to implement an Accela Governance Program. The purpose of the program is to provide oversight over all Accela activities and to facilitate software maintenance and continuous improvement efforts, ensuring that the City’s Information Technology (IT) investments support both City and resident objectives.

4. Implementation

The City recognizes that implementation of process changes and associated technology takes time and will be iterative. The Chief of Integrated Development, in consultation with the Directors of Building and Housing, City Planning, and the Commissioner of Information Technology Services, shall establish a plan for implementation that includes a clear timeline. As implementation takes place, it is expected that divisions will encounter new information that may change how the city adopts, adjusts, or omits specific recommendations. However, all parties shall work collaboratively, under the guidance of leadership, to accomplish the goals of the process overhaul.

5. Effective Date

This Executive Order shall go into immediate effect upon my signature and shall remain in force until modified or rescinded by me or any of my successors.

I signed this executive order on _____________ in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Justin M. Bibb

Mayor | City of Cleveland

I. Scope and Purpose

The City of Cleveland recognizes data as a strategic asset that is critical to meeting the demands of a modern government. By leveraging data as a strategic asset, the City can address challenges proactively, optimize resource allocation, improve service delivery, and increase transparency. And as a strategic asset, the City must proactively manage and maintain our data much like our capital and financial assets.

Through this Executive Order, the City administration is committed to managing data and information in accordance with current industry practices; increasing institution-wide understanding of our data assets and the purposes they serve; and using data to proactively plan for and meet the needs of an ever-changing city.

II. Duties of the Director of Urban Analytics and Innovation

The Director of Urban Analytics and Innovation (“Director”) is responsible for the implementation and oversight of an Open Data Policy established pursuant to this Executive Order. The Director or a designee is responsible for each of the following:

• Managing and communicating data-related strategies, initiatives, and governance.
• Conducting an annual inventory of data sources and datasets, ensuring ongoing compliance with data standards, and identifying areas for improvement.
• Establishing and operating a City Enterprise Data Platform including implementing clear processes and procedures for ingesting data, sharing data, and governing the platform.
• Establishing, operating, and continuously improving a City of Cleveland Open Data Catalog.
• Convening the Data Governance Board.
• Amending the Open Date Policy from time to time as needed, consistent with this Executive Order.

III. Data Governance Board

The Director shall convene a Data Governance Board (“Board”) to provide thought leadership, advice, and oversight related to managing data as a strategic asset of the City in accordance with this Executive Order.

At minimum, this committee will include representation from the following departments, offices, and divisions of the City:

• Chair: The Director
• Law
• Finance
• Urban Analytics and Innovation (Urban AI)
• Information, Technology and Services
• Communications
• Human Resources
• Mayor’s Office

Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Implementation of the Data Policy and Governance Framework
• Organizational capacity, training, and staff skills
• Hiring and retention of talent
• Data quality standards
• Risk management, including security and privacy
• Infrastructure, tools, and data access
• Training and skill development
• Community engagement
• Prioritization of projects and new initiatives
• Development of an equity framework
• Data trends and processes for adoption

The Data Governance Board will meet at least once quarterly.

IV. Responsibilities of City Employees, Departments, and Offices

All City of Cleveland employees of all departments and offices must abide by the Open Data Policy to be adopted and to assist in its implementation, as requested by the Director or a designee, to support the ongoing, proactive management of data.

V. Implementation

The City recognizes that implementation of technology and associated processes takes time. The Director, in consultation with the Board, shall establish a timeline for implementation.

VI. Effective Date

This Executive Order shall go into immediate effect upon my signature and shall remain in force until modified or rescinded by me or any of my successors.

I signed this executive order on _____________ in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Justin M. Bibb

Mayor | City of Cleveland

Open Data Policy

1. City of Cleveland Employee and Contractor Obligations

Employees of the City of Cleveland are expected to perform their duties as ethical leaders, placing the broad interests of the People of Cleveland ahead of their own personal interests. This Executive Order seeks to reinforce that expectation and set forth certain limits on the conduct of city employees aimed at maximizing public confidence in the work of the city workforce.

Every person or entity doing business with the City is expected to engage with the City in an ethical manner. Many varied entities serve as contractors with the City, providing, for an appropriate fee, critical goods and services. These goods and services contractors must compete for City business on the merits, with the City’s contracting activity based upon the interests of the People of Cleveland and controlling procurement laws and procedures. Others provide services with City grant funds. These grants must be made based upon the interests of the People of Cleveland. Personal relationships, special favors and personal gain will not be part of contracting or grant-making activity undertaken by the City. Those who abide by these principles will be asked to serve the City time and again in a mutually beneficial manner; those who seek to evade these principles should expect to be denied contracting opportunities with and/or grants from the City.

2. City Ethics Pledge

All senior city leaders are directed to read and sign or acknowledge (or in an otherwise established manner, confirm an intent to comply with) a Pledge of Ethical Conduct within 30 days of the effective date of this order, or, if first employed after the effective date of this order, within 30 days of employment by the City. The City’s Chief Ethics Officer will manage the process of assuring compliance with this Order provision.

3. Limits on Gifts

When those who seek or have contracts or grants from the City provide gifts, meals, tickets, or other goods or services to municipal employees, the public’s confidence in the ethical governance of the City can be undermined. Accordingly:

1. The only gifts I will accept during my tenure with the City will be those given to me by:
   1. Close family members (which includes children, step-children, parents, step-parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, spouses and domestic partners) who are not otherwise prohibited by Ohio law;
   2. Personal friends who are not lobbyists and who are not affiliated with businesses having or seeking contracts with the City or entities receiving or seeking grants from the City;
   3. Individuals or groups who, on occasion, provide a gift of insubstantial value including, but not limited to, a t-shirt, cap, or mug or other promotional item; or
   4. Government officials from another city, state or country as a gesture of friendship, in which case I will accept the gift on behalf of the City and will turn them over for ownership by the City in accordance with the laws of the City.
2. The gifts listed above will only be accepted as permitted by Ohio’s ethics laws and will be reported as required by such laws.
3. To the extent not controlled by other laws or bargaining agreements, all City employees and City appointees are directed to follow these same rules regarding the solicitation and/or acceptance of gifts. Failure to abide by these provisions will result in appropriate discipline and/or termination as permitted by law.

4. Ethics Training and Compliance

Ethical conduct by City employees, contractors and grantees should be driven by their own sense of obligation to the People of Cleveland. All employees, contractors and grantees are expected to be ethical leaders attentive to their own ethical conduct and that of their fellow employees, contractors and grantees. Non-compliance with ethics laws and ethics orders will be treated with the utmost seriousness by supervisory personnel and is likely to result in consequences up to and including termination of employment and/or contracts with the City. Violations may also be the subject of criminal prosecution.

1. Training Program Development

In order to ensure that affected parties understand their ethical obligations, the Chief Ethics Officer is directed to:

1. Develop ethics training materials and lead an ongoing ethics training process for all City employees, contractors and grantees;
2. Within 120 days, develop an Ethics Training and Compliance Education Program which can be modified for effective use in all components of the city government; and
3. Within 120 days, assure that an effective mechanism exists for anonymous reporting of actual or apparent wrongdoing by city employees, contractors and grantees and that training regarding the use of the mechanism is included in all component ethics training.
4. Training Obligation

Within 180 days, the Chief Ethics Officer shall assure that there has been ethics training provided to every City employee. The Chief Ethics Officer may authorize exceptions to the deadline in unusual or extraordinary circumstances.

c. Non-Compliance

1. All City employees, contractors and grantees are directed to report any known non-compliance with ethics laws and/or this order.
2. All training will include discussion of the fact that failure to report known non-compliance with City ethics requirements will be treated as one’s own non-compliance with rules regarding the prohibited conduct.
3. Supervisory failure to act on reports of ethics non-compliance may result in that failure being treated as non-compliance with this Order and provide the basis for disciplinary action.

5. Transparency

The Chief Ethics Officer shall use the City’s website to publicize this Executive Order as well as clarifications of and updates to the Order. In addition, the Chief Ethics Officer shall assure that the City’s website provides practical information about employee, contractor and grantee ethical obligations, including FAQs that present common scenarios and the appropriate ethical conduct in those scenarios.

6. Improving This Order

Compliance with ethical obligations requires vigilance every day. City employees, vendors and contractors are likely to encounter circumstances which raise reasonable questions about appropriate conduct but which are not addressed by this Order. The critical city service providers are strongly encouraged to bring ethics questions and concerns to the attention of the Chief Ethics Officer. Updates to this Order to include additional matters or resolve ambiguities should be expected. Similarly, the People of Cleveland are encouraged to propose improvements to this Order to the Chief Ethics Officer for consideration as subjects for training and/or for inclusion in future updates to the Order.

This Executive Order is effective immediately and will remain in effect until my last day in office as Mayor of Cleveland unless modified or rescinded before then.

Justin Bibb, Mayor   
April 12, 2022

Pledge of Ethical Conduct

I accept and pledge myself to the policies that I am affirming today. I understand that this Pledge of Ethical Conduct is a statement of shared values – integrity, impartiality, independence and transparency. It is our pledge to the People of Cleveland that our only allegiance is to them as we conduct City business.

In consideration of my appointment as a public official or employee of the City of Cleveland, Ohio, I hereby pledge to be familiarized and conduct myself in accordance with the current ethics policy, laws, related statutes, and administrative code. Specifically, I pledge that I shall not engage in prohibited conduct which includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. Gifts: Solicitation or acceptance of anything of value, including, among other things, meals, tickets, entertainment or travel, from an improper source, including, but not limited to, any person, corporation, or other party that is doing, or seeking to do business with, regulated by, or has interests before the City of Cleveland;
2. Conflict of Interest: Use of one's public position to obtain benefits for an official or employee, a family member, household member, or anyone with whom the official or employee has a business, employment or fiduciary relationship. I understand that I may not participate in considering, discussing or approving matters where I have a conflict of interest, and in such cases, I must disclose and recuse myself;
3. Supplemental Compensation: Payment or acceptance of any form of compensation for services rendered as part of your public employment or on a matter before any board, commission, or other body of the City of Cleveland, unless the official or employee qualifies for the exception, and files the statement, as described in section 102.04(D) of the Ohio Revised Code;
4. Public Contracts: Holding an interest in or otherwise benefitting from a contract with, authorized by, or approved by the City of Cleveland, unless otherwise permitted through a statutory exception; the Ethics Laws except certain limited stockholdings and contracts objectively shown as the lowest cost services, if all criteria under Ohio Revised Code 2921.42 are met;
5. Nepotism or Influence Peddling: Voting, authorizing, recommending, or in any way using one's position to secure approval of a City of Cleveland contract, including employment or personal services in which an official or employee, a family member, or anyone with whom an official or employee has a business or employment relationship has an interest. I understand that I may not participate in considering, discussing or approving matters where I have a prohibited interest, and in such cases, I must disclose and recuse myself;
6. Outside Employment: Solicitation or acceptance of employment from an improper source, unless the official or employee completely discloses the matter, withdraws from City of Cleveland activity regarding the party offering employment, and the appointing authority approves the withdrawal;
7. Honoraria: Solicitation or acceptance of honoraria, pursuant to sections 102.01 and 102.03 of the Ohio Revised Code;
8. Revolving Door or Post-Employment: During public service, and for one year after leaving public service, representing any person or entity, in any manner, before any City of Cleveland body, with respect to a matter in which an official or employee personally participated while serving with the City of Cleveland;
9. Confidential Information: Using or disclosing confidential information protected by law, unless appropriately authorized;
10. Use of City of Cleveland Brand: Using, or authorizing the use of, one's title, the City of Cleveland, or the city's acronym or logo in any way that suggests endorsement of a product or business, favoritism, bias, or impropriety by a City of Cleveland official or employee; and,
11. Political Activity: Public officials and employees shall not engage in political activity that is prohibited by law.

Employee Printed Name 
Classification

Employee Signature 
Date

Mayor’s Letter to City Employees

As Mayor of Cleveland, I want to make clear that our shared values - integrity, impartiality, independence, inclusiveness and transparency - guide everything we do. It is our pledge to the People of Cleveland that our only allegiance is to them when we conduct City business. That is why I made it a priority to sign the attached Executive Order to formally announce a new set of general principles and guidelines that will be the foundation upon which we build and earn trust in our city government. This Order provides minimum standards of conduct for all City employees, elected officials, members of boards and commissions, and volunteers. A critical part of the Executive Order is the appointment of a Chief Ethics Officer. This individual will be responsible, with the support and assistance of my entire leadership team, for fostering a culture of ethical conduct and upholding our collective commitment to ensure integrity and accountability in each and every department of my administration.

As public servants, we hold in our hands the essential but fragile public trust of the people who we were elected to serve. Therefore, in addition to being efficient and effective, we must also be ethical. If we fail to uphold this basic standard, we will never accomplish all that we have committed to do for the citizens of Cleveland. I firmly believe there is nothing that government does that cannot be done ethically and transparently. We must always be a government that serves all the people, not a select few. Our residents deserve a city government that operates with the highest ethical standards through the actions of every one of our employees.

I strongly urge you to read the Executive Order and Pledge. We are committed to ensuring you have the information, guidance and tools you need to understand and uphold the way we intend to do the people’s business. We will also issue a “plain English” guide to our shared values of integrity, impartiality, independence and transparency as well as training and education materials and requirements. We are also in the process of designing a new, dedicated website that will be available to all employees.

It is a new era of trust between the People of Cleveland and the government that serves them. I, along with City Council, look forward to building a city government we can all be proud of that operates honestly, values diversity and inclusion and always puts the public interest above our personal interests. Beyond policies, pledges and codes of conduct, it is my sincere hope that together we create a culture where our only allegiance is to the citizens we serve. And where fulfilling that allegiance becomes the way we live each and every day. That will be the way we do things in Cleveland.