Commissioners React To Passage Of Issue 6

CLEVELAND - On Tuesday, Cuyahoga County voters gave a resounding '"yes" to reforming government by passing Issue 6, and on Wednesday the county commissioners spoke out about the big changes coming.

The commissioners strongly opposed Issue 6, saying it was not the right answer.

Issue 6 will scrap the commissioner system and replace it will a county executive and 11-member council.

Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who has been at the center of a federal corruption probe for more than a year shrugged off questions about the investigation leading to the defeat, but Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones said corruption clearly triggered the passage of the sweeping change.

"But for the federal investigation, I doubt that Issue 6 would have had the support and would have had the energy to have prevailed in this election cycle," he said.

Now that Issue 6 passed, the three commissioners are lame ducks, and the new 11-member county council that will replace them, according to Commissioner Tim Hagan, will lead to regional turf fights.

"If I'm the county representative from county x or y district, well, I'm saying I want my piece of it," Hagan said.

Whatever happens, a monumental shift in county government is now on a fast track, with nearly everyone citing corruption as the trigger -- everyone but Dimora.

All of the commissioners had announced they were not running again.

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