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1. What is a Charter Amendment exactly?

A charter amendment permanently amends the City’s Charter, which is the equivalent of its Constitution. Unlike most City ordinances, amendments to the City’s Charter would be permanent, and can only be changed by a subsequent City-wide vote. A Charter Amendment must be approved by a majority of voters in an election. In order to get a Charter Amendment on the ballot, an organization must collect enough signatures on a petition that is then submitted to the County Board of Elections, which verifies that the signatures are valid and that there are a sufficient number to meet the requirements of Ohio law.

2. What are the Charter Amendments being proposed for the November 2023 ballot?

A new political action committee, Shaker Citizens for Fair Ticketing, is proposing a series of Charter amendments to be voted on by Shaker residents on November 7, 2023. This group is currently collecting signatures on a petition to place the Charter amendments on this ballot. 

We encourage residents to read the entire petition, which includes the Charter amendments, for themselves so that they can make an informed decision about whether or not to sign the petition. You can learn more about the City’s concerns about these Charter amendments here.

3. What changes would these proposed Charter Amendments bring?

The proposed Charter amendments would require the City to establish: (1) a Nonviolent Community Administrators Team, or NCAT, (2) a Civilian Police Oversight Board, (3) a full Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Office, and (4) a Digital Public Records Repository.

4. What would the proposed Nonviolent Community Administrators Team do?

The proposed Nonviolent Community Administrators Team (NCAT) would operate independently of the Police Department [Sec. II. L.], and consist of no fewer than 35 unarmed "licensed mental health clinicians, social workers, and medics,” [Sec. II.D.1. & 2.] who would "replace Police Officers” and assume the officer’s duties including: (a) making all traffic stops and issuing traffic tickets, (b) responding to all calls involving unarmed minors, no matter what the possible crime, (c) responding  to all assaults if the perpetrator is not armed, and (d) addressing all calls involving persons with mental health issues. [Sec. II.A.] 

5. The proposed Charter amendment calls for unarmed mental health workers and medics to take over traffic stops and other types of police calls. Is that safe?

No. These untrained and unarmed employees would not know whether a suspect is armed or violent and thus they could be placed in harm’s way. All of Shaker’s firefighters are paramedics. Current practice is that when they respond to a call for service, Shaker police co-respond with them to ensure safety. 

6. Doesn’t the City’s new Mental Health Response Team handle mental health-related calls already?

Yes. In January 2022, the City implemented a Mental Health Response Program to improve crisis response to residents in need of mental health services. The program is receiving high marks and is viewed as a model for other communities. Read more about this innovative program.

7. What would the proposed Civilian Police Oversight Board do?

A proposed Civilian Police Oversight Board would oversee and investigate allegations against Police, the proposed Nonviolent Community Administrators Team, and perhaps other City employees, even if another non-federal investigative agency, such as police internal affairs or the State of Ohio, has concluded there was no misconduct. [Sec. III.J.1]   Employees could be investigated, disciplined, even fired by this Board without a hearing or any administrative appeal process and Board decisions would be final. [Sec. III.J.8, 11 & 12]  The Board could fire any police officer or NCAT employee for using language or any action on duty or off duty that the Board deems racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigrant and more [Sec. III.J.15], raising serious First Amendment concerns. The first act by the Board would be to investigate every police officer for bias of any kind, regardless of whether any complaint or concern had been raised about the officers. [Sec. III.K.]

8. Doesn’t the City already have a Chief DEI Officer?

Yes. Shaker is likely the only suburban community in Cuyahoga County that already has a full time DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) officer on staff, working closely with the Mayor, Chief Administrative Officer, and Police Department.

9. What would the proposed Digital Public Records Repository entail?

The City would be required to post online tens of thousands of pages over the past 70 years of police reports, investigations, use of force incidents, and traffic citations [Sec. V.A.7], many of them on paper, which will require that each page be reviewed and confidential information redacted. These documents must then each be scanned into a new records system that must be programmed to be searchable and downloadable online. [Sec. V.A.] Police Department staff would have to maintain all of these documents electronically going forward that are created year after year, as well as thousands of hours of videos, forever.

10. The organizers claim that violent crime is rising dramatically in Shaker Heights. Is this accurate?

With regard to safety, overall, “Part 1” or serious crimes have decreased steadily and significantly in Shaker Heights since the mid-1970s, with the last seven years seeing the lowest numbers of Part 1 crimes since 1959. Despite the proponents’ statements to the contrary, there is no surge in violent crime in Shaker.

Citing the website, Neighborhood Scout, the proponents claim Shaker is “now more dangerous than nearly 40% of American cities." However the proponents ignore the subsequent statement by the same source, Neighborhood Scout, “… compared to other communities of similar population size, Shaker Heights has a crime rate that is noticeably lower than the average. This means that for comparably sized cities all across America, Shaker Heights is actually safer than most according to Neighborhood Scout’s exclusive analysis of FBI crime data.”

11. The organizers claim the proposed Charter amendments do not dictate laying off police officers. Why does the City believe it would be required to lay off these officers?

The proposed Charter amendments mandate the creation of a new City department, the Nonviolent Community Administrators Team (NCAT), consisting of no fewer than 35 "licensed mental health clinicians, social workers, and medics,” who would "replace Police Officers” and assume the officer’s duties including: (a) making all traffic stops and issuing traffic tickets, (b) responding to all calls involving unarmed minors, no matter what the possible crime, (c) responding  to all assaults if the perpetrator is not armed, and (d) addressing all calls involving persons with mental health issues. [Sec. II.A]

The City would be required to take at least half of the budget needed to pay for the provisions of the proposed Charter changes from the Police Department budget [Sec. VI.D], necessitating lay-offs of 35 or more of Shaker’s 68 officers, immediately compromising resident safety and limiting police availability to assist the new NCAT employees when needed.

12. What are the costs associated with implementing these proposed Charter amendments? How did the City develop these costs?

The City estimates that, in total, these proposed Charter amendments would cost $7.2 million to establish and $6.1 million per year to operate. These estimates were developed by the City’s Finance Department and are broken down as follows:

Nonviolent Community Administrators Team: Estimated cost of hiring, supporting and equipping the mandated 35 members of NCAT: more than $5.6 million; 5-year average annual operating cost: $4.6 million

Civilian Police Oversight Board: Board would hire its own staff. The estimated cost just to hire and equip the Board’s nine paid members (not counting additional staff they may hire): nearly $400,000; 5-year average annual operating cost: $419,000.

DEI Office: Estimated cost of hiring and equipping the fully mandated DEI Office is more than $500,000; 5-year average annual operating cost: more than $420,000. 

Repository of 70 Years of Police Records: Estimated cost of establishing and posting repository is more than $700,000; 5-year average annual operating cost: more than $660,000.

 The City’s Director of Finance prepared these cost estimates based on the City’s typical costs to hire, train, and equip staff in City departments, including in departments, like Fire and Police, that are required to be available 24/7 (as the NCAT team will be required to be to fulfill its mandated duties). The proposed Charter Amendments would require or necessitate hiring support staff, establishing and furnishing offices, and, for the NCAT administrators, obtaining and equipping vehicles, body cam and dash cam equipment, radios and other equipment, and providing extensive training.

13. The Charter amendment proponents say costs for implementing the proposed Charter amendments could come from the City’s reserve. Are there reserve funds available for this?

The proposed amendments would allow only a minority of the funds needed to implement them to come from the City’s reserve since the majority of funds to implement the amendments must be allocated from the Police Department. [Sec. VI. D] The City maintains a reserve fund for many reasons, among them preparing for unexpected emergencies (e.g. pandemic); preserving the City’s excellent bond rating; and funding major capital projects, including priorities that City Council has already identified.

14. How has the police budget changed in recent years? The organizers have claimed it’s increased by $6 million?

Actual General Fund expenditures of the Shaker Heights Police Department (SHPD) have hovered between $9 million and $11 million in recent years. The City always budgets for full staffing, which we have not reached in recent years, so budgeted amounts will exceed the actual expenditures. The General Fund amount budgeted for the SHPD in 2023 is $13.2 million, and again assumes a fully staffed department. Actual and Budget amounts for the SHPD are contained within our Budget Books which are posted to our website. https://shakeronline.com/423/City-Financial-Documents

15. Would all of the Charter amendments proposed by this group need to be implemented exactly as written, or is there room for interpretation? [Continued]

Complete question: Would all of the Charter amendments proposed by this group need to be implemented exactly as written, or is there room for interpretation? If voters adopt this package of amendments, could the City implement some parts and come to a compromise on other parts?

It’s all or nothing. If the Charter amendments are adopted by voters, then the amendments become part of the City’s Charter, which is like its constitution. The City would be obligated to implement the amendments as written, to the best of its ability. Where there are questions about the intent of the language or provisions that may conflict with other charter provisions or with State law, the City would have to seek resolution through the courts to make determinations about how to implement those sections. Unlike City ordinances, these permanent changes to the City‘s Charter could only be reversed by a subsequent vote of the residents.

Furthermore, some sections of the proposed Charter amendments fail to take into consideration legally binding collective bargaining agreements, thereby subjecting the City to legal challenges and litigation costs.