Cuyahoga County Lawmakers Hold Virtual Town Hall

Last week, state Senator Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) hosted a virtual town hall to provide Covid-19 updates to her constituents. She was joined by state Representatives Michael Skindell (D-Lakewood), Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland), and Jeff Crossman (D-Parma) as well as by Cuyahoga County Board of Health Commissioner Terry Allan. The legislators and Commissioner Allan discussed how their offices have been working to help the people in Northeast Ohio during this unprecedented pandemic. Each legislator highlighted different issues that Ohioans are dealing with including small businesses, keeping Ohioans safe, helping seniors, K-12 education, election safety, and unemployment. Senator Antonio started the Town Hall by condemning recent anti-Semitic statements made by a Republican Senator and increased incidents of hate and discrimination directed to Ohioans who share Chinese, Asian-American or Asian Pacific Islander heritage. “It is so important for Ohioans to come together as a community during this crisis. Check on your neighbors, reach out to family members, see if there is someone who may need your help. I know this situation is scary, but there is never an acceptable time to be racist, hateful or anti-Semitic,” Antonio said. The Senator then introduced each of her guests. “We have been doing targeted testing with our preventive medicine physicians in high-risk places like nursing homes, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, adult care homes [and] a range of other congregate settings,” Commissioner Allan said about the need to increase testing throughout Cuyahoga County. “We are working to address these hot spots by detecting them through testing and suppressing outbreaks to prevent further community spread.” Representative Skindell discussed the importance of funding local governments saying, “From Lakewood to Cleveland to Brook Park, all over, they [our local communities] are losing a significant amount of money… they pay the wages and healthcare benefits for our police officers, our firefighters, our first responders. We need to make sure those local communities get the funds that are needed to pay those salaries and wages.” Regarding the late changes to Ohio’s primary election date, Representative Bride Rose Sweeney expressed disappointment, stating, “The chaotic process that ensued not only did a disservice to our constituents but to the 11.7 million people across Ohio, and to a certain degree irreparably damaged voter confidence.” Representative Sweeney shared her future policy goal that “would establish a contingency plan when any future disaster or unforeseen circumstance arises that would prohibit in-person voting on Election Day. The holes in our election laws are now clearer than ever, and it is my hope to work in a bipartisan fashion to fill those gaps.” In response to the cancellation of in-person schooling this year, Representative Crossman said, “I think we’re going to have to be prepared to think about education in a distancing learning environment like we are now,” after commending teachers, parents and students for their work during this time. “There are some challenges we have to overcome relative to technology and other resources that students need...to make sure [they] have access to the same materials that any other student in the state has.” Antonio ended the town hall telling listeners, “Just know that we are all working for you. You deserve us to work for you…remember that while we’re dealing with Covid-19, there are a lot of other things that are contagious, such as kindness, compassion and reaching out to the people around you so they know you care. We are all in this together, Ohio!” Members reiterated their commitment to their constituents in Cuyahoga County as well as Ohioans across the state. Watch the entire virtual town hall here.