The second of two public hearings at the Duke Energy Convention Center about Cincinnati's budget — due when the city's fiscal year ends June 30 — broke down and led to an hours-long protest on a block-wide stretch of Elm Street outside the downtown center.
Most of the more than 100 speakers that crowded the large convention room were there to advocate for defunding — either in part or entirely — the Cincinnati Police Department. Another 45 speakers signed up to testify via Zoom, though not all got to air their opinions during the incomplete meeting.
"Cincinnati hasn't treated its Black and minority communities well," said the first speaker, Jay Minor, who called for Cincinnati City Council to cut the police department's budget and fund affordable housing, social services and other priorities instead. "We’re talking about reallocating funds from the police and giving them to communities."
Significantly reducing the $152.6 million — or 36 percent of the city's operating budget — allocated to the police in outgoing City Manager Patrick Duhaney's proposed budget would be complicated, however, especially given that much of the budget is personnel costs governed by the city's contract with the Fraternal Order of Police. That contract doesn't expire until next year. The contract sets wages for Cincinnati police, but does not stipulate how many officers the city must hire and requires only 30 days notice for layoffs.
That, however, was not what the crowd came to hear.
"We want you to defund the police and reallocate resources to health care, affordable housing and education," a speaker named Emily Dobbs told council. She said she didn't mind if the city had to break its contract with the police union.
The meeting's contentious dissolution reminded some of a heated city council meeting following the police shooting death of Timothy Thomas in April, 2001. That meeting, led by then-councilmember and now Mayor John Cranley, immediately presaged days of civil unrest.
After a man advocated for making police funding — along with funding for the fire department, road repair and senior centers, many in the crowd booed, drowning out his voice.
Council member David Mann banged a gavel and, after a brief attempt to quiet the crowd, declared the meeting over. That set a large group of speakers toward the elevated table where several council members were sitting, blocking their departure.
Mann later explained to media outlets that he ended the meeting because the crowd had become "a mob" and that people were not listening to each other.
Eventually, Mann left out a door near the stage with the help of police. Council member Betsy Sundermann also exited soon after. Other council members — Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, Greg Landsman, Jeff Pastor and P.G. Sittenfeld — remained, and council member Chris Seelbach continued to participate in the meeting via a Zoom call due to being under quarantine. Several objected to the idea of ending the listening session.
Kearney especially attempted to assuage the angry crowd and continue the input session. About 20 more minutes of speakers — all of them calling for the defunding of the Cincinnati Police Department — continued, with somewhat looser time restrictions and plenty of back and forth between council members and the crowd.
Meanwhile, those just arriving outside the convention center to give their testimony were barred entrance and the city's live feed of the event cut off.
“The meeting is not over,” Kearney told the crowd, urging them to stay. “The meeting isn’t over because we’re still here."
After more speakers, frustrated advocates for police defunding filed out together, taking the convention center's many escalators down to the front doors opening onto Elm Street.
There, they joined those waiting outside and the roughly 250 people took turns speaking on a PA system or linking arms around the corners of Elm and Fifth and Elm and Sixth streets. Barricades were moved to block off the street, protesters painted "DEFUND POLICE" in block letters with paint rollers on Elm Street, graffiti — including a message reading, "David Mann if you feel trapped what are we?" and other slogans.
Tents were set up distributing water, hand sanitizer, pizza and Gatorade. Members of MUSE Women's Choir performed a couple songs. Speakers gave the history of Juneteenth — the day formerly enslaved people in Texas were informed the South had lost the Civil War and that they were free. That day, June 19, was just hours away.
A few protesters eventually burned an American flag, but others put it out with water minutes later, citing hazardous fumes in close quarters.
Myriam Wane, one of the main speakers at the Elm Street protest, asked those in attendance to be careful and consider others, especially those who are not white. Wane and other speakers asked that attendees refrain from bringing drugs and alcohol into the space.
Wane, who says she is associated with a group called Cincinnati for Justice, joined other organizers associated with the group Mass Action for Black Liberation — formerly Cincinnati Black Lives Matter — in asking protesters to leave the space at midnight.
"We are not out here just to be out here," she said. "We are here for a reason. Don't forget why you are here."
As midnight approached, most protesters dispersed, with some packing up bags full of garbage into a pickup truck.
Police presence immediately surrounding the protest was light. By 12:15 a.m, only a couple dozen protesters remained, with just a few Cincinnati police looking on. At that time, no arrests had been reported.
The contentious end to the budget meeting was highly unexpected.
The first couple hours of testimony went as planned, with each speaker getting two minutes to express their viewpoints on the city's spending plan.
Some had very detailed critiques about the way the city is funding its roughly $8 million commitment to human services organizations this year — via one-time federal emergency funds earmarked for COVID-19 response. Leaders and employees of several organizations that receive such "leveraged support" decried that solution, which comes as the city faces down a $73 million budget deficit caused by economic devastation in the wake of the global pandemic.
Juwana Hall of Cincinnati YWCA was among those asking city council not to use the federal CARES Act funds for human services but to find another source to provide that money in full.
"Please find an alternative source of funds for human services," she said. "We need these funds."
Cincinnati must seek a waiver from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to use the funds in that way — something it isn't guaranteed to get. If it doesn't, it isn't clear how it will fund human services organizations this year, though Mann vowed to find a way.
Assistant City Manager John Juech says the city engaged the federal government about the funds in May and got a response from HUD May 26 that "was not what we were looking for."
Juech said city then had a call with HUD and presented additional info June 15.
"We have not yet been denied," he told council members at the budget hearing.
A few other speakers pushed back at the fact the city had not yet restarted Cincinnati's streetcar.
"The streetcar should be a non-issue. It was temporarily stopped out of an abundance of caution due to COVID-19," Taste of Belgium founder Jean-François Flechet told council via Zoom. He said that not restarting streetcar puts the city in breach of contract with the Federal Transit Administration and could cause the city to owe the FTA $45 million.
The city is currently operating the streetcar just enough to keep the vehicles that run the 3.6 mile rail loop operable; no passenger service is provided for in the city manager's proposed budget.
Most of the attention, however, went to CPD's 36 percent of the city's operating budget, a share that will rise by $900,000 in the city manager's proposal.
Even as they left, protesters vowed they would continue to push to defund the department. And they could get another chance to make their opinions heard.
"Thank you to everyone who stayed at the budget hearings tonight to talk with us," Kearney tweeted later in the evening. "Your voices are important and we are listening! I’ll see you Monday at 1 pm for hearing #3."
