The City of Cleveland Sues to Keep Local Job Requirement

The city of Cleveland and Mayor Frank Jackson are fighting back against a bill that would eliminate the city’s right to hire local residents on public projects.

For over 12 years, Cleveland residents had the opportunity to work on publically funded projects under the Fannie Lewis law. The Fannie Lewis law required that 20% of all constructions worker hours performed on public projects are performed by Cleveland residents. The law ensures that Cleveland residents share in the success of publicly funded projects in the city of Cleveland. For the last three years, this law provided Clevelanders with $34 million in paychecks from publically funded projects, part of which the city collected as income tax.

In May, Gov. John Kasich signed a bill that will change the local hiring requirement laws. House Bill 180 will prohibit a public authority from requiring a contractor to employ a certain percentage of individuals from the geographic area of the public authority for the construction or professional design of a public improvement.

wkyc.com reports that the city of Cleveland is suing to block the new law which bans cities like Cleveland, Akron and Columbus from requiring contractors on projects using tax dollars to hire city residents.

Jackson said the law was passed to prevent local residents from benefitting from construction and development in the city of Cleveland. "They made sure they didn't stop those billions of dollars of investment. All they did was determine who benefited from it,” said Jackson.

Republican sponsors from rural areas of Ohio argue that laws like the Fannie Lewis law reduce residents chances of winning contracts and job in the bigger cities. The city lawyers argue that the state law illegally preempts Cleveland's home-rule authority under the state constitution and does not have a statewide impact.

Kasich's Press Secretary Emmalee Kalmbach comments, "There have been healthy discussions on the best ways to address local hiring and we look forward to working with local stakeholders to advance those goals and to move forward with a successful Opportunity Corridor Project."

The Opportunity Corridor is a planned boulevard that will run from E. 55th Street at Interstate 490 to E. 105th Street in University Circle. The project is being managed by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) District 12, the City of Cleveland, Greater Cleveland Partnership, and the Opportunity Corridor Partnership Office.

The law goes into effect on August 31st.

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