Montlack Takes 'Promotion,' Says Goodbye to Council

When Cleveland Heights City Councilman Kenneth Montlack walked into Council Chambers in Monday night, people started to applaud.

The regular meeting hadn’t started yet.

“Oh my goodness,” he said, smiling.

Montlack was about to serve his final council meeting after 24 years, and his wife, Chris, and family and friends were there to support him. Others in the crowd clapped, too.

Throughout the night, council members praised his dedication to the city.

Councilwoman Bonnie Caplan couldn’t hold back tears as she reflected on Montlack’s tenure.

“Ken is really the embodiment of what Cleveland Heights is all about … He cares passionately about integration, about diversity, about quality of life, and you are really a model to all of us. And truly I’m going to miss you,” she said. “I’m going to miss your voice of wisdom, your history that you bring along, the cutting through the stuff and just sayin’ things the way they need to be said.”

Councilman Dennis Wilcox said Montlack, 72, has presided over about 1,000 Monday night meetings. Even after he retires, Wilcox said Montlack will continue to host landlord seminars, one of the many initiatives he pioneered to help improve and maintain residential development in the city.

Mayor Ed Kelley said he has chaired each of the six committees on council, and should be inducted into a Cleveland Heights hall of fame with former .

“As our municipal services chair, he jump-started our recycling efforts. As our planning and development chair, he helped support the creation of our (Special Improvement Districts) and economic development boom in Cleveland Heights in the 1990s and into the 2000s,” Kelley said, describing how he impacted the city in each role.

Montlack founded and will continue his work with the First Suburbs Consortium, which has grown from three cities in 1996 to 19 Northeast Ohio communities today. The FSC's mission is “to revitalize mature, developed communities and raise political awareness of the problems and inequities associated with urban sprawl and urban development," according to its website.

"Ken worked tirelessly over the years to bring cities together to discuss strategies and common issues ... Today, regionalism is a common buzzword, but when Ken decided to rally the inner-ring suburbs over 15 years ago, regionalism was just getting started," Kelley said.

Montlack, who is an attorney and a principal at Montlack Management, called the city staff his family and commended their work. And he talked about the residents.

“Communities and society get the government they deserve. The residents are ultimately responsible for their government, and I am sure that success for Cleveland Heights will continue as long as this community remains the home of productive residents who are truly committed to respectful and progressive values and work for those things.

“… There is a reason why our Cleveland Heights organizational charts always show at the top of the chart the category 'residents.' So now, I’m going to take my promotion, to join my family and my friends at the top of the chart.”

Look for more from the Cleveland Heights City Council meeting soon.