 Brown
has never run for office before, but she hopes her executive experience
impresses reform-minded voters sick of politicians' scandals. As
executive director of the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, she
cleaned up the agency after scandal. She learned economic development as
a community development aide to Mayor Mike White and served as
president of University Circle Inc. and a vice president for diversity
at National City.
What we should expect from the new county executive:
"We have to establish a new culture: expecting excellence in service
delivery, holding people accountable to very clear expectations of
performance," Brown says. The county executive should be "somebody who's
built something," she says, because the new government will help
develop the Medical Mart.
Jobs: "New revenues coming into the county from the
casino [should] be dedicated to economic development and work force
development," Brown says. The county should pursue a "place-based"
economic strategy, using the county land bank "for assembling land,
clearing land, that we would then market for new businesses and
expansion of businesses."
Regionalism: The executive should help communities find
ways to work together. "We read about cities sharing SWAT teams or call
centers, and it feels so novel. It shouldn't be novel." The county and
cities should share planning efforts, with the county helping identify
land for development.
More reforms: Brown wants to follow up on the county's
successful early-childhood programs with a similar program for
adolescents — "how they communicate, civic engagement, leadership
development, as well as multicultural experience." She proposes new
rules for appointments to county boards, including a requirement that a
majority of appointees be affiliated with neither political party.
The current county government's successes and failures:
"What we could absolutely improve is in creating a shared vision for
what we as Cuyahoga County want to be known for, or what we are working
towards. I'm not sure that we have that today. Where we succeed is
large-scale projects of impact. We come together and make them happen:
Gateway, the Medical Mart, the casino, the Rock Hall and Science
Center."
Can Terri Hamilton Brown become a politician?
As we sift through candidates for the county executive job, Terri
Hamilton Brown may have the best résumé in the pile. After taking over
the county's public housing authority from Claire Freeman, who was fired
for corruption, Brown got rid of foot-dragging holdovers and
transformed the agency's finances from unauditable to pristine. A star
of Mike White's early City Hall cabinet, she played a major part in
developing the Church Square shops-and-housing complex near the
Cleveland Clinic.
But here's the problem with Brown's job application: communication
skills. She's stumbled in interviews and seemed stiff in some public
forums. She's a first-time candidate, and it shows.
On paper, Brown has a plausible path to beating FitzGerald in the Sept. 7
Democratic primary, by combining votes from Issue 6 supporters with
endorsements from black political leaders and financing from
businesspeople who know her from her time at National City and her
consulting work with the Greater Cleveland Partnership. But Brown seemed
stalled until mid-August, when she won the endorsement of Cleveland
Mayor Frank Jackson and U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge. She lagged behind
FitzGerald in fundraising, and she'd just started to attack him over
Issue 6. To close the gap, she has to show better political instincts
and more eloquence than she's shown so far.
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