Club Meetings Thursdays, Noon to 1:15 PM

The City Club of Cleveland,

850 Euclid West of East 9th in Downtown Cleveland.

Some Meetings are held at alternate locations.  Check SCHEDULE for location changes.

Thursday, February 2, 2012 - 12:00 Noon, Club Board of Directors.

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Time to re-MEMBER the club.

Learn more about joining the fun people that make up the Kiwanis Club of Cleveland.

Meet our newest members.

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JANUARY  BIRTHDAYS

John Rinaldi January 19

Robert Goll January 21

Jeffrey Slavin January 21

Donald Holt January 22

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Help Kiwanis continue its good works into the Future: Contribute to the Cleveland Kiwanis Foundation. A great way to honor a member of the Club or other special people in your life.

Visit the new Key Club page.  Learn about the three Key Clubs supported by the Kiwanis Club of Cleveland.

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Miss a Meeting, Miss a Lot

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Today's speaker was Yvonne Conwell, County Councilwoman for District 7, the Downtown Area. With just one year of experience with the new County form of government, Ms. Conwell reported significant progress in just one year.

During a busy year, the eleven part time County Council members accomplished the following:

• Created the first biennial County Budget.

• Developed new rules for contracting and procurement that allowed executive expenditures up to $100,000, board of control expenditures up to $500,000 and council vote on expenditures over $500,000.

• A human resource system that standardized pay and benefits and required annual employee evaluations.

• Evaluated the need for a new kitchen in the county jail.

• Created an intergovernmental oversight committee.

• Created ethics rules for elected officials, employees, and vendors. Established a mechanism to revisit the County Charter.

• Brought the Juvenile Justice system under closer scrutiny.

• Provide oversight of the Medical Mart Project which is on budget and on time.

Departing from her prepared remarks, Ms. Conwell then responded to questions from the Club Members:

• The effort to consolidate local governments is in the office of the County Executive. There is movement and continued attention to the issue, but progress will take a long time.

• The employee benefits for domestic partners legislation is under active consideration in the legislature.

• The fate of the Ameritrust Building is still under consideration. The County is developing three categories of buildings: Those to be sold, those to be mothballed for future development, those to be sold. The fate of that and other buildings will be revealed when the plan is complete.

• Several real estate lawyers have complained that the newly constituted board have been rude to complainants. Ms. Conwell agreed to bring that complaint to the director of that program.

• The County is trying to develop social media communication systems. However, the project is progressing slowly.

• Many county employees are complaining about their salary adjustments. Ms. Conwell responded that all employees were asked to describe their own duties. Many employees performing the same duties were paid widely differing wages based on their department.

   

   

   

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Club Meeting moved into one of our favorite neighborhoods for a visit to the Woodland Library. There we would meet three-year olds eager to read with the Kiwanians. Joining the seasoned Club Members were seven Key Club Members from Jane Addams High School.

Before the little boys and girls arrived, one of our members struck up a conversation with a young man who sat reading in the Library. It turns out that this young man has been coming here for years and remembers our Club reading to him when he was just a little tadpole.

The Children's Librarian led the little guys and gals through an energetic song that required a lot of clapping, stomping and wiggling. Her co-leader kept the pace up and ended with distribution of bubbles to the delight and squeals of the youngsters.

With all the wiggles worked out, the young readers sat with their very own Kiwanian or Key Club Member to learn about the Mice and Ink. After reading the book together, each student was presented with his or her own copy of the book with their name inscribed.