CEA Endorses Frank Jackson for Mayor

CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION ENDORSES
FRANK JACKSON FOR CLEVELAND MAYOR

Mayor Frank Jackson has been good for the City of Cleveland. He has provided fiscal stability for the city throughout his 12-year tenure by careful and sound management. He steered us successfully through difficult economic times, and found ways to preserve essential services while keeping balanced budgets and instituting strict financial controls.

Mayor Jackson has exercised careful stewardship over city resources while also holding firm to a vision of growth and prosperity for the city. In doing so he has worked to develop and maintain partnerships with various constituencies, including the construction industry. We have consistently found him to be reliable and honest, open to an understanding of our challenges and willing to work with us towards their resolution. He has been a staunch defender of the Fannie Lewis law. His administration, working with the late Hon. Louis Stokes, was a national leader in the effort to bring together competing interests to forge a Memorandum of Understanding around Community Benefit Agreements.

Our industry values people who can be depended upon to keep their word, bringing parties together to address the fundamental principles of fairness and inclusion that are bedrock to his Administration.

Mayor Jackson’s steadfastness has been invaluable in helping to create and sustain a healthy environment for the private investment that is so critical to our community, our future, and our livelihood. Business needs predictability, and Mayor Jackson has been a strong pillar with regard to the things that matter. We shudder to think where weathervane leadership might have led us during the challenges of the past dozen years.

Mayor Jackson has excelled in bringing together private and public sector interests together to enhance the city’s economic development. We think his strong character allows him to hear all parties and forge solutions on a nonpartisan basis.

Mayor Jackson has worked behind the scenes on several initiatives of significance to our membership. City schools, in partnership with both employers and the building trades, have created at Max Hayes High School one of the very few certified Construction Pre-Apprenticeship programs in Ohio. Additionally, as part of the healthier business environment he has worked hard to foster, the city now boasts a more streamlined process for obtaining construction permits.

Because of his hard work, fiscal responsibility, and steady hand, Frank Jackson has earned our support for another four-year term as Cleveland Mayor.