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Without objection, President O'Malley moved item 414 to the top of the agenda. <br /> ****OLD BUSINESS**** <br /> 1. Committee of the Whole report regarding meeting held March 21, 2022. (to be <br /> provided) <br /> President O'Malley delivered the following oral report: <br /> Committee of the Whole held a meeting tonight. We started by approving the <br /> minutes. I also announced at this meeting that earlier today that I will likely be <br /> resigning from City Council in a couple of weeks. I was appointed by Cleveland <br /> Mayor Bibb to the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority Board of <br /> Directors. It is a great honor and an important Board that oversees the maritime <br /> industry and also a lot of economic development projects throughout the county. <br /> Unfortunately, a stipulation in their Charter is that you cannot be a public official <br /> and serve on that board. So, it was a difficult decision, but I believe it was the <br /> right one for me and my members that I represent as well as an opportunity to <br /> have an impact in a different way in the community. I have to be confirmed by <br /> Cleveland City Council, which is hardly a formality. So, I won't jinx it by saying <br /> too much more. But I do want to say that, reflecting on the difficulty of the <br /> decision, how much I really love being a councilman and being the Council <br /> President. It was a great honor to be elected to this position and to work with <br /> incredible people up here and in the administration. <br /> One of the things that about this resolution is that the source of the <br /> resolution was the Anti-Racism Task Force bringing this to us a couple of weeks <br /> ago. This may sound cliche, but the best resource that any councilmember has is <br /> the residents in the community. The pieces of legislation I am most proud of were <br /> not my ideas. They were ideas that a resident called, emailed, or came to a <br /> meeting to talk about. I remember I introduced legislation to li a ban on <br /> tattoo/body art establishments. You may not be able to tell by looking at me, but it <br /> wasn't really on my mind to introduce that. We had some folks come to me and we <br /> got that through. It was a 100 year-old ordinance that we repealed and now we <br /> have a half-dozen body art establishments in the city employing dozens ofpeople. <br /> I was very proud that the first piece of legislation that I ever introduced was Ord. <br /> 01-2016, our non-discrimination ordinance that established a Human Rights <br /> Commission in the city. Just a lot of the really great work that our residents have <br /> done in concert with me as a liaison at City Hall to move resources in the right <br /> direction to bring development to Ward 4. Ward 4 is unique in our city. We have <br /> more refugees in Ward 4 than any other square mile in Cuyahoga County, and I <br /> am proud of that. We've got everything from extraordinary wealth to <br /> extraordinary poverty in the ward and it's a place that I live by choice. Certainly, <br /> I'm not going anywhere. It's been a great honor to serve on Council. In the event <br /> that I have to step back in a few weeks I just want everyone to know how much I <br /> appreciate your service and friendship. I am sure that Ward 4 and the Council <br /> will be in great hands. Following that announcement, which was much briefer <br /> than that, we adjourned to executive session to discuss he Lakewood Hospital <br /> 2 <br />