Mayors ending the year with deficits will engage in dereliction of duty

CLEVELAND, OH – By the end of 2020 Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson will have recklessly created a deficit in the city’s general fund and committed the criminal offense of dereliction of duty if he hasn’t already laid off city workers or been negotiating new labor agreements as a result of tax collection shortages. The language of the “dereliction of duty” local ordinance is found in Section 615.12(d) and (e) as the subsections. Subsection (f) of Cleveland’s codified ordinances makes the offense a second degree misdemeanor. The crime should be upgraded to a first degree misdemeanor. “(d) No public official of…