President ial campaigns impact on northeast ohio. Joining us Cuyahoga County vice chairman and Cleveland Community relations director blaine griffin. And conservative whk1420 radio talk show host bob. Donald trump a bid for minority voters. A batch of polls shows trump getting between 12 of votes nationwide. His new message asking black voters to give him a shot and calling Hillary Clinton a racist. Clinton charging trump is cozy with white supremacists. Hillary clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future. Pedaling bigotry and prejudice and paranoia. Look how much African American communities have suffered under democratic control. To those i say the following, what do you have to lose by trying something new . Like trump. Well, clinton coping with revelations about donations to the Clinton Founda help from her Estate Department and back to trump. Hey f is Cleveland Police president steve lumus behind him. He backs trump but the union has not endorsed yet. Mr. Trumps outreach to African American voters. What are the chances of him connecting . Little to none. I thought that it was very condescending. I thought it was one of the most asinine outreach efforts i have ever seen. Reaching out to African Americans is not bad within itself. What is bad is that people need to realize the African American community does not need a savior. An African American Community Needs a partner in the white house. So people need to quit acting like they can just come in and fix all of our issues and they also need to not generalize all African Americans because we have a wide range of African Americans that are wealthy and wide range and not pour. The top ten mean bottom ten by performing cities in this country are all long standing democratically run cities. If you look at the United States of america in the last eight years of Barack Obamas leadership. Did he try to fix everything . The bottom line is right now black unemployment is at an all time high. Black crime rates are at an all time high. And black Graduation Rates are at an alltime low. So i think donald trump has a point here. Success, lets look at new ideas. But is he giving them enough to invest in . To take a chance in . I think he needs to be given a chance to do that. Guess what, Hillary Clinton hasnt given any specifics about how will she be any different than the failed boosting. I think we need to hold everybody accountable. And more to come later im sure on Hillary Clintons foundation issues. Should the budget crunch city of million on a first of its kind big city dirt track . Cleveland has two types of dirt bikers the hey, we own the city street daredevils. Scaring motorists and taunting police. And the most serious competition that involves trophies and families a real sport. The mayor plans to build a 2 million track at a city ballpark. Supporters think its a way to trouble. Council critics say the city should fix and repair its existing parks before building new stuff. The water park here closed all summer needing 18,000 in parts and chemicals to kill black mold. The one common goal is everybody ride bikes together. So here comes a 2 million project out of the Clear Blue Sky at the 11th hour, yet this wa long was closed because of 18,000 in parts needed and black mold in it. The mayor invisions the track being a spot on the Competitive Racing circuit and by the way, his grandson is an enthusiastic dirt biker. All right blaine you are personally involved in the area to get this here. There was push back on council. First of all some people said is the mayor trying to sneak this through a summer session it . Not at all. The mayor sees a culture and an industry that is growing. That is nationally known. That we are gaining a lot of support because people understand the marriage of this issue. What we are looking at trying to do is triple bottom line politics. Which we deal with the environmental because there is Environmental Concerns there. We deal with the social because we do have concerns with them riding in the streets for the safety of themselves and residents and the police. And last but not least they are going to have a facility on there that is going to deal with small engine repair. And then we can give these guys an opportunity to be a part of an industry where they can compete on a national circuit. We have even been contacted by the designer of the olympic track because there is so much enthusiasm around us. When we ran the story, we got an awful lot of social media response from cleveland residents saying hire more bob. Infrastructure for goodness sakes. They are talking about something going to the taxpayers saying give us more money and we will build a 2 million dirt bike track. How many people does it impact . How many riders are there in the city . I promise you the water park is probably going to serve a lot more kids and water parks and sameling things if you are look for help cleveland youth. Do something that more people will have access to rather than the handful that will have dirt some of the opponents with it and said well, if people who are benefiting are not young aggressive black men, this may not be the issue it is. We have seen people build recreational sports around skate boards and rolling centers and all kinds of activities. All were saying is these young urban kids need an opportunity to compete in a sport that is very popular. All urban kids. That can swim. They are also getting benefits. City council will be wrestling with this when they come back. Still ahead a battle over local jobs that is because a case of city verses state. Why state lawmakers say a law giving local users jobs is not fair and why the city isnt republicans like local control unless big brother government. Ohio republicans took another bite from requiring 20 of workers on public projects be cleveland residents. The city is suing to keep the law on the books. Day monday johnson was at a dead end job. He got in a hard hat Training Program started because of the lewis law. Republicans argue the law is unfair to outside contractors who had trouble finding cleveland workers. And leaves those that dont jobs. Mayor jackson often daunted. They sure did not stop all of those billions of dollars in investment. They made sure all they determined who benefited from it. That also puts an undue burden on contractors as far as discriminating against residents that are in ohio who dont happen to live a few feet across the line in that city. That i think the rest of ohio and the rest of ohio citizens has a differen we live in the city, this is our city so why shouldnt we be allowed to help work and build it up . Columbus and akron had similar hiring laws. Cleveland is suing to block that. All right a lot of people up in arms about this in cleveland. Another power grabby the state . Absolutely. I think the young man was absolutely on point. We live in the city, we pay taxes in the city so we should be able to work in the city. Let local affairs be. This is something we have a small portion of these billions of dollars being spent in an area where they sufferer poverty. We are trying to make sure that those folks are not left behind. So absolutely. They want to make sure they have an opportunity to work on the jobs. You will create havoc if you bring people from outside and continue to work on these projects. Its going to be a recipe for disaster. So mayor jac doing something that not just himself he believes in, but this entire community is behind him on this. Does the city of cleveland want to be that isolationist or do they believe in regionalism . You know else there is a lot of impoverished people. But with 20 of the jobs automatically allocated they must go to cleveland residents. It discriminates against living have their own residency hiring laws . They could have their own. But at the same time this is not working. This is shown. This is a man that just showed you how he got out of poverty. It is working for that man but it could help a Cleveland Heights guy. Cleveland has not faired very well on home rule tests before with the gun laws and other issues. Well see if this turns out differently. Its down to the cleveland schoolteachers. What they need to do to avert a will there be a cleveland teacher strike . Its going down to the wire. There could be one friday unless they get a deal done with a federal mediator on the case. Cleveland the only ohio system that does not give raises automatically for experience and degrees. Teachers get raises based on annual ratings. Teachers think one state test score playing tog role. They want more balance in the formula. Our most criticallish yule on the table right now is really about evaluations and how to make those evaluations fair and in a place where we can move forward. Its not that these are easy Little Things and all stubborn people, but these are complex issues that almost no School District in the country has taken on. Last year cleveland teachers were paid an average of a little more than 69,000. Big levy in september. A strike could be extra harmful to the students and district here. Well a lot to accomplish in a few days here. Right before we taped the segment, you told me that they are hopeful they can get this work done. Lets hope he is correct. Ive been hearing the same thing. Knowing the two guys at the table and thoughing the teams and friends i have and the teachers union. I think everybody is confident that things will get worked out. I we need to stay focused on the young people and how this will impact them. I think that is what is going to cause these two sides to get together. They recognize somebody with those young people will be impacted. This could be very harmful to an effort to replace the school if there was a strike no doubt about that. No doubt about it. But what we are staying focused on is education. What eric said is important. We are doing something transformational in this city. So its hard stuff. Given the crucial . I dont think they are. Its very, very difficult. There is no easy answer when it comes to compensation based on teachers. You have to include performance to some extent. But you also cant hold the teachers responsible by way of their salaries for kids that dont perform because maybe they dont have support systems at home. They are not doing home work. Maybe they are not being made to come to school. Those teachers cant be held accountable for that. So there is a ve process. Finding out how much a teachers value is worth when it comes to the social structure and home structure. If you are working for a long time, you need to be paid organizely. But only if you continue to do your very best and you dont just check in. Just a few days to get settlement down, lets hope they can pull a deal out of a hat here. Next leadership and empowerment. The tools making the kids into im tom beres. We look for you back here next week for another look between hello im Russ Mitchell and welcome to seven minutes. We want to focus on the Largest Community Action Agency in the state. Celebrating its 51st anniversary this year. President schism. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me. Give me the nickel definition what is the council for Economic Opportunities for Greater Cleveland . We were created 51 years ago to really help people move from poverty to selfsufficiency and it was part of the Lyndon Johnsons act. The Economic Opportunity act. I see. And 1965 were talking about. Correct. Great society. Students in Cuyahoga County. About 3100 kids. What do you hope kids get out of the program . We want them to be prepared for school. We want them to feel excited about going, excited about learning. And we want them to feel nurtured. A loving environment so when they go to that new place they are prepared. When you see a kid come in here who is not sure of him or himself and see them leave a totally different person, what does that do to you . It mas when you get up in the morning. Sometimes when we have things happen, like anyone does in the organization, and you come here at a place like this and see the kids and it reconnects you with why you are here. Thats got to be a wonderful feeling. It is. And parents get so much out of this. For many of our parents there is opportunity to do leadership. We have leadership training. So we have some parents who are because of what happened here. There is a story that comes to mind. There is a parent i met recently. She was going through a really difficult time. Her husband died unexpectantly. She had two small kids. What happened here is the environment nurtured her and put her arms around here. This became a reason for getting up in the morning. She is now on our board. That is fantastic. Lets take people back to 1965. Why was head start formed in the first place . This was ai johnsons war on poverty. He saw what they needed to do was create a safety net. There were a number of programs that were created because of that. Head start was one of them. Community action agencies. Job corp. All of that came under the Economic Opportunity act. The thought is its not just get a job. Not just pull yourself up out of the boot straps. Its we need to support them. And for some people and you will hear this in part of our conversation, they need to see something beyond where they are. Programs created that is why we are here. Who are your students . Theyre from all over the place. Most of them has to be low income. Low income as defined by the poverty rate. 125 , 150 . It depends on the program. But these are people who for the most part are working poor. So they have jobs. They are going to work on their daily basis but they dont make enough to pay certain bills. So that is where we step in and help. Do you ever see a day when the in enough when you dont need programs like head start . You pause there. But i wondered did you ever see that day coming . I would hope it would but heres the challenge. This has still been in existence for 51 years. Poverty has not decreased, its increased. At this point i dont see that day. I would like to see that day. But right now there are too many people who need and people who are in the middle class that are slipping back. I would like to see that. You also help with heating and cooling bills. Who qualifies for that . You just have to be income eligible. There is a lot of people that start lining up around august, september when it starts to get cold especially in september and october and they come and help them with their heating bills. Its not just that. There is cooling. Mostly people that have medical conditions can get either air conditioners or help th electric bill. But we also do emergency services. People that come in and dont have enough clothes. They dont have food. They dont have furniture. I just received a letter yesterday as a matter of fact a woman came into our office, she had five kids and she didnt have beds for her children. So we were able to get her beds for her kids, food. But also she went into one of our programs and she is working for the marriott. Those are things that make you feel good about the work you do. Lets talk about you. High school. Right next door. I did. Worked there for a number of years. What it like to be back here . So close to where you went to high school . I was saying yesterday i was talking to my husband and its like coming full circle. 40 years ago i graduated. 39 years ago. 40 next year. 39 years ago i graduated from john f. Kennedy and to be next door and now the president of this organization is really mind blowing. Its kind yeah. You also Vice President of the rock hall in one time. Music is a big part of your life; right . It is. But going to the rock hall it was interesting because i used to work as caseworker and doing community relations. When i moved over to the rock hall, it was a culture shock. So i walked in the door and thought what is the culture here . How does one dress in this environment . Because i was wearing business suits all the time. And someone who likes music so much if i were to raid your iphone and see who you are listening to. Who do you have on there . Lala hataway. But mostly gospel. Anything that inspires me i listen to. Anything embarrassing on there you want to tell us about . Everybody has one. Probably the wobble. What is that . Its a line dance. I have it on my ipad because i exercise to it. Its the only one that doesnt make sense. That is fair enough. Your doctorate is psychological anthology. How does that help you . Whenever i walk into a new environment, every environment is a culture. Every classroom is a culture. I walk into an environment and i start to understand the it. And often people will describe it in one way but when you actually see and observe this totally different. And theyre not aware of it. What it helps me to understand is what is important here. And the other thing i think is key is almost every person has to get something out of it. If you dont understand the culture, if you dont understand defining it, you will never be able to understand what they need to get out of it. Ive got about ten seconds here. You told me a inspiring. What else inspires you . Making a difference. I want to leave the place better than what i found it. That is fantastic. Its great seeing you. Continued success and keep up the great work here. And that is all for this week. Ill see you monday at 6 00 on the news. And back here next week for narrator one day over 700 shelters across the country. One goal finding thousands of animals loving homes. She adopted me. I didnt adopt her. Shes going to a good home. Theres no reason why not to adopt. Narrator this is clear the shelters. Les. And today were going to share some Amazing Stories that are sure to warm your heart. Were also sitting down with some famous faces and the shelter pets that have changed their lives forever. Plus well introduce you to two brothers who say adopting their rescue has helped bring their family together. I too have had my own life changed. Meet zara. Our family rescued her five years ago. And since then, things have never been the same
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