CNCounty News

Cuyahoga County executive shares values, vision

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Armond Budish (r) meets with county colleagues and staff. Photo courtesy of Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Cuyahoga County, Ohio’s County Executive Armond Budish built a robust resume in government 

Been there, done that…  It could be Armond Budish’s motto. His resume reads like a roadmap for the route he’s taken from lawyer to speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives to becoming Cuyahoga County, Ohio’s county executive.

He’s a published author of books, has written columns for the Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper and Family Circle magazine. As an attorney, his practice focused on elder law issues — which were often featured on a weekly TV infomercial he hosted before his election in 2014.

“My passion over the years has been helping senior citizens and their families to cope with the challenges of aging,” Budish said in a recent interview. In the year since he took office, he has broadened his focus to all 1.2 million residents of the county on the shores of Lake Erie.

Playing an active role in governing was always in the cards, he said, but with a caveat.

“I made a choice early on that I would pursue these other avenues because I also wanted to be at home with my children as they grew up,” he said. “It was important to me to be a good dad.” He and his wife of 36 years, Amy, have two sons, ages 34 and 29.

Budish is only the county’s second elected executive. Voters in 2009 approved a charter, transforming the county’s governance from a commission of three co-equal members to its current structure — an executive and 11 council members.  It brought reforms sparked, in part, by a public corruption scandal between the late ‘90s and 2009 that sent a former commissioner and the county auditor to prison.

While much was accomplished on the watch of the county’s first executive, Ed FitzGerald from 2010 to 2014, a new form of government doesn’t gel overnight, said Councilman Dave Greenspan. He bridges both administrations as an original member of the first County Council. Of Ohio’s 88 counties, only one other, Summit, operates under home rule.

Greenspan said Budish faced a “double challenge” when he took office: standing up his own administration and “shoring up a government” barely out of its toddler stage.

Passing his first two-year budget last month was among Budish’s first big tests. At one point last year, the county was staring down a potential $68 million budget hole.

“The biggest challenge by far has been the financial condition of the county government,” Budish said. “When we first walked in the door we were told we had a $12 million surplus, but after we started digging, which was our first order of business, we discovered that in fact we had a significant deficit.”

Greenspan said the deficit wasn’t because of cash flow or current expenditures but was due to commitments made under the prior administration. A $100 million economic development fund and $50 million to demolish blighted properties were to be supported by bonds.

“Armond made the decision for the county over the next two years not to issue any more debt unless that debt was supported by a dedicated revenue stream,” said Greenspan, a Republican who chairs the council’s finance and budgeting committee. Budish is a Democrat.

The councilman credits Budish’s ability to tap into the experience of the council members, nine of whom are in their second term under the home rule government. “The continuity of understanding the complexity of what we do and how we got from January 2011 to today, a lot of that knowledge rests with council,” Greenspan said.

By charter, job creation and economic growth are a “fundamental government purpose” of the county.  Budish brought some of his state legislative experience to bear in his new job. In the House, he had served on the finance committee, and he was “extremely involved” with the state budget as speaker, and subsequently, minority leader.

On a personal level, it’s not money that motivates the man. “If he were just interested in money, he wouldn’t be in office, he’d be practicing law,” said Michael Solomon, his former law partner. “Because he’s a good lawyer and you can make a good living as a lawyer…”  He also calls Budish a hard worker and “entrepreneurial,” citing his colleague’s idea for the TV infomercial. “He comes up with these ideas that other people might say, ‘Why do you think you can do that?’ And he does it.”

Budish’s Jewish faith informs his approach to life and work — especially the concept of Tikkun Olam (repair the world). “The way I was brought up,” he said, “we were brought to believe that we all have the opportunity and an obligation to repair the world…. It’s a very important goal for me, and I try to fulfill that all the time.”

As he begins his second year in office, Budish appears to be having the time of his life, according to Sharon Sobol-Jordan, his current chief of staff.

“He waited a long time to be a public servant, and he loves it with a capital ‘L,” she said. “He comes to work every day with a smile on his face. He is having more fun now than any man should be allowed to have at work.”

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