CLEVELAND, Ohio ― Peaceful protests turned into chaos in the streets of Columbus, as store owners were left cleaning up after civil unrest.
What You Need To Know
- The Columbus Police Department’s Public Records Unit says the city has so far spent just under $3.5 million
- Toledo says it has spent about $117,000 on overtime and supplies
- A memo sent to Cincinnati City Council by the city Manager says the city spent more than $400,000 in overtime costs related to the protests.
“Obviously, there’s going to be significant cost― for law enforcement, for public service, for public health, you know, dealing with this crisis, but also in response to COVID-19,” Mayor Andrew Ginther said at a recent press conference.
In recent weeks, Mayor Ginther said that the city had been saving money to prepare for budget shortfalls.
“Clearly, we knew before this crisis that revenue was going to be down, which is all the more reason why we put aside, you know, money in our rainy day fund, our basic city services fund, our workers comp rebate, as well as not spending nearly $20 million that had been budgeted for this year. Got all of our departments to to really prioritize and focus until we’e been able to realize the savings of an additional $20 million through that work.”
Cuyahoga County also suffered some damage as well. Several windows were broken at the Administrative Headquarters in Downtown Cleveland.
The city of Cleveland is still tallying the total of managing peaceful demonstrations, and the cleanup after damage caused by some rioters.
“A few windows were knocked out. Hopefully they’ll be replaced within a week to two weeks here,” said Michael Dever, Cuyahoga County director of public works. “Over at the Justice Center, we probably had about two dozen windows taken out.”
The Justice Center was targeted during a riot that broke out after what began as a peaceful march in late May following the death of George Floyd.
Dever says he’s not sure yet where the money to cover the cost of repairs will come from in what has already been a financially difficult year.
“It’s definitely challenges. We go through our budget cycle every two years and I have certain dollar figures allotted for this year for capital improvements and for operation. And it’s unfortunate that I’m going to have to dip into some of those dollars.”
