The county executive of

Cuyahoga County Cuyahoga County ( or , see ) is a large urban county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. The county seat and most populous city is Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,264,817, making it the second ...

, the second largest county in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, and the 29th largest county by population in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, is the elected

chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the Cuyahoga County government.

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

Chris Ronayne is the current county executive. The county charter stipulates that the executive is responsible for the appointment and removal of county personnel, working with other local governments, introducing legislation to the county council, submitting budgets and capital improvements plans to the council, and many other duties.

Formation

After a widespread corruption scandal was revealed, the voters of Cuyahoga County, which includes the City of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

and 58 surrounding suburbs, voted to authorize a new form of county government on November 3, 2009. The

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

replaced three

county commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States. A county usually has three to fiv ...

ers with an executive and 11-member council. Under the charter, other previously elected posts, such as sheriff, treasurer, and clerk of courts became appointed positions under the executive. Summit County is the only other Ohio county with an executive.

Ed FitzGerald Edward FitzGerald (born July 10, 1968) is an American politician who served as the first Cuyahoga County Executive from 2011 until 2015. He was the Democratic Party nominee for governor of Ohio in the 2014 election, and was defeated by the inc ...

, the then-mayor of

Lakewood, Ohio Lakewood is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Established in 1889, it is one of Cleveland's historical streetcar suburbs and part of the Greater Cleveland, Cleveland metropolitan area. The popula ...

, defeated

Matt Dolan Matthew John Dolan (born January 12, 1965) is an American politician and lawyer who most recently served in the Ohio Senate from 2017 to 2024, representing the state's 24th district. Prior, he served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 200 ...

in the initial election in November 2010 and was sworn in as the first Cuyahoga County executive on January 1, 2011 and inaugurated on January 9.

Political implications

After FitzGerald was elected, ''

The Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio; it is a major national newspaper. In the fall of 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily an ...

'' political reporter Henry J. Gomez wrote that many observers believed the county executive job would "be second only to the governor in terms of power and constituency." This prediction seemed to foreshadow FitzGerald's decision to challenge

John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician and author who was the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001, and a Republican candidate for the pre ...

's re-election bid for

governor of Ohio A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

in 2014. FitzGerald was the Democratic nominee for the November election. However, he was defeated.

Elections

After FitzGerald chose to run for Governor of Ohio in 2014, then-

state Representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...

Armond Budish was elected to succeed him. Budish was reelected in 2018, but chose not to run again in 2022. Democrat Chris Ronayne defeated Republican Lee Weingart in the November 2022 election to become the third person to hold the office.

County executives

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://executive.cuyahogacounty.us Government of Cuyahoga County, Ohio County executives in Ohio