The CUYAHOGA COUNTY MAYORS AND CITY MANAGERS ASSN. acts as a clearing house for discussion, study, and action on issues of municipal governance affecting Greater Cleveland. Organized informally during the Depression, the political leaders exchanged ideas on ways to cut municipal expenses in order to live within their shrinking budgets. Later, discussions expanded to include all matters in which they shared a common interest.
With the rapid growth of Cleveland's suburbs after World War II, the association addressed metropolitan problems arising from the fragmentation of local governmental service units and the unequal revenue sources available to them. It initiated county-wide studies of municipal personnel policies and police and fire compensation to improve administrative practice and attempted to draft a charter enabling county government to deal with regional problems more effectively (see REGIONAL GOVERNMENT). The group was more successful in coordinating suburban efforts to be represented on the NORTHEAST OHIO SEWER DISTRICT Board of Trustees. When that was achieved in 1972, it formed a Council of Government (COG) to elect the board's suburban representatives. The association also was active in organizing the Regional Income Tax Agency to administer municipal income tax collection for 44 member municipalities. Affiliated with the Institute of Urban Studies at CLEVELAND STATE UNIV., the Cuyahoga County Mayors and City Managers Assn. elects its own officers, a 5-member Board of Trustees, and an executive director to coordinate its activities.