Beachwood City Council Votes To Censure Member

BEACHWOOD, OH — The Beachwood City Council voted to censure Councilperson Mike Burkons on Monday night.

"Mr. Burkons earned his censure because he retaliated against a Beachwood resident who asked for an update on a complaint they had lodged against an off-duty police officer. The evidence that Council reviewed showed that Mr. Burkons first argued with the resident via email and then contacted senior leaders at the resident’s place of employment in order to exert pressure on the resident to be silent," city council said in a statement.

According to documents presented at the council meeting, in mid-July, a Beachwood resident and assistant law director for Cleveland Heights emailed Burkons and criticized the councilperson's lack of response to reports of a police officer harassing a Black child.

Burkons responded by emailing the resident's employer, Cleveland Heights City Council, and said the law director must be "deficient at his job."

Reached for comment, Burkons directed Patch to a blog post where he defended his actions, saying he felt the resident was painting the officer in "such a racist light" when more than 18 months had passed since the original incident. The councilperson said the resident did not initially complain that the officer's behavior had been racist.

"This angered me and I decided to send an email to the City Council where he was employed letting them know how inappropriate and improper I believed their employee's conduct was," Burkons said.

Beachwood City Council and Mayor Martin Horwitz sent a follow-up letter to Cleveland Heights officials apologizing for Burkons' behavior. The Council said it was censuring Burkons for attempting to violate a resident's First Amendment rights by intimidation.

Beachwood City Council also revealed evidence that Burkons had been in communication with the police officer named in the incident report.

"Further evidence showed that Councilman Burkons was simultaneously texting with the police officer noted in the resident’s original complaint. When the officer inquired about, “any thing new?” Councilman Burkons responded, “Nope, I think the email to CH council quieted him," the Council said in a statement.

While he defended his decision to protect the police officer, Burkons admitted he may have acted too hastily in sending an email to Cleveland Heights City Council.

"In any situation when one of our employees is the subject of an unfair accusation like this, I will stand up for them without embarrassment but in the future I won’t act so quickly and in such haste," Burkons said in his blog.

While admitting he may have acted inappropriately in emailing a resident's employer, Burkons questioned whether the censure was the result of his questioning of city leadership over a police-involved shooting which occurred in June 2019. Burkons said he felt the issue was being kept from the public, the shooting footage was not released quickly enough and the process to review the footage for potential felonies began too slowly.

"I don't think the timing of this censure was coincidental at a time when I am asking these very hard and uncomfortable questions no one wants to answer. This seems like a clear attempt to try to discredit me and distract the public from this real and very important issue they want to go away quietly," Burkons said.

City Council and Horwitz said they censured Burkons because of his behavior in responding to a resident.

"The First Amendment to the Constitution enshrines our right to express our opinions to our elected leaders free from the threat of retaliation. Mr. Burkons failed to respect that right and that’s why the Beachwood City Council issued the first censure in many years," the Council said in a statement.