CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Monday afternoon, the City of Cleveland Heights announced it has terminated its director of communications, Jessica Schantz, after a "breach of professional conduct" and a "sustained inability to meet the expectations of her leadership role."
This past December, Schantz was promoted from her role as assistant director to director, due to her commitment to strengthening the communications department, the city said.
The reasoning for her termination, the city said, was due to her failure to meet expectations and, most recently, her public disclosure of "tentative personnel matters publicly."
“This Office does not typically comment on personnel decisions of this type. But in this instance, because the conduct at issue includes a release of information in violation of the fiduciary duty of the position, transparency in this process is necessary because this was already forced into the public discourse. It is unfortunate that we have reached this point, but confidence in the discretion and judgement of a communications professional is a requirement of the job,” Cleveland Heights Mayor Khalil Seren said in a statement.
"I knew Jessica Schantz very much prior to this. She's a true professional. This is devastating on a personal level. I'm not saying the mayor doesn't have the right to move personnel around. [He] absolutely does, but this does go against the council resolution that was passed unanimously that said that this could be viewed as retaliation, and it's a bad idea, and he did it anyway," Cleveland Heights Council President Tony Cuda said.
On June 13, city council passed Resolution No. 116-2025 stating the mayor should refrain from making personnel decisions during an investigation into why his laptop was "hidden" in the city's law department, as a former city employee was questioned about his wife's behavior.
Seren appointed Frances Eugenia Collazo to serve as the city's director of communications, citing her more than 15 years of experience in the field.
Following her termination, Schantz released the following statement:
I was shocked to receive notice of my termination today. When I was hired in August 2024, I was honored to have the opportunity to serve the City in which I was raised, and where I have chosen to live as an adult and raise a family of my own.
I have spent the last ten months committed to improving and increasing City communications for residents, in coordination with a wonderful cohort of colleagues and dedicated public servants. Contrary to the Mayor’s media release, I have never received “extensive support and coaching,” and, in fact, never received formal performance goals or reviews. Further, any claim that I was in breach of professional conduct or leaked personnel matters publicly is false. I am alarmed that my professional integrity has been so mischaracterized. In my 25 years as a professional, my values of trust, respect and integrity have been at the core of everything I do. I will have no further comment at this time as I consider how to move forward.
Collazo said she did write up the press release on Schantz's firing.
"She was let go this afternoon," Collazo stated. "This all happened very quickly and I was not necessarily expecting it to happen today, so as of right now, I don't really have anything more to say other than I'm gonna do my best to course correct."
We wanted to ask Seren questions, but he was absent from the meeting despite attending the City Council of the Whole meeting minutes before the council meeting began.
Instead, we stopped Collazo for a quick interview, who didn't seem to know where the mayor was or why he didn't attend the meeting.
"I am not privy to his whereabouts. He is an independent human being. It's 8:30 at night. I'm going to assume he's at his house," Collazo said. "Considering where we are in, in the current state of things, I don't really think that he owes anybody any kind of audience for their performative outrage."
Despite Schantz's termination, which several council members say they weren't made aware of until news of it hit the media, no immediate action will be taken against the mayor, according to Cuda.
"There's a separation of powers, and I believe in that. I also believe in these times that council needs to speak about what they'd like to see happen. I'm gonna state on the record that I think this is a regrettable action to make, and it could be viewed as retaliatory, and I think the timing is bad," Cuda stated.
Cuda said that Seren's absence from Monday's meeting sends a message that the mayor wanted to avoid being served with the notice of the recall petition.
The results of the petition were read aloud to city council.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections validated more than 3,800 signatures last week.
Although Seren wasn't at the meeting, a digital copy of the recall petition results was sent to him on Monday, which means he now has five days to decide whether he will resign or not.
If Seren chooses not to resign, council will move to put the recall initiative on the September ballot at its July 7 meeting.
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