Ralph Perk

Ralph J. Perk (January 19, 1914 – April 21, 1999) was an American politician who served as the 52nd mayor of Cleveland from 1972 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party, he was Cleveland's first Republican mayor in approximately 30 years. Before becoming mayor, Perk represented the city's 13th Ward on the Cleveland City Council from 1953 to 1961 and served as auditor of Cuyahoga County from 1962 to 1971.

Perk became mayor during a period of population loss, industrial decline and financial strain in Cleveland. His administration promoted regional government, helped establish the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, transferred the city's sewage-treatment system to a regional district, expanded Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, introduced a citywide emergency ambulance service and participated in the construction of the Cleveland Justice Center. His government also relied heavily on federal grants for public employment, crime prevention, housing and redevelopment.

Perk was reelected twice but was eliminated in Cleveland's 1977 nonpartisan mayoral primary, finishing behind Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Edward F. Feighan. His final years in office were dominated by disputes over the city's finances, public-employee layoffs, a proposed downtown transit system and the future of Cleveland's municipally owned electric utility, commonly known as Muny Light.

Early life Perk was born on January 19, 1914, at 4422 East Clark Avenue in Cleveland. His parents were Mary B. Smirt and Joseph C. Perk, a garment worker and organizer for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Perk was a second-generation American of Czech and Slovak ancestry and grew up in Cleveland's Broadway–Fleet neighborhood. He was a lifelong member of Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church.

As a child, Perk delivered newspapers and sold ice from a horse-drawn wagon. He graduated from Our Lady of Lourdes School in 1927 and attended East Technical High School from 1927 to 1929, when he left without graduating. He subsequently worked as a floor sweeper, an employee of Apex Electric Manufacturing Company and an apprentice wood-pattern maker. During the early 1930s he briefly pursued professional boxing, winning four fights at local clubs. In 1934 he co-founded the Kovaar and Perk Coal and Ice Company.

Perk married Lucille Gagliardo on May 4, 1940. They had seven children, including Cleveland councilman Ralph Perk Jr., and eventually had 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Perk received a military exemption during World War II because of recurring kidney stones, but contributed to wartime production as a pattern maker who constructed full-scale engine models. He later attended Cleveland College at Western Reserve University intermittently, studying subjects that included political science.

Political career Beginning in 1953, Perk was elected to five two-year terms on Cleveland City Council from the city's Ward 13, representing his native Broadway–Slavic Village neighborhood. During his service on Council, Perk founded the American Nationalities Movement, an umbrella agency for 35 nationality groups. In 1962, he was elected auditor of Cuyahoga County, the first Republican to win countywide office since the mid-1930s; he was re-elected in 1966 and 1970. He became the first Republican to serve as mayor of Cleveland since the 1940s, and proceeded to make future mayoral elections nonpartisan. He was reelected in 1973 and 1975.

Perk formed what he described as a coalition administration, appointing Democrats and Republicans as well as representatives of Cleveland's ethnic and racial communities. His campaign agenda included cleaner air and water, new police and fire facilities, a citywide ambulance service, free public transportation for senior citizens, airport expansion, restoration of Playhouse Square, reduced crime and regional management of transit, sewers, water, parks and port facilities.

Perk was reelected in 1973 and 1975, becoming Cleveland's first three-term mayor since Anthony J. Celebrezze. From 1973 through 1977 he chaired the National Conference of Republican Mayors and Municipal Elected Officials, and he served on the board of the United States Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities.

Perk also advocated replacing the financially troubled Cleveland Transit System with a countywide authority. His administration helped draft state legislation allowing the city and county to create a regional transit agency supported through public taxation. The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority was established in 1975 with an initial base fare of 25 cents and free transportation for senior citizens.

Near the end of his administration, Perk supported a federally financed elevated downtown transit project known as the People Mover. The proposal was opposed by several county officials, including Voinovich, who considered it excessively costly. The project became one of the issues cited in accounts of Perk's declining political support in 1977.

Public safety and municipal services

In 1972, Cleveland was selected for the federal Impact Cities Program and received approximately $20 million for a crime-reduction initiative aimed at assaults, burglaries and robberies. The program financed projects including an auxiliary police force. In 1973, Perk announced that Cleveland's reported crime rate had fallen by 26 percent over the preceding two years.

The administration oversaw a major expansion of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. A long-term financing agreement supported a $55 million expansion within a broader $100 million airport financing plan. Construction included an enlarged passenger terminal, which opened during Perk's final year in office.

Federal funding and development policy

Perk maintained close relationships with officials in the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations and repeatedly sought federal assistance for Cleveland. Federal programs financed crime prevention, housing rehabilitation, public employment, community development, transit and infrastructure. By 1975, critics noted that federal money accounted for nearly half of the city's approximately $150 million budget.

Gaffes As mayor, Perk was also known for his many political gaffes. On October 16, 1972, he accidentally set his hair on fire when he attempted to use a welder's torch for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the American Society for Metals at the Cleveland Convention Center. A spark from the torch had "hit his head and his hair caught fire thanks to a product that a barber put in it earlier in the day." The treatment was thought to have been successful, but in early 1998 Perk and his family learned that the cancer had not only returned but had spread. Perk's children spent a year caring for their father at home. Five days before his death, Perk was admitted to the Corinthian Skilled Nursing Center in Westlake, Ohio. He died there on April 21, 1999. He was buried at in Brook Park, Ohio.