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Mayor's Office

440-885-8001

 

Duties of the Mayor’s Office

The mayor is the chief executive officer of Parma government who has been duly elected by a majority of eligible voters. Each term of office is four years and without term limits.

The Office of Mayor is responsible for the following municipal services and departments:

  • Safety (police, fire and EMS)
  • Service (street repairs, rubbish removal, tree trimming, street cleaning, etc.)
  • Buildings & Engineering (residential and commercial building code enforcement)
  • Community Services & Economic Development (enhancing the city’s residential and commercial market values)
  • Senior Center (oversees activities for the area’s elderly to include “Meals on Wheels” and transportation for medical-dental-pharmacy visits)
  • Parks and Recreation (responsible for the upkeep of municipal parks and recreation facilities to include Ridgewood Golf Course)
  • Public Housing Authority (management of government funded and affordable housing for those who qualify)
  • Human Resources and Purchasing (responsible for purchasing of goods and services required by various municipal departments and oversight of municipal hiring practices and policies)
  • Communications and Community Relations (responsible for media relations and other functions involving the press; disseminates information for the mayor's office both to internal and external audiences; serves as a liaison between the mayor and various community organizations throughout Greater Cleveland)

In addition, the Mayor’s Office includes a Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary to the Mayor.


Mayor

Timothy DeGeeter

Learn more about Mayor DeGeeter in this video

Contact Information
Office: 440-885-8001
Fax: 440-885-8012
Email:
mayorsoffice@cityofparma-oh.gov

Tim DeGeeter, the 14th mayor of Parma, originally made Parma his home because he and his wife Pam believe in the city, its hard-working people and its future. They knew Parma, Ohio’s seventh-largest city, is a great place to raise a family.

The mayor has made improving the quality of life for Parma residents among the most important goals of his administration. He has been praised for facilitating such family friendly events as the Family Movie Night, expanding the Recreation Department offerings to include tot programs, adding online Recreation Department sign-up and participating in many of Parma’s events with his own family. He puts a premium on staying connected with residents, and to that end, he actively utilizes social media to stay in touch with the community.

Parma’s business community is growing under DeGeeter’s leadership as well, and small business owners have found a leader who will listen to them and ask for their input. Big business is growing, too, with the ongoing redevelopment of The Shoppes at Parma.

DeGeeter embraces his city and regional leadership responsibilities with active service. He was appointed to the Board of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, which works to provide leadership to protect water quality, alleviate flooding and improve infrastructure, all important issues to Parma residents.

He also serves as a member of NOACA - the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, which is a transportation and environmental planning agency charged with determining federal funding of highway, bikeways and transportation systems. Additionally, the organization helps address air and water quality needs.

DeGeeter has become a proponent for regional collaboration and looks for ways to increase Parma's leadership in that area. He was elected to the board of trustees of the Ohio Municipal League in his first year as mayor. The OML works with city leaders to support issues affecting local communities, including economic development, funding and job creation.

DeGeeter came to the Mayor’s Office from the Ohio House of Representatives, serving the 15th District, which includes Parma. While in Columbus, he built a record based on fiscal responsibility while also making critical investments in Ohio and its people. He supported balanced budgets that cut spending but also expanded the Homestead Tax Credit -- important for seniors in Parma and across the state. He also worked to keep college tuition low.

He was instrumental in the battle to save Brooklyn’s Hugo Boss plant, which was on the verge of closing, wrote Ohio’s Credit Freeze Law allowing consumers to place a hold on their credit report as a way to protect themselves against identity theft, and sought tougher drug laws, pushing for restrictions on the sale and manufacture of methamphetamine. While in the House of Representatives, he served as Chairman of the Public Utilities and Criminal Justice committees. He also served as a co-chair of the bipartisan Ohio Prematurity Caucus, which raised awareness of premature births in Ohio and sought funding for the issue.

He was appointed by Gov. Ted Strickland to serve on the Improving Forensic DNA Policy Project, a project to enhance public safety and forensic DNA analysis as a crime-solving tool. In 2004, DeGeeter was a member of the Ohio Supreme Court Task Force on Pro Se and Indigent Litigants, a group that reviewed the issue of self-representation in the state's judicial system. In 2006, DeGeeter was chosen to participate in an esteemed leadership training program that identifies and assists promising state leaders in the Midwest. He met with other select lawmakers for The Council of State Governments’ 12th annual Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development (BILLD) in Madison, Wis.

Additionally, in 2010, he was nominated and selected by The American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) as a delegate to Taiwan for a seven-day leadership exchange program. Just after being elected mayor of Parma, he participated in The Seminar on Transition and Leadership for Newly-Elected Mayors at the Harvard University Institute of Politics.

Before going to the Ohio House, DeGeeter served as Parma’s Ward 4 councilman for five years, where he led a partnership of schools, businesses, city officials and residents to restore and dedicate a park named after Capt. James Lovell Jr., an Apollo 13 astronaut and Parma native. He also led a task force working with the West Creek Preservation Committee that saved the city’s oldest home, the Henninger House built in 1849, to preserve Parma’s history for all its residents.

He is a co-founder of Leadership for Tomorrow -- a program that partners with public and private schools to educate fifth graders on municipal government and to encourage them to become active in their community, and for which he received the Parma Chamber of Commerce Pride Award. In 2007, the Parma Council of PTAs presented the Ohio Lifetime Achievement Award to DeGeeter for his legislative efforts advocating for families and children.

He has been an attorney since 1998 and is the former President of the Parma Bar Association and a former Parma Democrat of the Year. He served as an assistant municipal prosecutor for the City of Berea, and also as assistant law director in Avon Lake.

While attending law school, DeGeeter was published in the Journal of Law & Health. The law review article, "The Politics of Reducing Tobacco Use Among Children & Adolescents: Why the FDA Cannot Regulate Tobacco and a Proposed Policy for States and Local Communities" received "The Best Note Award" for 1995-96.

DeGeeter, adopted at birth, grew up in Mishawaka, Ind., near South Bend. He attended Holy Cross Junior College in Notre Dame, Ind., and transferred to The John Carroll University. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1991 and later earned his law degree in 1997 from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law, where he met his wife Pam, also an attorney.

The mayor and Pam are blessed with two children, Jack and Molly.


Chief of Staff

Rich Summers

Contact Information
Office: 440-885-8009
Email: rsummers@cityofparma-oh.gov


Director of Communications

Carolyn Kovach

Contact Information
Office: 440-885-8181
Email: ckovach@cityofparma-oh.gov

Carolyn Kovach is the director of communications for the city of Parma. She oversees media relations, crisis communications, web content, social media content, community relations, publications and public records requests.

Kovach has 20 years of experience in marketing and communications. Most recently, she was the marketing manager at Cuyahoga Community College’s Western Campus in Parma and the college’s Brunswick University Center. Prior to Tri-C, she was the publications strategist at Cleveland Metropolitan School District and the director of communications at Saint Ignatius High School. She also has experience in the corporate sector, working as a corporate communications editor for American Greetings.

Before transitioning to public relations, Kovach worked as an award-winning county reporter for a chain of community newspapers in South Palm Beach County, Florida.


Executive Secretary to the Mayor

Michelle Blair

Contact Information
Office: 440-885-8001
Fax: 440-885-8012
Email: mblair@cityofparma-oh.gov

Hours

Monday - Friday 
8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.


On This Page

The Mayor
Chief of Staff
Director of Communications
Executive Secretary


Applications

Nomination Form:
Citizen of the Month


Nomination Form:
Business of the Month


Parma Wards and Voting Locations

Map of Wards and Voting Locations