Mayor Kahlil Seren accused of secret recordings, prompting Cleveland Heights City Council to request investigation

Cleveland Heights City Council had an urgent meeting and passed a resolution unanimously on Friday. The resolution aims to investigate claims that Mayor Kahlil Seren tried to secretly record discussions during a probe into complaints about his wife’s actions.

The resolution specifically requests the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) to reconsider its earlier choice not to examine the matter. It calls for a thorough and impartial investigation by the BCI, Ohio Attorney General, or the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.

Furthermore, the resolution urges Seren to avoid making any staffing decisions to prevent any retaliation. It also suggests that he think about stepping down as the mayor of Cleveland Heights to allow the community to progress.

“Today is yet another sad day for Cleveland Heights,” Council President Tony Cuda said following the vote. “We have to get to the bottom of this. During the last six months, the mayor and his wife have dragged this city through the mud.” 

Seren declined to comment when given an opportunity by Cuda after the vote.

“I don’t believe this is the end of it,” added Councilman Craig Cobb. “There are more damaging matters that are going to come to light, and it’s only getting worse with every day that passes.”

On Friday, 3News obtained an April 30 letter sent by Cleveland Heights Police Chief Christopher Britton to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification requesting “to review and consider for investigation an incident for which we have a conflict of interest.”

According to the letter, on April 3, a paralegal discovered a laptop in the city’s law department “concealed from plain sight between the refrigerator and a stack of boxes.” The computer was plugged in, opened, with the user name of the locked screen visible. The name was redacted in the letter obtained by 3News. 

Britton noted that investigators were conducting interviews about the conduct of Seren’s wife, Natalie McDaniel, who was being accused of creating a “hostile work environment,” on that same day. 

As Cory Shaffer of 3News’ media partner Cleveland.com reported last month, surveillance video captured Seren swiping into the law department at 7:09 a.m. on April 3 — more than an hour before business hours began — and leaving roughly four minutes later. Britton’s letter stated no other personnel were present at the time.

Shaffer also reported that Seren later swiped into the law department at about 7:05 p.m. that evening. The letter stated that he encountered an employee working late. The mayor apparently told the employee that he was “just stopping by to say good night and this was highly unusual.” 

The letter said that Seren returned to the law department on April 4 and told an employee he had left his laptop there, but the employee said she had not seen it. On Saturday, April 5, Britton reports that Seren returned to the law department for a short time. The laptop was gone when a staffer came into the office later that day. 

Britton told the BCI that employees suspected that Seren was using the laptop to “illegally record or attempting to record/intercept the interviews” that were taking place.

According to the letter, Britton found out in mid-April that the FBI would not be taking on the investigation. Shaffer reports that BCI has similarly declined to review the matter. 

Although he chose not to speak at Friday’s Cleveland Heights City Council meeting, Seren sent out a long statement later that evening claiming to be a victim of a “political lynching” and added that he would now allow “racists, demagogues or special interests” to distract him “from the work that matters.”

You can read the entire statement below.

Like many Black mayors during the Trump era, I’ve been subjected to a political lynching – driven by those who have weaponized our community’s unaddressed racist biases and hate for their own gain, manipulating fear and division to serve their interests.

I am deeply thankful to the voters of Cleveland Heights for electing me as mayor almost four years ago – and for working hard to put me back on the ballot this week despite the best efforts of some who have tried for my entire term to overturn the will of the voters by consistently undermining the person they chose to lead. While the validation of my candidacy is currently in the hands of the Board of Elections, I am your Mayor for the remainder of 2025.

In a democracy, the will of the voters must always come first. No special interests or outside forces should ever be able to override an election or block a duly elected mayor from doing the job they were chosen to do. Yet that’s exactly what I have endured for almost four years. And I must call it what it is: an assault on democracy and a failed attempt to silence the will of the people.

As the mayor of this great city, I fully expect political opposition – that comes with the job and it’s fair. But what is not fair, what is not acceptable, is the persistence of a false and deeply harmful trope: that I, as a Black man, lack the intelligence, the work ethic, and the moral character to lead. That narrative is not new. It is a relic of America’s darkest chapters, used for generations to justify slavery and the systematic subjugation of Black people – by denying our capacity for thought, leadership and self-determination. To see that same trope weaponized against me today is not just a personal attack – it’s an attack on progress, on truth and on every Black person who has ever been told they are less than. I reject it fully – and I will continue to lead this city with the strength, integrity and vision our residents deserve.

James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” That’s why I’m speaking this truth today. I don’t expect to change the minds of those who see me as their lesser simply because my Blackness tells them that I can’t possibly be a leader that they should respect and value. I can’t know what resentment and bias these people hold in their hearts, I can only conclude based on the consistency of their publicly expressed prejudice against my every action.

But I do believe this: the time is always right to stand up – to speak out – against injustice, against hatred and against the lies that seek to diminish the humanity of all people of color.

So I am addressing the hateful individuals who have tried to obstruct me from fighting for the people of Cleveland Heights. I am telling them that they cannot and will not win.

They’ve become so desperate, they have attacked the love of my life, my wife. She has been falsely accused in an attempt to tear me down. But I have evidence proving her innocence and will share that with the community. Now they are pulling another page from a well worn playbook: trying to criminalize my lawful actions as Mayor and seeking to destroy my well-earned reputation for a strict adherence to doing things the right way for a full decade of service to this community. I am in the good company of Black mayors nationwide – from Los Angeles to New Orleans, from Chicago to Memphis – who have all faced the same kind of stalker-level scrutiny, false accusations, and a constant drumbeat of negative propaganda against them on both the personal and professional levels.

All of this is a distraction rooted in outdated, hateful tropes that are carefully framed to mislead. It is noise meant to divide and derail us. But I am here to serve, to make our city better and to improve the lives of everyone in Cleveland Heights. That mission has not changed and I will not be prevented from moving our city forward.

Our richness lies in our diversity only if we choose to fully embrace it. We have people from nearly every walk of life that have chosen to call our city their home. That is something I am proud of and it’s something we all should cherish as one of Ohio’s greatest cities.

Serving as your mayor has been the honor of my life. And I will not allow racists, demagogues or special interests to distract me from the work that matters: building a cleaner, more affordable and more beautiful city for everyone who calls it home.

I invite you to attend a public event at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 2747 Fairmount Blvd on Monday, June 16 at 6:30 PM to hear more from your Mayor.

Earlier this month, Cleveland Heights City Council approved a motion of no confidence against Seren, with several legislators along with community members calling on him to resign. 

The battle between the city’s legislative and executive branches began to heat up last December, when councilmembers were forced to pass a temporary three-month budget in order to keep critical services running. At the time, lawmakers blamed Seren for presenting a late budget proposal they say lacked critical information, while Seren claimed his team had “provided certainly more information than we have in the previous 10 years to the council in making their budgetary decisions.”

Then in March, City Administrator Dan Horrigan abruptly resigned, citing the “improper and un-ethical” conduct of Seren’s wife Natalie McDaniel as a reason. Horrigan’s departure was just the latest in a number of high-profile exits from City Hall, and council began to take notice of McDaniel’s high-profile presence in the building.

“It doesn’t matter to me that a family member comes in and aids and assists and provides guidance, but this almost seems like this has crossed the line,” Councilman Jim Posch said in an April meeting. “In the spirit of trying to protect the city, we’ve had 12 major directors leave this city, and we’re concerned about this.”

Seren denied at the time that his wife “had the authority to give directives to my staff.” However, the biggest bombshell came last month, when the mayor’s former special assistant came forward with claims that McDaniel had fostered a “hostile work environment” inside City Hall while also making various antisemitic and homophobic remarks.

Patrick Costigan, who says he was fired from the administration in March, first filed a complaint with both the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission before expanding on his accusations in a discrimination lawsuit. Costigan’s allegations include:

• McDaniel referring to City Planning Commission Chair Jessica Cohen, an Orthodox Jew, as a “brood mare” who is “destined for the glue factory.”
• McDaniel purportedly calling City Planning and Economic Development Director Eric Zamft a “pawn” for the Orthodox Jewish community.
• McDaniel attacking proposed new zoning requirements for places of worship and allegedly claiming they would improperly benefit the Orthodox Jewish community in the Taylor neighborhood.
• Costigan claiming to have heard McDaniel referring to an Orthodox Jewish resident who complained about city services as “that Jewish b—-.”
• McDaniel allegedly referring to 2025 mayoral candidate Marty Gelfand as “one of them,” meaning a Jewish candidate recruited to run against Seren.
• McDaniel allegedly using “what can be described as a stereotypical New York Jewish accent” to mock residents or others, including using such accent to tell Costigan that “black people don’t grow up with generational wealth and things like a Jewish accountant.”
• McDaniel allegedly using a homophobic slur in reference to a member of council “on numerous occasions.”

Although McDaniel is not an official Cleveland Heights employee, Costigan stated that she “has been personally involved in official Cleveland Heights business,” with Seren frequently referring to her as the “First Lady.” For his part, Seren has been adamant that neither he nor his wife are antisemitic, and claims her remarks were either “altered” or taken out of context. He has vociferously resisted calls to resign, and even evoked the late author and civil rights activist James Baldwin during a meeting last month when he told councilmembers “I am not your Negro.”

On June 4, 3News learned that a second public employee filed a legal complaint against the city, this time claiming she was subject to pay discrimination because of her age and race.

Earline Robinson, a Black woman who spent roughly 40 years working for Cleveland Heights and eventually rose to the rank of accounts payable coordinator, says she was consistently “paid less than younger white Accounts Payable employees who had less responsibilities and less years of service.” She also accuses City Hall of illegally retaliating against her by issuing reprimands and eventually “removing her duties,” effectively forcing her off the job.

Robinson, filed the lawsuit on March 10, weeks before before the bombshell allegations against Seren’s wife became public. However, the case did not receive much attention until City Councilman Jim Petras alluded to it during a recent meeting as part of a discussion about larger concerns surrounding the mayor.