CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland City Councilman Jeffrey Johnson will run for mayor of Cleveland -- seeking to oust three-term Mayor Frank Jackson whom he says has lost touch with the people he serves.

In a recent interview with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, Johnson said he intends to go to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections on Tuesday afternoon - accompanied by his family -- to pull petitions, officially kicking off his mayoral campaign.

He will be the first major candidate to enter the race. As of Monday, six other candidates have pulled petitions for the Sept. 12 primary. The two top vote-getters in the nonpartisan primary will move on to the Nov. 7 general election.

Jackson has not yet said whether he plans to run for an unprecedented fourth term, despite speculation that he would want to see through a number of his initiatives, including the improvement of the city's school district and a recently unveiled plan to address youth violence.

In announcing his bid for mayor, Johnson, 58, acknowledged his checkered past. Before the age of 30, he was described by Ebony magazine as one of the nation's 30 most promising future black leaders.

But his political career crashed and burned in the wake of a federal corruption investigation. Just weeks after announcing his bid to replace retiring U.S. Congressman Louis Stokes in 1998, Johnson was indicted on charges of extortion. And eventually, he was sentenced to 15 months behind bars.

He has since served under former Mayor Jane Campbell and on City Council, where he has been a vocal critic of the Jackson administration. He contends that the mayor, who was first elected more than a decade ago on the promise to improve the lives of "the least of us," has done more for corporate Cleveland and other moneyed interests than for the city's neighborhoods and the people who live in them.

"Enough's enough," Johnson said. "We just cannot continue Mayor Jackson's philosophy and approach in investing public dollars ... while the neighborhoods are deteriorating."

Here are the highlights of Johnson's mayoral platform:

"Neighborhoods First"

At the heart of Johnson's campaign is his pledge to serve the "neighborhoods first" -- ahead of the corporate community or the owners of multibillion dollar sports franchises that call Cleveland home.

Despite Cleveland's new and improved image on the national stage after hosting the Republican National Convention in July, the city's neighborhoods are in a state of emergency - consumed by blight, plagued by violence and on the brink of losing grocery stores that provide residents with access to fresh foods, Johnson said.

"The RNC, in my opinion, created a facade of success, where people felt good about themselves," Johnson said, noting that the weekend before the convention marked one of the most violent of the year in Cleveland. "Disinvestment is rampant ... and there is no comfort coming out of City Hall."

As mayor, Johnson said, he would pledge millions of dollars toward designing and executing redevelopment strategies for all of Cleveland's neighborhoods, with a special focus on those that, he says, have been neglected for years, such as Glenville and Clark-Fulton. Johnson said his Community Development Department would work in concert with local community development corporations to eradicate blight, review needs for infrastructure and spur economic development and employment opportunities in each.

Schools

A proponent of vocational training, Johnson said he would bring more of it to students in the Cleveland school system.

Johnson said he has been fighting to institute a vocational training program on the East Side, similar to the one operating out of Max Hayes High School on West 65th Street. And he would aim to change the district's philosophy in general to adopt a vocational training curriculum that is as robust as its other academic offerings.

School board members who don't believe in vocational training can kiss their board positions goodbye, Johnson said.

He added, however, that he does not believe Jackson's transformation plan for the school district has been a failure. The model, which grants the mayor unique power to close or reconstitute schools and to partner with the best charter schools in the city, has gone a long way toward holding teachers accountable, Johnson said.

But he added that there is still an achievement gap among schools citywide, with those in predominantly black East Side communities lagging far behind.

Building & Housing

As mayor, Johnson says he would upend the city's "broken" Building and Housing Department, which struggles to keep up with its caseload in a city that is brimming with dilapidated structures.

Johnson acknowledged that the recently passed income tax increase -- a Jackson initiative that will bring an additional $80 million a year into the city coffers -- will dramatically boost manpower in the department.

But he said that with better leadership under a Johnson administration, the department would target slum landlords, while partnering with local CDCs to identify residents who need the city's help keeping their properties up to code.

Johnson said he also would seek to stabilize neighborhoods by eliminating blight, mothballing houses the city wants to save and setting up a system by which "true investors" who want to renovate houses for rental or purchase can do so.

Loyalty to the public, not multi-billion dollar sports teams

Johnson opposed the investment of millions of taxpayer dollars in improvements to the "fan experience" at FirstEnergy Stadium when Jackson announced a deal with the Cleveland Browns in 2013.

And he stands opposed to the recent announcement that the city will give up $80 million in admissions tax over the next decade to pay for renovations to Quicken Loans Arena as part of a private-public partnership with the Cavaliers.

Johnson acknowledges that it might be easier to oppose such projects as a councilman than as the mayor, who is charged with balancing competing interests and analyzing the city's legal responsibilities under lease agreements.

But he says a plan that puts the needs of residents and neighborhoods above all else would call for City Hall to turn away such corporate requests.

"You create a neighborhood development plan and determine what it costs," Johnson said. "And that's the first thing you look at when trying to figure out how to use admission tax, how to use your bond monies. ... We absolutely have to take care of the neighborhoods first. ... You have [council members] fighting over money for rec centers, while we're sending $80 million to this facility. The average citizen of Cleveland will totally believe that is unfair."

Johnson said the stadium deals are proof that Jackson has outlived his reputation as a champion of the poor.

"He still benefits from his image as 'Frank Jackson of Central' who was the fighter for the poor," Johnson said. "I think he still believes that in his head. But his policies, his actions over the past 11 years, will be brought into question during this campaign. I'm going to win or lose based on whether people feel their lives or situations have improved since he took office. Whether City Hall has cared about them and supported them - or forgotten them."

Asked Tuesday for a response to Johnson's criticism, Jackson issued a written statement that said, "Everyone has their opinion."