Honesty In Local Government VI

The jumping off discussion area for the rest of the Deck. All things Lakewood.
Please check out our other sections. As we refile many discussions from the past into
their proper sections please check them out and offer suggestions.

Moderators: Jim DeVito, Dan Alaimo

Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:07 pm

Here Is The Complete Document From The Ohio Ethics Commission In PDF
Attachments
InfoSheet11-PubPrivPartnership.pdf
(309.19 KiB) Downloaded 165 times


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:39 pm

Tomorrow, we will review whether the relevant city council-members were acting in an "official capacity" as trustees of the Lakewood Hospital Association.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Fri Sep 21, 2018 11:43 am

Municipal Reform, Honesty, and Accountability

I continue to write about these topics, because they remind us why Lakewood needs municipal reform and candidates to run who support municipal reform and who will perform their elected duties with honesty and accountability.

As we study what has happened and what is happening, we can see that several hundred million dollars were at stake among the City of Lakewood, the Lakewood Hospital Association, and the Lakewood Hospital Foundation. The implementation of the Master Agreement is a continuing and ongoing process as we can see from the city council minutes. Tens of millions of dollars have been distributed or will be distributed to private entities. City council is still voting on the distribution of funds and assets from the hospital.

There was a lot at stake here and much is still in play.

With documents, including opinion letters from the Ohio Ethics Commission, we can map a variety of conflicts-of-interest that have occurred during this process and the way in which those conflicts of interest impeded the survival of Lakewood Hospital as an on-going concern.

While the Second Amended Charter would have permitted the City of Lakewood to let the Metro Health System operate its hospital, that charter did not provide either the basis or the authority for the mayor to liquidate it as the city administration did, nor, of course, would public bidding law.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Fri Sep 21, 2018 12:41 pm

While the Second Amended Charter would have permitted the City of Lakewood to let the Metro Health System operate its hospital, that charter did not provide either the basis or the authority for the mayor to liquidate it as the city administration did, nor, of course, would public bidding law.

We can see this from a simple review of the Second Amended Charter.

Here are the powers of the mayor:

Second Amended Charter City of Lakewood - Adopted 11-7-2000 7.jpg
Second Amended Charter City of Lakewood - Adopted 11-7-2000 7.jpg (397.29 KiB) Viewed 3767 times


Stan Austin
Contributor
Posts: 2462
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:02 pm
Contact:

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Stan Austin » Fri Sep 21, 2018 12:44 pm

I drove up Marlowe today from Detroit. Barricades blocking entrance into what was once our hospital.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Fri Sep 21, 2018 12:52 pm

Under The Relevant Charter The City Had The Power To Operate Or Lease The Hospital

You will not find any Charter provision that permits the mayor to terminate either the City's duty to operate or lease the hospital.

Second Amended Charter City of Lakewood - Adopted 11-7-2000 27.jpg
Second Amended Charter City of Lakewood - Adopted 11-7-2000 27.jpg (361.63 KiB) Viewed 3766 times


Second Amended Charter City of Lakewood - Adopted 11-7-2000 28.jpg
Second Amended Charter City of Lakewood - Adopted 11-7-2000 28.jpg (440.57 KiB) Viewed 3766 times


Second Amended Charter City of Lakewood - Adopted 11-7-2000 29.jpg
Second Amended Charter City of Lakewood - Adopted 11-7-2000 29.jpg (354.83 KiB) Viewed 3766 times


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Fri Sep 21, 2018 1:14 pm

City documents produced after years of litigation in the Essi Public Records Access case establish clear documentary evidence that the mayor was reviewing actual plans to close and demolish the hospital as early as the Fall of 2013.

This is four years before the Third Amended Charter was adopted by the voters (2017) that removed operation or lease of the hospital from the City's home rule powers.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Fri Sep 21, 2018 2:05 pm

Stan Austin wrote:I drove up Marlowe today from Detroit. Barricades blocking entrance into what was once our hospital.


The physical demonstration that the City's charters are routinely ignored, have no mechanism for enforcement, and have been gutted.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Fri Sep 21, 2018 3:15 pm

Public Assets and Public Funds Remain at Risk Due to Continuing Conflicts-of-Interest

I reviewed these conflict of interest problems here almost two years ago (December 2016) and the issue simply has not been addressed in any competent manner.

"Civic Accountability -- Honesty in Local Government II" -- viewtopic.php?f=7&t=23661&start=15

Tens of millions of dollars in public assets and public funds from our public hospital have been transferred to private entities in a process tainted with multiple conflicts-of-interest.

Tens of millions of dollars in public assets and public funds from our public hospital will soon be transferred to the city administration's selected developer as a result of that tainted process.

Council-members who served as Lakewood Hospital Association Trustees continue to vote on matters related to the disbursement of funds under the Master Agreement between the City and Lakewood Hospital Association or other matters associated with that Agreement.

Without trying to be too repetitious of what I have previously written on this topic, we need to bring this discussion current, because the problem is still apparent.


User avatar
Jim O'Bryan
Posts: 14103
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:12 pm
Location: Lakewood
Contact:

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Jim O'Bryan » Sat Sep 22, 2018 9:21 am

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS THREAD!

What is most amazing, in the 3+ years Essi, the Observer and others have been fighting to get documents ruled public, into the public hands, EVERYONE at City Hall, ie., EVERYONE WITH FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITIES TO THE RESIDENTS OF LAKEWOOOD, sit on their asses, and become more and more complicit in the cover-up, and the effort by City Hall to keep the facts from the residents.

Image

Image

Honesty, Accountability, Transparency, merely political slogans with ZERO meaning in Lakewood, Ohio.

Image

Image

.


Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident

"The very act of observing disturbs the system."
Werner Heisenberg

"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it."
His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Sat Sep 22, 2018 9:57 am

The City Charter Is Ignored And Unenforceable

Mr. O'Bryan's post is an excellent introduction to the next issue.

We can see from this Deck thread and articles by others that the Lakewood City Charter is generally ignored; the same with other Ohio laws; even the First Amendment.

The Charter has no enforcement provision or method of enforcement. We know from the public interest litigation against the City that such litigation is time-consuming, expensive, and that the Ohio courts will defer to the lawyers for the City. (Lawyers who behave pretty shamelessly; but that has to be a topic for a different series of posts. Judge Carroll and other local lawyers know what I mean.)

Even opinions letters from the Ohio Ethics Commission make little difference.

Intelligent criticism of our local elected officials is met with scorn, bullying, and abuse. Dozens of citizens have been on the receiving end of that.

Municipal reform based in the ballot box is the only way forward.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Sat Sep 22, 2018 10:28 am

Let me make an even more provocative point

If local civic leaders can successfully craft a plan to liquidate the public hospital and convert it into upscale town-homes while disregarding ethical and legal restrictions, how are we as citizens to prevent the conversion of the public library into a boutique upscale hotel?

(Or its misuse for some other misguided form of economic redevelopment?)

Guess what, we can't.

All the same arguments used by Build-Lakewood and local public officials to close Lakewood Hospital apply to the Lakewood Public Library.

The architectural plans to demolish Lakewood Hospital were completed as early as 2012. --Years before the public announcement of the plan to close it.

Those who participate in public policy formation and execution have to be completely committed to ethics-in-government, the rule of law, honesty, integrity and accountability.

If we go on as we have been; no civil institution will be safe from dismantlement and privatization.

If the public policy goal is to dismantle and privatize our civil institutions, even that, as extreme as it may be, still must meet the normative standards of public service that I describe above.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Sat Sep 22, 2018 3:19 pm

Neither myself nor Mr. O'Bryan are providing legal advice to anyone. This discussion is entirely explanatory and cautionary.

Whether the potential conflicts-of-interest that I am reviewing are in violation of Ohio's criminal ethics law restrictions are not for us to decide here.

When in doubt local public officials should seek guidance from the staff of the Ohio Ethics Commission or their own private legal counsel.

Some unethical conduct is within the purview of the state's criminal ethics law restrictions; while some is not. This is clear from the fact-sheet from the Ohio Ethics Commission that I have posted above.

The conduct of former trustees voting on contractual matters before city council that they were involved in during their tenure of trusteeship is, however, exactly the class of ethical problems that are of concern to the Commission.

Council-members Bullock and Litten, both former trustees of Lakewood Hospital Association, voted on certain matters before city council that related to the City's current contract with Lakewood Hospital Association (the Master Agreement). This contract was negotiated and approved by the Lakewood Hospital Association trustees while both Mr. Bullock and Mr. Litten were trustees and provides substantial benefits and rights to the sole member of the Lakewood Hospital Association; some of these benefits are future benefits or rights that take place years from now.

This is an ethical red flag.

In one instance, the matter before council related to the expenditure of payments to be received by the city under the Master Agreement for the remediation, demolition, and preparation of the former hospital site.

In another instance, the matter before council related to the formation of the Master Agreement's "New Foundation" that will result in certain future long-term payments made to that foundation (n/k/a Healthy Lakewood Foundation). A portion of these payments ($8,000,000) will be controlled by the sole member of Lakewood Hospital Association who will also have designated board seats and other rights.

These are classic conflict of interest problems that need to be reviewed and addressed. They most certainly raise significant issues under the new city charter.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:29 am

Disclose, Recuse, and Abstain

All I seek is for our local public officials to perform their official duties consistent with their own published guidelines, ethically, and in compliance with state and federal law.

Disclosure of a conflict-of-interest, recusal from deliberations related to a conflict-of-interest, and abstention from voting on matters relating to a conflict of interest are long-established and appropriate ways in which public officials can managed a conflict-of-interest issue when it arises. Conflicts-of-interest must be managed to protect the integrity of and public confidence in public process.

This has been common knowledge and common practice for decades in Ohio.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Honesty In Local Government VI

Postby Mark Kindt » Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:34 am

No "Official Capacity" Exception Applies In This Situation

Again, let's us take a look at what the Ohio Ethics Commission tells the public about officials participating in non-profits.

InfoSheet11-PubPrivPartnership 4.jpg
InfoSheet11-PubPrivPartnership 4.jpg (528.65 KiB) Viewed 3644 times



Return to “Lakewood General Discussions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Majestic-12 [Bot] and 38 guests