Councilman Rader Proposes Ethics Commission

[Pam Wetula]

While I support an Ethics Commission, I feel that a City Charter with no clear delineation the ethics required by city officials and the consequences of violation will not support Councilman Rader's efforts.

We need an amendment to the existing City Charter as the Ethics section is seriously lacking. I, and others, had hoped that that charter would fail until this area and several others were reworked before passing. The updated language, modern numberals and a reorganization were nice but the charter did little more but mention the word Ethics. There is no meat to that. Many city and corporate charters include a fleshed out listing of ethical requirements and what happens when they are not followed.

An Ethics Commission can talk and plan forever but Lakewood has no legal means to address Ethics violations without a change to our Charter. If I am wrong, please tell me how we can stop what has occurred in Lakewood for the past many years without an amendment to our Charter. Perhaps a law can be enacted? Thank you Tristan Rader for proposing the Commission. It is a step in the right direction.

Thanks.

Pam

[Peter Grossetti]

It is also a textbook case of closing the stable/barn door after the horses have run off.

Let's put it a different way ... A day late and a dollar short!

But I applaud Councilman Rader's gesture.

[Jim O'Bryan]

It is also a textbook case of closing the stable/barn door after the horses have run off.

But I applaud Councilman Rader's gesture.

It is never too late to start doing the right thing.

Lakewood's elected officials have strayed pretty far away from democracy as it was meant to be.

For one Lakewood City Council person to even admit to our massive ethics problem, is, a breath of fresh air and a step in the right direction. Think about it, we just went through a 3-year nightmare in courts, and on the streets to see information everyone of us have a right to see. Along the way campaigns run out of City Hall, thugs hired to do the Mayor's bidding. Residents forced to spend thousands of dollars and hours to get documents the courts rule public. And all of Council sat quietly acting like nothing was ever happening. The Mayor, and Finance Director openly lying about facts and reports, and not so much as a whimper of protest from any other elected official in this city. Nothing but support, and help in covering it all up.

I am not sure how it works, but I welcome the look and the look ahead and back. For as much as we want a more open future, we also own and have a right to understand the past.

At the same time I agree with Bill Call, Nadhal, Mark and others, bring in the state, open it all up, let's then come together and start fresh knowing the truth.

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[Pam Wetula]

I did not see the fact that an ordinance would be the goal of Councilman Rader's efforts. Putting ethics into a Law would be helpful for our future, though it will never correct past horrors resulting from the clear lack of ethics displayed by the Summer's administration.

(Feel free to correct me when I am off base Deck folks. It was obvious that I missed something here. I blame using a cell phone instead of a computer sometimes & old eyes)


I do agree with Bill Call though when he basically stated the people in charge of maintaining ethics would be the same group or part of the same group displaying unethical behaviors, even with a commission and an ordinance. I am going to go back to his post.

Let's hope an ordinance passes that has the clout needed to bring Lakewood's government to the top of Integrity Mountain! It will be a long road from where we have been

Thanks again Councilman Rader's and I look forward to reading be more of what you propose.

[Dan Alaimo]

Let's think about it Iike the opioid crisis. We have to address the crimes but we also have to address the underlying issues. They are equally important.

[Stan Austin]

As far as I can tell the only underlying issue is befuddlement - a total lack of capability to handle the issue

[Stan Austin]

See those fences around the Hospital? That's what happens when you don't have any idea of the game you're playing. Look at all the new edifices on the CCF foundation main campus in University Circle. Then, look at the demo site at Belle and Detroit. Snookered.

[Mark Kindt]

It is also a textbook case of closing the stable/barn door after the horses have run off.

Let's put it a different way ... A day late and a dollar short!

But I applaud Councilman Rader's gesture.

Again, I want to make the observation that Council-member Rader took office as a council-member-at-large in 2018.

Our city officials were reviewing plans to demolish Lakewood Hospital in the summer of 2013 and those plans existed as early as 2012. The Letter of Intent was negotiated in a conflict-of-interest ridden process in the fall of 2014. The Ohio Ethics Commission reported on that in the spring of 2015. Other key documents illustrating other ethical conflicts were not produced by the city until the summer of 2017.

This ethics-in-government initiative took considerable work to develop. It also rests upon the hard-work and commitment of many citizens who lived the issue first hand.

This is leadership. It deserves our unstinting support.

[Dan Alaimo]

This goes back to the question of whether council members are leaders or representatives. I've always seen them as my representatives.

A little less than a month ago, I wrote: "Attention City Council: are $175-200 million in unexplained losses enough to request an investigation?" I was told that something was in the works. That something turned out to be the ethics commission proposal.

While this is overdue, good, important, bold, etc., etc., I would also go so far as to say it might be a dodge. As hard as it will be to enact and enforce an ethics commission, it's still an easier lift than taking on the administration for how it handled the old business.

I'll keep bringing it up. I have a long memory. Just ask the Mayor, and the Kauffman Park Friends.

[Richard Baker]

There are state statutes that prevent cities from doing exactly what the City of Lakewood did with the hospital debacle. In addition, there is "no prevailed information" unless it relates to an Executive Session and they are limited to specific topics as defined by state law. The City of Lakewood only exist at the pleasure of the State of Ohio, the council and mayor are not above it.

If the city was more open and honest to the public, a councilman wouldn’t make such a ludicrous suggestion such as a ethics committee. The subjects that are discussed in an Executive Session this committee will not have access to under current state law.

If you want a honest and open city government , insist that the City of Lakewood discuss and debate issues before them at the City Council Meetings instead of in Committee of the Whole held in small backroom [you have to stand if its crowded] in city hall would be a start. Additionally, if they stopped communicating with each other privately and making decision before the actual debate in the council meeting that would be another step in the right direction.

Watching the Lakewood City Council meeting is watching an off-Broadway play, poor acting, no substance and everyone following the script the decided on in private meeting and conversation or at the Committee of the Whole.

A City of Lakewood ethics committee would be another expense to the taxpayers for a pack of foxes to watch the hen house. I suggest more care being who you elect, we don't need more Democrat sheepees.

"

[Bill Call]

So This Really IS Pointless

So far the consensus is pretty skeptical about all of this:

More than one written complaint was made to the Ohio Attorney General and the Ohio Auditor of State. They had no interest in the matter, even when it was fresh in 2015/2016.

Mr. Call's proposed lawsuit is also stale and would cost about $250,000 to $400,000 to conduct with any degree of success.

I will make the obvious point, that Mr. Rader was not elected until 2017 and by then, to continue the metaphor, the cattle were long-gone from the ranch.

Any action taken now has to, by its very nature, be prospective.

All valid points but...

$250,000 to $400,000 is what the City spent to hide the records.

My criticism of the proposal is not meant as a criticism of Councilman Rader and I don't mean to imply that an ethics commission would be a complete waste of time.

There is more to this issue than meets the eye. There is a very strong effort to keep the public from finding out the details of the Hospital debacle. The Plain Dealer has done a lot of articles about open records law violations but I haven't seen ONE article in the Plain Dealer about Mayors Summers defiance of the courts and his refusal to release public records. My emails to reporters about the issue have not been answered. There seems to be a unanimity of agreement that:

THE PUBLIC RECORDS RELATING TO THE HOSPITAL DEAL BE KEPT SECRET. CONCILMEN, COUNCILWOMEN, COUNTY COUNCIL, AND ALL OF THE MAJOR NEWS OUTLETS (EXCEPT THE OBSERVER) ARE WORKING TO KEEP THE RECORDS SECRET. I GUESS IT'S THE DOG THAT DIDN'T BARK.

WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF?

WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?

Will the new ethics commission have the power to investigate? Will it have the power to compel testimony under oath? Will it have the power to subpoena records? Will it have the power?

[Dan Alaimo]

I feel the need to clarify.

While Jim and many others have been calling for the hidden public records to be made public, I am calling for a formal investigation of the whole matter by law enforcement.

The records will certainly be the key to the investigation, and the investigation will not be launched until government officials - council members - call for it.
Meanwhile I do not believe the administration will ever willingly release those records. We want the same thing.

I am also avoiding the use of the word "hospital" because the mayor's supporters decry anything being done about our bad government situation as whining about something that has been settled. As seen by the demolition crews at Belle and Detroit, that part of it is settled, but the government malfeasance has not been.

The ethics commission is a good and important proposal - it will benefit us greatly in the future - but it is a side issue, and also a more permanent cure, to the very bad government we have seen recently. Council needs to address both.