4.18.08
7
You have got to listen to the audio of this exchange first.
Look at it this way. County government is so screwed up, existing in the gutter of jerks like DiMORAN, it has no where to go but up. And if you had anything to do with getting him into office, you’re as bad as he is. Now I completely understand the arrogance of taxation without representation to fund the MedMart/Conven.
Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora had two Plain Dealer reporters ejected from a public meeting on Thursday after he refused to answer questions about a county employee.
Reporters Mark Puente and Henry J. Gomez went to the meeting to ask Dimora about Rosemary Vinci, who is on Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo’s payroll. Questions have been raised about Vinci’s qualifications and why she was hired.
The highest taxed County in the state of Ohio and this is what it gets us. Not to mention DiMORAN is making business and financial decisions on behalf of taxpayers regarding the MedMart/Conven, etc. The fact that he has any role in the MedMart/Conven is a joke. Continued validation this region has a serious leadership deficit. I hope the FBI reopens its investigation.
Commissioner ejects reporters from meeting, lambastes newspaper
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[…] work Henry! I second George’s nomination. Posted in Dump Dimora & Heave […]
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+2 | April 18, 2008 @ 10:47 am
What a piece of work.
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+1 | April 18, 2008 @ 11:12 am
We have a big opportunity to develop new civic habits of “thinking together”.
The MP3 represents an shocking example of the breakdown of civility.
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+2 | April 18, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
I wonder why truth is so hard for people to give.
And take.
And be.
If we just worked from a platform of truthfulness with self and others…..
Oh sorry, there I go again……
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+0 | April 18, 2008 @ 12:57 pm
Who exactly has Dimora helped by wasting millions in taxpayer money? I love how he blames the PD for bad coverage…what does he think his incompetence will get him, good coverage?
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+0 | April 18, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
And the issue for me is not that RV worked at a strip club; it’s Dimora all the way. I had so much trouble believing this was my elected official talking on that audio…..mind boggling. The entire article certainly explained a lot to me…
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+0 | April 18, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
In Indiana, former Governor Kernan headed a Commission on Local Government Reform with Chief Justice Shepherd.
In a speech yesterday in Indianapolis at our Purdue conference, Governor Kernan made the case for a single elected county executive. An approximate quote: “You wouldn’t run General Motors with three co-executives. You wouldn’t run your local Dairy Queen that way either.”
From the report:
You can download the report here.
You can learn more here.
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+0 | April 18, 2008 @ 8:44 pm
That makes a lot of sense to me Ed. Btw, aren’t we supposed to be having charter reform meetings open to the public? Are they announced everywhere so we can attend? Is there a mtg held by every CDC? Or block group? This would be the kind of reform I would support!
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+0 | April 18, 2008 @ 11:31 pm
Carole:
I have no idea.
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+0 | April 18, 2008 @ 11:58 pm
I’m not sure I equate running a business with running a government. Nor do I necessarily see an issue with running an organization with two or three or four or five executives. Why is an organization best run with only one person? Seems like the ultimate endorsement for hierarchy. Aren’t we as a society, and global culture moving away from hierarchies and towards flatter organizational structures, like heter* and even hol*archies?
I believe the far greater problem in Cuyahoga County to be the corruption of the dimorcratic party. Too many old boy (w/ a few girls) networks that are clinging to the way it was thirty or fifty years ago. these are the types that consistently vote the party and family line.
I say Susan Goldberg’s got some bravado! Thank God, or actually thank all the Clevelanders scraping by, for our collective, ‘cleveland, you gotta be tough’ mantra, has ushered the return of plainly dealed news. Just in the nick of time…
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+1 | April 19, 2008 @ 12:03 am
John:
If you have time, I suggest that you scan the Indiana report. The principles behind the recommended reforms are quite clear.
Regarding corruption, I agree with you (although this disease is not partisan).
Years ago, former U.S. Rep Wayne Hayes suffered through a painful expose of his hiring practices. Public officials should expect scrutiny of their personnel practices. It comes with the territory.
To me, it is ironic that Commissioner Dimora and (apparently) Hagan have fallen into the Richard Nixon trap of treating the press as the enemy.
A free press is a core element of our democratic experiment. Let’s go back to some basic principles. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
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+0 | April 19, 2008 @ 8:23 am
There’s another issue to consider here.
Commissioner Dimora makes a strong case that his authority comes from the fact that he represents the people of Cuyahoga County.
Cuyahoga County has about a million registered voters. In Dimora’s election in 2006, the turnout for the Commissioner race was about 43%. He won by 75% which translates into 32% of the registered voters.
Citizen apathy, in other words, plays a role.
One of my favorite Supreme Court Justices, William O Douglas once wrote,
“As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.”
The Dimora outburst might represent an important wake-up call to the voters.
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+0 | April 19, 2008 @ 9:30 am
Counterintuitive spin on Vincigate:
Not to in any way excuse such boorish behavior, but let’s be a little skeptical of the PD’s true motives. Why would the paper be exercised over what amounts to be a not untypical example of patronage hiring, at less than $50,000 per year?
By comparison, put this in the context of the $1 billion plundering of the local economy for the cc/med mart, which the commissioners served up as ordered by the PD on behalf of local special interests (need I name them?).
No, I think this is much ado about very little. Might all the fireworks over small potatoes patronage and the semi-bungled Ameritrust project be little more than a shot against the bow of the commishes, a stern warning about locating the cc/med mart anywhere but at Tower City?
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+0 | April 19, 2008 @ 11:09 am
All good points, Ed. This isn’t something that happened overnight. Dimora has been a commis for 10 years, winning each of his three elections by more than 70%. He has also chaired the County’s Democratic party since 1994 and has never been opposed. The public needs to accept much of the responsibility for letting this go on as long as it has.
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+2 | April 19, 2008 @ 12:19 pm
Hagan, too, though he is more well spoken, is a slippery dealmaker. His outrage at Ed Hauser’s question about a public process for the Medmart smacked of a return to the feudal system. His voice rose angrily in answer to Ed’s simple question - “will there be a public process?” I could see his rage being repressed (I was about 10 feet from him) as he replied with is oft heard “representative democracy” bit. Something like “This is a representative democracy. You elected us. Now trust us to do what is best for the citizens and the region!” He could have just said, “No. Next question.”
Dimora is a guy who apparently has been elected to office before based on the promise of “doughnuts at every meeting” (this from someone who worked for him and witnessed that directly).
When education is imperative in the region for any recovery, is this perhaps why Jimmy sounds defensive about not having matriculated? I listened and couldn’t figure out what a college degree had to do with the personnel matter in question. Maybe after 30 years, Jimmy is just at the point of burn out. Time to retire and return to private life?
A million three hundred thousand people elected a self-described knucklehead? Why? No one wants to run for office? Why not? Could it be because of the scrutiny public officials must face? It seems to me that the PD has been throwing softballs to the BOCC. Read Roldo.
If the county was to have one leader - one person responsible and accountable, who might you recommend, Ed?
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+1 | April 19, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
This is some great content. Simply put, it’s instructive. I hope it stays on the internet for a good long time. Great work, Henry & Mark. You make us all proud.
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+0 | April 19, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
This just makes me laugh.
Everyone is screaming for change but these idiots still get voted in, election after election. Isn’t fat Jimmy the head of the County Party?
There is all the talk about turning Cleveland around, and how we need new leadership but let’s keep voting in Dennis & Mz. Tubbs-Jones. Even though the city has less then 1/2 of the citizens it used to have we still have the same number of councel people.
I think it’s hiarious the Pd is getting all reved up over this hire. What a joke, why don’t they investigate why Head start needed plazma HD flatscreens for their offices and see if they can find them anywhere? Better yet, sit in a vendor meeting with a city employee in charge of millions of dollars that uses the word placenta instead of plethora. He really showed how skilled he was for the job.
The dems have been in charge of this county for 50 years. Look what they’ve done with it. The best investigative report we can get is DiMora hired some bimbo for 50K? That the real crime in this whole story.
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+3 | April 19, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
I noticed this is the second video/mp3 from the Plain Dealer that’s made waves. Are they taking on broadcast media?
The other was that Cleveland Clinic’s “Chief Wellness Officer” “stupid governor” comment over the tobacco settlement money being diverted toward jobs.
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+0 | April 21, 2008 @ 7:25 am
Even if Dimora is dirty and the question should have been asked, that wasn’t the venue for it unless she came up as a topic in the meeting. I am all for the First Amendment but there is such thing as decorum. I like seeing David-esque journalists pop Goliath between the eyes as much as anyone but I don’t know if this is such a case (no disrespect intended to Henry).
Tim, it’s not a party thing…the Dems are doing it in Cuyahoga County but the Republicans are doing it at the FEDERAL level…cronyism is cronyism and we need to get out of that mindset. I would say something about honesty in dealing with each other but Georgia already did (and I thank her for doing so).
We really should be asking other questions like why was Zack Reed shut up when he suggested being proactive in dealing with the potential neighborhood impact of National City’s recent woes.
Jimmy Dimora helped one of his friends get a cushy public job..it’s not like it hasn’t happened before but with different players. I just think that it’s getting more press because of her previous job and her photogenic looks.
We need to worry about the out and out theft that could become the “Medical Mart”, not the former occupation of some politically well-connected county staffer.
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+1 | April 21, 2008 @ 12:20 pm
The thing is, Derek, with guys like Dimora there is never a good time to bring up the topic of corruption. Do you think the Plain Dealer reporters didn’t try asking those questions privately at first?
I keep wishing things were different. I keep wishing we had a prosecutor for the county, or a federal bureau that does investigation. You’ll get more done with a kind word and a subpoena than with a kind word alone.
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+5 | April 22, 2008 @ 12:11 pm
I can’t argue there, Mark. We do have to keep on our public officials (dirty or not) because they are accountable to us. We just have to do it in a way that makes us not look as bad as they are…but sometimes, if I may get a little gully… you have to get up in people’s grills so I can respect why Henry went at Dimora.
(gully - adj. - to be rough, to be ill-tempered or mean, to be foul or emanate a foul demeanor)
(grill - n. - 1. a face usu. a human face 2. an ornamental mouthpiece usu. fashioned of precious or semi-precious metal)
(go at - vt. - to antagonize, to attack)
Who knew I was bilingual ?
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+2 | April 22, 2008 @ 3:53 pm