Cozy is probably a nicer word than nepotism.

Because city information-technology employees could not locate the e-mails, the city has hired Visual Evidence/E-Discovery, a downtown Cleveland firm.

The company president, Daniel Copfer Sr., is the brother of Ron Copfer, a political insider who owns Fathom IT Consulting. Fathom is finishing a $321,000 upgrade to the City Council’s systems, including the system that the e-mails cannot be recovered from.

The search on all the computers will cost about $25,000, said Katherine Samsa, a spokeswoman for Council President Martin J. Sweeney.

Cleveland Councilman Joe Santiago turns over computer over bar permit - cleveland.com

An informal collaboration between citizens, non-profits, the city of Cleveland, and Cleveland city council has resulted in Sharrows landing in Cleveland, just in time for the first annual Cleveland Bicycle Week!

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

From Bill Callahan (sorry for reposting the entire thing):

Senator Voinovich’s determination to protect mortgage bankers from meddling bankruptcy judges got me to wondering what’s going on in his own neighborhood.

Voinovich’s Cleveland home is on Rosecliff Road, a little lakefront street way up in the far northeast corner of Collinwood, near the intersection of Lakeshore and East 185th. Here’s a Google map of the home foreclosures filed in 2007 in Cleveland and Euclid within a few blocks of the Senator’s house… Maybe it’s time for the Senator to hold a neighborhood meeting.

Voinovich’s house is around the corner from mine. I’ll be trying to get in touch with him…

Callahan’s Cleveland Diary » Blog Archive » Mr. Voinovich’s neighborhood

Lakewood’s City Council ratified their 2008 Budget on Monday, which is the city’s first balanced General Budget since 1992. However, because of the $4 Million deficit, the administration is being forced to make cuts.

From The Lakewood Observer:

Lakewood is not insulated from larger, global economic trends. Over the past several months, the FitzGerald administration and city council have worked diligently toward resolving Lakewood’s budget crisis. Over a dozen public budget hearings have been held in which the allocation of funds for fiscal year 2008 have been trimmed from initial departmental requests. The depth of Lakewood’s budget crisis became apparent during the dawn of the recently elected FitzGerald administration, which, upon taking office, immediately began an internal reassessment of the city’s budgetary situation. The resulting estimate predicted a shortfall exceeding $4 million, over three times higher than that projected by the previous administration. According to FitzGerald, “It’s far worse than the unions were told.”

Are other cities experiencing the same money crunch?

Pepper Pike Municipal Code 1486.02 restricts residents to posting only one political yard sign (pertinent part bold and italicizedn the material after the page jump). Tonight, at the monthly meeting of the Pepper Pike Democratic Club, Pepper Pike City Councilman Rick Taft will argue on behalf of the city in favor of the restriction and Professor Lew Katz will argue against the restriction. This debate will begin at 7:00 pm in the Orange Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library on Chagrin Boulevard in Pepper Pike.

The codes, legal arguments and my plans for a 57 reasons that the ordinance is unconstitutional series are after the jump. If you aren’t so exhausted that you can’t drive, and especially if you have any experience with this issue in your area, please consider joining us. (more…)