City Hall Stop The Madness - This Is Nuts

[Jim O'Bryan]

Once, just once tell the truth, what the hell is wrong with you?

Mayor Summers, you used to have a moral compass, WTF?

Kaufman Hoops Closed - "closed for repainting."
Hospital Closed - $1 million spent on crisis management telling us it is not closing.
The Observer Volume 12, 20 was removed, not moved. Volume 12, 21 we were told to not leave it. It is banned.

A day later, when City hall saw the Masthead, council and mayor's office got a ton of calls, ACLU got interested and that evening, Melissa Garret called and said, "I removed the last issue." not moved. When they saw the banner they said, "You are not banned, we just told you not to deliver them... Maybe the bench near the garbage can." A day after the paper was printed and delivered. Get it? ANOTHER COVER - UP!!!

What is disappointing is Meliisa and I were going to work something out, what they worked out was a smear campaign, more lies, more cover-ups.

Summers administration, stupid move - cover up, secret move followed by cover up, give a friend an award, kiss a baby, screw up - cover up...

John Litten, Jenn Pae others spreading more lies. If you can't trust them on something this trivial, you can't trust them with anything!

I will update this post tomorrow, with a little more insight into these players.

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[Jim O'Bryan]

Update:

To add to the timeline...

Thursday and Friday reports came in from people trying to pick up papers at Lakewood City Hall. People on both days were told, "You can no longer get the paper here, they are not allowed." Saturday, same story. 

Later I was told by Melissa Garret she had removed Volume 12 Issue 20 from the Desk, where they had been for 12 years. No call or email was ever sent to us, the papers were disposed of.

Monday, the Lakewood Observer Volume 12, Issue 21 was prepared with two covers. One with "Banned" on the front page, one without. The printer was told to run the cover without the word 'banned' at press time if they had not heard from me. I was hoping everyone was wrong. 

Tuesday morning I went into City Hall to "restock" as the next paper was not printed yet. I was told I could no longer leave them there. The only option offered was that they could be taken to the Water Department where they still might be allowed. We already deliver to the Water Department.

Sadly, the printer was called, and told to run the BANNED COVER.

Papers were on the street shortly after 2pm. According to Council people and City Hall people, their phones lit up when the papers hit the street. The tweet caught the attention of the ACLU and other First Amendment people. The banning was blowing up in their embarrased faces. 

The entire City knows that the Lakewood Observer is fair and unbiased. We print all sides of the story. What City Hall forgot was that over 7,000 people have taken part in the project, and know what it is about. 

At 4:40pm Melissa Garrett called saying she had removed all of the last issue, and this one was not "banned" but it was not going to be “allowed” on the Desk where it had been for 12 years, next to other papers for profit that remained. The call ended with us promising to talk in the next 48 hours about a solution.

I called twice the next day with an easy solution that would make everyone happy. The calls were not returned. I am still waiting for the call.

4 days later, after an email to all of city council and others from City Hall, and tons of bad calls, John Litten, Jenn Pae and others released false statements about the entire incident. They showed 4 papers on the bench outside City Hall. We normally deliver 200-300, not 4. No one from the Lakewood Observer put those papers there, as we were told not to, and I was waiting for Melissa's call.

So you be the judge. 307 issues, and then we produce a series of articles on bad government and a full page ad asking Mayor Summers to be honest, the papers are thrown away, and we are told No More. We are banned.

With Volume 12, Issue 20, they could have told the truth, made the call, let the Observer know. We can handle it. 

When we lost Cleveland Clinic as an advertiser after 10 years we thanked them for working with us. Lakewood City Hall worked with us for 12 years, we run an article about Mayor Summers lying, and the deal is killed, papers thrown out and  "Banned."

But uh oh, by law If City Hall removes papers over content it is a violation of the LO's First Amendment rights.

City Hall employees and elected officials once again started the smear campaign and the cover up. 

They had to spin it, lie about it, cover it up, and kill the messenger. They know no other way. Do what they want, get caught, and cover it up. 

Proof? Read Jenn Pae's comments. That whole "banned" thing was just an "Off handed remark/joke from a city worker." They know it was said, they know it was said by 2 or more city workers. 

Proof, we don't deliver any papers and they grab 4 papers from the Water Department where we were not banned, and created the lie, the story, and the cover up, saying City Hall did not ban the Observer.

Here is the Mayor's biggest problem, not everyone at City Hall feels comfortable about lying.

Especially OVER NOTHING.

They lied about the biggest deal in Lakewood, the hospital. Now they lie about things that do not even matter.

They cannot stop. They cannot be trusted.

The other sick side of City Hall: They admit to throwing the papers out, they admit the papers were no longer allowed as per prior agreement. Admit my story is not false, but maybe wording could be better for them. And then, they ask the names of the people that told me the truth. Why?

Want to know why people are not talking anymore? Because the residents and businesses know that if the City is willing to try to destroy the community paper, they will go after anyone.

Residents also know that it is time to stop the madness, get the truth on the hospital, and get rid of the secret and vindictive way city hall does business.

What Lakewood needs now more than ever is a government we can trust, that is open and accountable.

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[Jim O'Bryan]

Update

We are starting to get reports and verifying with delivery people, city run senior centers have disposed of the papers too.

City Hall is despicable.

I was told to post this...

For the general public, who would like to complain to the ACLU on the Banning at City Hall, please have them use:

contact@acluohio.org

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