City Hall, Bryce Sylvester, and AdaptGov LLC Raise Questions

[Lori Allen _]

It has come to my attention that AdaptGov LLC, whose registered agent is Bryce Sylvester, is registered as an "interested consultant" with the Ohio Department of Development.

See https://development.ohio.gov/interested ... tList.aspx

If you scroll down or use the filter options, you will see that Bryce Sylvester and his company, AdaptGov LLC, are on this interested consultant list. What he/his company are interested in consulting is not entirely clear.

According to the Ohio Secretary of State business filing portal, Bryce Sylvester of Lakewood, Ohio is listed as the sole registered agent and incorporator for AdaptGov LLC. See the picture below or go to https://www5.sos.state.oh.us/ords/f?p=1 ... _TYPE:NAME and search "AdaptGov LLC". Apparently Sylvester just filed the LLC on 1/6/2016. Also, the address listed with the Ohio Department of Development is a P.O. Box in Rocky River, interestingly.

Adaptgov llc.jpg (172.5 KiB) Viewed 3786 times

What is even more interesting is if you go to http://www.adaptmygov.com/. This is AdaptGov LLC's website that was filed with the Ohio Department of Development. On this website are at least two pictures that have appeared numerous times on OneLakewood.com, the "City of Lakewood, Ohio Municipal Government" Facebook page, Twitter page, and other social media websites maintained by the City of Lakewood.

These are my questions regarding City Hall, Bryce Sylvester, and AdaptGov LLC:

1. Are the pictures featured on Adaptmygov.com indeed property of the City of Lakewood?
2. If so, what is the city's policy regarding a city employee using city-owned photographs to promote his private side business?
3. If not, whose photos are they, who took them, and who gave City Hall permission to use them?
4. Is AdaptGov LLC really a totally separate, private business entity or is it simply a front to push a City Hall economic development agenda disguised as a separate, privately-run corporation?
5. What exactly is AdaptGov LLC's goal? In my opinion, the website lists lots of fluff, but not really a great deal about what they do or their accomplishments, experience, projects done, etc.
6. If Sylvester is indeed running this business on City Hall's time/money (I don't know if he is or not), would City Hall approve of this?

In regards to the photos: if they are property of the City of Lakewood, yes, they are "public records". However, I am wondering if the City of Lakewood has any policies regarding employees using them to promote their private business ventures or if there are any other ethics policies or statues regulating city employees using these privately.

[Jim O'Bryan]

These are my questions regarding City Hall, Bryce Sylvester, and AdaptGov LLC:

1. Are the pictures featured on Adaptmygov.com indeed property of the City of Lakewood?
2. If so, what is the city's policy regarding a city employee using city-owned photographs to promote his private side business?
3. If not, whose photos are they, who took them, and who gave City Hall permission to use them?
4. Is AdaptGov LLC really a totally separate, private business entity or is it simply a front to push a City Hall economic development agenda disguised as a separate, privately-run corporation?
5. What exactly is AdaptGov LLC's goal? In my opinion, the website lists lots of fluff, but not really a great deal about what they do or their accomplishments, experience, projects done, etc.
6. If Sylvester is indeed running this business on City Hall's time/money (I don't know if he is or not), would City Hall approve of this?

In regards to the photos: if they are property of the City of Lakewood, yes, they are "public records". However, I am wondering if the City of Lakewood has any policies regarding employees using them to promote their private business ventures or if there are any other ethics policies or statues regulating city employees using these privately.

Lori

I believe all "City Hall" and "Government" owned photos belong to everyone, though I could be wrong. The example I always use are NASA photos, we already paid for them as taxpayers, they are ours.

However they would also fall into the "use" part of any contract from outside of City Hall. Meaning if they hired you to take a photo, you could have a say in how, where and when it can be used, and any payment or credits to you, if negotiated before their be given the photo. There are also many cases of artists and photographers winning back use and ownership of their images if they were given nothing in an exchange.

Did this answer any of your questions?.

.

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[Tim Liston]

Eff the photos. Who cares….

I help run two small technology businesses. We don’t permit outside employment (aka “moonlighting”) by any full-time employee without permission, either as a contractor or a W-2 employee. And such permission would almost invariably be denied (1) to senior, salaried employees, (2) to someone wanting to work for another company in the same line of business, and (3) without a discussion of the other company helping to contribute to the costs of full-time benefits.

Is it not wildly inappropriate for a full-time Planning Director to offer his/her services to other municipalities on a contract basis? Or am I missing something?

Help me out….

[Bridget Conant]

Glad someone else said it .....

This administration seems to be blind when it comes to ethics.

[Lori Allen _]

Jim,

Thanks. That makes sense.

It is interesting. At this point, the photos are actually the least of my worries, come to think of it. Some good points were raised in this thread in regards to a current full-time planning director contracting economic development and/or similar services to other municipalities and governments. This would appear to be a case of "serving two masters".

Besides, I am still wondering if this is actually just a front to push Mike Summers' and City Hall's economic development agenda through the planning director's business. We may never know for sure, but it is highly coincidental, at the least. Also, this would not be the first time City Hall has used a current or former city employee's business or "side job" for city business. Does anyone recall when City Hall contracted with the "21 Mike Team" of Century 21 to sell a few City Hall properties? Does anyone recall that, at the time, then-City Planner Jason Russell was employed by the "21 Mike Team"?

If you don't recall the "21 Mike Team" see this thread: http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewt ... am#p169434

Without thread-drifting too much, Jason Russell now works at Zaremba. Is it another coincidence that former Ward 3 Councilman Shawn P. Juris has an uncle through marriage with the last name of Zaremba? Is it a coincidence that there is a Zaremba that lives on Lake Ave. across from Lakewood Park? According to the online checkbook, City Hall has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Zaremba in the past for economic development. Another coincidence?

Don't forget that former Planning & Development Director Dru T. Siley now works at Liberty Development, which is the company behind the development of McKinley Place. Another coincidence?

Getting back to the main point of this thread, our current planning director's side business, AdaptGov LLC, may simply be a way for Summers and City Hall to push a certain economic development agenda.

Then again, maybe it's just another coincidence.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Lori

I am not in here to defend anyone or bitch about anyone.

I personally always found Jason Russell a breath of fresh air in the building department, the handful chances I had to speak with him.
The guy seemed bright, understanding of many dynamics most ignore. I saw him last week walking and asked how he was doing, he smiled
and said he loved working at Zaremba, but misses working at City Hall.

While I am not sure where Bryce is coming from sometimes, he is the most qualified planning director we have had since Tom Jordan.

Disclaimer I used to golf with Zaremba, 30 years ago.

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[Lori Allen _]

Jason was a nice guy. Maybe he, like others, thought it was time to "jump ship" from City Hall.

I still would like to see all the documentation that shows what all the hundreds of thousand of our tax payer money that city hall paid to Zaremba was for. It probably has already been shredded or is being held hostage by Kevin Butler.

Has anyone noticed that city hall has not brought the online check book up to date in a long time! Hmmm.

[Brian Essi]

Eff the photos. Who cares….

I help run two small technology businesses. We don’t permit outside employment (aka “moonlighting”) by any full-time employee without permission, either as a contractor or a W-2 employee. And such permission would almost invariably be denied (1) to senior, salaried employees, (2) to someone wanting to work for another company in the same line of business, and (3) without a discussion of the other company helping to contribute to the costs of full-time benefits.

Is it not wildly inappropriate for a full-time Planning Director to offer his/her services to other municipalities on a contract basis? Or am I missing something?

Help me out….

Mr. Liston,

I agree.

While the website http://www.adaptmygov.com/ is simplistic, the concept is very bizarre and arrogantly ill conceived.

Here are just a few quotes from Mr. Sylvester's website:

"We will make government processes the most competitive in the marketplace."

"We’ll be hyper focused on bringing the project to completion, and throughout the process we’ll be “showing the way” to your staff. After all, we believe the best way to learn a new skill or methodology is to apply it to real projects and scenarios.

We are public administrators involved in the day-to-day operations of managing a local government in Northeast Ohio. We’re familiar with the demands of small local governments, budget pressures from the state, aging infrastructure, and antiquated technology and software.

Who is the "we" besides Mr. Sylvester that are the "public administrators" involved in this for profit business?

The website states:

"Areas of Focus
Building & Housing. Complaints, Permits, Applications, Licenses, Plan Reviews
Public Works. Dye tests, Sewer Calls, Preventative Maintenance Programming, Work Order Processing, Reservation processing
Planning & Development. Community Development Loan Applications, Boards & Commissions Applications"

Are these Lakewood City departments so wonderfully efficient and successful that they are to be models and "marketed" for the rest of Ohio's government? The evidence suggests otherwise.

So here we have a well paid public official spending his time and energy "hyper focusing" on projects for other public offices "in the marketplace" through a "for profit" consulting business helping them update their software and processes?

Arrogant?

Ethics?

We have an arrogant mayor who thought he understood the healthcare "marketplace" and it cost us over $100M in public assets.

[Jared Denman]

Making government more efficient is a noble goal but one that I think is ultimately impossible outside the watchful eyes of an informed public who is ultimately footing the bill. Almost without exception the terms "economic development" or "city planning" are stand-ins for "How can I get taxpayers to pay for my pet project/business expansion?" Like Lori, I have been keeping an eye on the Ohio Checkbook (assuming that the information entered is trustworthy) and there are large outputs of money in the budget for economic development which has grown a petri dish of interdependent sectors like construction, developers, and NGOs like "Lakewood Alive!"

[Lori Allen _]

Jared,
The City of Lakewood on-line check book has not been updated and the last posting was in January 2016. Why? What are they hiding?

Maybe they are having trouble keeping up with what has been posted in the check book and what they have already shredded!

[Mark Kindt]

I have written at length on the Deck about the need for a written government ethics policy for the City of Lakewood. This is a perfect example of why such a policy is needed. --Mark

[Lori Allen _]

They have a policy. Apparently the Mayor chose to not follow it. At least for certain employees.