A Local Lawyer Looks At City Hall

[Mark Kindt]

An intermittent summary of some local issues of interest. Please feel free to circulate this freely.

[cameron karslake]

It truly is a sad state of affairs in this town when nearly everything the Summers administration does, short of providing city services, leads to a lawsuit.

Maybe if Summers began to work for the citizenry rather than a small group of special interests such actions wouldn't be necessary.

The "revelation"about the hospital site give away is truly incredible...as if this whole mess hasn't cost the taxpayers enough! (What does Summers care? It isn't his money.)

Get some money for the damn site! What the hell is Summers thinking? Disgusting!

[Mark Kindt]

While the tone of Local Lawyer is intended to be light, the issues are serious.

The critique of the city administration by public interest lawyers in the courts and in the press is well-grounded.

Collectively, these lawyers have decades in public service:

Steve Dever -- former public servant.

Matt Markling -- current public servant.

Mike Skindell -- current public servant.

Marc Dann -- former public servant (in two States)

Mark Kindt -- former public servant (in two States)

And, those are the public interest lawyers that I know about.

The city administration cannot skip lightly over public bidding requirements, open meeting laws, public records access laws to sell public assets below market value and then distribute the proceeds to the benefit private entities without its own residents making intelligent judgments about the propriety and legality of what has been done.

[Dan Alaimo]

Applause.
We need the details, but we also need these summaries.

[Lori Allen _]

We also have to thank a few Lakewood citizens that have spent endless hours researching the alleged criminal acts, including a couple of law students.

I believe if we ever find out how much of the Lakewood citizen's money has been spent on Mr. Summers campaign, including city hall employees doing this on the tax payers dollars,and all the alleged crooked "deals" done with the Summer's Gang, including Lakewood Hospital, we will be shocked and angered.

The 3rd charter will do nothing for the tax payers in Lakewood. You will be signing off on what little control over the city government you have left.
I don't understand why they wrote in an ethics section. They have not bothered to follow the one that was already on the books! Do you really think that Mr. Summers will ever follow any ethics rule or ever be able to run a functional city hall?

Run. Run as fast as you can! Do NOT vote for the 3rd Charter. Anything that our current Mayor and Council think is good for the city will do nothing for us. I believe it gives them more control, which means they want us to vote for something that will line THEIR pockets and do nothing for the citizens of Lakewood.

I believe Mr. Summers is using his speed dial lines about now!

[Mark Kindt]

We also have to thank a few Lakewood citizens that have spent endless hours researching the alleged criminal acts, including a couple of law students.

I celebrate the fact that so many Lakewood citizens have stepped-up to study, critique, protest and investigate the actions of the city administration over the past several years.

This has been a broad volunteer effort.

(Some of whom suffered relatively severe consequences for their citizen-advocacy in terms of harassment and imposed legal expenses.)

I also know that there are many other former and current public officials who have provided leadership and support that I have not named.

This is why we celebrate the principles of democracy.

My voice is only one of many. Many others have taken the laboring-oars and I am very proud of all of these citizen efforts.

[Lori Allen _]

Thanks Mark.

Thank god I did not end up in court with these morons.

I have had personal escorts following me around on and off for the past three years. One city of Lakewood employee has been following my child around their school.

A word of advice to all: Buy a dash cam and, if necessary, file police reports.

[Lori Allen _]

Then there is also the incident last fall when there was a street cleaner on my street at 1:30 a.m. The vehicle drove by my house a total of four times, not cleaning anything. The brushes were not down and no cleaning was being done, besides what was mentioned above.

The work orders for that night were requested, and no work orders for this time of night were produced.

It was rude enough that this was waking everyone up.

[Mark Kindt]

My goals are simple:

To:

1. Encourage all elected and appointed officials and those serving on public boards to conduct all business in an honest, open, and transparent manner;

2. Encourage all elected and appointed officials and those serving on public boards to comply with the norms of ethics-in-government;

3. Encourage all elected and appointed officials and those serving on public boards to comply with all laws and regulations governing the conduct of government activity, and;

4. Encourage all elected and appointed officials and those serving on public boards who have professional ethical obligations to comply with such obligations.

That really sums it up.

If this is too hard from them, then all they need to do is try to follow their own basic written published guidelines in the Human Resources Manual (quoted below).

[Bridget Conant]

Apparently, it IS too hard for them.

Even taking an ethics class is just too hard - they have another person take it and make it count for 11 other people who could not be bothered to do it themselves.

Read about it here:

http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/forum/v ... ss#p173830

I'd say we have a problem.

[Lori Allen _]

In my opinion, if the Summert's Gang really cared about ethics, they would have been following them.

As we look back on what appears to be lies, fraud, money laundering, kick backs, etc., I believe that any Lakewood citizen that thinks these clowns are honest, has obviously not been paying attention.

My suggestion, send complaints to any agency you can think of. Most times now, you can file a complaint as easy as going online or a simple phone call.

[Mark Kindt]

Then I wish them all the best of luck as they proceed with their careers. They will likely need it.

I vote. I pay my taxes. I study public documents. I comment on the stranger kinds of documents that become available. I have completed making my complaints to other levels of government.

Wishing the city administration the best of luck for:

1. The New Foundation,

2. The Hospital Site Redevelopment,

3. Their defense of public interest litigation, and,

4. All of their funky attempts at messaging.

You can take a horse to water; you can't make it drink.

[Lori Allen _]

Wow! I guess my latest post, ( see above ), really upset Mr. Summers.

Mr. Summers, I believe I have said before, you can have my child and me followed around town, but, you cannot silence me.

As I have said before, actions have consequences. I believe it is time for to do the right thing and resign.

[Kate McCarthy]

Is there a way to make the original post stand-alone? I would like to share but without comments. I think it stands by itself and the comments detract from the newslettery nature of the original post.

[Lori Allen _]

I agree. This should be put into the print version of the LO.