Honesty In Local Government VI

[Mark Kindt]

Both Council-Members Fail The Ohio Ethics Commission Standard for "Official Capacity"

Council-Member Litten was never acting in an "Official Capacity" as a trustee of the Lakewood Hospital Association, because he was never appointed by the City of Lakewood to the Lakewood Hospital Association as its representative. (OEC Criteria No. 2, see above.)

Council-Member Bullock was never acting in an "Official Capacity" as a trustee of the Lakewood Hospital Association, because he was never formally instructed to represent the interests of the City by the City. (OEC Criteria No. 3, see above).

Both former council-member Madigan and Mayor Summers suffer from the same ethical problem as council-member Bullock; they were never formally instructed to represent the interests of the City by the City. (Mayor Summers gave deposition testimony on this point; that he did not have formal instructions with regard to serving as a trustee for LHA. None of them did.)

Additionally, Mayor Summers failed OEC criteria No. 4, because he had other conflicts of interest while serving as a trustee for LHA. (OEC opinion letters from 2015 address this conflict).

Finally, since the adoption of the Third Amended Charter, no public official can meet OEC criteria No. 1, since the activities of the non-profit (LHA) in question are no longer within the scope of the new charter.

From this review, we can see that almost half of our elected municipal officials had potential conflicts-of-interest related to the Lakewood Hospital Association.

Council-members Bullock and Litten likely have continuing conflicts-of-interest as they vote on resolutions or ordinances and otherwise deliberate on matters related to the City of Lakewood contract with Lakewood Hospital Association.

Why?

1. Because they were not serving in any official capacity on the Lakewood Hospital Association Board of Trustees, when that Board of Trustees ratified the Lakewood Hospital Association contract with the City of Lakewood.

2. Because, now serving in the capacity of city council members, they continue to vote on matters that relate to the distribution of funds, benefits, or other contract rights affecting the sole member of Lakewood Hospital Association under the contract that they ratified as trustees.

A public official does not have to derive personal benefit (nor am I suggesting that any official has) for a conflict of interest to exist.