City of Lakewood: 14601 Detroit does not exist

[Bill Call]

The following is a portion of the responses I received on my request for information about 14601 Detroit, site of the Lakewood Family Health Center


"The record you asked for does not exist. Please contact us so that we can assist you in making a focused and effective request that reasonably describes an identifiable record.
September 19, 2023, 3:23pm by Jennifer Swallow, Assistant Law Director"

When I noticed that this parcel, 314-04-061, was transferred to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation from the City of Lakewood there was no purchase price reported. I sent in a public record request simply asking who authorized the sale, what the City received in exchange for 1.8 acres of land and if the City followed the Ohio Revised Code when selling the property.

The answer I received was that the property does not exist, they have no idea what went on and of course they always follow the law.

You can see the request 23-484 here:

https://cityoflakewoodoh.nextrequest.com/requests

Well, except that you can't. Normally when a public records request is closed that request is available to the public on the City web site. For some reason the request has been closed but the request is hidden from public view. Someone is going to a lot of trouble to hide this information. I wonder why?

[Richard Baker]

This should clear up the ownership the land. The city transferred it to the Cleveland Clinic.

• 314-04-061
• THE CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION
• 14601 DETROIT AVE
• LAKEWOOD, OH. 44107

Transfer Date: 2/23/2016 10:01:00 PM
AF Number: 201602230178
Receipt:
Parcel Deed Type Vol / Page Sales Amt Convey Fee Convey No Multiple Sale / No of Parcels
314-04-061 Quit Claim Deed Ex / $.00 $.00 0 / 1
Grantee(s) Grantor(s)
THE CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION Lakewood City Of

Transfer Date: 4/14/2016 9:22:00 AM
AF Number:
Receipt:
Parcel Deed Type Vol / Page Sales Amt Convey Fee Convey No Multiple Sale / No of Parcels
314-04-061 Plat / $.00 $.00 0 / 1
Grantee(s) Grantor(s)
Lakewood City Of
C/O Lakewood Hospital
Lakewood City Of

[Bill Call]

This should clear up the ownership the land. The city transferred it to the Cleveland Clinic.

• 314-04-061
• THE CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION
• 14601 DETROIT AVE
• LAKEWOOD, OH. 44107

Thanks Mr. Baker.

The City insists there is no record of that transsction.

Here is the Ohio Revised Code covering sale of City realestate;

https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-721.03

[Mark Kindt]

Bill,

There has to be a public record in the possession of the City of Lakewood for the transaction.

--Likely multiple records --page-after-page.

The transactions related to the disposition of the hospital and its assets and the rearrangement of the various real estate parcels, etc, probably exceeds 10 boxes of legal documents.

Just because a search of a digital database reports a null on the query does not mean that a physical paper copy doesn't exist. I'm sure it is there somewhere.

PDF copies may be located on other City servers.

My general impression is that the City of Lakewood has very weak compliance with Ohio public access laws and should improve its commitment to ethics-in-government.

--Mark

[Mark Kindt]

Copies are also at the City’s law firm — Thompson Hine. The actual transactional document would not be protected by privilege.

[Bill Call]

Copies are also at the City’s law firm — Thompson Hine. The actual transactional document would not be protected by privilege.

Thanks for the information. If I had a suspicious nature I would suspect someone had something to hide.

[cmager]

Mr. Call, perhaps this photo better captures the law department's response, /probably:
"THAT MF PROPERTY DOES NOT EXIST"