The Observation Deck

The Proposed Redevelopment Project Is Not Tax Efficient For The City of Lakewood

Adding the LHA consultant's numbers for the net present value of the lease payments due to the City under the terms of the Hospital lease (that the City gave up) and the estimated value of the employee income taxes that the city would have received during the remaining term of the lease, we can see that it will take decades for the proposed redevelopment to generate lost revenues or cover the tax subsidies that it is likely to be granted under the proposed term-sheet with the developer.

There Is No "Four Year" Payback On The Support Proposed By The City For The Hospital Redevelopment

Using the City's own and very recent numbers (April 18th), we can see that the proposed plan for the redevelopment of the hospital site does not cover the subsidies provided for site redevelopment for about 20 years. (You can verify this with your own calculator by studying the two attached PDF spreadsheets.)

Is The City Lying To The Court?

Now that we have reviewed all of the City spreadsheets related to the amounts of income and property tax revenue that the proposed redevelopment of the former hospital site will generate to the City of Lakewood, let's see if the City is being truthful with the courts.

You be the judge.

Material Misrepresentations About Tax Revenues To The City In City Affidavit

On April 30, 2018, the City of Lakewood filed this affidavit with the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in the appeal of the Taxpayer lawsuit to stop the TRO.

Once again, we see a sworn affidavit from a City official that makes material financial misrepresentations to the same court (but in a different case). Compare the highlighted amounts in the affidavit against the highlighted amounts in the affidavit exhibit. Sylvester Exhibit No. 1 follows in next post. You will recognize it as a document that has already been completely debunked here. It is also completely in contradiction to the other City spreadsheet that reviews future tax projections (reviewed and posted above previously).

Exhibit B Sylvester Affidavit - Sylvester Exhibit 1

The Complete Affidavit

For completeness sake, here is the full affidavit.

Sounds to me that the city is the party MISLEADING the court.

Why do none of their figures ever add up?

They just say whatever they want and throw out numbers to bamboozle people. I’m not sure even they understand the money. It’s like a shell game - move some here, put some there....no one can keep track so it’s easy to just summarize and tell people it all looks good!

Sooner or later, someone in the judicial system (like the three hearing the appeal) will more closely scrutinize what they are submitting and see the deception.

Much like in the public records case. The judge noticed the discrepancies in the records and ordered them to submit the documents with and without redactions.

Ms. Conant, once again, you hit the nail on the head!

1. The City of Lakewood has now filed two employee affidavits with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (in two different cases) that are easily demonstrated to be false. This will ultimately backfire on them.

2. The City of Lakewood has an obligation under the federal securities laws not to engage in material misrepresentations of it finances; it does so repeatedly.

Regardless of what happens to Lakewood Hospital, the City of Lakewood needs to make a clear and convincing commitment to following ethical government norms and fundamentally complying with the Ohio Sunshine statutes.

That would work for starters.

Citizens and local public interest lawyers will continue to push for meaningful municipal reform at the ballot box and in the courts.