The Observation Deck

Quick update - I have been consumed with trial prep and trial for the last week, but concluded my case this morning and received a verdict a couple hours ago. I am aware of the question and relayed to Mr. Kindt that I am familiar with the proposed ordinances, but would like to thoroughly review and consider the legislation and applicable state law before responding. I will be attending the Candidates Forum tonight and the Lakewood Democratic Club endorsement meeting tomorrow evening, so I will not have an opportunity to thoughtfully consider the question until Friday. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for taking time post here. I appreciate your interest in this issue and look forward to reading your position. All the very best!

Dan OMalley wrote:I was only made aware of this question today. I have not received any emails from Mark K. in over a year. Mark, would you check to be sure you have my correct email address? It’s daniel.omalley@lakewoodoh.net

In any event, I can tell you I am generally supportive of expanded ethics requirements. My primary concern is about creating duplicate enforcement mechanisms that would in fact be less strong or stringent than the ones that already exist at the state level for all Ohio public officials (e.g., we already have an ethics commission - one with paid staff, adjudicating authority, etc. I have sought their opinions on several issues and don’t find their responsiveness to be lacking.) I’m happy to go into more detail about specific provisions, just ask. I strongly support enhancing our campaign finance regulations.

I appreciate your taking the time to provide your issue statement. Very encouraging to me. Further, I thank you for your public service and your choice to run for re-election. All the very best.

Indeed, when I checked my email out-box I could not find the email that I believed that I had sent Council-member O'Malley earlier in the week. I know that I did double-check his email address, because my first email to Council-member O'leary bounced back. It is likely that I drafted the email, but never hit send.

Jason Shachner wrote:Quick update - I have been consumed with trial prep and trial for the last week, but concluded my case this morning and received a verdict a couple hours ago. I am aware of the question and relayed to Mr. Kindt that I am familiar with the proposed ordinances, but would like to thoroughly review and consider the legislation and applicable state law before responding. I will be attending the Candidates Forum tonight and the Lakewood Democratic Club endorsement meeting tomorrow evening, so I will not have an opportunity to thoughtfully consider the question until Friday. Thank you for your patience.

See a new topic I will start on this topic addressing all council candidates.

Statement From John Litten, Candidate in Ward 3.

While I was traveling out-of-state today on professional business, John Litten provided this statement.

"I really like the idea of looking at how we insure ethical behavior. I think that when the proposed legislation gets debated, we will look into the details of Tristan's proposal and work through it in an open way. I'm sure parts of it will change and some will stay the same, as with many pieces of legislation that come before city council.


As it pertains to what is proposed, I am very much in support of campaign finance constraints. As far as who can give to whom, we'll probably need to consider first amendment rights. Overall, we should consider what might be duplicative of state code pertaining to campaign finance reports and actual ethics commissions. If a mechanism exists to refer ethics violations, we ought to ask ourselves if we need to duplicate it. If we don't think that mechanism is working properly, we should probably have a healthy debate about how to make it better, or why it isn't working at the very least. ALL of the above would be discussions I'd welcome.


My first instinct is usually to also discuss it with the one proposing it as well. It really helps to understand someone's end goal. Often there are several ways to reach a goal. I would also welcome that discussion with Tristan (as I welcome most discussions with Tristan)."


Thank you for your comments on this issue. I thank you for your public service and your decision to run for re-election. All the best.

The $70 Million Dollar Question!

Both Mr. Litten and Mr. O'Malley raise the possibility that Lakewood might duplicate the work of the Ohio Ethics Commission.

We are now in a position where approximately $70,000,000 in formerly public funds are now or will soon be administered by private employees or private brokers at various private non-profit institutions. Wow!

If Lakewood had enacted a modern ethics program, it may have had the confidence to select a different path for these funds, a path that included public supervision of these funds. I believe that city council made the decision not to have public appointees on these non-profits because of the problems with the Lakewood Hospital Association.

Explain to me, if you will, why $70,000,000 in what were public funds should NOT be under public supervision?

Conflicts of Interest

I have previously written on this topic until I was blue in the face, but the Ohio Ethics Commissions opinions related to Lakewood Hospital did identify certain conflicts of interest, however, the way in which the issues were posed to the OEC by the city administration were incomplete and inconsistent with what I will characterize as other "deeper" opinions related to government officials serving on non-governmental boards with "actual" governmental instruction.

In this instance, a robust ethics-in-government regime in Lakewood might well have saved a public community hospital from demolition.

Similarly, public interest litigation against the city between 2015 and 2019 identied wide-spread problems relating to compliance with the law as it related to openness, transparency and accountability (Open Meetings, Access to Public Records, Bidding Proceedures)

Something needs to be done here and soon! The Rader legislation would be a significant improvement over what we all have witnessed in recent years.

Let's not just go back to "cozy" business-as-usual. Especially, with the tens of millions of dollars of developer money flowing into the city now.

Let Lakewood Lead The Way!

Cuyahoga County officials are continually under criminal investigation for malfeasance in office. They are right now as I write this.

Statistically, greater Cleveland is one of the most corrupt urban areas in the United States.

Lakewood has the unique opportunity to be a leader in reform. Let's not sit on our hands!

Every elected official and candidate for office in Lakewood should be lining-up behind the Rader legislation.

Wait and see just won't do!

Mark Kindt wrote:The $70 Million Dollar Question!
Both Mr. Litten and Mr. O'Malley raise the possibility that Lakewood might duplicate the work of the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Fear of duplication is a dodge. Those who MIGHT desire freedom from oversight and ethics appreciate the slow and narrow responses of the Ohio Ethic Commission. It's a feature, a speed bump. Support a local Lakewood ethics policy!

...So This Began When...

The Lakewood public learned that council-members were not taking the required ethics-in-government training and that the City Law Director was doing it for them!

At this point, neither Candidate Shachner, nor Candidate O'Leary have posted positions statements on their support for the Rader legislation or ethics-in-government in general.

Gentlemen, this isn't rocket science. You are both members of the Ohio bar and public employees. Obviously, you have opinions on the value of government ethics. Please let us know about them. --All the very best!

In The Lakewood Mayor's Race

It is clear of the candidates in this race that only Meghan George has articulated a position in support of the Rader legislation and a clearly articulated support for improved ethics-in-government.

Candidate O'Leary has not responded to my email inquiry about his position. Nor has he posted his position in this Deck thread. After 10 days, I have not been able to even determine whether or not he has a position.

Candidate George has demonstrated to me that she understands the issues related to open government, transparency, and the importance of ethics-in-government.

Candidate George has taken a leadership position here! Her opponent has not.

In The Lakewood Ward 2 Council Race

It is clear of the candidates in this race that only Brad Presutto has articulated a position in support of the Rader legislation and a clearly articulated support for improved ethics-in-government.

Candidate Shachner has not responded to my email inquiry about his position. Nor has he posted his position in this Deck thread. After 10 days, I have not been able to even determine whether or not he has even a general position on these issues.

Candidate Presutto has demonstrated to me that he understands the issues related to open government, transparency, and the importance of ethics-in-government.

Candidate Presutto has established a leadership position here! His opponent has not.

Jason Shachner wrote:Quick update - I have been consumed with trial prep and trial for the last week, but concluded my case this morning and received a verdict a couple hours ago. I am aware of the question and relayed to Mr. Kindt that I am familiar with the proposed ordinances, but would like to thoroughly review and consider the legislation and applicable state law before responding. I will be attending the Candidates Forum tonight and the Lakewood Democratic Club endorsement meeting tomorrow evening, so I will not have an opportunity to thoughtfully consider the question until Friday. Thank you for your patience.

Mark Kindt wrote:In The Lakewood Ward 2 Council Race

Candidate Shachner has not responded to my email inquiry about his position. Nor has he posted his position in this Deck thread. After 10 days, I have not been able to even determine whether or not he has even a general position on these issues.

Mr. Kindt,

I don't entirely agree---Perhaps you missed Mr. Shachner's post above--that he had a trial and then other matters to attend to and that he would provide a response. Based upon my impression of him after interacting with him twice at my home, I believe that he will respond.

And again I raise the question, do these candidates - any and all of them - have the time to devote to this demanding job they are running for?

Brian Essi wrote:

Jason Shachner wrote:Quick update - I have been consumed with trial prep and trial for the last week, but concluded my case this morning and received a verdict a couple hours ago. I am aware of the question and relayed to Mr. Kindt that I am familiar with the proposed ordinances, but would like to thoroughly review and consider the legislation and applicable state law before responding. I will be attending the Candidates Forum tonight and the Lakewood Democratic Club endorsement meeting tomorrow evening, so I will not have an opportunity to thoughtfully consider the question until Friday. Thank you for your patience.

Mark Kindt wrote:In The Lakewood Ward 2 Council Race

Candidate Shachner has not responded to my email inquiry about his position. Nor has he posted his position in this Deck thread. After 10 days, I have not been able to even determine whether or not he has even a general position on these issues.

Mr. Kindt,

I don't entirely agree---Perhaps you missed Mr. Shachner's post above--that he had a trial and then other matters to attend to and that he would provide a response. Based upon my impression of him after interacting with him twice at my home, I believe that he will respond.

Mr. Essi: Yes, I am fully aware of Mr. Shachner's post and he assured me that he would have a response by the end of the week. Very late yesterday, he repeated that commitment via email to me.

I stand by my statement. After 10 days, I have not been able to determine whether he supports the Rader legislation or whether or not he has general positions on the issues raised in this thread.

As I said earlier, this is not rocket science. As you can see, many candidates for office this season have already posted considered statements on this topic. I am sure that most if not all of them had professional commitments during this time-period.

I look forward to learning Mr. Shachner's position on ethics-in-government in Lakewood and whether improvements can be made through pending legislation.

I am delaying comments on the Ward 3 race and the uncontested Ward 4 race to accommodate Candidate Shachner.

The Ward 2 race is an important contested race and Lakewood citizens deserve an understanding of Mr. Shachner's position. Again, I encourage him to post his position here.