Civic Accountability -- Honesty in Local Government IV

[Mark Kindt]

I would encourage readers of this series to take a moment and read the first 5 or 6 pages of this brief recently filed in the public records case against the City of Lakewood.

[Bridget Conant]

Here is a summary of the city’s circular arguments regarding public records sought by Essi:

They don’t exist.

We shouldn’t have to look for them.

We cant find them.

We can’t find them so they don’t exist.

[Mark Kindt]

Here is a summary of the city’s circular arguments regarding public records sought by Essi:

They don’t exist.

We shouldn’t have to look for them.

We cant find them.

We can’t find them so they don’t exist.

We didn't look for them.

We still aren't looking for them.

We lost all the important ones.

We always ignore our own written policies.

You know, I dislike having to do this to the city administration, but, heavens, it is like shooting fish in a barrel.

[cmager]

I would encourage readers of this series to take a moment and read the first 5 or 6 pages of this brief recently filed in the public records case against the City of Lakewood.

For fun, scroll to the end of the PDF to see some of the redacted pages. How does Butler not embarrass himself?

[Mark Kindt]

The Risk Is Real

I will use the recent raid this week by G-men of City Hall in nearby Cleveland to emphasize my points:

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/ ... ument.html

I have now written four series on the Observation Deck about careless, reckless, improper and, in some cases, obviously illegal conduct by elected and appointed public officials in Lakewood.

I have done this with a cautionary purpose.

The municipal conduct, that I have described and then reviewed document-by-document over the past year, raised the litigation risks and litigation costs for the City of Lakewood.

The litigation risks and litigation costs have so far been civil in nature.

There is absolutely no reason for our elected and appointed public official to constantly be "pushing-the-envelope" on various legal issues. They do so at considerable risk to themselves and the City.

[Mark Kindt]

How Much Is The Former Hospital Site Worth?

From this public document (Summers Deposition Exhibit H), the former hospital site is reported worth $20,000,000.

[Mark Kindt]

Open Challenge to All of Our City Council Members

Are there other City of Lakewood documents that establish this $20,000,000 "book value" for the former hospital site properties?

To the best of my knowledge, I could not find any book value for the former hospital site in the 2015 CAFR or the 2016 CAFR.

Has the City of Lakewood conducted an independent real estate appraisal of the former hospital site? If not, why not?

Finally, why isn't the asset value of the former hospital site that returned to the City of Lakewood reported in the CAFRs?

If it is reported in the CAFRs, please tell me where I can find it.

[Bridget Conant]

And if the site is worth 20 million, why are we giving it away for FREE to a developer? (who just happened to hire former Lakewood mayor Ed Fitzgerald?)

[Brian Essi]

Has the City of Lakewood conducted an independent real estate appraisal of the former hospital site? If not, why not?

From Summers' tesimony in the Taxpayer case he explained in "fickle, fuddle, confuse me words" why they did not value anything:

Tr. page 155 line 14 We weren't selling this hospital.

And again at Tr. page 241
7 Q What is the value of that; do you know?
8 A The financial value?
9 Q Yeah, the fair market value.
10 A I don't recall offhand. But we're not selling it.

And again at Tr. page

22 Q But you have no idea what the value is. Okay.
23 A Well, again, we're not interested in selling it.

And again at Tr. page 97:

24 Q Okay. What about an appraisal for the value of the
25 hospital itself?
97
1 A We still own that hospital, and you know, what its
2 future plans are remain undecided. So, you know, the idea
3 of selling it is not -- it's not clear what's going to
4 happen to that.


In this twisted logic, he didn't want to value it until after he disposed of it, and after it was disposed of it didn't need to be valued.

Yet we know from the 2015 CAFR that the hospital was "SOLD" to CCF for $9.6M.
Now in the 2016 CAFR, they only refer to the "DISSOLUTION" of LHA (No sale is mentioned--they must not have liked my front page article citing the "SALE" for $9.6M)

If there was an appraisal, there would be a measuring stick for accountability.

They don't like accountability--that's why accounting rules are bastardized and butchered--and logical business principles are turned on their head.

Big Daddy lives in an alternate reality than us common folks do---He don't need no stinkin appraisals...

[Mark Kindt]

Then it seems absolutely essential that Lakewood citizens insist that the former hospital site be subject to an independent appraisal, perhaps several.

[james fitzgibbons]

How could regular citizens insist on the appraisal?

[Mark Kindt]

Lakewood citizens can contact their elected officials to insist that the former hospital site be independently appraised.

[Mark Kindt]

Almost $60,000,000 in Public Subsidies to Private Parties are Proposed

This is more than half of the entire City of Lakewood budget. What are we doing? Why are we doing this?

[Mark Kindt]

Let’s not make the same mistake twice.

We all know that the City of Lakewood did not have an independent appraisal done on the value of Lakewood Hospital. (and we took a bath!)

Are we now in the same situation with the former hospital site? ----With no independent appraisal on a valuable site for redevelopment? How could this be?

AND

If the proposed developer really needs $27,000,000 in taxpayer subsidies for its project, then the project is obviously not viable without an immense taxpayer subsidy.

Why are we even talking about subsidizing a redevelopment project that won't stand on its own financial merits.

Folks, if I am wrong about any of this, please post any corrections.

[Mark Kindt]

If you visit the City of Lakewood website, you can find a 490+ page Phase I environmental survey report on the former hospital site.

Can you find an independent appraisal of the former hospital site? Can you find any appraisal of the former hospital site?