The Observation Deck

Jay Foran, Ken Haber, Tom Gable, Mike Summers and others seem to be pushing for public assets to be put into a private foundation. I have heard that the foundation is the Cleveland Foundation. I decided to look at their form 990's. While nothing in them necessarily points to any wrongdoing, it should make one pause and think. Don't get me wrong, Cleveland Foundation does do great things for this area. However, we should consider the fact that:

Cleveland Foundation paid over $300,000 in legal fees to Thompson Hine LLP in 2010. Thompson Hine also did business with Cleveland Foundation in 2007.

The Lakewood Historical Society, LHF, LHA, and LakewoodAlive are all recipients of assets from Cleveland Foundation. Don't get me wrong, some of these organizations do great things for Lakewood. LakewoodAlive did a great job with the ceremony last night. On the other hand, we should consider that all of these organizations do have close ties to the mayor and CCF.

While it does not make LakewoodAlive a bad organization or make Ian Andrews a bad person or unfit director, I was told by a member of LakewoodAlive that his salary is paid for by CCF.

It may also be worth reading the last paragraph of this Cleveland.com article, which says that Team NEO, the company of which Jay Foran is the Senior Vice President of Business Attraction, received $1 million dollars from Cleveland Foundation for business development efforts in Europe, China, Spain, and Canada in 2010. Stating in 2013, Team NEO also began receiving funds for other purposes from Cleveland Foundation.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index ... oal_f.html

Bio Enterprises is also a recipient of Cleveland Foundation funds. According to my research, this company is partially owned by CCF.

If you are interested, please see the attachment for excerpts from the form 990's.

I could have sworn I saw contributions from Cleveland Foundation to LHA (not LHF) back in 2012, 2013, and 2014 on the 990 forms. However, they have mysteriously disappeared. I feel that SLH should look this over.

Again, I am not accusing anyone of anything. I'm sure the Cleveland Foundation, LakewoodAlive, and others do great things. On the other hand, we do need to re-consider if we want public assets going into this foundation.

FWIW.

I recall reading an old cleveland.com article about someone from the Children and Family Services Department at the County being named as one of the Cleveland Foundation's Directors in 2014 or 2015. When I went back on line to look for the article, it appears it is longer there. With Madigan getting a miracle promotion to Communications Director for the County, it makes me wonder if possibly the County is somehow involved with the hospital dealings.

I forgot to mention that Mary Louise Madigan was employed as a worker in the Children and Family Services Division of the County. Suddenly she gets a promotion to Communications Director for the County.I find it hard to believe that someone who has been working in the Communications Department for Years would not be more qualified for the position than MLM coming from CFS.