The Observation Deck

In early 2015, Councilman David Anderson called for an independent consultant to review what the Clinic's consultant, Subsidium, had recommended etc., i.e. close the hospital.

Bravo!

However, a public record (below) released just this week shows that Huron Consulting was working for the Clinic when Kevin Butler hired them in 2015 to conduct an "independent review" of the hospital matter.

So, Mr. Anderson,

Did you know that Huron Consulting was working for the Clinic when Kevin Butler hired them?




.

Wow! Almost unbelievable!

Mark Kindt wrote:Wow! Almost unbelievable!

WAIT!

City Hall, Council assured us, there was no connection between Huron and the Clinic.

Nothing! Yet another lie in the never ending cover-up to defraud Lakewoodites of assets.

With City Hall's attention to detail, and background checks

I would think one of the contracts Huron had with the Clinic, was how to convince a Mayor, his law director and followers to screw themselves out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

.

Meanwhile, we are still waiting for an explanation from Councilperson Cindy Marx regarding her relationship with a James W. Kemp Jr. from Huron Consulting. Ms. Marx received a $1,000 campaign contribution from this James W. Kemp Jr. From what I gather, if he would have given $1,000.01, it would have been an ethics violation. It appears this was planned and thought-out.

Slightly off topic, but also note that Ms. Marx's boss, Dr. Raj Joyesh, is Chief of Plastic Surgery at Fairview Hospital, a Cleveland Clinic hospital.


Ms. Marx, care to clear the air and comment on all three issues now?

Lori Allen _ wrote:Meanwhile, we are still waiting for an explanation from Councilperson Cindy Marx regarding her relationship with a James W. Kemp Jr. from Huron Consulting. Ms. Marx received a $1,000 campaign contribution from this James W. Kemp Jr. From what I gather, if he would have given $1,000.01, it would have been an ethics violation. It appears this was planned and thought-out.

Slightly off topic, but also note that Ms. Marx's boss, Dr. Raj Joyesh, is Chief of Plastic Surgery at Fairview Hospital, a Cleveland Clinic hospital.


Ms. Marx, care to clear the air and comment on all three issues now?

Thank you for bringing this up Lori. I was going to do it myself today but you got here first!!!

Lakewood's guideline calls anything over a $1000 contribution within 2 years to be an ethics violation. Ms. Marx received her contribution from a Huron Director 18 months before the City officially hired Huron but as you noted, it is $1 shy of the violation mark. (Please note that Kemper is no longer with Huron and I was unable to determine exactly when he left but he definitely WAS a Huron Director at the time Cindy Marx received her campaign contribution from him. )

Not illegal but smells bad...

As does to me the fact that her employer, Plastic Surgeon Dr. Raj is located in the 850 Westlake building that Lakewood gave away ..er sold for under market value to the Cleveland Clinic. While he is NOT a CCF employee ( he was a CCF employee sometime in the past), Dr. Raj heads the small plastic surgery unit at CCF's Fairview Hospital. There may definitely been consequences if Lakewood had sold that building to another bidder, especially another hospital. We will never know what those would have been as Mayor Summers & Friends & City Council refused to consider any other proposals.

In my mind, I believe that Cindy Marx benefitted by CCF being given an unfair advantage in this Master Agreement via her employers close connection to CCF.

I really believe that she should have recused herself from both the vote on City Council's hiring of Huron Consulting to the tune of $90,000 and from the Master Agreement vote that closed our hospital and gave away our assets to CCF for pennies on the dollar.

Pam Wetula wrote:

Lori Allen _ wrote:Meanwhile, we are still waiting for an explanation from Councilperson Cindy Marx regarding her relationship with a James W. Kemp Jr. from Huron Consulting. Ms. Marx received a $1,000 campaign contribution from this James W. Kemp Jr. From what I gather, if he would have given $1,000.01, it would have been an ethics violation. It appears this was planned and thought-out.

Slightly off topic, but also note that Ms. Marx's boss, Dr. Raj Joyesh, is Chief of Plastic Surgery at Fairview Hospital, a Cleveland Clinic hospital.


Ms. Marx, care to clear the air and comment on all three issues now?

Thank you for bringing this up Lori. I was going to do it myself today but you got here first!!!

Lakewood's guideline calls anything over a $1000 contribution within 2 years to be an ethics violation. Ms. Marx received her contribution from a Huron Director 18 months before the City officially hired Huron but as you noted, it is $1 shy of the violation mark. (Please note that Kemper is no longer with Huron and I was unable to determine exactly when he left but he definitely WAS a Huron Director at the time Cindy Marx received her campaign contribution from him. )

Not illegal but smells bad...

As does to me the fact that her employer, Plastic Surgeon Dr. Raj is located in the 850 Westlake building that Lakewood gave away ..er sold for under market value to the Cleveland Clinic. While he is NOT a CCF employee ( he was a CCF employee sometime in the past), Dr. Raj heads the small plastic surgery unit at CCF's Fairview Hospital. There may definitely been consequences if Lakewood had sold that building to another bidder, especially another hospital. We will never know what those would have been as Mayor Summers & Friends & City Council refused to consider any other proposals.

In my mind, I believe that Cindy Marx benefitted by CCF being given an unfair advantage in this Master Agreement via her employers close connection to CCF.

I really believe that she should have recused herself from both the vote on City Council's hiring of Huron Consulting to the tune of $90,000 and from the Master Agreement vote that closed our hospital and gave away our assets to CCF for pennies on the dollar.

Pam,

Thanks. I have been requesting a public statement from Ms. Marx on this issue for over a year and crickets.

As we heard from these folks on Council for months, "we need more time" or "I want to look at the paperwork" or "due diligence".

Please, councilmen and Ms. Marx, end the charade now:

1. Just admit that the deal was said and done for months or years prior to the announcement.

2. Just admit that thousands and thousands of tax dollars were spent on the Huron Report and other faux studies when the outcome was known since day 1.

3. Remember that continuing to cover-up for Mr. Summers will only lead to more lies, and lies to cover up other lies, and then more lies to cover up those lies. It is a nasty cycle that gets nobody anywhere.

If the donation occurred in 2015, we could conclude that the majority of city council had conflicts of interest on the night of the vote for the Master Agreement.

Could you please post the election year cycle for the contribution?

Mark Kindt wrote:If the donation occurred in 2015, we could conclude that the majority of city council had conflicts of interest on the night of the vote for the Master Agreement.

Could you please post the election year cycle for the contribution?

Hi Mark,

I went back to check dates. The contribution was made 09/01/2013 by Kemp of Huron for Cindy Marx's run for City Council at Large that November, 2013.

He contributed $1000 to her. As an aside SHE contributed $1067.88 to Sam O'Leary's campaign on 11/06/13.

She won her first political election. In 2014, she became a member of Council-At -Large.

On June 01, 2015 City Council approved the hiring of Huron Consulting for a $75,000 to $90,000 job to review the Subsidium Report. (19 months after the campaign contribution to Cindy Marx. ) Rather, they wanted Huron to support the conclusions of that report which the LHA spent $500,000 on under Mike Summers leadership of the "Select Committee". In August, 2015, Huron presented their report to CC.

So, this may not help but I still think it smells.

Thank you for the update. I appreciate your taking the time to check. --Mark