The Observation Deck

The Eighth Appellate District of Ohio just released its ruling on Essi vs City of Lakewood, Ohio.

This has been a three year legal battle over public documents. At each hearing the City has been told to produce the documents, and at each hearing the City has refused.

This time the Court has once again ordered the City of Lakewood to produce the public documents, AND pay the legal fees of Brian Essi and his lawyers for the past three years.

You can read the entire document here:
http://media.lakewoodobserver.com/media ... 626009.pdf

More to follow as we talk with Brian, his lawyers and our legal scholars about the ruling.

Brian has been fighting this fight for Lakewoodites right to know and see what are clearly public documents.

Now that the City has fought and lost once again, and squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours of lawyers on all sides, we must ask ourselves, "What is so bad they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to hide from the residents?" "What is so bad they are afraid and disobey every court order on?

The Mayor, Law Director, Finance Director, Build Lakewood, and all the councilman assure us this "Was a great deal for Lakewood!" So why the cover-up? Why the Lies? Why the intimidation? And why the massive waste of funds?

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Jim O'Bryan wrote: Now that the City has fought and lost once again, and squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours of lawyers on all sides, we must ask ourselves, "What is so bad they are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to hide from the residents?" "What is so bad they are afraid and disobey every court order on?

That's the million dollar questions isn't it?

First, thanks to Brian Essi and his team of lawyers. I'm sure the Mayor did not expect anyone to be so tenacious.

Second, this seems like pretty big news to me. Why no reporting on this issue by other news outlets? What are THEY afraid of?

Third, there are two possible answers to your question; either the Mayor and Council have nothing to hide and they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars just to jerk people around OR they are hiding some very serious wrong doing.

Thank you, Brian Essi.

The most important line in the decision:

In Ohio, public records are the people’s records.

My compliments to Mr. Essi and his attorneys for pursing this difficult case to the end, despite the City's vigorous defense of non-disclosure of public documents.

This case shed crucial light on our local governmental process and how the hospital was dumped by insiders.

It highlights the need for municipal reform in Lakewood.

Should the City of Lakewood decide to appeal this decision, we will be able to safely draw the reasonable further conclusion that, as I have said previously, the Ohio public record access statute is a dead letter in Lakewood.

In its arrogance, the city administration continues down the wrong path. Yes, let's make sure that the average citizen can never see what goes on behind the curtain.

Gotta get that hospital building demolished!

Essi and company did excellent work.

The one bomb shell request is "all records relating to clinical and administrative service fees, including direct costs that are incurred by the Cleveland Clinic and allocated to Lakewood Hospital".

Somewhere in my stack of stuff is a spreadsheet detailing the nearly 100% increase in administrative fees charged to Lakewood Hospital by the Clinic. Near the end the Clinic was charging around $24 million per year for administrative expenses. As I recall the Clinic had about $150 million in administrative expenses during that year. Lakewood Hospital paid for 17% of the Clinics administrative expenses even though Lakewood made up only about 1.6% of the Clinics revenue.

This is not over yet.

Each year, the City honors a Lakewood resident by naming him/her Grand Marshall of the July 4th/Independence Day parade.

I can think of no one more deserving of that honor for the 2019 parade than Brian Essi. But ... I'm not holding my breathe.

AND ... if Mark Kindt keeps it up, he would be a viable candidate for the honor for the 2020 parade. (Again ... not holding my breathe.)

I'd include Matt Markling on this list ... but I realize it would be a VERY cold day in h-e-double hockey sticks before my good pal would have THAT honor bestowed upon him!!

My Co - Nominees (and they would represent the many who were part of the lawsuit and the participating lawyers and regular folk who know shenanigans and illegality). Apply that test to those who will seek office this Fall.

And, there're convertible should assume a Police escort as a recognition of a community service and the epitome of law abiding.
Maybe the mayor (note lower case) could be back there with the Keystone Cops buggy.

Looking Forward To Seeing This

This document will further confirm that lawyers for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation negotiated the contract with Subsidium; Subsidium who represented that it was acting on behalf of the City of Lakewood.

This is information that, had it been available to the residents, may have altered the outcome of the election assenting to the agreement with CCF that spelled the demise of the hospital.

You cannot vote on a matter when critical information has been withheld.

Many thanks to Brian Essi for making these important request and persistently demanding the release of these documents. Also to Mark Kindt for his analysis and to Jim O'Bryan for providing the platform and encouragement for this effort.

A question: was the document just cited from new discoveries, or from the old?
How long does the City have to comply?

My head is spinning!

The city puts their typical spin on news and claims on their Facebook page that they won the lawsuit.

We have our own local Trumpsters here. No means yes, down is up, and losing is winning.

[quote="Dan Alaimo"]Many thanks to Brian Essi for making these important request and persistently demanding the release of these documents. Also to Mark Kindt for his analysis and to Jim O'Bryan for providing the platform and encouragement for this effort.

A question: was the document just cited from new discoveries, or from the old?
How long does the City have to comply?[/quote]

Mr. Alaimo, the City of Lakewood has a right to appeal this decision. This might take a while.

The document posted above is from the Court's most recent opinion. It refers to a group of documents that were "blacked-out" when first released under the 2017 court order. It should confirm that lawyers for the Cleveland Clinic negotiated the Subsidium consulting agreement.

As Mr. Conant so cogently observes, even with the passage of three years, the public still does not have access to key documents.

Of course, the City Law Department fully understood that this was a public document and that the Cleveland Clinic lawyer was not and could not represent the City. This document and other documents should have been turned over to Mr. Essi in 2016.

The City Law Department made the strategic decision that it was better violate the law, than to trust that citizens could make the correct decision at the ballot box.

Lakewood cannot continue down this path. It led to and will lead to other public policy debacles. A municipal reform effort must gather steam and soon.