 Cleveland.com is reporting a second time today on the alleged illegal actions taken by Councilmen DeMio, Carbone and Schonhut: "two of the five remaining council members - Michael Daymut and Gordon Short - had been left out of the selection process. She said Councilmen Jim Carbone, Joe DeMio and Matt Schonhut chose the winning Ward 2 and Ward 3 applicants, who reportedly were Annmarie Roff and Kelly Kosek, respectively." http://www.cleveland.com/strongsville/index.ssf/2018/01/one_applicant_to_strongsville.html In light of these allegations and the impending investigation by the State Auditor, the Strongsville GOP has called on Council President DeMio, Councilman Carbone and Councilman Schonhut to recuse themselves from the process of appointing the vacancies in Ward 2 and Ward 3. We further call on the remaining members of council to adopt a transparent process that includes a public worksheet for evaluating the candidates for council appointments. Simply repeating the same tainted process will do nothing to repair the trust of the voters.
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Cleveland.com is reporting that the State Auditor is in fact investigating city council. We have also learned the the Auditor has staff on site at city hall.
http://www.cleveland.com/strongsville/index.ssf/2018/01/ohio_auditor_is_investigating.html  City Council Meeting 8pm on Tuesday, 1/16 It has been confirmed that the State Auditor is investigating our City Council to determine if they violated state sunshine laws. City Council all but admitted guilt by throwing out their flawed appointment process and restarting it from scratch last Monday after being called out for potentially violating Sunshine Laws by Cleveland.com. The Strongsville GOP has called on Councilmen DeMio , Carbone and Schonhut to recuse themselves from the process by abstaining on voting for council appointments.
Government first and foremost should be transparent and follow the rules. Join us at the council meeting tomorrow night at 8pm and demand that City Council adopt a transparent process for making the appointments to fill the empty seats on Council. We believe that City Council should adopt a public and transparent process for evaluating candidates for appointments. Similar local appointments have used a public worksheet that requires each councilman to evaluate candidates on a set of core competencies that are relevant to the position (such as knowledge and competency in economic development, city operations, budgeting, zoning and administration). This level of transparency will hold our elected officials accountable and prevent cronyism. Updated on 1/15/2018 - Cleveland.com confirmed that the State Auditor has opened an inquiry into this incident. Statement on The State of Ohio opening an Investigation Into The Strongsville City Council
Strongsville GOP Calls on DeMio, Carbone and Schonhut to Recuse Themselves in Tainted Appointment Process It has come to our attention that the State Auditor has opened an inquiry into the alleged illegal actions of Council President DeMio, Councilman Carbone and Councilman Schonhut to determine if the Ohio Open Meetings Act was violated and if legal action must be taken. Their abuse of power as it relates to the back room dealing in the flawed Council appointment process resulted in Council throwing out their work and completely restarting the process on Monday night. These actions likely violated the Open Meetings Act as is being reported by Cleveland.com. In cases where violations of Open Meetings Act have been found, these instances have been referred to the State Attorney General for legal action. In light of these facts, we are calling on the three members that are likely under investigation in this matter (DeMio, Carbone and Schonhut) to recuse themselves in the execution of the restarted appointment process. Failure to do so would further taint the process and result in the loss of confidence of the Strongsville Voters. The Facts Late last year, Strongsville City Council initiated a process to appoint replacements to the Ward 2 and Ward 3 seats in Council that were expected to be vacated by Councilmen Schonhut and Carbone after winning At-Large position in the November 7th elections. The positions were publicly posted and 18 qualified residents applied for the position. On December 31st, Councilmen Carbone and Schonhut resigned their ward council seats to take their newly elected At-Large seats. All 5 Council members interviewed the 18 candidates and then met in a closed door, secret Executive Session on January 4th to discuss the results of the interviews. Ohio Open Meetings Act (commonly referred to as the Sunshine Laws) prevents Council from making any decision or taking any votes in closed "Executive Sessions." Cleveland.com is reporting that between the Executive Session on Thursday the 4th and Sunday the 7th, Council President DeMio, Councilman Carbone and Councilman Schonhut not only allegedly colluded to pick appointments illegally outside of a publicly posted meeting, they did so without including Councilman Daymut or Councilman Short in the process -- a direct contradiction to claims by these Councilmen during the 2017 campaign that all of council would vote on the replacements and that back-room deals would not happen. On Sunday the 7th, Councilman Carbone and Councilman Schonhut then proceeded to contact select losing candidates and inform then that they were not selected without the authority to do so. Due to the alleged illegal actions of Council President DeMio, Councilman Carbone and Councilman Schonhut, on Monday, January 8th, City Council made the unprecedented move to eliminate all of the work accomplished and completely restarted the process to appoint for Ward 2 and Ward 3. 1/9/18 Cleveland.com Article Please contact these three councilmen today and demand that they recuse themselves from the process. Let them know that the Strongsville Voters deserve a fair and transparent process, not back room deals. Council President Joe DeMio 440-846-4563 Councilman Jim Carbone 440-268-8089 jim.carbone@strongsville.org Councilman Jim Carbone 440-554-9840 matt.schonhut@strongsville.org Shannon Burns President, Strongsville GOP Members and Friends of The Strongsville GOP, Today is National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. The Strongsville Republican Club would like to recognize the fine men and women of the Strongsville Police Department, The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department, The Cleveland Metroparks Ranger Department, The State Highway Patrol and all other state, local and federal law enforcement units. Each day, 780,000 police officers across our country go to work and risk their life to keep us safe. Tragically, 50,000 are assaulted, 14,000 are injured in the line of duty each year and 200 pay the ultimate price protecting us. From 2016-17, Ohio lost nine officers. There is no other profession in the world where you find these statistics. We are forever grateful for the work that you do everyday to keep us safe! The Strongsville Republican Club Please take a moment to personally thank our Law Enforcement!
Strongsville Police Chief Mark Fender mark.fender@strongsville.org The Metroparks Ranger Department rangers@clevelandmetroparks.com Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office shcuy@cuyahogacounty.us The Ohio State Highway Patrol wwwohp@dps.ohio.gov |
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