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UPDATE BELOW: WELO'S BLESSING
From the article above: "South Euclid Mayor Georgine Welo's son hired by law firm that works for city" - November 25, 2014
- ...the Mayor said Mansour Gavin will not work on any new business "to avoid any perceived appearance of impropriety or legal conflicts. It is the right thing to do to protect the integrity of the City and the residents we serve."
12-10-14 South Euclid councilwoman Ruth Gray accuses colleagues, law director of breaking executive sessio...
From the above article, "South Euclid Law Director Michael Lograsso owes thousands in delinquent federal income taxes" - December 17, 2014
- …Before he was hired as
law director in 2004, Lograsso was the
Video below: February 22, 2012 - City of South Euclid Budget Hearings.
Michael P. Lograsso, South Euclid Law Director:
- “…Contract negotiations, once again we have collective bargaining agreements being negotiated this year. It was the decision of the Mayor and the Finance Director and everyone on the Chiefs to engage some outside counsel, which we brought in Mansour Gavin to assist us because we anticipated some hard negotiations which is coming true…”
- “…Prior to last year we
used to pay Jon Bauman out of the outside legal expenses as well…Jon Bauman is
a consultant that we retained on a retainer basis to help us with economic
development issues, mostly Cedar Center.
He was actually an employee of the original developer Caitlin Properties
back in ’04 and ’05 when they were going to do
- time: 8 min. 18 sec.
Video below: February 27, 2012 - SEOversight asks questions about legal spending.
Dave Furry, South Euclid Oversight:
- “…In that budget hearing the
Law Director said that the city hired out Mansour Gavin to negotiate with the
police and fire unions and the service department untion. And that also he stated that in the
- “…I’m wondering if he
doesn’t negotiate with the unions and he doesn’t negotiate for
- time: 2 min. 59 sec.
Video below:
Ed Icove, Councilman Ward 3:
“There’s not a scintilla
of evidence that I should be censured for doing anything. I’m going to read to you the Ohio Public
Meeting exception. This section shall be
liberally construed to require public officials to take official action and
conduct all deliberations on official business only in public meetings unless
the subject matter is specifically exempted…”
“…Miles is a great
guy. As a matter of fact before he
worked for Mr. Coyne, he worked for me.
And then he went from my law firm he went to Mr. Coyne’s law firm over a
year and a half ago…”
“…The fact that Miles Welo worked for a company that does business with the city means that’s a matter of
public interest. Therefore that
discussion should be a public discussion.
It should have been disclosed a year and a half ago publicly if it was
going to be disclosed. Mr. Coyne disclosed
it 3 days before the executive session by letter to the Law Director and that
letter was a public record. I asked for
it, I got it. Ok? Anybody who wants it can have it. As a matter of fact we all got one. Therefore, this was not a matter that should
have been discussed in executive session…”
“…The fact that the Mayor’s
son works for a law firm that’s done hundreds of thousands of dollars with our
city - not a couple thousand – hundreds of
thousands. As a matter of fact he’s here
tonight so we can go into executive session and talk about collective
bargaining…”
“…I read the article
afterwards. I never talked to Sara Dorn
but I read the article afterwards. The
Mayor speaking through the law director said she was going to make the matter public…”
“…The Mayor knows it’s a
matter of public interest and she was going to disclose it because it was the
right thing to do. Unfortunately, she
should have disclosed it a year and a half ago if she wanted to publicly
disclose it. But she decided to disclose
it at that particular time. This is a
big mistake. And you all can do what you
want to do as far as this is concerned.
We can do as far as litigation is concerned. I want to tell you, in my tenure on Council I’ve
never seen anything like this before.
Especially this last minute superficial way of bringing it out. So that we can’t discuss this issue
publicly. And so that the public doesn’t
have input into this. And that’s the
reason legislation is not supposed to just be introduced on the floor of
Council. I don’t know if it’s even legal
to do this. At this particular
juncture. But it wasn’t amended before
hand. You know, it was amended on the
floor of Council so that people could be admonished without any evidence. And not only without any evidence, about
matters that clearly are public interest.
There’s no doubt about it. There’s
not a court in this land who won’t say that that’s a matter of public
interest. As a matter of fact, Mr. Coyne
himself admitted that in the letter that he wrote, he said, this is a matter of
public interest. And you guys
politically might want to discuss it.
And you might politically might want to not use our firm anymore – because
his working for us – which is the right thing to do. He shouldn’t be working for us. He shouldn’t be working for us now with
collective bargaining…”
“…I’d like to have Sara
Dorn here. And have her tell you, David,
that despite your innuendos and your inferences and your emotionalism and your
drama about this…”
Council President David Miller interrupts:
“…Don’t be pointing your
finger at me. Don’t you point your
finger at me. “
Ed Icove:
“…I’m gonna point my
finger at you…”
David Miller:
“Don’t you point your
finger at me.”
Ed Icove:
“…You have not a scintilla
of evidence David, and when you talk to Sara Dorn you’re gonna find out what
evidence there was and what evidence there wasn’t, and you’re gonna be very
very ashamed.”
David Miller:
“…Because someone
disagreed with what was discussed and the attorney that we had said it was
appropriate, that was enough for me. So
you can say someone’s being emotional, I didn’t stand up. You can talk about being back-doored. We can do a whole encyclopedia on that…”
- time: 12 min. 31 sec.
Note: At the end of
the regular council meeting, the meeting was adjourned and council members were
to assemble for executive session.
Credible eyewitness accounts report that Council President David Miller
quickly left the building without attending the executive session and drove
away. It is unknown who adjourned the
meeting after executive session since the Council President had left.
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