SOUTH EUCLID OVERSIGHT

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UPDATE BELOW: WELO'S BLESSING

Coyne Letter 11-21-14

11-25-14 South Euclid Mayor Georgine Welo's son hired by law firm that works for city

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...

12-17-14 South Euclid Law Director Michael Lograsso owes thousands in delinquent federal income taxes.

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 South Euclid city prosecutor for eight years and spent 14 years as a South Euclid police officer. His established rapport with city employees helped him improve labor relations, he said. “I was probably perfectly positioned to do that because everybody knows me, Lograsso said. “I have a history here, and they trust me, and we have very good labor relations now.” Lograsso also said he negotiated $10 million worth of real estate deals for the city’s reconstruction of Cedar Center North.

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 Cedar Center. The city has used his service and he’s been a great help to us negotiating with GFS, Bob Evans, Coral and Deville…”

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 Cedar Center negotiations instead of the Law Director doing the work a gentleman named Jon Bauman I believe…”

“…I’m wondering if he doesn’t negotiate with the unions and he doesn’t negotiate for Cedar Center, I’m wondering how he racks-up these kinds of fees? And I’m wondering if someone could provide me some insight on how I can find out what he does in order to make his money?”

time: 2 min. 59 sec.

Resolution 69-14

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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