Gov. Ted Strickland just announced that he's signed an interim budget to keep the state going for a week while he and statehouse Republicans keep negotiating a budget deal.
This Columbus Dispatch article says Strickland and the Republicans are still at odds over slot machines in racetracks, but otherwise, the outlines of a two-year budget deal are taking shape.
How's this for a painful tradeoff?
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Statehouse leaders are expected to further cut higher education to help reduce proposed cuts to libraries, mental-health services and home and community-based services for Medicaid recipients.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Dimora: Investigate the investigators
"Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire," Jimmy Dimora said this afternoon.
With that, he accused the "Rove-Gonzales" Department of Justice and the Republican Party of conspiring against him. Dimora announced he will ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Congress to investigate the federal investigation of him.
In a fiery press conference late today, Dimora charged that the Justice Department started its investigation of him as an attempt to discredit Democrats and lower the turnout in the presidential election. Many people, he said, "had an interest in making sure I am out of the way."
Dimora suggested that employees of the local U.S. Attorney contributed to the Cuyahoga County Republican Party in 2008.
The embattled county commissioner -- whose office was raided by the FBI last July, but who has not been charged with a crime -- compared the investigation of him to the U.S. Attorneys scandal, in which former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and senior presidential adviser Karl Rove were accused of masterminding the 2006 firings of several federal prosecutors for not pursuing voter-fraud investigations or investigations against Democrats.
At one point, Dimora suggested the FBI investigation of him was part of a pattern of probes of Democrats across the Great Lakes states. I asked him to name other examples. "There are 2,500 public corruption investigations in the country," Dimora replied. "Pick a state. Pick a Democrat."
Dimora said he believed the investigation of him began in September or October 2007. By early 2008, he said, he became aware that the feds were asking friends of his to wear wires and inform on him.
That would place the start of the investigation just after or right around Rove and Gonzales's departures from the Bush Administration. Their resignations took effect on August 31 and September 17, 2007, respectively.
Dimora attacked former county Republican chair Jim Trakas for saying yesterday, on Channel 3's Between the Lines political talk show, that Dimora should take advice from Michael Corleone of The Godfather films. "Italian-Americans should be outraged," Dimora said.
(Update, 6/30: "I had no idea that what I said on TV3 would be construed like that, because I use that phrase all the time," Trakas writes in an e-mail to me this morning. "I am really upset at myself for my poor choice of words." Trakas says he's written Dimora a letter of apology.)
Dimora also repeated his suggestion from last Thursday's commission meeting and April 2008 that Brent Larkin and Susan Goldberg of the Plain Dealer and former state Republican chairman Bob Bennett hatched a plan to attack Dimora over lunch in February 2008. He referred back to the April 2008 meeting where three Plain Dealer reporters -- Mark Puente, Joe Guillen, and Henry Gomez -- confronted him about the hiring of the late Rosemary Vinci, an auditor's office employee. Dimora claimed the paper's reporting of that incident "started the motivation for county reform."
Puente and Guillen attended the press conference, and Puente raised his hand in greeting as Dimora mentioned his name. Both reporters questioned Dimora aggressively after his statement. Guillen tried unsuccessfully to get Dimora to express an opinion about the investigation of auditor Frank Russo.
"I'm not looking at Frank Russo's issues," Dimora said. Acknowledging reports that the two officials are friends, Dimora said that he and Russo campaign together because the auditor is the other county official up for reelection at the same time as him.
With that, he accused the "Rove-Gonzales" Department of Justice and the Republican Party of conspiring against him. Dimora announced he will ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Congress to investigate the federal investigation of him.
In a fiery press conference late today, Dimora charged that the Justice Department started its investigation of him as an attempt to discredit Democrats and lower the turnout in the presidential election. Many people, he said, "had an interest in making sure I am out of the way."
Dimora suggested that employees of the local U.S. Attorney contributed to the Cuyahoga County Republican Party in 2008.
The embattled county commissioner -- whose office was raided by the FBI last July, but who has not been charged with a crime -- compared the investigation of him to the U.S. Attorneys scandal, in which former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and senior presidential adviser Karl Rove were accused of masterminding the 2006 firings of several federal prosecutors for not pursuing voter-fraud investigations or investigations against Democrats.
At one point, Dimora suggested the FBI investigation of him was part of a pattern of probes of Democrats across the Great Lakes states. I asked him to name other examples. "There are 2,500 public corruption investigations in the country," Dimora replied. "Pick a state. Pick a Democrat."
Dimora said he believed the investigation of him began in September or October 2007. By early 2008, he said, he became aware that the feds were asking friends of his to wear wires and inform on him.
That would place the start of the investigation just after or right around Rove and Gonzales's departures from the Bush Administration. Their resignations took effect on August 31 and September 17, 2007, respectively.
Dimora attacked former county Republican chair Jim Trakas for saying yesterday, on Channel 3's Between the Lines political talk show, that Dimora should take advice from Michael Corleone of The Godfather films. "Italian-Americans should be outraged," Dimora said.
(Update, 6/30: "I had no idea that what I said on TV3 would be construed like that, because I use that phrase all the time," Trakas writes in an e-mail to me this morning. "I am really upset at myself for my poor choice of words." Trakas says he's written Dimora a letter of apology.)
Dimora also repeated his suggestion from last Thursday's commission meeting and April 2008 that Brent Larkin and Susan Goldberg of the Plain Dealer and former state Republican chairman Bob Bennett hatched a plan to attack Dimora over lunch in February 2008. He referred back to the April 2008 meeting where three Plain Dealer reporters -- Mark Puente, Joe Guillen, and Henry Gomez -- confronted him about the hiring of the late Rosemary Vinci, an auditor's office employee. Dimora claimed the paper's reporting of that incident "started the motivation for county reform."
Puente and Guillen attended the press conference, and Puente raised his hand in greeting as Dimora mentioned his name. Both reporters questioned Dimora aggressively after his statement. Guillen tried unsuccessfully to get Dimora to express an opinion about the investigation of auditor Frank Russo.
"I'm not looking at Frank Russo's issues," Dimora said. Acknowledging reports that the two officials are friends, Dimora said that he and Russo campaign together because the auditor is the other county official up for reelection at the same time as him.
Bill Patmon challenging Frank Jackson in mayor's race
In January, I wrote that no one of any stature was planning to run against Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson this year. Turns out, one person is: Bill Patmon, who was a city councilman from Glenville from 1989 to 2001.Patmon ran for mayor in 2005 and got only about 2 percent of the vote. But that's not a good measure of his political abilities, or the prominence he held for a time in Cleveland politics.
Check out "Lone Wolf," a profile I wrote about Patmon in 2001, if you want to know more about him. The story describes how he broke away from then-mayor Mike White (a former ally), helped engineer a "coup" that brought an anti-White faction of council to power, aggressively challenged the White Administration as council's finance committee chair -- and paid for it in the 2001 elections.
Patmon lost his council seat that fall. Did out-of-control ambition bring Patmon down, or principled opposition to an out-of-control mayor? Patmon himself admitted his fights with White and attempts to become council president helped bring him down -- he said so when I interviewed him for our coverage of the 2005 mayor's race. (For that interview, click here and scroll down to the 4th item.)
I think we're witnessing the rebirth of a dormant political bloc that will challenge Frank Jackson and council president Martin Sweeney. While Patmon runs for mayor, his friend Jeff Johnson is also mounting a political comeback, trying to get elected to the Glenville city council seat both men once held. Johnson is not a Jackson ally -- he served in Jane Campbell's administration. I wouldn't be surprised if Patmon and Johnson work together on each other's campaigns. Update, 7/1: Not so, says Johnson. He e-mailed me to say he's staying neutral in the mayor's race. See this new post.
Of the other candidates for mayor, the only one I know anything about is Laverne Jones Gore, a perennial candidate for various offices who I interviewed in 2001 for a story about how lonely it is to be a Republican in Cleveland. Henry Gomez previews the mayor's race on his City Hall blog today.
More than libraries are at stake
I was wondering when the Plain Dealer would run a story that clearly dramatizes what's at stake in the state budget crisis: not just Ohio's libraries, but a huge part of our safety net for poor kids, the elderly, and the mentally ill. The story came yesterday: Brent Larkin's column, "Strickland doing an appalling job."Don't call Larkin retired. His freelance column this week calls out the governor (pictured) -- and House Speaker Armond Budish -- with a clarity that's been missing from a lot of the state budget crisis coverage:
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If Strickland were a Republican, this state's many advocates for children would be burning him in effigy on the Statehouse lawn. ...
... In tough times, governors have to cut spending. But good governors don't:
Abolish funding for a program that provides preschool to 14,400 low-income children.
Eliminate state aid to food pantries, especially in a recession.
Whack deep into programs for the mentally challenged and the elderly.
Permit the plundering of funding for their most important accomplishment -- in this case, higher education, the cornerstone of Ohio's economic future.
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The budget crisis is going into overtime, with Strickland and Republicans at an impasse over slot machines and other issues. If they can't agree on a budget by tomorrow night, they'll have to pass a temporary budget and keep negotiating. Here are the Columbus Dispatch's reports from yesterday and today.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Dimora: "I will prove my innocence"
"I am innocent," Jimmy Dimora said this morning at the county commissioner's meeting. "If I have to have a day in court, I will prove my innocence."
Provoked by county Republican chairman Rob Frost, the embattled Dimora launched into a long speech at the end of the meeting today, attacking Frost and responding to the federal corruption investigation.
"I haven't done anything wrong," Dimora told Frost. "I'm innocent. I'm not resigning."
After the meeting, reporters asked Dimora about J. Kevin Kelley, the former county employee and former Parma school board president now facing federal bribery charges. "I know Kevin, just like anybody does," he said. A reporter asked if Dimora had ever taken bribes from Kelley. "No, absolutely not," Dimora replied.
Dimora confirmed he'd traveled to Las Vegas with Kelley. But he said he had not gone there with Ferris Kleem, an executive for Blaze Building and Phoenix Concrete. "He was not with us," he said. "It was a whole separate trip."
The charging document against Kelley claims a Blaze and Phoenix executive gave casino chips to a Public Official #1 -- apparently Dimora -- while they were in Las Vegas in April 2008. Phoenix had received a contract from the county commissioners two weeks earlier and received another weeks later. Dimora said he couldn't respond to a question about the allegations involving gaming chips.
Asked if he was Public Official #1, Dimora said, “I have no idea.” But later, he seemed to acknowledge that he recognized himself in the prosecutor's filing. “I hope there’s no – any kind of charges that are filed [against me]," he said. "I saw people, saying statements and making some allegations, that are in trouble. And I guess sometimes people do that to lessen their penalties or their consequences. But I was the smallest amount of portion in that issue, I think.”
During the meeting, Frost had asked the commissioners if they could guarantee that no lobbyist for any of five contracts they were considering was under federal investigation.
Dimora accused Frost of not understanding how the commissioners work. He said he had never pressed the other two commissioners to vote a certain way on any contract, and noted that most commission votes are unanimous. He also defended himself against press accusations of patronage and cronyism by saying none of his relatives had ever worked for the county while he was commissioner.
Speaking from handwritten notes, Dimora launched into a long counterattack on Frost, the county and state Republican parties, the Plain Dealer, and Parma Heights mayor and county reform advocate Martin Zanotti. Dimora argued that the Republican-prompted audit of the work of county auditor Frank Russo, Dimora's close friend and ally, was redundant because state auditor Mary Taylor already audits the county's books. He also called Frost's threat to petition for removal proceedings against Dimora an effort to set up a "kangaroo court."
Dimora questioned whether Frost, a member of the county board of elections, had any relationships with elections contractors. He claimed Zanotti, like himself, had traveled with Kelley. (Update, 7/2: See more details, and Zanotti's response, here.)
Dimora also suggested that former Ohio Republican Party chair Bob Bennett had teamed up with Plain Dealer editor Susan Goldberg and former editorial page editor Brent Larkin in March of April of 2008 to attack him. (This, like a similar accusation he levied last April, seems inspired by Dimora seeing Bennett having lunch with Goldberg and Larkin back then.) He even brought up the decision that Bennett and other former board of elections members made in 2005 to buy thousands of ill-fated Diebold voting machines.
"I think the federal government is doing a detailed and thorough investigation of me," Dimora said to Frost. "I know my family and myself have been living through hell for the past year. And I don't wish that on my worst enemy. And I guess that would be you."
Provoked by county Republican chairman Rob Frost, the embattled Dimora launched into a long speech at the end of the meeting today, attacking Frost and responding to the federal corruption investigation.
"I haven't done anything wrong," Dimora told Frost. "I'm innocent. I'm not resigning."
After the meeting, reporters asked Dimora about J. Kevin Kelley, the former county employee and former Parma school board president now facing federal bribery charges. "I know Kevin, just like anybody does," he said. A reporter asked if Dimora had ever taken bribes from Kelley. "No, absolutely not," Dimora replied.
Dimora confirmed he'd traveled to Las Vegas with Kelley. But he said he had not gone there with Ferris Kleem, an executive for Blaze Building and Phoenix Concrete. "He was not with us," he said. "It was a whole separate trip."
The charging document against Kelley claims a Blaze and Phoenix executive gave casino chips to a Public Official #1 -- apparently Dimora -- while they were in Las Vegas in April 2008. Phoenix had received a contract from the county commissioners two weeks earlier and received another weeks later. Dimora said he couldn't respond to a question about the allegations involving gaming chips.
Asked if he was Public Official #1, Dimora said, “I have no idea.” But later, he seemed to acknowledge that he recognized himself in the prosecutor's filing. “I hope there’s no – any kind of charges that are filed [against me]," he said. "I saw people, saying statements and making some allegations, that are in trouble. And I guess sometimes people do that to lessen their penalties or their consequences. But I was the smallest amount of portion in that issue, I think.”
During the meeting, Frost had asked the commissioners if they could guarantee that no lobbyist for any of five contracts they were considering was under federal investigation.
Dimora accused Frost of not understanding how the commissioners work. He said he had never pressed the other two commissioners to vote a certain way on any contract, and noted that most commission votes are unanimous. He also defended himself against press accusations of patronage and cronyism by saying none of his relatives had ever worked for the county while he was commissioner.
Speaking from handwritten notes, Dimora launched into a long counterattack on Frost, the county and state Republican parties, the Plain Dealer, and Parma Heights mayor and county reform advocate Martin Zanotti. Dimora argued that the Republican-prompted audit of the work of county auditor Frank Russo, Dimora's close friend and ally, was redundant because state auditor Mary Taylor already audits the county's books. He also called Frost's threat to petition for removal proceedings against Dimora an effort to set up a "kangaroo court."
Dimora questioned whether Frost, a member of the county board of elections, had any relationships with elections contractors. He claimed Zanotti, like himself, had traveled with Kelley. (Update, 7/2: See more details, and Zanotti's response, here.)
Dimora also suggested that former Ohio Republican Party chair Bob Bennett had teamed up with Plain Dealer editor Susan Goldberg and former editorial page editor Brent Larkin in March of April of 2008 to attack him. (This, like a similar accusation he levied last April, seems inspired by Dimora seeing Bennett having lunch with Goldberg and Larkin back then.) He even brought up the decision that Bennett and other former board of elections members made in 2005 to buy thousands of ill-fated Diebold voting machines.
"I think the federal government is doing a detailed and thorough investigation of me," Dimora said to Frost. "I know my family and myself have been living through hell for the past year. And I don't wish that on my worst enemy. And I guess that would be you."
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tomorrow's WCPN Roundtable
I'll be on the Reporter's Roundtable on WCPN, 90.3 FM, from 9:05 to 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. Mike McIntyre, the Tipoff columnist for the Plain Dealer, is filling in for host Dan Moulthrop. Reporters from the PD, Akron Beacon Journal, and Dayton Daily News will be the other guests.
We're going to talk about Jimmy Dimora, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic, the collapse of the Ameritrust Tower sale, and the state budget crisis. Lots of news.
Update, 6/25: It was fun. Here's a link if you'd like to listen to the podcast.
We're going to talk about Jimmy Dimora, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic, the collapse of the Ameritrust Tower sale, and the state budget crisis. Lots of news.
Update, 6/25: It was fun. Here's a link if you'd like to listen to the podcast.
Frost to start removal petition against Dimora
You can't recall county officials, but it turns out you can sign a petition to get a court to remove them for misconduct in office. So local Republicans have discovered, and today Cuyahoga County Republican chair Rob Frost threatened to use the removal law against Jimmy Dimora. He says he'll start circulating petitions to dislodge Dimora if he doesn't resign by July 1.
This is the second obscure Ohio law that Frost and Co. have aimed at a local Democrat in the past week. They've also forced an audit of county auditor Frank Russo's books. Frost has targeted Dimora and Russo because they are targets of the FBI's county corruption probe.
If Republicans can gather 68,000 signatures, they can force a court to consider whether Dimora has misused his office. Dimora could choose whether to have a judge or jury hear the case.
Here is the law, which says a public official is guilty of misconduct in office if he or she:
willfully and flagrantly exercises authority or power not authorized by law, refuses or willfully neglects to enforce the law or to perform any official duty imposed upon him by law, or is guilty of gross neglect of duty, gross immorality, drunkenness, misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance...
(I especially like the "drunkenness" part.) *
The Republican Party would have to write a complaint leveling charges against Dimora. If they can get enough signatures on the petitions, then a judge or jury would decide if any of the charges are true. The removal proceeding would follow evidence rules from civil cases, and unlike in a criminal trial, which requires a unanimous jury verdict, a 9-3 vote would be enough to remove Dimora. He could appeal to the court of appeals.
It's interesting to know we have a recall-like way to get someone out of office. But what would Frost's complaint say? My guess is it'd be a rewrite of the federal allegations against "Public Official #1" in the prosecutor's filing against J. Kevin Kelley and others.
Frost is betting that an anti-Dimora petition drive and the threat of a removal proceeding could push Dimora to resign earlier than the feds' investigation might. That theoretical scenario reminds me of the end of Detroit's huge scandal last year. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick held onto office for months in the face of obstruction of justice and perjury charges. (Kilpatrick fired cops who were investigating him, then lied under oath about that and about an affair with his chief of staff.) But the day after Michigan's governor began a removal hearing to examine his conduct, Kilpatrick pled guilty in the criminal case and resigned.
(*I should probably add that I have no reason to think the "drunkenness" part applies here. They wrote laws kind of funny in 1953.)
This is the second obscure Ohio law that Frost and Co. have aimed at a local Democrat in the past week. They've also forced an audit of county auditor Frank Russo's books. Frost has targeted Dimora and Russo because they are targets of the FBI's county corruption probe.
If Republicans can gather 68,000 signatures, they can force a court to consider whether Dimora has misused his office. Dimora could choose whether to have a judge or jury hear the case.
Here is the law, which says a public official is guilty of misconduct in office if he or she:
willfully and flagrantly exercises authority or power not authorized by law, refuses or willfully neglects to enforce the law or to perform any official duty imposed upon him by law, or is guilty of gross neglect of duty, gross immorality, drunkenness, misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance...
(I especially like the "drunkenness" part.) *
The Republican Party would have to write a complaint leveling charges against Dimora. If they can get enough signatures on the petitions, then a judge or jury would decide if any of the charges are true. The removal proceeding would follow evidence rules from civil cases, and unlike in a criminal trial, which requires a unanimous jury verdict, a 9-3 vote would be enough to remove Dimora. He could appeal to the court of appeals.
It's interesting to know we have a recall-like way to get someone out of office. But what would Frost's complaint say? My guess is it'd be a rewrite of the federal allegations against "Public Official #1" in the prosecutor's filing against J. Kevin Kelley and others.
Frost is betting that an anti-Dimora petition drive and the threat of a removal proceeding could push Dimora to resign earlier than the feds' investigation might. That theoretical scenario reminds me of the end of Detroit's huge scandal last year. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick held onto office for months in the face of obstruction of justice and perjury charges. (Kilpatrick fired cops who were investigating him, then lied under oath about that and about an affair with his chief of staff.) But the day after Michigan's governor began a removal hearing to examine his conduct, Kilpatrick pled guilty in the criminal case and resigned.
(*I should probably add that I have no reason to think the "drunkenness" part applies here. They wrote laws kind of funny in 1953.)
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