EAST CLEVELAND TATTLER

Marc Issue Number 5, March 2012 pictures pro wrongdoing? eastcle lev Got pictur es or documents proving wrongdoing? eastclevelandleaks@gmail.com

Norton abuses the authority of the mayor by directing city employees to obstruct the official business of council and using police to harass and investigate them

DERELICTION OF DUTY
Norton admits to obstruction of official business in front of East Cleveland Concerned Pastors: tells Jordan he wont order councils supplies until they give him back the $37,000 council took from him
By CLYDE CLODHOPPER If there were any doubt in the publics mind that Gary A. Norton, Jr. is abusing the authority of the office of the mayor, and exceeding the authority of the office to violate the civil rights of the citys other elected officials and dissenting residents, East Clevelands Concerned Pastors saw first hand the need for state and federal intervention to give back the government to the citys electors. Council president Joy Jordan, Chantelle Lewis, Nathaniel Martin and Barbara Thomas have complained bitterly to deaf media and governmental ears about Nortons misconduct in office. The Plain Dealer reports that Norton ordered police to escort Jordan out of a meeting in a building controlled by council, but its reporters failed to investigate further to see if he broke the law by doing so. Jordan has sought help from other local and state elected officials, confirming in part conclusions drawn about the council in a 2002 Performance Audit conducted by the Ohio Auditor of State that they lacked the training to effectively manage their part of the municipal corporation. This challenge is even greater with a mayor who refuses to comply with any laws that are imposed upon the office of mayor. The meeting was held on March 22 and was billed as a healing opportunity for the two sides

RECALL NORTON!
If Mayor Gary A. Norton, Jr was a smart man he might have looked at the information exposed in the East Cleveland Tattler as an opportunity to admit his shortcomings and begin to conduct himself in a more lawful manner. He would have fired Veals for stealing the extra paycheck and disrupting a council meeting. He would have disciplined Spotts for failing to investigate unlawful police use of confidential informants and immediately put Randy Hicks back on the streets and ordered him to be investigated to determine how he paid his out of pocket informants. He would have done right by council and given back the money he unlawfully received as safety director. Norton hasnt disputed any of the allegations identified in the Tattler,but for one, and he didnt dispute it publicly. He and Vanessa Veals have each said they didnt sleep with each other. Given the allegation that they were having sex with each other, sleeping is the last thing these two married individuals did together. The Tattlers revelations have disturbed many East Cleveland residents who listened and believed Nortons smooth talking lies. They believed the garbage they were reading in the Plain Dealer because they didnt know that newspapers reporters only report what theyre told, and not what theyve investigated and verified. The Tattler was the first eyeopening opportunity theyd had to see what was really taking place in their city with the new mayor. East Cleveland is facing a return to fiscal emergency with a $5.8 million deficit he created. Even as he blames the ex-mayor, Norton omits the fact that he served as council president with him, and served one year before the other mayor took office when he replaced Saratha Goggins on council after she was defaulted into the mayors office. Norton can point fingers but he cant ignore his own administrative failings, which anyone whod checked his employment record would have learned if they cared. Norton was fired from his only management training job with Miami Dade County government in Florida. He lied on his county job application and said he left Miami for better opportunities, but all he did was write letters for Barbara Byrd Bennett and serve as Peter Lawson Jones go-fer for almost seven years. Not a single other elected official gave him responsibility to manage anything that affected peoples lives, until the voters of East Cleveland trusted him. Waiting two years to see if hell do better wont help residents seeking service from the city. If East Cleveland is to be saved, Nortons got to go now. Even his unethical police chief is quietly telling residents, behind his back, that Norton needs to resign. We say he cant and wont because being mayor is the best paying job this stiff will ever have.

to iron out the differences between them. Four council members attended. Thomas chose not to attend. Martin said they entered and left the room at various times to avoid a quorum. Mildred Brewer briefly attended but didnt stay. The elder pastors, Edward Smalls, William Thompson and others chose a young Norton supporter, Shawn Braxton, to moderate. The elder pastors remained neutral and listened as Rev. Braxton showed his favortism of Norton by directing personal attacks at Jordan . At alternate times Jordan, Lewis and Martin gave the pastors a detailed report of the unlawful acts Norton has committed in his 27 months as mayor. With Braxton egging him on, an arrogant

Norton did not deny any of the allegations brought forth by the three officers of the municipal corporation. Instead, he repeated to the pastors what hes been telling council all along as his reason for ordering the finance director and purchasing agent not to process purchase requisitions for them to buy cassette tapes to record council meetings, paper and other items needed to conduct its official business: which was the reason council could not meet on March 20 for its regular meeting Give me back my money, Norton shouted to Jordan like an immature and spoiled child. Youre destroying my family. Some in the group of pastors, many of whom
Flip it over

EAST CLEVELAND TATTLER, NO. 5, MARCH 2012

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Norton admits to pastors hes extorting council for money

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were veterans of the civil rights movement whod fought to get the first blacks elected to office in Cleveland, East Cleveland and elsewhere, were astounded by Nortons hysterical and selfish outburst. It was embarassing for me to see someone of Nortons generation whose only goal was to enrich himself at the expense of the black people he was elected to serve, said one of the elders who asked to remain anonymous. Our people fought and died to get blacks elected to political offices and this current generation of young black politicians seem more connected to the status, pay and power instead of the service to people. This boy done lost his mind and hes got to go. Norton also confirmed allegations that he was abusing the office of mayor by ordering police to obtain camera footage of Jordan giving the Tattler to a police officer in Silvermans department store on Hayden. He told Jordan in front of the pastors that he had video footage of her exercising her free speech rights. An ex-law enforcement official said the video footage is private property and there is absolutely no probable cause reason for any East Cleveland cop to use police powers to conduct an investigation of the council president just because she handed out a flyer that contained information the mayor and police chief didnt like. The cops who obtained the footage, Spotts, Norton and any other cop involved in this unlawful investigation should themselves be investigated and prosecuted by state and federal authorities, the ex-official said. Where is Ron Riley in all of this? Hes the law director for the municipal corporation. He has a duty to help council stop Norton and Spotts from abusing the authority of the offices theyre holding, and the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association should take him to the Supreme Courts disciplinary counsel if he doesnt. The ex-official said council has the power to force the finance director to order and deliver its supplies and can easily do so with legislation that makes it impossible for an official to violate without exposing themselves to prosecution. The ex-official said all of East Clevelands ordinances are first degree misdemeanors unless council says otherwise. The charter, he said, under Section 113, tells the mayor that he must, and has no other choice, but to enforce the duly passed ordinances and resolutions of council. Its the one provision in the charter that makes the mayor almost an employee of the council if the citys legislators understood their power, the ex-official said. Council doesnt have to ask the mayor or any other city employee to do anything. All they need is three votes for non-emergency ordinances and four votes for an emergency ordinance and council can literally direct the mayor to do anything it wants. The ex-official said ordinances are laws and resolutions set policies. Since the mayors legal duty is to enforce laws as a law enforcement officer under Ohio law, once council approved the appropriations ordinance and placed money in the budget for its supplies, Norton cant stand in the

way. Jordan has, as an example, told the pastors that Norton wont sign-off on councils purchase requestions when under Title 733 of Ohios Revised Code, the executive authority of the council rests with the council president. Nortons signature isnt needed for councils purchases, only the council presidents. Once Jordan signed and delivered the purchase requisitions to the finance director he had no other choice but to get the supplies council needed to conduct its official business, the ex-official said. Council controls the citys finances, not the mayor. He only manages the finances council gives him. If Norton is ordering the finance director not to comply with Jordans purchase requests then hes exceeding the authority of the mayors office and can be prosecuted for both obstruction and dereliction of duty, and so can finance director Jack Johnson. All council has to do is write and approve an ordinance ordering the citys prosecuting attorney to cause an investigation and bring charges against any offending city official or employee. Both Norton and the finance director can be charged with obstruction of official business. Its a fifth degree felony. Ohios dereliction of duty law is found in section 2921.44(e) of Ohios Revised Code, which is available free and online. It prohibits elected and appointed officials and public employees from recklessly exceeding the authority of the offices they hold and from recklessly failing to perform duties imposed upon the offices they hold. Dereliction of duty is a second degree misdemeanor and the offending elected official or public employee has to give up the job. With the right prosecuting attorney, a public official could be prosecuted for something as seemingly insignificant as failing to turnover public records because it is mandatory duty imposed upon all public offices to ensure that public records are public. Trumbull countys prosecutor, Dennis Watkins, prosecuted a local cop for failing to turnover public records, the ex-official said. If Bill Mason had wanted to, he could have set a very high standard for ensuring that Cuyahoga Countys elected officials and public employees complied with the duties associated with the offices they hold. A lot of public corruption could have been avoided in this county if he had. The ex-official said Norton made it clear to the pastors that he was obstructing the official business of council to extort its members into giving him back the $37,000 he claims he was taking as safety director. Council, however, has records showing Nortons safety directors wages far exceeded the $37,000. As the Tattler previously reported, Norton may have earned $90,000 as safety director and $40,000 as mayor, bringing his combined earnings as mayor and safety director to $130,000. The ex-official said time is running out for council to get Norton under control with the clock ticking on the citys $5.8 million financial deficit. Norton and Spotts have been breaking laws

for the last two years, and council has known about them now for at least the past eight months, the ex-official said. Finance director Jack Johnsons continuing to violate the law if hes still moving money to pay Norton as safety director. Rileys opinion is as worthless as used toilet paper. Read section 45 of the charter. It clearly says ordinances are stayed in a referendum unless theyre appropriations ordinances or emergencies. Rileys opinion totally ignored the word unless and that, in my book, makes him a prime candidate to have his law license suspended. Riley and the law department hasnt given council one shred of case law to support any of the legal opinions theyre dishing out on Nortons behalf. Once council has its lawyers on board, they need to come out swinging very aggressively or else this citys government will continue to spiral out of control.

State says Norton crony who distributed x-rated pictures and runs a day care in church may be exposing children to felons
A daycare center owned by an assistant to Mayor Gary Norton has been cited several times by the state for failing to provide a safe environment for toddler-aged children. Records on file with Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services show that Safe Haven Achievement Center owner and operator Michael Smedleys employees left Liquid Plumr and an unknown poisonous cleaning agent within reach of toddler-aged children in an unlocked cabinet. State safety rules require all cleaning agents to be in marked containers. In June 2011 and again in November, Smedleys daycare center was cited twice for failing to seal two surge protectors with child proof receptable covers because they didnt correct it the first time. On November 18 Smedley was cited for exposing toddlers to a very hot to the touch radiator. State inspectors said Smedley also failed to include a list of barred criminal offenses on the back of the applications his employees were required to complete. Smedley, who shared a home with another man, Travelle Harp, is named in a criminal investigation for receiving and disseminating stolen property to help the Norton mayoral campaign in 2009. He hosted a viewing party and gave out the stolen adult pictures at the Just Us Lounge on Euclid Avenue, telling Nortons supporters to copy them onto their cell phones and distribute them. Smedley later created the East Cleveland Foundation with a convicted murderer and pimp. Smedleys daycare facility is located at 14035 Euclid Avenue.