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Like any good democracy guy, I’m not waiting to be elected county councilor for District 7 before applying a little oversight to this new county government. The Independent made a public records request for emails discussing the transition process in Cuyahoga County. I’m working through them, and will have a more detailed write up in the March 25 issue of the Indy. Bottom line? [click to continue…]
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Latest issue of the Independent is about to hit the streets, here are more pieces from this edition – I have a blurb on the District 3 county council race’s conflict of interest extravaganza, and one on the Lancer event with Jennifer Brunner. James has a piece on Bill Mason covering up his texting habits (could use a lawyer!), and one on Bill O’Neill’s run against Steve Latourette.
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I signed Lee Fisher’s petition today at the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting for May 5 primary endorsements, happily. I’ve always wanted to see a primary in this race, we’ve got one, no reason not to sign. But it does strike me as odd that the so-called “inevitable” candidate is still collecting petitions, with paid staff, at his own home county’s primary endorsement meeting, where the party refuses to endorse him. Fun.
The meeting was fairly drama free, except for two races. In the Ohio State Senate district 23 primary, the county party had to go to a separate vote of the district’s members to decide not to endorse, a victory for State Rep. Mike Skindell, who is facing a Bill Mason backed dude named Celebrezze – classic, bullshit, name-based politics trying to kneecap a very good legislator in Mike Skindell, and it failed. Plus, there’s some dude named Mottl from Parma in the primary, which splits the Parma name-voters, so I like Skindell’s chances. Go Mike!
In the Ohio House district 10 primary, apparently Roosevelt Coats is on some weird kamikaze mission to challenge incumbent Robin Belcher, no idea why. Coats had someone try to move from the floor on HD-10 to do something (not endorse? couldn’t tell), but the lack of a quorum from the district scuppered that. Coats was in the lobby trying to gather signatures for god knows what, I half expect him to end up in my race for county council!
And then there’s Bill Mason, who in a ghostly fashion, wandered up to the stage toward the end of the meeting to ask why the county party wouldn’t endorse in the auditor’s race for David Pepper. The parliamentarian said the county party had received “guidance” from ODP not to endorse in this race. Mason, leaning on the top of a chair in the front row of the auditorium, dressed in what looked like his pajamas and blue jeans, wondered, “why?” Pepper is unopposed in this primary, but he isn’t an incumbent, like the other statewides the county party endorsed. The parliamentarian repeated they’d received guidance from ODP on the race, and said the county party could call a meeting at another time if things changed. Then Mason wandered back to his seat.
I’m betting this was Lee Fisher inspired. My guess is that Mason wanted to force a Pepper endorsement to then piggy back from that to move from the floor that if the party was going to endorse non-incumbents in statewide primaries, they should hold a vote for the endorsement in the US Senate primary.
Whether or not that’s the case, it is telling that Mason failed in both the battles he chose to fight today, in a room he should have been able to control, given how dead and dying the county party seems to be right now. Rather pathetically, too.
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The first denial anyone has ever heard regarding the rampant rumors that Bill Mason is about to resign comes from one of his former prosecutors, Lakewood Mayor Ed Fitzgerald, currently running for County Executive.
I ran into Fitzgerald at a taping for Bob Conklin’s show on Time Warner local access, In The Spotlight, where I appear as a panelist with the PD’s Henry Gomez (!!!). Fitzgerald was Conklin’s first interview, and on his way out of the studio, I asked him if he planned to run for prosecutor when Bill Mason resigns. Fitzgerald laughed, hard, then paused, then said Mason wasn’t gonna resign.
I asked Fitzgerald if he wanted to go on the record with that.
Fitzgerald paused again. Thought for a moment.
I asked again if he wanted to go on the record.
Fitzgerald then said, “sure, I’ll say that on the record if you want.” I responded, “you just did, thanks!”
Now, I don’t know why Ed Fitzgerald, a former FBI agent, and former county prosecutor with Bill Mason’s office, would be in a position to know this, would want to say so on the record, while he’s running for county executive, while Bill Mason resignation rumors are still at fever pitch.
Any guesses? The possibilities are endless!
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One example stands out in stark relief. County Prosecutor Bill Mason wrote his own office into the new charter as the sole remaining elected county office. It’s a rare post-soviet dictator who is so shameless as to write his own office into perpetuity. That the PD uttered not one peep of protest at this blatantly undemocratic power grab is simply stunning.
Mason, perhaps the single most driving force behind Issue 6 other than the PD, is so compromised he is now widely rumored to be resigning in laughable flight from a government he claimed he had just “reformed” by writing his own seat into it.
The entire time, before, during and after the Issue 6 campaign, the Plain Dealer, in total understanding of who Bill Mason is, has whistled past the Mason Machine’s ticking time bombs, which continue to tick, ever louder. The editors of the old Soviet house organ newspapers Pravda and Izvestia would applaud if they could just get their jaws off the floor.
It’s on.
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James Renner over at the Independent details just how much the PD has been in the pocket of Bill Mason lately.
It also revealed the chummy relationship that exists between Mason’s first-assistant Michael O’Malley and Plain Dealer metro editor Chris Quinn—they are close friends and some believed that friendship to be the main roadblock to any real coverage of Mason by Cleveland’s daily paper.
The Independent has since obtained emails between Quinn and O’Malley—176 over the last year—that show just how the prosecutor’s office was able to influence newspaper coverage of its employees at the Plain Dealer.
Click through for the gory details. All of it went on before, during, and immediately after the Issue 6 campaign. And thus, the battle for a newspaper’s integrity has been engaged. We’ll soon see who wins.
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Today’s editorial, as a commenter noted, cuts the cord.
As one of the leaders of the campaign for Issue 6, which voters passed overwhelmingly in hopes of ending county government as they know it, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason ought to understand better than most how sick the electorate is of cronyism, patronage and pay-to-play politics.
He has to know that his decision to award a no-bid contract to a former employee is exactly the kind of suspicious deal that drove the Issue 6 reform.
There’ll be a lot more on the relationship between the PD and Mason, soon. And I’ve been real hard on the PD. But I must say, it looks like there are good people within the PD ed board finally deciding that Bill Mason and taking credit for passing Mason’s Issue 6 isn’t worth their own soul.
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Mike McIntyre is one of the few reporters at the PD who I actually respect, but his top story above the fold in today’s Metro section is one of the shoddiest pieces of “reporting” I’ve seen in a while. McIntyre gives valuable PD real estate to county prosecutor Bill Mason’s political consultant, Bill Burges, so Burges can whine about his firm losing its 25-year contract for the county’s health & human services levy.
Why would commissioners go in a new direction when the firm has been so successful in the past? What could it be? Certainly not that Burges was the political strategist behind Issue 6, the proposal that changed county government and abolished the commissioners’ jobs.
Nah, commissioners say that has nothing to do with it.
“We did these for (levies) 25 years, we did a great job and they obviously have the right to do whatever they want,” said Burges. “But we did Issue 6, and I think that speaks for itself.” The commissioners said Issue 6 had nothing to do with it, nor should anyone read anything into the fact that the guy who ran the competing Issue 5 proposal backed by commissioners, Alan Melamed, got the contract, along with Jeff Rusnak, who used to work with Burges & Burges.
Mike, first of all, everyone knows why these levies pass, they are no brainers. It doesn’t take some Rovian genius to throw some cute kids on a yard sign and pass a levy for mental retardation services. In fact, Rusnak, who now has the contract, did all the work for those levies in Burges’ firm for years, anyway. There’s no reason Rusnak can’t cut and paste his way into the hearts of voters with cute pictures of kids again, even though he’s not with that tactical magician Burges anymore. You could have noted that part.
Another matter of note Mike missed? Nowhere in the story does McIntyre report that Burges is also Bill Mason’s consultant. Probably because that would get a bit messy for McIntyre, given that Bill Mason wrote Issue 6, wrote his own seat into Issue 6, the seat that Burges is at this moment being paid by Mason to keep Mason in, and Mason’s county contracting corruption was just on McIntyre’s own paper’s front page above the fold in yesterday’s Sunday paper. Sticky, that.
It’s a shame to see such a good reporter let the TOP PRIORITY of Issue 6 CREDIT GRABBING affect his own writing. Or is it Metro Editor and Bill Mason crony Chris Quinn sticking his nose in McIntyre’s business? I’m getting confused. But this line makes me think the story is all Chris Quinn.
Commissioners said there are plenty of Issue 6 backers who will be involved in the campaign, so it’s not about paybacks.
Replied Burges: “Whatever.”
How professional! The Issue 6 gloating from the PD used to be irritating, now its entertaining, not least because when Bill Mason’s chickens all come home to roost, there’ll be a lot less of it. By then, the PD will have so thoroughly claimed ownership of Mason and Mason’s Issue 6, they’ll be one and the same.
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Front page, Sunday, above the fold, the PD puts the knife in. This is probably why Bill Mason didn’t resign last week – he was waiting for this story to happen, and wanted to see how the PD played it. Well, the PD played it big.
The PD and Bill Mason have been tied at the hip for some time. Today, the PD just severed that tie loudly, with a story which Mason’s influence over the PD had previously kept a lid on. But like any co-dependent, the PD doesn’t ask the resignation question at all in this story, even though resignation talk was swirling like a hurricane around Mark Puente, the reporter, as he walked through the Justice Center on Friday. They just can’t quit each other, can they.
I think that resignation is still imminent.
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A comment left by James Renner.
If Mason were a Gary Trudeau cartoon, he’d be depicted as a tantrum-prone 5-year-old ginger, pouting in his office, trying to pretend this isn’t really happening. I’ve only been reporting in this town for 6 years, I’m relatively green still. But, I have never been hit with so many leads telling the exact same story: that Mason is planning his resignation and that he’s hand-picking his replacements. These sources are sitting judges and county officials. Add to that the fact that effing nobody is coming out and saying “guys, he’s not resigning” and I think you have to use common sense and call it. Common sense says, Mason is already gone, in spirit. When he’ll stop pouting and confirm that is beyond me.
I will tell you this. According to the records I picked up in his empty office today, his greasy influence inside the Plain Dealer is nothing short of staggering. Someone over there should lose their job before this is over. More on that soon.
What’s staggering to me is that for a solid week, Bill Mason’s office can’t bring themselves to deny he’s resigning, and somehow, the PD doesn’t think this is news. But they do have time to anonymously throw spitballs on this blog. Real pros.
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Just heard from James Renner, who was at the prosecutor’s office. The office is empty, everyone left at 4 pm. Bill Mason spokesman Ryan Miday was there. James asked him straight up, is Mason resigning or not. Point blank. Miday refused to comment. Just refused. Combine that with Roetzel & Andress refusing to deny that Mason is being hired, and you’ve got yourself a shit storm.
Folks, I’m just reporting that the chatter on an impending Bill Mason resignation has reached fever pitch and beyond. I have excellent, multiple sources within and outside the Justice Center. I’ve never seen so many Google searches lead to a series of blog posts, all variations on “bill mason resigns”, “bill mason resignation”, you name it.
I will happily admit that no one wants to dance all over Bill Mason’s political grave more than me. Guilty as charged, your honor. But the reporting is solid. I stand by the reporting. Media all over this city is getting the same refusal to comment from the prosecutor’s office. If Mason was going to resign today, and changed his mind because of this chatter, he’s more pathetically irresponsible than anyone imagined.
The only reason this chatter is so pervasive is a total refusal by anyone involved to deny that Bill Mason is resigning, despite the entire Cleveland legal community being aflame with it. If this level of chatter about a resignation was hitting the White House about President Obama, and the White House refused to deny it for a solid week, the world’s stock markets would have collapsed.
I guess this level of irresponsibility is to be expected from Bill Mason’s office. What a classless bunch of cowards. When you guys do decide to go, do us a favor, don’t let the door hit you in the ass.
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Since Plunderbund reported on Monday what the entire Cuyahoga County political/ legal world is chattering about, the shoe has yet to drop. We reported on Wednesday that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason was going to resign on Friday, tomorrow. Nothing has happened to change that, in fact the chatter has only increased to a fever pitch.
And yet, no news from the MSM. No more leaks. No on-the-record confirmation. Silence. Deafening silence.
I have been in politics for more than 20 years, and I have never seen this much chatter go on this long about an impending event without the event being reported in mainstream media, or leaked further, or flatly denied, or actually happening. Never.
Maybe this is a function of blogs – blogs in Ohio have proven consistently to be well ahead of the MSM on any matter to which blogs turn their attention, almost without fail. When Mason resigns tomorrow, I am quite certain that not one MSM outlet will note that blogs scooped them for a solid week, neither by name of blog, nor name of blogger. (Their names are James Renner and Tim Russo, by the way – just sayin’.) MSM will just report whatever happens at the Justice Center, surrounded by satellite trucks and news helicopters.
What this tells me is that a very big shoe will drop tomorrow, and it ain’t just Bill Mason resigning because Tom Regas hit the sauce. Someone shut down the leaks, hard. Wonder who could, or would want to, or need to, pull something like that off? Any guesses? I have one!
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Apparently sensing that their Issue 6 golden boy is about to run for the hills, the Plain Dealer editorial board details Mason’s joy ride with his campaign treasurer Tom Regas, and ends with this, emphasis mine.
Against the backdrop of the biggest public corruption investigation in county history, such a scenario only adds to the public’s perception that key elected officials in this county lack proper judgment and personal restraint. Mason needs to reflect on how his recent behavior has added to that tarnish.
Perhaps the PD needs to reflect on how their recent behavior is adding to that tarnish, too. The PD got into bed with Bill Mason to pass Issue 6, knowing full well that Bill Mason had written himself into it as the only remaining elected official in county government. The PD knew much else about Mason, and yet became the chief campaign arm of an effort to get voter approval to perpetuate Mason in county government, explicitly.
Here’s how this will go down. Mason will resign on Friday citing this drunk driving incident, you’ll almost be able to hear his sigh of relief that he put himself in this position. The PD will claim Mason did the right thing, as if riding shotgun with drunk Tom Regas was the only factor. Mason will think his career is saved, somehow.
At no point in this charade will the Justice Department and the FBI stop closing in. And the PD will hide behind this random event, which serendipity and Bill Mason’s endless arrogance handed them, claiming credit and high ground because they wrote an editorial the day before Mason went. Every single sentient being in Cuyahoga County politics and legal circles will roar with laughter.
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I am told by very reliable sources that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason will resign this Friday, and that a replacement will be named. I am also informed that whoops of glee and dancing about is occurring in many places throughout the Cuyahoga County legal community. No word on whether or not anyone is banging on glad tambourines, but I would imagine if tambourines were available, they’d be banged gladly.
This starts a process to name a new prosecutor within the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, precisely the same process that named Bill Mason county prosecutor in the first place, when Stephanie Tubbs Jones moved to Congress. In that process, as James Renner reported some time ago, 49 precinct committeepeople are Bill Mason placements in the prosecutor’s office. I presume those people, and their actions within the new process, will be watched closely by the same folks currently wiretapping half the county government. In other words, prepare for a circus, right in the middle of the new Cuyahoga County Executive and Council campaigns.
But that’s for another day. Today, and Friday, are for rejoicing. A sad, pathetic, parasitic, egomaniacal, repulsively exploitative, foul human being will no longer have the full power of government with which to destroy lives for his own political gain. That is something to be celebrated. We have three days to enjoy it. I plan to do so quite thoroughly.
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Not sure this is far enough away from the long arm of the law, eh Bill?
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