Currently viewing the tag: "bill mason"
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?
Full Story... →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.
Full Story... →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 [...]
Full Story... →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 [...]
Full Story... →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? [...]
Full Story... →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 [...]
Full Story... →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, [...]
Full Story... →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 [...]
Full Story... →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 [...]
Full Story... →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 [...]
Full Story... →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 [...]
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