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Community Development Block Grant Funding cycle June 2018-May 2019Submitted by lmcshane on Mon, 02/05/2018 - 12:18.
Hello All - just letting you know that the Dept of Community Development is collecting public opinion on the funding that is allocated ward-by-ward. FTR - the process is already a hot mess with no way to publicly record your input. The Citizen Participation Line is wrong at this website, which hasn't been updated-also Michael Cosgrove is no longer the Director of Community Development: http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/CommunityDevelopment/BlockGrantProgram I have called my council rep (Jasmin Santana) and I suggest that you email your council rep with your recommendations on how these monies get spent in your ward. I will be asking Councilperson Jasmin Santana to compile citizen input for the use of monies in Ward 14. I am adamant that Brooklyn Centre (my neighborhood) is NOT put under the service area of the MetroWest CDC (CDBG Year starts June 2018-information at city site is four years old).
Folks in Ward 14 who live in Tremont, may also want to make it clear that MetroWest does not serve constituents. The other options for these areas are Tremont West CDC (Tremont) and Old Brooklyn CDC (Brooklyn Centre). I realize that there is no adequate agency controlling real estate interests for Clark-Fulton and Stockyards. Jasmin Santana has advocated for a restructuring of the satellite CDC that puts residents on the board of this CDC. It is now being restructured - and if you live in these areas you should ask for board members who actually live in the ward. http://www.metrowestcle.org/ ***Through phone calls (on my day off) I found the correct contact who is Joy Anderson at 664-2055. The acting director of Community Development is Louise Jackson.
NOTE - Code Enforcement as listed on the City of Cleveland's website IS NOT a permissable use of CDBG funds - former Community Development Director Michael Cosgrove sent out this directive in 2016: CDC Directors:
As I’ve discussed with you before, both by e-mail and in person at our last CDC meeting, HUD has been looking closely at our CDC operating contracts for the last year. One of the issues I’ve informed you of is the eligibility of Code Enforcement as a CDBG-funded activity as it is performed by CDCs.
Based on feedback received from HUD, but beginning Monday, September 19, 2016, we must suspend CDBG funding to CDCs for code enforcement while we determine options moving forward. If you have an alternative funding source for these activities, I would encourage you to continue providing code enforcement services under your alternative source. If not, you may want to consider moving your staff onto other eligible activity budgets. Joy Anderson and her staff will work with you as budgets are reallocated.
But because of HUD’s interpretation of the activity, any code enforcement activity billed after Monday, September 19, 2016, must unfortunately be rejected as ineligible for CDBG funding and disallowed.
I know this is short notice and difficult, but we are already faced with having to cover costs from July 1, 2016 to the present.
Please do not hesitate to call with questions. Alternatively, I am making myself available to meet on Thursday, September 15, 2016, at 9:30 a.m. in City Hall Room 6 to discuss this and collectively consider alternative solutions, funding sources, etc. Please reply to this e-mail if you will be joining me.
Sincerely,
Michael F. Cosgrove
Assistant Director
Department of Community Development
City of Cleveland
601 Lakeside Ave., Rm. 320
Cleveland, OH 44114
ph: (216) 420-7634
cell: (216) 857-1152
e-mail: mcosgrove [at] city [dot] cleveland [dot] oh [dot] us
Please provide input to the CDBG process at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MRQ3K6Q
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Emails to your City Council representatives ARE Public Record
Send a email to your Council representative - requesting clear accounting of intended CDBG funding allocations. If you are like me - make sure that IF the Council person insists on allocating funds to a CDC - that the CDC has community membership on an elected board.
AND read Eric J Brewer at FB:
Some on Cleveland city council are going to hate you having the information I'm about to share. You'll know everything there is to know about how the mayor, council and department heads should be performing the duties of the elected and appointed public offices and jobs they hold. Your knowing as much as they do will make the lazy ones have to work when you start challenging them in the neighborhoods.
Here's a link to Cleveland city council's home page.
http://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/
Here's a link that provides you with information about all of Cleveland's council members and how to reach them at city hall. The authority of a member of council is to discuss and vote yes or no on legislation. They're supposed to discuss the legislation with the people who elected them before they vote on it, so you should be getting copies of ordinances and resolutions from them in weekly meetings in your neighborhoods. They're handling over $2.5 billion in public funds. You know damn well if this was your personal money you'd be watching it closer if these were the folk handling it. http://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/council-members
Here's a link to the Rules of Council. These are the rules they're all supposed to be following for electing the council president, handling meetings, receiving, discussing and passing legislation. It shows also how they can authorize congressional-like investigations of the community issues we've been discussing.
https://cityofcleveland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx…|Text|&Search=rules+of+council
Here's a link to every state law that controls how cities, villages and townships are required to be managed in Ohio. This set of laws is more powerful than the charter and local ordinances. These are the "general laws" that "apply" to Cleveland and why Mayor Frank Jackson and other mayors lose when home rule contradicts what's written in Title 7 of Ohio's revised code. Title 7 is the bible for governing cities in Ohio.
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/7
Here's a link to Cleveland's charter and ordinances. They are inferior to Title 7 of Ohio's revised code, but they provide more specific detail about how the city is managed under its interpretation of Title 7 in some instances. If these ordinances contradict state law then state law prevails. The ordinances need to be revisited because many are outdated. Cleveland's municipal court judges have determined some to be unconstitutional or inadequately written; and so have the court of appeals and state supreme court. Council is supposed to be reviewing its ordinances regularly. They should be studying ordinances by meeting with department heads to see "how" they are being interpreted by employees. The bottom line is that council is supposed to be reviewing the ordinances they've passed to see if they are helping the people or harming us. Look at it this way. The state told mayors and councils they couldn't pass or enforce any local gun laws. We have a right to openly bear arms. Period. Council didn't repeal its unconstitutional local gun ordinances and left one on the books that was the reason used by cops to shoot Tamir Rice and even Sabra Scott's son, Randy. Council is still trying to pass ordinances to restrict what the state has clearly said is a 2nd Amendment right instead of passing an "open carry" ordinance that tells cops to treat a person openly carrying a weapon like it's no more than a cell phone. Council's business is in the ordinances and not the streets. What the fuck is wrong with sitting on your porch and having a drink? Why can't downtown sidewalks be used by "the residents of Cleveland" to set up tables and sell shit around the stadiums or during events without an expensive azzed permit? There were sidewalk vendors from the neighborhoods lined all up and down Euclid when I was younger. Downtown property owners don't own the mutha fuckin' city sidewalks. They can even write an ordinance as an instruction to police that the smell of marijuana is not probable cause and not to randomly search license plates. Ordinances aren't supposed to fuck the people.
http://library.amlegal.com/…/cityofclevelandohiocodeofordin…
Here's a link to search for ordinances and resolutions Cleveland city council members are voting on.
https://cityofcleveland.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx
Here's a link to the city record. It's supposed to let you know what your councilmember voted on and how they voted. If you follow the ordinances passed in the City Record and compare what council does to its own rules and Ohio laws you'll see the violations. They are rampant.
http://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/legisla…/the-city-record
Here's a link to Ohio's constitution. I'm not going to tell you which section controls municipal corporations and authorizes home rule. If you read it you'll know.
https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/laws/ohio-constitution
Here's a link to the side of city government Mayor Frank Jackson controls. That's where you'll find the budget.
http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/
And if you want to know how the state auditor evaluates Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland city council's management and compliance with laws and good business practices, here's a link to the 2016 state audit. Contact the state auditor at 216-787-3665 and ask for the "management letters." The management letters are where you'll find very critical and ongoing information about how department heads are managing city funds.
https://ohioauditor.gov/…/2017/City_of_Cleveland_16-Cuyahog…
Bottom line. If you don't read you can't lead if you're an elected official. And if you're a citizen dealing with a non-reading elected official all you're hearing is a pack of lies. Everything about government is in "the code."
Send your objections directly to HUD by-pass City of Cleveland
February 24, 2018
Is code enforcement worthy of a hearing?
Yes, said Councilman Tony Brancatelli, who chairs council's Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee. He said he intends to schedule a hearing shortly.
Several council members have grumbled about the city's weak code enforcement in their wards, and many of them have arranged for nonprofit community development corporations to assist in flagging problems.
Eric J Brewer:
CDC's are not authorized by any federal, state or local law to enforce building and housing codes. I heard that shit this morning from a former CDC director and was blown away. I'll use Slavic Village Development to illustrate my point.
I visited the so-called CDC's website. Under federal law the non-profits receiving federal funds are legally classified as "Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDO)". Cleveland can spend no more than 15 percent of its total block grant budget for CHDO's ... period. 15 percent of $19 million is $2.85 million. That's all that can be spent for all CHDO's combined that operate in the city under federal HUD laws.
The guy in the picture is Zach Germaniuk who handles code enforcement for Slavic Village. I've underscored language that is clearly illegal on the non-profit's website. Code enforcement staff for non-profits are not authorized to perform the law enforcement duties of a "certified" city code inspector. So any non-profit employee who describes themselves as a code enforcement officer is impersonating a law enforcement officer. Any "notice of violations" they send through the U.S. mail is fraudulent.
The only "stautorily authorized" code enforcement officers are the employees of the city who were administered an oath of office by the mayor. The mayor is the city's chief law enforcement officer. The city has to submit the names of its certified inspectors to the Ohio Building Authority in Columbus, Ohio. Just like the cops, building inspectors must be continously educated and re-certified before their certifications expire. So what Slavic Village is doing by advertising code enforcement among its duties is criminally-obstructing the official business of the municipal corporation of Cleveland when they encourage residents to call them instead of the city to complain.
There's language that truly disturbs me on Germaniuk's "Linked In" page where he writes that Slavic Village partners with the city's building department. How? Where's the ordinance authorizing a partnership? More to the point, Cleveland city council does not have the authority to re-assign code enforcement duties that are authorized exclusively by general laws. The building code is a "general law." All Ohio cities have no other duty to but to obey them as written. Here's a link to them all. http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/4101%3A7 I want you to read the specific administrative code section that tells Germaniuk he's breaking the law.
"4101:7-3-01 Residential and non-residential building department personnel certification. Residential and non-residential building departments shall have personnel qualified to execute the duties required to enforce the rules of the board. Only those certified individuals employed by or under contract with a particular political subdivision are authorized to exercise enforcement authority within that same jurisdiction."
I understand all the CDC's are doing this shit. They all need to be investigated for it. Here's what's going on.
Germaniuk and other CDC directors and employees are real estate attorneys. Some might have side deals with developers. They're using the CDC's "enforcement" language and the sham "code enforcement" process they've created to justify sending letters to homeowners whose properties are targeted for acquisition. The homeowner doesn't know they can ignore the letter. The illegal "partnership" between the CDC's and Ronald O'Leary, Ed Rybka and the other criminals who've run the building department into an FBI investigation provides the "muscle" to the enforcement letters generated by sham enforcement officers like Germaniuk. He has "zero" legal authority to enforce "any" law or to inform a person that they are in violation of laws based on complaints received by the non-profit.
There is no such thing as an anonymous complainant in a criminal action. Every person under the 6th Amendment has a right to face their accuser in a criminal action. Cleveland city council has deemed it fit to make housing code violators criminals by ordinances they could easily make civil; and with that comes the 6th Amendment's guaranteed protections.
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense."
I would advise any homeowner who's received an "enforcement letter" from Germaniuk and other CDC enforcement officers to turn them over to the FBI and HUD's inspector general. The documents are fraudulent and unenforceable. As mayor I would prosecute a non-profit's employees for this criminal s hit.
I don't know who's guiding you folk running these fucked up azzed CDC's that you should be calling CHDO's, but just know all the shit you're doing is being investigated by HUD's inspector general and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Y'all ain't holding public meetings. Your board compositions are all illegal and none of the shit you're using to avoid performing the real duties are going to satisfy federal authorities. You're not being monitored, annually, as required by federal laws by the city. The city under the Jackson administration provides no technical support to show you how to manage your non-profits in accordance with federal laws. The fact is you're fucked.
O'Leary. What the fuck kind of shit did you and your "partners" do to this town's property owners? Y'all are some evil mutha fuckas.
Property owners. Are y'all mad ... yet? You've been getting fucked 6 ways to Sunday. Ain't nobody in this mutha fucka leading ... reading.
My comments in March 2018
See opinion piece by Mansfield Frazier https://www.facebook.com/mansfield.frazier/posts/10215067436869174
Mansfield Frazier - seriously watch your back with the Land Bank - remember that Western Reserve Land Conservancy(WRLC) board member Mitch Schneider also commands Metrohealth board. Great robbery of the people - WRLC aka Jim Rokakis gets paid by city w/lucrative consultant monies each year and on top of that WRLC "grades" properties in the City , which are demo'd by JR's good buddy Gus Frangos. If it sounds incestuous - it is- going back to the city council's secret code and manipulation of the charter since Forbes days >Mike White. Eric Jonathan Brewer knows about this.
-Council club members "take care" of their own...hence the recycling of Eugene Miller , Sabra Scott Pierce et al. Still waiting to see where BrianCummins lands - but he could get the treatment given to Nelson Cintron since during his time in council. Cummins didn't exactly belong to the club.
- Meet with Michael Houser your County Council rep - what you don't want is Cheryl Stephens in that position. Houser is very smart - out of the gate. He has a lot of potential despite coming from the dysfunctional Cuyahoga County admin under Budish and Sobol Jordan - who took everybody on a ride w/ her MBA program on county time and 2 year stint to vest herself in the PERS she earned under Mike White. Despicable.
- Cheryl Stephens is seriously bad news and should be brought down on criminal charges for her administration of demolitions at the Cuyahoga County Land Bank that led to the Arco Noble Rd dump and more - see her history with Board of Revisions.
The major sick player at Cle City Council you must not trust is Tony Brancatelli - his constituents hate him , but live with so much of his puffed up scary little man tactics that I am sent unmarked mail w/anonymous tips from old time residents. He has decimated the "Slavic" community. He is chairman of CLE city council's powerful -Development Planning & Sustainability Committee and serves on three other committees – Finance, Municipal Services & Properties and Mayor's Appointments.
Shalira Taylor needs to run a recall campaign against Brancatelli - he is the council go-to person for all of the underhanded secret shit going on in CLE . Michele Burk I hope that SEIU will not let down their guard on Kevin Kelley - he and Brancatelli are in lock step.
Trump goes after federal monies to cities
AND - it is about time:
https://amac.us/trump-says-billions-in-taxpayer-dollars-wasted-stolen-in-cummingss-district/?
Donald Trump is on a roll. There's a Joe Cimperman in Baltimore who stole block grant funds just like there's a Michael Cosgrove there who mismanaged Baltimore's block grant program like they both did here in Cleveland. Billions in federal funds wasted and stolen in Baltimore. Billions in greater Cleveland. When I met with President George W. Bush's HUD secretary in D.C., Alfonso Jackson, his staff showed me a list of every federal dollar that had been sent to East Cleveland since 1974. He told me HUD held the city accountable for every dime misspent since the the first dime was spent.
Donald is not lying on Elijah. I can damn near identify the collective pools of funds that make up the "billions wasted" he's referencing. It's the same here. Forest City Enterprises still owes Cleveland for UDAG money and that acronym has been unused for years. Urban Development Action Grant. The Ratners never repaid the loan from Cleveland. Administrations change. Mayors come and go and forget. I don't.
I've already shown, here, how Cleveland' block grant money has been wasted. I've shown the same for East Cleveland. Through the years I've even covered block grant misspenditures in cities like Euclid, Lakewood and Cleveland Heights. The way Cleveland city council evenly splits block grant money between wards is illegal. What I read from Trump's words are the beginnings of a more "nationwide" investigation of block grant fund misuse on top of the one his administration is already doing. Keep in mind that it's the Trump administration that raided Cleveland city hall's block grant office.
The move is actually brilliant. All the big city mayors and city councils are like Cleveland's. Administratively troubled and Democrat. It's why San Francisco's facial recognition ban is a big thing. It should have been stopped at the first hint; but your city council members and mayors in the nation's 19,429 cities, villages and townships can't recite the first three words of the Bill of Rights.
Since it is absolutely true that mayors and councils, along with irresponsible and even criminal HUD officials, have allowed federal funds to be misspent without accountability across the nation, and are responsible for the rampant police abuses of citizen civil rights; putting them on blast creates another way for Donald to connect with "the people." This time he's appealing to the U.S. Descendant of Slaves community by criticizing the black Democrats who lead the cities they (we) live in. He's echoing the same complaints as the rest of us.
Seriously. If Donald attacked Frank Jackson, Brandon King or any of our councilmen for how they've spent block grant funds in any Cleveland ward or in East Cleveland are you going to defend them? Zack Reed used federal block grant money to throw an annual concert in Luke Easter Park instead of a free paint or freel tool program for "handy" residents who want to personally maintain their homes. The concert doesn't comply with HUD's "national objective" to eiminate slum and blight; so the expense is ineligible. Cleveland's law department, it the city enforced its annual contribution contract with HUD, is supposed to file a civil claim against Zack and his non-profit to "recapture" the funds. If he doesn't pay the "city" is supposed to proseute him. This is "exactly" what I was told by HUD Secretary Jackson in D.C. in his office.
Donald's sending Ben Carson and HUD's investigators to a big city near you. It's now "his" turn to launch an investigation.
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https://www.crainscleveland.com/nonprofits/chn-housing-partners-adding-another-project?
In the next few months, the nonprofit will create a subsidiary, CHN Housing Capital, and seek certification as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), a federal designation that will give it access to an array of financial resources, perhaps including federal community development lending capital.
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Eric J Brewer:
Council. Housing ordinances are "criminal." Y'all did this in 1978 thanks to Dennis Kucinich. Housing ordinances were "civil" until he thought it was better to put people in jail for not painting their homes. So the idea you're going to spend federal "block grant" funds with non-profits who'll train their employees to look for "criminal" housing code violations is insane. The 4th Amendment applies. Housing employees need search warrants to enter properties. If some of you folk knew more than the first three words of the U.S. Constitution you wouldn't be making yourselves look like fools. Stop following Kevin Kelley. He don't know jack shit. Why do you folk follow such intellectually ill-equipped people? It makes no gotdamned sense.
So to every homeowner reading my words tell any non-profit employee who knocks on your door talking about housing code violations to get the fuck off. Call cops to complain about them trespassing. State law requires code enforcement officers to be trained law enforcement officers who've been administered oaths of office. They should also have "credentials" like those cops get from OPOTA. Fuck a CDC employee.
$1.8 million in block grant money would go farther in the form of a "free paint" or "free tool" program with home repair classes for low-income homeowners than this stupid shit. I'm letting council know now that if you go forward with this criminal shit I'm going to file a complaint with HUD's inspector general; and I'm going to ask for criminal prosecutions. This shit is ridiculous.
We were getting $30 million a year from HUD before Pat O'Malley and his council crew pushed this "equity split" bullshit. Block grant funds are allocated based on the poverty in census tracts. You can't send Kinsman money to Westpark you fucking jackasses. We've gone from $30 million to less than $20 million when our poverty reflects funding levels of $30 million to $40 million or more we're "eligible" to receive from HUD. We should be getting more money and not less; and we would if council spent federal block grant funds in the manner spelled out in the laws I know they haven't read. The director either if she thinks this shit will fly.
Annually you folk submit an "action plan" to HUD that describes on federal forms how you intend to spend block grant funds. Public hearings are held on that plan. Then you split it equally, say "fuck you" to the documents you submitted to HUD and the public hearings; and then have people individually meet with council members to get money for their special programs that are not in the documents submitted to D.C. Seriously! Are you folk insane? I guess you're not aware Donald Trump's justice department is investigating this criminal shit.
This is a complete waste of money ... folk. It's also a criminal waste of money. Council. Read the Constitution of the United States. Read HUD's laws and regulations. Read the Office of Management & Budget circulars. It's all these documents you haven't read that you're instructed that this ridiculous shit being planned with block grant funds is not lawful.
You're spending block grant funds on CDC's and not HUD's national objectives. You're costing us millions in lost dollars to improve impoverished Cleveland neighborhoods because of it. I know gotdamned well none of y'all have read any of the laws I've referenced. You need to quit acting like you know shit you don't know and crack a fucking book.
This shit is ridiculous. Don't do it.
https://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/2019/08/cleveland-looks-to-improve-homes-quality-of-life-with-help-from-neighborhood-development-agencies.html
CDBG funds in Ward 14 2109-2020