COUNCILMAN CIMPERMAN NO "POPULIST"

Submitted by jerleen1 on Tue, 08/17/2010 - 04:40.

 

An Article from the Plain Press Archives

Reader questions Plain Dealer’s quick endorsement of Cimperman

To the editor:

Editor’s Note: This letter from a resident of the 10th Congressional District was originally submitted to the Plain Dealer. Due to the Plain Dealer’s refused to publish the letter, the Plain Press offered a space for the author to voice his concerns.

Dear Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg

Plain Dealer Politics Writer Mark Naymik again slants his reporting against Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a true populist and progressive. In his December 4 story, Naymik boosts the candidacy of Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who is running for Congress against Kucinich, by falsely claiming that Cimperman is an advocate for the poor and a "populist"

Cimperman is no populist. What "populist" things has he done? Nothing. He doesn't even live in that Congressional District.

LETTER

The aristocratic Plain Dealer, owned by the multi-millionaire Newhouse family in New York, is so eager to have a paid agent of big business (Cimperman) running against the champion of the people (Kucinich) that it editorially endorsed Cimperman December 6, just two days after Cimperman announced his candidacy.

Did the Plain Dealer suddenly thoroughly interview Cimperman between December 4th and 5th to really compare him on Congressional issues to Kucinich and the other candidates running against Kucinich? Probably not.

It is a dishonest and illegitimate endorsement.  Cimperman does not really care about the poor. He's bogus. He opposed a needed 24-hour downtown shelter for the homeless. He appears to be trying to drive poor, skinny, freezing beggars out of sight downtown for the wealthy downtown businesses which dislike beggars, and give him tens of thousands of dollars, so he can run against the popular and not-sold-out Kucinich, whom big business does not like. Because they cannot bribe Kucinich, that's really why the Plain Dealer opposes him.

Cimperman tried to evict poor Frank Giglio from his Cleveland house, making false accusations against Giglio. Some said the real reason was to get Giglio's land for developers(December 6, 2006 Free Times news story by Michael Gill). He is dishonest and cannot be trusted.

Cimperman shows his disdain for the public and desire to avoid accountability by going along with City Council's arrogant refusal to let Cleveland residents speak at City Council meetings. The dozens of cities near Cleveland let their residents speak at City Council meetings. Kucinich answers letters from constituents, but Cimperman has not replied to letters from his ward residents who are members of ohiopatientsrights [at] yahoo [dot] com, asking him to introduce legislation in City Council to prohibit Cleveland hospitals from sometimes banning patients for complaining about their medical care.

I noted that Cimperman supported and sat next to Cleveland City Councilman Joe Santiago days ago at a hearing about Santiago's mid-December recall election. Why not recall Cleveland City Council President Martin Sweeney, too?

The December 5 Plain Dealer reports Sweeney is getting his buddy Mayor Frank Jackson to give $60,000 of Cleveland taxpayers' money, as hush money, to City Council Clerk Emily Lipovan, to drop her charge of sexual harassment against Sweeney. Why doesn't the Plain Dealer editorialize for a law to stop Cleveland City Hall officials from using taxpayers' money to pay-off victims of their illegal crimes? Sweeney should use his own money to pay off Lipovan. And he should resign.

Steve Gannis
 

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I don't know but he

I don't know but he certainly stopped pecking me on the cheek when I refused to betray my own organization and write sign a letter saying that I supported the St. John Cantius Church parking lot being used for bar parking.

We have quite a number of regular members (OSS) who have been parishioners of this church for years (some over 70 years) and they are totally against the church lot being used for the bars parking in the lot. 

He said I could do it personally - I told him that would be the sell out of all time and the OSS membership would never trust me again.   I also followed up with a letter to make sure there was no mis-understanding. 

Plus he and all the TWDC gang got their knickers in a twist because I was writing the articles about Erich Hooper. 

I wondered how long the "honeymoon" would last before he kicked me to the curb.  Sure didn't take long.

 

 

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Heartless Cimperman

 
 
True to political form, Councilman Joe Cimperman is still actively promoting homelessness in Cleveland with his latest campaign against Frank Giglio ("American Scream," December 6).
 
In his first Cleveland City Council campaign, I voted for the man after meeting him at the Homeless Art Show in 1997. I wrongly assumed that he might promote creative solutions to the housing crisis. Since being elected, however, he has done pretty much everything he possibly can do to make the lives of unhoused men, women and children more miserable. He was at the forefront of the campaign to demolish the homeless camp at Camelot near East 55th Street and Chester Avenue. He fought efforts to establish a shelter for homeless women and children in Tremont despite the fact that the majority of neighborhood residents voiced support for the proposal at a public hearing. He unsuccessfully pressed a lawsuit against the opening of a new women's shelter on Payne Avenue, and he shut down Jay Hotel, one of the last flophouse hotels that catered to those on the verge of homelessness. Kicking Frank Giglio out of his house for his own good is just one more piece of the puzzle.
The boarding up of Giglio's house did not have to happen. Prior to the bulldozing of his yard in 1998, I worked hard to set up a meeting between Giglio and Cimperman to mediate their conflict. Giglio was prepared to do what he could to address legitimate concerns about his property. Cimperman never showed up to the meeting and has proceeded to spread lies about Giglio ever since. If it wasn't for his systematic campaigns to squeeze the homeless, I may have thought that Cimperman had a personal problem with Giglio and misused his power as a result. Unfortunately the problem is much deeper. Since his election, Cimperman has always done the bidding of the people with the deepest pockets. He follows in the footsteps of many other so-called "progressive" Cleveland politicians.
 
Dr. Daniel Kerr
Harrisonburg, Virginia