I wanted to make sure that I am clear on how ownership of land within the city was given to the Cuyahoga Land Bank's Land Reutilization program and was achieved without council review or approval.  

By using the city's charter  and the housing department I have successfully demolished over a third of the homes within the city and transferred ownership of land parcels to the Land Bank's Land Reutilization program.  This plan has been in the works since the Norton administration when we attempted to have the city annexed to Cleveland and Cleveland Heights.  The residents voted against the annexation, so we began working with the Land Bank to gentrify the city.

The new development properties that are planned will be sold with a tax abatement, meaning the new owners and residents will not have to pay property taxes on their condos or homes.  This new development will not increase the tax base as I have boasted.  I anticipate the new residents paying their R.I.T.A. taxes to infuse new money into the city, not property taxes.

Cuyahoga Land Bank is not a government agency; it is registered as a non-profit.  The Land Bank  Director of Land Bank & Land Bank Charities is Gus Frangos & Dennis Roberts owns several development companies nationwide. Land Bank Charities is a front to launder funds received from the sale of the properties it has acquired.



Memorandum of Understanding with Land Bank & Resolution 15-16: This is the agreement between the City of East Cleveland and the Cuyahoga Land Bank to do the following:

A. To demolish dilapidated and blighted houses to assemble land for

Development, to assemble land for development in ‘target area’ as outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding.

The MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) expired in 2021 and specified that if  a development plan was not in place and initiated, then the land assembled by the land bank was to be returned back to the City of East Cleveland.  The Land Bank owns and is selling properties throughout the entire city, including wards 3 & 4 although land assembly was specific to  Ward 2 per the resolution.

 Nuisance Abatement:

Chapter 1345 Housing Enforcement & Penalty

Chapter 1313: Abatement of Nuisances & Demolition of Structures

Chapter 1373: Enforcement; Unsafe Buildings

These ordinances were used to take possession of properties and transfer ownership to the land bank; the property receives a complaint and inspectors are dispatched to inspect the property and it is declared a nuisance; declaring a property a nuisance allows the city to take ownership and then transfer to the Land Bank’s  Land Reutilization program. Homes identified as unsafe/ nuisance should’ve been reviewed by the Nuisance Abatement Board ( 1313.08) before being demolished and ownership transferred to the Land Bank per the East Cleveland charter.

Residents identified properties that needed demolishing via neighborhood groups and then the properties were placed on a list and submitted to the administration.  Houses placed on the list to be demolished, are now owned by the land bank as a part of the Land Reutilization program; once a home has been bid out to a contractor for demolishing, some homes are stripped of their ornamental accents and other valuable things, such as sandstone, contributing to the blight of the city.  

Councilman Timothy Austin purchased a home on Farmington from the previous owner after the home was presumed to be vacant and on the demolition list was stripped of its sandstone stairs. The porch was destroyed.  The home was vacant but the owner maintained the property so it could not be mistaken for a dilapidated property that needed demolishing.  Several other homes throughout the city were vandalized in this same manner, such as homes on Speedway-Overlook Road where the sandstone stairs, walkway and porch slabs were stolen off the home.  The stolen sandstone was kept behind a building on Shaw.  The owner of the building was never charged nor was his equipment confiscated.

Some houses that could’ve been saved or not needing to be demolished, were taken down because they were located within the target area.  For example, almost all the homes on Brightwood were demolished while other homes in Ward 3 and 4 in far worse condition were allowed to remain standing.  

Cleveland Bricks has owned the abandoned apartment building across from the site of the former Huron Hospital for several years and has not secured the building and has received numerous complaints of  safety issues for residents and children.  This building has yet to be deemed a nuisance or placed on the demolition list.



The Metroparks Agreement is vital to validate this theft.

Within this agreement the EPA will provide the city with a

development plan that was required within Resolution 15-16 for the Land Bank to keep all the land that it has acquired and assembled within the city, otherwise the Land Bank is in forfeiture since the Memorandum of Understanding attached to the resolution expired in 2021.

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