Thank God - Good Reporting Scene: Sources: Bill Mason Expected to Resign Soon, Face Charges From Feds

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 09/21/2010 - 11:45.

The following report from Scene sets the stage for more waves of resignations, arrests and firings in the ongoing purging of corruption from the region - THANK GOD!

With this passing of Bill Mason must come a fresh look at the processes and schemes behind the Great Lakes Wind Task Force he controlled... for now, look forward to this castle crumbliing... and thank Scene for this investigation, diving far deeper into the muck of local government corruption than the Plain Dealer seems to have access or has dared to go...

Sources: Bill Mason Expected to Resign Soon, Face Charges From Feds

Posted by Erich Burnett on Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 9:00 AM

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Cuyahoga County’s corruption scandal has touched almost every corner of county service except the Prosecutor’s Office. That will change in the coming weeks, according to sources with close ties to county politics. Mason is expected to resign by the second week of October, the sources say. Federal charges against him are expected within the next two months.

“There’s a reason why they’re not included [in the federal indictments] at this point,” says one of the sources, who spoke with Scene on condition of anonymity. “They’re collecting more information.”

Last week, County Auditor Frank Russo pleaded guilty to 21 corruption charges. Commissioner Jimmy Dimora pleaded not guilty to 26 corruption-related charges. Mason, asked why he did nothing to combat the wave of corruption unfolding all around him, told a Plain Dealer reporter that he knew nothing about it.

But according to Scene sources, Mason played his own role for years, using his political power to rally support for himself and his favored candidates, basing hiring decisions on volunteer efforts, and keeping shadow employees on the county payroll.

According to sources, “team players” on Mason’s staff — those who routinely shilled for the prosecutor’s pet candidates and causes — were the first in line for advancement and pay raises. Such efforts were always conducted off county resources such as e-mail, unlike the more brazen fund-raising campaigns of disgraced Sheriff Gerald McFaul. “And it was always insulated from Bill himself,” one source says, adding that campaign managers and other volunteers coordinated the efforts. “Is it corruption? No. But it’s definitely not right.

“This is a storm he’s seen coming. He’s had people in place, and he knows the FBI is watching.”

Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Cleveland office of the FBI, declined comment on the ongoing corruption investigation or Mason. The federal prosecutor’s office also declined comment through spokesman Mike Tobin.

Mason’s office did not return Scene’s calls seeking comment.

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Could the un-named source in

Could the un-named source in the article be Tim Russo? I am thinking yes.

http://www.plunderbund.com/2010/01/14/bill-mason-resignation-day-tomorro...

 

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in honor of Jimmy's arraignment today -

I thought I'd clean-up last week's photo.... How Honorable.

The real Jimmy- pure evil.

The real Jimmy - he looks like he would cut your stomach out and eat it in front of you - pure evil.

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yeah. a middle finger right smack in front of your face

yeah. a middle finger right smack in front of your face is definitely depraved and evil.

off to the side its a more blaise gesture.

but oh yEAh - he had chains around his belly!

It's those crazy eyes that tell it all

It's those crazy eyes that tell it all

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If the Mainstream Media wasn't corrupt

If the Mainstream Media wasn't corrupt they would have valid sources to follow up on Scene's sources and they could get all over Mason and his people - camp out and follow the Democratic party leaders around - drive the truth out of their sources... if they had sources for real news, rather than PRstitutes with press releases...

SELL-OUTS

Channel 8 - I'm getting Norton, and his little Council too

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The Real Vote To Replace Stephanie Tubbs Jones with Fudge

One thing that is for certain, it is time to evaluate the lifetime performance of all politicians in our history with clear understanding of their pasts and their worlds of corruption they created and perpetuated for decades of my lifetime.

Stephanie Tubbs Jones died into a saintly shroud and halo I know are tarnished, and those she worked with to sell-out and destroy the East Side of Cleveland are largely still alive and fucking everything up today, and so easy targets for destruction. Here is a short list of the corruption enablers of the East Side of Cleveland - ruination of the people of the region - the people who perpetuated the corrupt Tubbs Jones dynasty into the Fudge era, to end next elections... again, props to Scene and especially Renner... you can see why they let him go... too bad he hooked up with Russo.

Please Be Patient, Democracy Will Begin Shortly 

The Real Vote To Replace Stephanie Tubbs Jones Has Already Taken Place

On September 11, the executive committee of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party voted - overwhelmingly, by all accounts - to tap Warrensville Heights Mayor Marcia Fudge to run in place of recently deceased Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

But this is Cleveland, where the real action occurs behind closed doors. Three days prior to that vote, Mayor Frank Jackson had gathered some of the county's most influential community leaders together to … talk. Ex-Congressman Louis Stokes, who long ago fought the gerrymandering that had kept East Side African Americans underrepresented in Congress, wanted a hand in this pick, and so appointed himself the task of assembling a "vetting committee" to interview the many potential candidates.

The meeting was held on private land, at the InterContinental Hotel, an opulent building on the Cleveland Clinic campus - which added, perhaps inadvertently, to the conspiratorial air of the process. Escorting journalists off the property didn't help.

According to committee member Sandy Smith, each candidate was allotted a half-hour to speak and answer questions. Then Stokes and Jackson led an hour-long discussion, followed by a vote by secret ballot. The ballots were tallied by two committee members and witnessed by two others, though Smith cannot remember who those people were.

So we can't tell you much about the machinations that chose Cleveland's next congressional representative, but we can fill in some blanks about Stokes' vetting committee. It included:

Rose Rodriguez-Bardwell: executive director of the Spanish American Committee, a United Way agency focused on employment, education and affordable housing. The agency also registers Hispanic voters. The Rev. E.T. Caviness: pastor of Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Glenville and president of the Cleveland chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Caviness has been instrumental in the success of just about every African-American political leader elected in town since Carl Stokes.

Margot Copeland: director of KeyCorp's $20 million philanthropy program and 2006 Black Professional of the Year. She sits on the boards of trustees for many of the city's prominent foundations, including PlayhouseSquare, University Hospitals and the Great Lakes Science Center. She was appointed to Cleveland's Design Review Committee by former Mayor Mike White, even though she was not an architect.

Brian Hall: CEO of Industrial Inventory Solutions. He was a key fund-raiser for Mayor Jackson, who appointed Hall to the Port Authority board of directors.

The Rev. Frederick Knuckles: pastor of New Fellowship Baptist Church and possessor of one of the coolest names in Cleveland.

Alan Krulak: Forest City executive and former grand jury foreman. Contributions from Forest City's Ratner family and Sam Miller make or break local politicians in this town.

The Rev. Larry Macon Sr.: pastor of the 5,000-member Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Oakwood Village, a protégé of Dr. Otis Moss and an adjunct professor of religion at Cleveland State. He is also the former leader of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a seat now held by Caviness. Once called Mike White "one of the greatest mayors, not just in the world, but in worlds yet to come."

The Rev. C. Jay Matthews: pastor of the 4,000-member Mount Sinai Baptist Church and an avid supporter of Jackson's. Matthews is also actively involved in a number of nonprofits, including the Greater Cleveland Partnership and United Way. Under Tubbs Jones' Fugitive Safe Surrender program, 800 fugitives safely surrendered at his church. Vocally supported Bush's reelection.

Gary Norton: president of East Cleveland City Council and executive assistant to Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones. A self-professed fan of Flavor of Love, 38-year-old Norton is a man on the rise in the local political scene. According to his résumé, Norton facilitates "relationships with organizations and stakeholders" for Lawson Jones.

Bishop F. E. Perry: bishop of Cathedral Church of God in Christ. Perry is active in Warrensville Heights politics, where Fudge is mayor, and supported Tubbs Jones when she first ran for Congress.

Arnold Pinkney: working as a political consultant for Stokes and Jackson, Pinkney supposedly recruited this ad-hoc vetting committee himself, telling The Plain Dealer that Democratic executive committee members needed "some direction, because there are too many names." Though lesser known than Stokes and George Forbes, Pinkney is a major force in Cleveland politics and a revered leader in the black community, although he has used his network for personal gain a time or two, including being the minority partner in a controversial no-bid construction project during White's administration.

Sabra Scott Pierce: Ward 8 councilwoman, majority leader of City Council and one-time aide to George Forbes. Scott Pierce has been a leader in the Glenville community for years but has an atrocious attendance record at Council meetings.

Sandy Smith: second vice president of Tremont West Development Corp. A 2006 recipient of Ward 13's Resident of the Year award, Smith has her hands in just about every civic organization in Tremont and was handpicked by Jackson to be a part of the committee. She's also a reporter for Sun Newspapers, making her the only member of the press welcomed into the closed-door meeting. (She says she didn't know that other reporters had been kicked off the Cleveland Clinic property until afterward. "It was a fair and honest discussion," she says. "I was proud to be a part of it.") Louis Stokes: big brother to Carl Stokes, Lou started out as a lawyer and has argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was elected to Congress in 1968 and served 15 terms in the 11th District, retiring in 1999. He remains one of the most powerful men in Cleveland politics and a partner at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey.

Earle Turner: Cleveland Municipal Court Clerk and former city councilman. He was appointed to clerk of courts in 1996, after Benny Bonnano was sent to prison for using the office and its employees to run campaigns for the local Democratic machine. He promised to take politics out of the office, but then hired several politically connected staffers. In 2005, Turner retired as clerk of courts, but only for a couple days, so that he could collect retirement on top of his salary.

Georgine Welo: mayor of South Euclid, former co-executive director of Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Welo is a vocal proponent of regionalism and reduction of government redundancy.

Andre White: 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army, vice chairman of the RTA advisory board. Stokes tapped the 42-year-old up-and-comer to coordinate this year's Labor Day parade.

The Rev. Claudie Williams: president of the Baptist Ministers' Conference in Cleveland and Vicinity. A strong supporter of Mayor Jackson's who has denounced legislation that lets politicians gerrymander congressional districts.

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Dozens of people wrote letters supporting McFaul's character

From WKYC coverage of the conviction and sentencing of fallen political mafioso Sheriff McFaul, who enjoyed a lifetime of PD endorsements...

Dozens of people wrote letters supporting McFaul's character.

They included former Cleveland Police Chiefs Ed Kovacic and Rocco Pollutro, developers John Carney and Dominic Visonsi, prominent lawyer Daniel McCarthy and and retired Judge John Angelotta.

Common criminals.

Who have Sheriff's badges from back in the good-old-McFaul Days?

Obviously all psychotic.

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Feeding the Machine - Scene/Renner 2008 - So Who Didn't Know?

The Masons appear to be a double-dipping, double-dealing political family, as is the tradition if not rule in this region. I suppose the theory is a wife or daughter won't stab her scumbag husband/father in the back.

Stupid theory - I expect to see wives and daughters stand up for their self respect and family honor...

Feeding The Machine 

A Quick Look At Who Gives To, And Who Benefits From, Bill Mason's Campaign Treasury

WHO GIVES:

¥ Frank Mahnic: Convicted in 1996 for giving false information to a grand jury. Contributions: $10,150.

¥ Carole Hoover: Ran a minority-owned company involved in an airport expansion project that never paid county taxes during Mike White's administration. Contributions: $9,500.

¥ Sam Miller: Forest City executive whose subsidiary, Sunrise Developments, bought contaminated land and sold it to the county for a profit of about $2 million. Contributions: $7,500.

¥ John and Ferris Kleem: Owners of Blaze Construction, whose office was raided by the FBI in July. $3,250.

¥ Russell Masetta: Founder of Nature Stone flooring. According to news reports, Masetta married the daughter of the Los Angeles mafia's boss and took a job there, working for the Teamsters. He was arrested in 1988 after accepting a bribe from an FBI agent (he was charged with a felony but pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and spent four months behind bars). His local business was named in an FBI search warrant during the recent county raids, apparently because Nature Stone did work on the palatial homes of Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo. It's not clear whether Nature Stone was visited by agents. Contributions: $7,500.

¥ John Allega: Owner of Allega Cement Contractors, a company that was suspended from doing business with Cleveland in 2007 after an investigation found that Allega was using minority front companies to win a contract at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Contributions: $3,850.

¥ William Schatz: Attorney who worked part-time for the sewer district at a salary of $160,000 while also representing companies that won sewer contracts. He resigned last year after a sewer-district board member started asking questions. Contributions: $4,300.

¥ Ricardo Teamor: A close ally to former mayor Mike White, he admitted to bribing former Councilman Joe Jones to get city contracts and served four months in prison. Contributions: $1,000.

¥ James Palladino: A felon (last convicted in 1972) and a target in a 1989 FBI investigation into drug smuggling (that did not lead to charges), he once ran the area's most lucrative garbage business before moving to Kelleys Island. Contributions: $1,000.

¥ Steve Pumper: CEO of D-A-S Construction. His home and business were raided by the FBI earlier this year. It appears he did about $50,000 worth of construction on Jimmy Dimora's house. Contributions: $1,350.

¥ Andrew Futey: Republican lobbyist who got probation for his role in laundering campaign contributions to state Treasurer Joe Deters for stock broker Frank Gruttadauria. Contributions: $2,000.

¥ William Consolo: A developer who gave Parma Mayor Dean DePiero free office space for his campaign and hired a company owned by DePiero's family as its leasing agent, while DePiero voted in favor of a $8.5 million office park built by Consolo's company. Contributions: $2,850.

¥ Jason Lucarelli: Runs the Minute Men day laborers business with his father, Sam, who pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in 1989 after the FBI uncovered his side business, a local gambling ring. Contributions: $9,500.

¥ Employees of Bill Mason have also donated $82,885 to his campaign.

Who Gets:

¥ Richard Cordray: $10,000

¥ Gov. Ted Strickland: $10,000

¥ The Ohio Democratic Party: $30,000

¥ Pat O'Malley, Mason's college roommate and convicted pervert: $15,000 loan to his campaign fund.

¥ Carol Mason, Bill Mason's wife: $2,825.75 for "computer input," "letter service" and "consulting."

¥ Ridgewood Golf Course, Parma's public golf course. When then-state Auditor Jim Petro's office audited the golf course in 1999, it found alarming signs of a money-laundering operation in the works; cash registers that were opened 4,000 times when there was no record of a transaction, 330 late bank deposits, and missing financial records and receipts. At the time the books were allegedly cooked, Jack Krise was Parma's treasurer, and Michael Mason, Bill's brother, was his deputy treasurer. Krise is now a fiscal affairs officer in Bill Mason's office. $50,505, plus $1,160 in "cash gratuities."

¥ Kelly Mason, Mason's daughter: $2,090 for "campaign work" and a "donation."

¥ Tom Regas, a Parma councilman who currently works in the county engineer's office and writes the checks for Mason's campaign fund: $8,050 for "consulting" and "catering."

¥ Thousands of dollars were spent on graduation gifts for the sons and daughters of employees and contributors, though no one made out as nicely as Tom Regas' daughters, who each got $250.

¥ Thousands more were spent on wedding presents for staffers and political allies, including Ryan Miday, Mason's spokesman, who got a $150 check on his big day.

¥ Mason's Mean Machine, pee-wee football league: $3,600 for "uniforms." Sources: Friends of Bill Mason campaign finance reports (2002-2008), The Plain Dealer, the Columbus Dispatch, Black Box Voting.org, Scene.

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"Mason is expected to resign by the second week of October..."

Scene reported their sources say "Mason is expected to resign by the second week of October..." - that would be THIS week... and Obama is coming to Cleveland again.

And the PD is all over Mason's ass like stink on shit

Last times Obama came to Ohio the ax came down on Dimora and Russo...

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And Obama needs to apologize for his party scum here

And Obama needs to apologize for his party scum here and all the harm they cause citizens, and clean house completely... stop coming back until you are done with the corruption here and ready to do some real rebuilding - show some respect.

Until he does, he has an Elephant on his back here, and looks like an ass.

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talk about bullies - Bill Mason

is a classic example.

I've always wondered why no one ever seems to run against him and people affilliated with him often attempt to use that relationship as a weapon.

If you look into the guy, he's a very black and white thinker - except when it involves himself.

The Machine has controlled every office in the County

The Machine has controlled every office in the County - at this point I see them like the Nazis after WW2... all are guilty but most must be allowed to live or everyone would die.

Who must die?

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Victim mentality - Really fucked up psychosis here in NEO

Victim mentality - citizens are blamed for this place being fucked up, so they come to blame themselves instead of the leaders who make it so fucked up... they hold hands with the ministers and politicians who fucked this place up and pray to God.

Really fucked up psychosis here in the greater Cleveland area... highly developed and seemingly impossible to break without serious change of meds and detoxification.... years of new media enlightenment and engagement with the outside world... and, of course, cleaning up Mittal and all our lead poisoning here for real...

Until then, this is psycho land and our leaders are psychos... and dirty disgusting corrupt ones at that...

Psychosis (from the Greek ψυχή "psyche", for mind/soul, and -ωσις "-osis", for abnormal condition) means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality". People suffering from psychosis are described as psychotic. Psychosis is given to the more severe forms of psychiatric disorder, during which hallucinations and delusions and impaired insight may occur. [1]

People experiencing psychosis may report hallucinations or delusional beliefs, and may exhibit personality changes and thought disorder. Depending on its severity, this may be accompanied by unusual or bizarre behavior, as well as difficulty with social interaction and impairment in carrying out the daily life activities.

A wide variety of central nervous system diseases, from both external poisons and internal physiologic illness, can produce symptoms of psychosis.

However, many people have unusual and unshared (distinct) experiences of what they perceive to be different realities without fitting the clinical definition of psychosis. For example, many people in the general population have experienced hallucinations related to religious or paranormal experience.[2][3] As a result, it has been argued that psychosis is simply an extreme state of consciousness that falls beyond the norms experienced by most.[4] In this view, people who are clinically found to be psychotic may simply be having particularly intense or distressing experiences (see schizotypy).

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PSYCHOSIS amidst us...

So, Norm...does that mean that because we who stand up for WHAT IS JUSTIFIABLY VALID, LEGAL, and ETHICAL...that we are psychotics? I mean, since almost everyone in our LOCAL GOVERNMENT IS TAINTED BY CORRUPTION....then doesn't that make us, ABNORMAL when we share our CYNICISM and DISTRUST (PARANOIA FOR THESE LEADERS)? 

 

Just curious! LOL! 

increases in later delinquent and antisocial behaviors

I'll explain these conclusions more in a posting later... they explain everything...

The conclusions of  Childhood lead exposure and uptake in teeth in the Cleveland area during the era of leaded gasoline explain much about Cleveland's past and present conditions - and the conditions of our citizens - and raise significant concerns for Cleveland's future that Obama needs to talk about with our rich and political leaders, while in Cleveland this week:

  • The extrapolated peak level of 48 μg/dL (range 40 to 63) is associated with clinical and behavioral impairments, which may have implications for adults who were children during the peak gasoline lead exposure.
  • It is likely that still greater changes would be expected in contemporary African-American adults, 25–40 years old in 2010, whose teeth showed the equivalent of a PbB of 48 μg/dl at the peak of lead uptake from leaded gasoline
  • In the 1976–1980 national studies (Mahaffey et al., 1982), PbB in white urban children was 75% of that in African-American urban children, an estimated peak PbB of about 36 μg/dl might be expected in the former group.
  • A PbB level of 48 μg/dl (corresponding to the maximum lead values found in teeth) would be associated with neuropsychological, behavioral and patho-physiological deficits (Lidsky and Schneider, 2003; ATSDR, 2007), and many children undoubtedly had far higher levels than the mean.
  • Wright et al. (2008) found over 2.5 fold increases in juvenile arrests for violent crimes for children with mean PbB of only 26 μg/dl
  • Dietrich et al. (2001) found increases in later delinquent and antisocial behaviors related to high childhood lead levels (their highest values were about 34 μg/dl)

With an AVERAGE extrapolated peak lead poisoning rate of 36 μg/dl for whites and 48 μg/dl for blacks born in the peak lead poisoning years of the 1960s through 1980s, now aged in our 20s-50s, Cleveland's urban population is expected to have exhibited "later delinquent and antisocial behaviors related to high childhood lead levels".

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Obama has never had a clue... and that will be recalled in 2012

And Obama has never had a clue... and is returning to Cleveland yet again, this week, to celebrate Strickland's Democratic Party Machine that got him elected President. Hence, we lose great respect for President Obama, and associate him with cheap, dirty corruption.

And that will be recalled in 2012.

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