EAST CLEVELAND TATTLER

By JONIS BALSITCH Mayor Gary Norton was caught by East Cleveland cops getting a little stress relief with a public employee he gave a $10,000 raise because she deserved it. Police sources said the two married public employees were seen doing the nasty in a secluded section of Forest Hill Park at night when cops were doing a check of the park. Police approached the vehicle and saw them in a compromising position. Police said the city employee got out of one car and into another without speaking. The details were shared with Lt. Matt Balli and Sgt. Ray Steadman. Spotts has ordered police not to investigate even though the romantic relationship between the mayor and a city employee has already been raising eyebrows inside city hall. Nortons been breaking the law to give Spotts overtime in violation of a council ordinance so Spotts has to protect him, the police source said. Nortons critics on council say he drew negative attention towards Vanessa Veals when he gave her a $10,000 jump in pay shortly after she was involved in an attempt to cash two payroll checks. Norton explained the pay increase by saying Veals deserved it, even though she could have been fired or prosecuted for the theft offense. Sources said Veals received her regular payroll check and went to cash it at an East Cleveland grocery store. She then reported back that her first check was lost to get another, and then went to cash it. Sources said she has still not reimbursed the grocer for the money he lost. Instead of firing or prosecuting Spotts

Cops catch mayor in Forest Hill Council wants Park with Chief Spotts secretary Norton and new finance director prosecuted
secretary for the theft, Norton gave her a $10,000 raise. Norton is in a troubled marriage to a Cleveland public schools principal and is the verballyabusive father of three daughters. Court records reveal he and his wife earn close to $200,000 a year and that the irresponsible couple was recently hit with state judgment liens for non-payment of taxes and a housing foreclosure. Veals is the married mother of three children. Nortons wife previously caught him in another affair when he was employed as an administrative assistance to former commissioner Peter Lawson Jones. Things got funky for the couple when she stomped into the county administration building to raise hell about her dwarf-like husbands cheating. Jones covered for Norton and had his other woman transferred to another department instead of firing him. A source close to Norton said he has been secretly bragging about his after hours affair with the married public employee. The source said the two were caught in the mayors office by a close employee and former campaign adviser who resigned last year. The close source said Norton likes her because she does things his wife wont and because she controls the police PAL bank account with Spotts. The source said the

Johnson says he violated council ordinance to keep paying Norton safety directors wages for 2012
By HORACE ASOL Council President Joy Jordan said she was disgusted to learn that newly-appointed finance director Jack Johnson was still paying Mayor Gary Norton over $37,000 a year to serve as the citys safety director. Jordan said council approved a 2012 budget that did not include a line item for Norton to be paid as safety director. Norton vetoed the ordinance but Jordan said council overturned the veto a few days later. Once council said no for a second time, the mayors only choice was to enforce the law according to the charter. Instead of following the law, Johnson told council in a recent committee meeting that he ignored the ordinance and added $5000 to the safety directors line item to pay Norton because of an opinion he received from law director Ron Riley. Jordan said Rileys opinion is dated February 2, 2012 and that Johnson illegally paid him throughout January 2012 even before he received it. Council wants to know where hes taking the money out of the budget to pay Norton because it was authorized for other purposes. Jordan has called Rileys opinion worthless because it does not supercede an ordinance approved by council. Councilwoman Barbara Thomas said she wants Norton and the new finance director prosecuted. Jordan has said Council is considering its options because Rileys opinion amounts to nothing more than a criminal tool that Norton and Johnson are using to convert public funds for his personal use. Jordan has shared Johnsons law violations with the Auditor of State.

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EC Council did not approve Cleveland Clinic/Huron deal

Sources say Norton dealt with ex-boss Jones in secret to close Huron Hospital
By MARY TAWTYRAH While the Plain Dealer has lied to readers and covered for Mayor Gary Norton that East Cleveland and Cleveland Clinic entered a deal to close Huron Hospital, Ward 3 Councilwoman Chantelle Lewis has said there is no deal. A search of public records shows that East Cleveland city council has not approved any agreement with Cleveland Clinic to close Huron Hospital in exchange for demolition and cash. There is an agreement between Gary Norton and Cleveland Clinic, but there is no deal with Cleveland Clinic and the city since Ohio law
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East Cleveland Tattler

Council didnt approve Law director Riley costs EC taxpayers $30,000 Huron closing deal by losing case he didnt show up to defend
From previous page gives council the exclusive control over the citys finances and property. Public records show the absence of any request from Norton seeking councils approval to even negotiate with Cleveland Clinic. Lewis has said there were no public meetings to discuss Cleveland Clinics proposed agreement to close Huron Hospital and that council did not vote to accept any agreement. Ohio law and East Clevelands charter authorizes only the council to approvecontracts valued at over $2500 or to accept property. Historically and legally, the mayors contractual authority is limited to what council gives him in the form of a resolution or an ordinance. In order for Norton to have negotiated with Cleveland Clinic to close Huron Hospital in exchange for cash, he needed council approval in a public meeting to do so. After negotiating on behalf of the city, Norton needed council approval before the agreement could be signed. Even then, council would have the authority to modify the agreement and share both its contents and the bodys modifications with the public in public meetings. A source close to Norton said he and attorney Peter Lawson Jones, his former boss, met on their own and in secret with other Cleveland Clinic officials and then presented council with his signed agreement. Jones joined the hospital after a corruption scandal convinced voters to abolish the commission he served on. Norton and the clinic shoved this secret deal down our throats, said one angry resident. The Plain Dealer published details of Nortons agreement but failed to reveal that the negotiations were done in secret and had not been authorized or approved by council. Records show that the former mayor sought councils approval to negotiate with Cleveland to takeover the citys water department, and to get its approval to sign the agreement. He also sought council approval to negotiate and sign the citys labor agreements. Council approval is needed for any complex negotiations on behalf of the city because Ohio law and East Clevelands charter just doesnt give that authority to mayors in this state. Both the charter and Ohio law require all public business to be deliberated in public.

By JULINDA MIADOLLA Thanks to Mayor Gary Nortons handpicked law director, the citys fight to find $5.8 million in savings to keep from returning to fiscal emergency just got $30,000 harder. Common Pleas Judge Tim McCormick thinks law director Ronald K. Riley should be disciplined before the Ohio Supreme Courts disciplinary counsel for failing to adequately represent the city in a $30,000 contract dispute. McCormick ordered East Cleveland taxpayers to pay $30,000 plus interests and court costs to Tracy Udrija of Udrija & Associates because Riley failed to show up for two court hearings in 2010. Norton hired Tracy Udrija of Udrija & Associates to help him manage the community development department. At the time he told council she was the best person to help. Norton agreed to pay Udrija $30,000 but the two fell out when he repeatedly failed to deliver public records she needed to do her job. Norton cancelled the contract without paying Udrija for the work she performed. Sources say he also threatened to accuse her of sleeping around if she took legal steps to force him to pay the money she was owed. Unintimidated, Udrija filed against Norton on August 15, 2010, Riley filed a September 2, 2010 answer and then ignored the case. McCormick scheduled Udrija and Riley for case management conferences on November 21 and December 14, and each time Riley was a no-show. Two days after the second no-

show, McCormick ruled that East Cleveland lost by default and ordered the city to pay Udrija the $30,000. He also wrote that Riley should face possible sanctions. Under Ohios Code of Professional Conduct, specifically disciplinary rule 1.3, lawyers must act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing clients. The rule says, Delay and neglect are inconsistent with a lawyers duty of diligence, undermine public confidence, and may prejudice a clients cause. Reasonable diligence and promptness are expected of a lawyer in handling all client matters and will be evaluated in light of all relevant circumstances. The lawyer disciplinary process is particularly concerned with lawyers who consistently fail to carry out obligations to clients or consciously disregard a duty owed to a client. Under the rule above, city council has the power to demand that Riley be held accountable by the Ohio Supreme Court for his failing to perform the duties associated with his job. Some council critics think he should also be fired for his writing a legal opinion that Norton and finance director Jack Johnson used to justify his continued pay as safety director. Critics of the opinion believe Riley gave it to Norton to save his own neck. Sources say Councilwoman Chantelle Lewis will introduce a resolution urging Judge McCormick to send Riley to the Supreme Courts discipinary counsel.

EDITORIAL

Did Norton earn over $130,000 in one year?

Some Council members and municipal court Judge Will Dawson are beginning to think Mayor Gary Norton is obstructing the citys official business by failing to deliver financial records that show how public funds are being spent as calls for his prosecution grow louder. Dawsons asked for records he did not receive and so has council. The records are needed for the officials to monitor the citys finances as all will share a role in finding $5.8 million in savings to keep from returning to fiscal emergency. The last thing the city needs right now is a pathological liar in the mayors office and criminallyminded employees with an eye towards selfenrichment conspiring with him. Nortons an FBI investigation waiting to happen. Theres a strong belief among council that Norton paid himself more than $87,000 in 2011. The belief is he paid himself over $130,000 but hes not turning over financial records council and others like Gerald Strothers are seeking. What is known, however, is that despite council voting to abolish the safety directors salary for 2012, Nortons still paying himself and arrogantly doing so in a blatant abuse of authority while crying to anyone wholl listen that council took my money. Newly-appointed finance director Jack Johnson admitted that he put $5000 back in the safety directors line item and ignored the law because law director Ron Riley gave him an opinion that it was okay to do so. But Rileys opinion is dated February 2, 2012 and is just an opinion, not a law. Johnson was operating under his own opinion before then when he made the decision to add the $5000 to pay Norton in January. Even if Johnson believed Rileys opinion was right, only a court order could cancel the ordinance. Johnson also disturbingly admitted that police chief Ralph Spotts earned $84,000 instead of the $69,000 council approved for him last year. His argument that Spotts gets overtime and raises that union members earn is false because he only got what Council authorized under the last mayor. Council - under Joy Jordan as president - has correctly asked the auditor of state to investigate; but there are some things she can legislatively do right now to get more answers from Norton and the public employees he supervises. Nortons out of control and council needs to reign him in.

Norton caught cheating

From previous page FBI should investigate the use of the PAL account under Spotts. One police source said Council could authorize a special prosecutor to investigate the mayors sexual relationship with the employee using its investigative powers under the charter; and said Spotts is distracted by his own personal relationship with a Cleveland Heights dispatcher. If questioned the officers who saw them would have to testify.