Councilman Polensek Should Resign

Submitted by Kevin Cronin on Mon, 12/29/2008 - 16:03.

I never thought Councilman Mike Polensek was a bad guy, maybe a frustrated, burned out, partially-jaded reformer facing difficult tasks in Cleveland, but not a bad guy. However, in my mind, you can't justify the latest problem involving his asking a local development nonprofit organization to buy a house for him while he secured financing.  He can say he gave the nonprofit a modest profit for helping he can say it was only a short-term thing and he can say he only did it for his mom, but.... as Councilman, he directed public money to the nonprofit and he personally benefited from a specific transaction. That's an ethics violation that I can't see a way around. He should have known better. Maybe he did and didn't care.   Local development nonprofits have challenging missions and can't be subject to the added pressure of being asked by a public official to act like a private bank.  Councilman Polensek should resign.

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COUNCILOR POLENSEK'S HIGH STANDARDS

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Mon, 12/29/2008 - 18:46.

Even if you were not Arsenio Winston - to whom Mr. Polensek wrote this very direct and give-no-mercy letter on July 12, 2007 - I think it is fair to reciprocate to Mr. Polensek's clear cut ethical violation without leniency.

 If there are people in Cleveland who are "dumber than mud", we have seen a few of them recently in Councilor's positions.   

There are many ways a young adult or an older adult City Councilor can be a "crack dealing piece of trash", and using public office powers or influence to have a CDC buy and warehouse a property  for your mother is one of them.

It is a bit sad in this case, but what goes around, comes around....and there is a good chance that if Mr. Polensek did resign, his replacement might be worse.  

 

 

 

LOL that's putting it lightly Kevin

Submitted by dweller1 on Mon, 12/29/2008 - 20:10.

To me its more like, don't let the door hit the back of your....

But I digress.

Ha! Polensek is a cantankerous 'ol fox. Losing popularity in Ward...write a threatening letter to neighborhood thug (national exposure!). Mayor or Council President gets in cahoots, threaten to run for their job. Rinse and repeat.

You have to admit. He loves his gig. What he did is sad and pathetic but what the hell?

To Mike Polensek: Well...shit, hustling the local not-for-profit corporation to get his "mother-in-law" a ranch house isn't as bad as what Blagojevich almost pulled off!

I remember reading the local blogs and people scratching their heads as to why PD reporter Gomez moved from covering "Business tech" to boring real-estate....lol these past several months we're finding out why :)

I doubt Polensek will resign. Where-else can you make 75K plus perks to bitch over petty crap. I've spoken with one of the poor bastards in a city department of something, who had a "typical" visit from him. LOL Uncle Mike is manic.

Unless Polensek wakes up with dead hooker or pulls a Tom Coyne (falling down on a street piss-drunk in only his undies, laughing to himself in front of the PD), Mike's army of 4,000 clueless voters who don't know who in christ-sake else to vote for, will pull him through.

Someone in town needs to electorily beat his ass. When's George Nemeth from "Brewed Fresh Daily" going to put his "learning moments" to work for Cleveland?

Mike's alright

Submitted by lmcshane on Tue, 12/30/2008 - 10:05.

  Not my words...the words of a colleague, who has survived a lot.  Mike Polensek will survive this monumental stupidity, because he has won over the hardest lot of voters to swing--single, working mothers.

I wish Henry Gomez and the PD would try a little harder on the west side, where council ethics has been long gone and the politics of planned abandonment is in full swing.  Here are some of the council players and former players--Jim Rokakis, Merle Gordon, Pat O'Malley, Kevin Kelley, Brian Cummins, Joe Santiago, Abe Bruckman, Sheryl Hoffman...the PD ran the CMHA housing swindle story, but conveniently left off the names of Abe Bruckman and Sheryl Hoffman, who suspiciously benefited from the property transfer.  There are many suspicious property transfers going on on the west side. 

And, many of the councillors just circumvent the CDC altogether.  Santiago killed Clark Metro and is now trying to attach his International Village scheme to Tremont West.    Brian Cummins has focused his energy on helping a developer NRP consolidate property transfers along Denison Ave.  These councillors are supposed to be helping residents first, not  outside developers...but that's not a crime, right?

I suspect that the PD writers really know that their "reports" are part of the larger shell game intended to keep the mostly suburban light-skinned readership focused on the "predictable" on-going dark-skinned east side social dynamic, so comforting to the "I escaped the city" suburban mentality--All the while camouflaging the major land acquisitions and deals made to benefit--the big question--who?????

The outside players have to understand that every day they go to bed as "winners" in their imaginary real estate board game, real people are left scrambling to find a place for a roof over their heads, for a place that their kids can go to go to school, someone to help their ailing parents...and the grossest irony of all?  They come back here to celebrate life and community, where it still seems like a life and a community, because we still have seniors, families and children living together. 

In the game of LIFE, Mike still has his piece on the board and for today, he wins over his constituents, because in the game, he still cares about his mother (actually, mother-in-law). Extra POINTS.

The END.

Philanthropy For The Rich... the Real story of unreal NEO

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 12/30/2008 - 14:17.

Now that the economic tide is going out on the especially unreal NEO that our pathetic current "leadership" has created for the common people here (and the tide is just starting to recede here, in REAL NEO), we're stuck looking at all the bloated, rotten, Lola-stuffed naked bodies in unreal NEO.

Don't these people own mirrors? perhaps they are all in the dark!

Let's reflect upon their lives here, and turn the lights on so they may see their revolting realities more clearly themselves.

We just had a member of council resign over corruption, and it appears members of council lied about Fannie Lewis' intentions, after her death, which to me is an unforgivable moral sin. I pity them, as their evil shall haunt them beyond the grave. They may pray for forgiveness, but my beliefs say they won't be rewarded in life or beyond.

Connect that all to their past leader and our current mayor, Frank Jackson... made mayor by the "leadership" responsible for the cruel joke that is our regional economy.

One safe interpretation of the facts of our region is that Mayor Jackson was made mayor by former mayor Jane Campbell's Chief of Staff Chris Ronayne, when he was bought by the establishment to leave city hall in the middle of the last Mayor's campaign. Did he ever pay the city back for the time he spent in City Hall working for the "establishment", as his entire role as an employee of this community is now dubious, at best. His wife's role as President of UCI member organization the Botancal Gardens makes that organization untrustworthy. His role of President of University Circle Inc. makes all their plans and actions untrustworthy.

None of these people or "their" communities and organizations seem remotely "ALRIGHT" to me.

I imagine all their bank accounts are doing fine, though.

At this point, I'd say all Cleveland council members and Mayor Jackson should resign and all run for their jobs from scratch, if they think they have a chance, and the PD and local media should recuse themselves from the election and be prosecuted for cause, for their past conspiracies to control the politics and economy of our region, thus defrauding the public.

THEY failed, and they are all now naked in their failure! During upcoming elections, all relationships between politicians, their friends, their families and their supporters must be made clear and public well before the public is expected to cast their votes - that is a job for Office of Citizen.

All the past activities of our "leadership" should be investigated as RICO cases when the local administrations of NEO injustice are dismantled. First to be investigated should be the board members of the Cleveland Foundation, McKinsey Consulting, and their connections to all that is wrong here. I believe "they" have diverted $100s milions in public funds to themselves and their friends, in our hardship.

Let the heads start rolling...

Let's start with the question who is Sheryl Hoffman and why is she being "made" and enriched by the power elite all over town...? Art House... Spaces... the Cleveland Museum of Natural History...

And what is going on over there in that home of the dead!?!?!

Green City Blue Lake Insititute? Well, "they" have gone long and far to make humans extinct, world-wide, so I suppose this fits! But after many, many years of living through the self-enriching ecological and economic smoke-screens put up by GCBL and the friends of their leadership, contaminating our population, I'm ready for major changes on environmental approaches in this region, starting with shutting down or at least un-funding the enablers of pollution here.

So it looks like it is time to investigate the Cleveland Natural History Museum, starting with their board... Board of Trustees: Nathaniel T. Smith, president; A. Chace Anderson, vice president; Claiborne R. Rankin, vice president; Thomas A. Tormey, vice president; Peter H. Calfee, treasurer; James R. Bright, secretary

They have a huge endowment and big plans.... and have declared themselves our ENVIRONMENTAL INSTITUTE, which means they will be attempting to divert huge amounts of public (local, state and federal) health, education, workforce and economic development, and environmental remediation money to themselves and friends of the Museum, who certainly include major polluters here, and share collective responsible for the toxic conditions of our region.

On that count, start following the biggest slice of local economic development money to Chris Ronayne's new kingdom, University Circle Inc.... a dubious enterprise if ever there has been one... and his wife Natalie, who was made director of the entirely unimpressive Cleveland Botanical Gardens, after Chris became director of their UCI. Together they clear many $100,000s a year and their alignments route $100s millions in public funds to advance their supporters' interests.

How much? Think about all the public funds to Case, and University Hospitals, and the Clinic and all their friends, and their friendly area land owners and developers... I suppose the real amount of money Chris has diverted is actually over $1 billion.  Can you say "Third Frontier"?

Ronayneda? It is more like living in Rowanda, here in NEO.

The latest travesty... "The Establishment" has paid Kent Urban Design Collaborative to route all "local foods" money here to the Ronaynes, by making the Clevelabd Botanical Gardens the center of an industry already held back two years here, at least, due to the incompetence and corruption of our "leadership".

Reward for "our leaders"... they want to make Chris Ronayne Mayor!

All these "leadership" initiatives and others of the establishment here seem corrupt, and they divert $ billions from good uses advancing our REAL NEO economy into the pockets of millionaires like the Ronaynes, and their supporters... as has been the case during these ugly days of America's greatest era of failure since the genocide of our native people and enslaving of Africans here... in the beginning.

All that said, I wonder when the PD will stop dicking around investigating petty patronage and larceny by a few corrupt politicians abd contractors, and begin investigating patronage within the foundations, the political and economic power base, and their friends and family here, who are truly ruining our local economy and quality of life and driving away so many good people from the region.

Philanthropy For The Rich... the Real story of unreal NEO. Time to see the rich here in their nakedness, surrounded by the hardship and misery they caused the majority of the people here, who are deeply suffering.

Disrupt IT

It's Not About Being A Nice Guy

Submitted by Kevin Cronin on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 17:46.

Government needs performance standards and since we can't set rules for the many circumstances elected officials face, at least we can try to create standards for conduct to encourage open and honest behavior.  It's not about whether an official is a "nice guy" or returns phone calls or has a mother-in-law in need.  This decision by Councilman Polensek is just about as obvious as you can get for unethical, bad civic behavior.  He should know better. Maybe he did and didn't care.  If an elected official helps fund an organization (and councilmen help fund the development corporations in their neighborhoods through taxpayer dollars they control), it is wrong for the Councilman to ask that nonprofit organization for special personal favors. The nonprofit is under too much pressure to say "yes" and that diverts scarce nonprofit resources in the neighborhood that can help others and creates a rule that says Members of Council can put themselves first.  Do other officials do the same thing? Maybe, who knows?  But a special rule for council members is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

Council ethics

Submitted by lmcshane on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 13:19.

  Kevin Cronin just contacted me over my confusion over the September primary election and the November general election. 

Why do we only vote for city officials in this primary? This might be a stupid question, but I am confused and I am sure I am not the only one.
 

See above posts for a history of this discussion as it pertains to Cleveland City Council and the ethics of that office.