Articles

From an MtM reader:

Archive: Cleveland Scene: King Cuyahoga: Jimmy Dimora gets fat while his county starves
("When it came time to choose the company that manages the county's workers' comp claims, 1-888-OhioComp was an obvious choice. It's owned by the Lucarelli family, whose patriarch Sam Lucarelli spent 18 months in prison for racketeering. But the family's also donated
$8,000 to Jimmy since 2002.")
http://clevelandscene.net/2007-01-31/news/king-cuyahoga/1

(Question: Could this be related to the statement, "Dimora is tight with those running the employment staffing firm which has the MCO clinic in house," as rumored at http://mapthemess.net/news/2008/8/11/rumor-vinci-s-connections-to-organized-crime?)

From an MtM reader:

Archive: The Plain Dealer: County worker sues former administrator for sexual harassment
("A Cuyahoga County employee said in a lawsuit filed Friday that she endured crude comments and repeated sexual harassment from former County Administrator Dennis Madden. When Nancy Farina complained, the county commissioners cut her job duties and Commissioner Tim Hagan warned her that she could lose her job if she pressed on, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.")
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/08/county_worker_sues_former_admi.html

From an MtM reader:

Archive: The Plain Dealer: Ameritrust Construction Contract Got Little Scrutiny
("On April 27, 2006, the Cuyahoga County commissioners faced a critical decision: whom to select to manage the county's biggest construction project in decades. [...] Commissioners Jimmy Dimora, Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones spent 50 seconds in public deliberations before they unanimously voted to rank the team led by R.P. Carbone Co. as their first choice for construction manager. They did discuss the issue in private, which violated Ohio's public-meetings law. But even away from the public eye, the commissioners' discussion lasted five to 10 minutes, according to Hagan." The story also discusses minority contracting and a number of other issues.)
"Ameritrust Construction Contract Got Little Scrutiny," Sandra Livingston & Joel Rutchick, The Plain Dealer, April 2, 2008, Final Edition, National Section, page A1
[Story is not online on the open Web, but is available through the Cleveland Public Library web site (go to www.cpl.org, select "do research," log in with a library card, select the "Plain Dealer" research resource)]

Note: The article is available here.

From an MtM reader. We will archive the Google cache on MtM.

Archive: Cleveland Scene: Lose Excess Wallet Weight! County commissioners show how to burn off $34 million in 10 Easy Steps!
("All county projects require that a portion of the contracts go to minority-owned companies. [...] The black contractor on the asbestos-removal job, Lawrence Harris Construction, had the same people on its payroll as Precision, the white contractor. Alas, identical payrolls are generally a tip-off that the black company is simply getting paid to be a front, while the white company is doing all the work and taking in most of the money. This scam is practically a rule for winning a city or county project.")
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:LL0gaETZrpIJ:www.clevescene.com/
(URL is the Google cache; the original article is no longer online)

From a MtM reader:

Map the Mess "Rumor: Connect the dots between the Parma City School District and Squire Sanders" includes the statement: "This same thing happened in the Orange City School District when Carbone got on the BOE."

Follow-up:

The Plain Dealer: Cleveland contractor Vincent Carbone pleads guilty over bribes at Lorain County Justice Center
("Carbone, 56, of Pepper Pike, resigned Monday from the Orange school board, Synenberg said.")
http://www.cleveland.com/ohio/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1217406616291131.xml&coll=2

More on the Carbone Lorain indictment and guilty plea:

• Architect Randall Gordon got caught in this mess: Read more here and here.
  

• Contractor gets Vermilion library job despite indictment

• Elyria businessman pleads to bribery and money laundering

Carbone is also linked to Ameritrust and the asbestos removal contract.

From a MtM reader. Connections to Map: 

CPAC, Shorgl, HUD funding, Sheryl Hoffman

Here's a contribution form a MtM reader:

Archive: The Plain Dealer: FBI expands its investigation to those companies with 10 percent or greater overruns
("The top beneficiaries of sewer district cost overruns since 1996 have collected $54.1 million more from the district than their original contracts.")
http://www.cleveland.com/sewer/wide/index.ssf?/news/wide/sewer2_0607.html

A MtM reader points us to Park View Federal. Another has done some digging. Umberto Fedeli is a large stock owner of PVF.

• Park View's No. 2 executive retiring after 46 years http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/07/park_views_no_2_executive_reti.html

• Park View Federal Savings Bank (Consolidated Issue listed on NASDAQ Capital Market) http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?rpc=66&symbol=PVFC.O

• Park View Federal Savings Bank (Consolidated Issue listed on NASDAQ Capital Market) http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/keyDevelopments?symbol=PVFC.O

• Investor group seeks shake-up at Park View bank http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/05/investor_group_seeks_shakeup_a.html

• Park View-Home Savings deal at risk, investor Fedeli says http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/03/park_viewhome_savings_deal_at.html

• Park View tells shareholders things aren't as bad as Fedeli says http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/05/park_view_tells_shareholders_t.html

From an MtM reader.

About Vinci/Santiago:

Archive: The Plain Dealer: Rosemary Vinci, employee of Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo, has undisclosed felony record
("One project Vinci pursued at City Hall in 2006 helped La Copa, a controversial West Side bar. Vinci said last month that she lobbied city officials on behalf of La Copa while on county time. City Councilman Joe Santiago, whose campaign Vinci managed, helped the bar obtain a liquor license. The bar, often cited by police, is managed by a convicted heroin dealer, records show.")
http://www.cleveland.com/politics/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/ispol/1211115303234080.xml&coll=2

Archive: The Plain Dealer: Cleveland Councilman Joe Santiago under scrutiny for help to bars
("The FBI is digging into Santiago's efforts on behalf of bar and other business owners, according to three people who said they have been interviewed in the probe.")
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/05/cleveland_councilman_joe_santi.html

From an MrM reader.

Archive: The Plain Dealer: A new Flats means big money - some of it yours
("A company headed by Wolstein and his mother, Iris, worked with the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority to acquire land through eminent domain. [...] The work is buttressed by public financing and grants, at least $100 million worth from city, county, state and federal sources. [...] Cities pay a dear price to redevelop and compete with clean, development-ready sites in the suburbs, said Ed Morrison, an economic development consultant.")
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/10/a_new_flats_means_big_money_so.html

Archive: The Plain Dealer: Flats developers want to lower wages on residential project
("A development group led by Scott Wolstein is asking the city and the Cleveland port authority for changes in the development agreement, one of which would allow lower wages for the project's residential construction.")
http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/05/flats_developers_want_to_lower.html

From an MtM reader, who points me to this string over at UrbanOhio:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,15874.0.html

There's some definite mob overtones going on. Vinci's father James was going to testify against some of the top dogs in the local Mafia but was discovered shot to death at his Jimmy's Steakhouse in the Flats (the old Shorty's now long gone -- the same place that Vinci defended with a shotgun which she pointed at RTA surveyors checking out the path for the Waterfront Line). Two men were investigated for killing James Vinci, but no charges were ever filed against them. One of the accused was protecting his cousin, who was then the city's largest waste hauler and has ties to Dimora. The other is now a made member and is president of a tiny local union (only 100 members) that does millions of dollars worth of Medicaid and Workers Comp claims through a local MCO clinic. Must be the most accident prone union in history! Dimora is tight with those running the employment staffing firm which has the MCO clinic in house.

I left names out of this, but you can see why Dimora got upset at these reporters. If names and more facts came to light, there would be a lot of indictments being handed down by grand juries! But if Dimora was smart, he would have just schmoozed these two reporters and said "I think she's a valuable person. Thanks for asking." Now, the reporters and their editors have some motivation to dig deeper to find out why Dimora got so upset.

Here is the executive summary of a $150,000 report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers for the Cleveland Convention Center Facilities Authority. The Authority suspended operations in February 2006. 

Note that according to a PD report, in 2005 the Turner Construction Company estimated the cost of the Tower City site at $368 million. The estimate was prepared for the CCFA.