CLEVELAND, Ohio — East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King was indicted Thursday on charges that accuse him of stealing $75,000 in city taxpayer money.
King is the latest in a long line of East Cleveland officials accused of crimes. We’re talking about what it means for the city and its residents on Today in Ohio.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin and reporter Courtney Astolfi.
You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.
You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.
Here’s what else we’re asking about today:
This comes from a Columbus Dispatch story. Based partly on intelligence from Cleveland police, the Columbus police were able to do what Cleveland could not with the dirt bike and hot rod crowd that has been taking over intersections and tormenting motorists. What happenes?
Ohio’s record-breaking drought is having some dire impacts on farming, we’re learning as the harvest season continues. How bad is it?
With some fanfare, Ohio expanded its sales tax holiday over the summer, saying it wanted to give relief to inflation-addled Ohioans. Did they take advantage of it?
How many guns has the TSA intercepted from passengers at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport so far this year?
We talked not long ago about the immediate need for Cuyahoga County to get a board-certified child abuse doctor on staff, with the hospitals all but demanding it. Did the county finally fill the job?
Cleveland officials want to make sure employees have the time to vote. What have they done to help that other employers might want to adopt?
The Cleveland Museum of Art has what sounds like a spectacular exhibit coming before the year ends. What’s it about, and how do people get tickets?
This isn’t a local story except that Sean McDonnell, our reporter, wrote it, but it’s interesting. Should we stop buying gift cards?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris Quinn (00:00.812)
I’m happy to report that Laura did cross off her bucket list seeing the Northern Lights, but she did acknowledge to Leila that she was right. They were not that impressive. They look so much more impressive on social media because the iPhone is so much more sensitive than the human eye. Courtney, you live near the lake. You saw him. You thought the same thing, right?
Lisa (00:09.624)
They look so much more impressive on social media.
Courtney (00:20.586)
Yeah, it was out there, but it was pretty pale. You had to squint a little bit, I’d say.
Lisa (00:20.832)
Yeah, it was out there, but it was pretty pale. had to squint a little bit, I’d say.
Chris Quinn (00:26.19)
Cool that people got to see him who wanted to. I was asleep in bed. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from Cleveland.com and the point dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin and Courtney Astolfi. Laura and Layla are off probably because of all their excitement that the Guardians continue their playoff run in game five in Cleveland. Very exciting series. Two very good teams making incredible defensive plays. This has been exciting no matter who wins it. Let’s hope we.
Lisa (00:44.319)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (00:55.768)
Let’s hope it’s the guardians that go on to face the most hated Yankees. The latest in an ever lengthening list of East Cleveland officials was indicted Thursday on charges he used his position to commit crimes and enrich himself. This is a broken record in East Cleveland. Courtney, who is it and what are the allegations?
Lisa (00:59.692)
Mmmmm
Courtney (01:18.412)
Mayor Brandon King is now facing a handful of felony and misdemeanor charges after a grand jury handed up this indictment yesterday. These charges accused King of using more than $75,000 in city money to pay companies he or his family owned and for giving a city owned car to a former councilman who was a King ally. This was funded, know, taxpayers funded gasoline and maintenance for this car.
charges nearly $7,000 in gasoline. So we’ve got allegations here of big time misuse of taxpayer funds and you know, taken together these charges show how King he’s been mayor there since 2016. He ran roughshod over city council when council tried to rein in this spending council obviously had its own doubts about the the properness of this spending and
They tried to pass resolutions and other measures to stop King from doing this. And he just blew past those stop signs in a couple of different ways. So all told King is up against two felony counts of theft in office, two felony counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract and a handful of misdemeanors, including one where if he’s convicted of that, he’ll be barred from holding public office for seven years. This investigation.
moved, moved the way it did after County prosecutor, Michael Malley took it up following separate investigations by the Ohio ethics commission and the state auditor’s office and noteworthy on the state auditor’s office. They had gone to the law director in East Cleveland at one point, Willa Hemmonds to, you know, try and see through charges on this. And she declined to pursue them. So Malley’s running with this ball. Now we did not hear from King to hear his response.
to this indictment at the same time. We’re also seeing charges against former councilman, Ernest Smith. He was the one who got that free use of the city vehicle, according to prosecutors. And we also did not hear from Smith or any attorneys for these two guys.
Chris Quinn (03:29.186)
There was a time when the U.S. Attorney’s Office would investigate these crimes, but it has shied away from looking at public corruption. It’s too bad that because the sentences are more serious there. And that’s in the we’re going to have a story this weekend about all the public officials and police from East Cleveland that have been charged with crimes over the years. It’s it’s a ridiculously long list. Going back to Emmanuel Anwar, who was charged federally. What what’s sad about this is that
that the East Cleveland residents are not being served. We had a story a few weeks ago that there’s only three cops on the street at any time because they just don’t have enough police and they’re begging for help. That it’s a dangerous city. It’s not a city with good services. And the people that look at this from outside think it would be so much better if it merged with Cleveland or Cleveland Heights or something like that because East Cleveland has so much potential.
perfectly located for economic development. All sorts of good things could happen for the people who live there. If only you could trust the government, but the people that fight those mergers are people like King who see the government is a way to steal and enrich himself. And so all that self interest by people who want to get elected to these positions dooms the residents of this city. It’s sad. We just keep talking about it and talking about it and talking about it.
Lisa (04:41.077)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (04:57.452)
The police have been a nightmare for this city all the way up to and including the police chief who was enriching himself. And I just don’t see a way out unless the people of East Cleveland get up and demand it, which we have not seen.
Lisa (05:10.38)
Well, wasn’t there, if I recall correctly, there was going to be a merger between East Cleveland and the city of Cleveland a few years ago, but the East Cleveland people wanted to keep their government structure intact, even though they were going to be part of Cleveland. So they didn’t want to cede control.
Chris Quinn (05:28.364)
Yeah, they they recalled the mayor, who later got charged with crimes to Gary Norton, who saw that becoming a ward of the city of Cleveland, it would be a council ward, was a path to prosperity, because with the Cleveland infrastructure, you could start to do the economic development, you could start to provide basic services. It would have required some kind of contribution from the state to help build up the infrastructure.
But I think the state would have provided it because this is a nightmare. There is no mechanism in state government for a takeover of a city like there is for schools. And unless the legislature passed a bill to kind of insert itself for the citizens of East Cleveland, this is just going to keep happening. Can you imagine living in East Cleveland and knowing there’s only three cops on the street at any one time? How would you ever feel safe? It’s a very sad. Go ahead, Courtney.
Courtney (06:19.616)
It’s hard to see any, it’s just hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel, especially when you see some members of council really tried to represent their constituents. They tried to stop this spending and yet the mayor, you know, blew past those stop signs. The fiscal emergency has gone on there for 12 years, cash strapped much longer than that. What is the end game here for East Cleveland?
Chris Quinn (06:47.894)
And it’s not just abusive to the residents of East Cleveland. The police were abusing anybody who drove through East Cleveland. We had story after story about how dangerous it was, especially for people of color, to drive through that city because the police force was just pulling them over, stealing their money, jailing them on phony charges. I think we’re up to like 18 East Cleveland police officers have been charged with crimes. It’s a disaster that everybody wants to avoid because there is no rule of law.
And here we have yet another mayor charged with enriching himself at the expense of the residents. You are listening to Today in Ohio. This comes from a Columbus dispatch story based partly on intelligence from Cleveland police. The Columbus police were able to do what Cleveland could not with the dirt bike and hot rod crowd that has been taking over intersections and tormenting motorists. Lisa, what happened in Columbus?
Lisa (07:44.266)
Yeah, last weekend, the Columbus Police Department did Operation Burnout, which broke up a street racing and stunt driving group last weekend on the city’s southeast side. They arrested 186 people, including 40 juveniles. They impounded 69 vehicles and 16 firearms were seized, including a ghost gun.
So Columbus city attorney, Zach Klein says that they’re going to be tough on these people. No plea deals are going to pay all their fines and penalties and we’re going to keep their cars until the case is closed. And apparently Columbus has a new city stunt driving ordinance. It means the potential forfeit of any car parts, aftermarket car parts that are used in racing as contraband and it imposes higher penalties as well. So Brian Steele, who’s with the Fraternal Order of Police number nine,
he’s the president, he said, it’s probably connected to the September 29 incidents in Cleveland. And they did get intelligence from Cleveland PD. They made Columbus law enforcement aware of street racers coming to that location where they were. So Columbus PD was able to have a plan. They worked with other agencies and task forces to carry this off. And they even had a helicopter and some spike strips.
Chris Quinn (09:00.494)
Yeah, I do think they learned from what happened in Cleveland and came up with a strategy based on the way Cleveland was so surprised. And they did benefit from Cleveland saying, hey, we know where they’re coming to. You might want to be ready. On the other hand, though, they did it. I don’t think these guys will ever go back to Columbus. It’s too bad they have to give the vehicles back. I mean, this is a wanton willful act to torment people.
and you’re using vehicles in the commission of that crime. And if they’re convicted, it’s too bad they have to give these things back because they’ll use them again. But it sounds like they’re gonna hit them really hard and make them feel the pain of it. It’s just with Columbus now closed to this, because they’re not going back to Columbus, where are they gonna go? Looks like Cleveland and Cincinnati. I hope Cleveland’s ready the next time. Very different story from what happened here.
Lisa (09:52.938)
Well, but to be fair, mean, they, didn’t have any intelligence
Chris Quinn (10:08.224)
They knew they were coming. They had eight state troopers. They knew they were coming. They, they, they just got overwhelmed. I mean, if they would have said to the state troopers, need more than eight, we need a helicopter. And, and if they had their drone program in operation, they might’ve been able to do something. It, it was really disconcerting to have the chief stand up and say, yeah.
Lisa (10:13.359)
they did. Okay.
Lisa (10:25.9)
Mmm.
Chris Quinn (10:32.76)
We didn’t feel like there was much we can do. And again, Columbus had more intelligence based partly on Cleveland. Columbus had the lessons of what not to do in Cleveland, but now we know what you can do and hopefully the next time Cleveland will do it. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Ohio’s record-breaking drought is having some dire impacts on farming. We’re learning as the harvest season continues. How bad is it Courtney? Which crop has been hit the worst?
Lisa (10:41.964)
Mm.
Courtney (11:00.824)
Yeah, so while we’re doing decently on the drought front in most of Cuyahoga County, you know, the rest of the state’s still not doing too hot. As of three days ago, 83 % of Ohio was either considered abnormally dry or in a drought. And in Southeast Ohio in particular, farmers seem to really be struggling. We talked to the director of the Ohio agriculture department who told us that grain yields down in Southeast Ohio have been just massively impacted.
Soybeans in particular are the biggest concern. And it’s not just that the yields down overall. We were told that the quality of the crops are suffering because rain, including those remnants of Helene that blew through, you know, is falling on already stressed out plants. And that leads some, that leads them to some conditions you don’t really want here. Like the soybean pods will break open and their seeds spill out. Or the pods crack open, moisture gets in.
It makes the seed sprout as if it were springing and as if they were planted in the ground. And again, that’s not an outcome you want for your crop. We were told that it’s going to take several weeks of sustained above average precipitation to really correct this problem.
Chris Quinn (12:17.312)
Yeah, it’s so odd to see all the water that you’re seeing in Florida from two different hurricanes. And then you come up north and you see a state that’s in complete drought. And it seems like our harvest in Ohio is going to be pretty pathetic. We haven’t heard on corn yet whether that’s been hit. That’s one of our big crops. But you got to suspect that’s going to be weak also.
Courtney (12:42.139)
Soybeans are a big one as far as I understand for this state, so if they’re taking that hard of a hit, you’ve got to think there’s ill effects elsewhere.
Chris Quinn (12:51.116)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, with some fanfare, Ohio expanded its sales tax holiday over the summer, saying it wanted to give relief to inflation-addled Ohioans. Did they take advantage of it?
Lisa (13:04.044)
Not really. So the expanded sales tax holiday ran from July 30th to August 8th. They had set aside $750 million for this and it would be for most purchases under $500. So the state budget office said the estimated monthly sales tax revenue would, they estimated that it would be reduced to under $250 million, but the state took in $815 million, but still.
That’s less than the three day tax holiday last year with only clothes and school supplies that were tax free. So you have, you know, a shorter window that did better than a longer 10 day window. So state budget director, Kim Murnik says it’s really hard to estimate tax revenue decreases without any past data.
They estimated that it would take 10 days to go through $750 million. But what they did find is that people weren’t shifting their shopping to that 10 day window. And to be fair, I did buy some things tax free, but I didn’t really think about it. I wasn’t, you know, aware of it. And maybe people just weren’t thinking about
Chris Quinn (14:12.898)
I think unless you’re buying a big ticket item where the savings are huge, that this isn’t enough to get people to change their shopping habits. I know you could use it online, but I don’t know how easy that was. Some of the big outfits had calculated it in apparently so that you could. But I think people look for low prices on things more so than thinking about an 8 % drop in the tax rate. It’s interesting that it did not
exceed last year because restaurants and all sorts of other things were covered this time that weren’t covered in the past.
Lisa (14:50.476)
And I also found I had one vendor, know, somebody I bought something from who tried to charge me tax during that day. said, you can’t do that. So I had to, you know, so some retailers really weren’t aware either, I think.
Chris Quinn (15:03.142)
I wonder if that had a lot to do with it. Interesting. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Courtney, how many guns has the TSA intercepted from passengers at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport so far this year?
Courtney (15:16.334)
Yeah, 25 have been dug up by TSA at Hopkins and that’s just through the end of September. But compare that to last year’s year long number. That was 38 last year. you know, it seems like maybe we’re on pace for a slightly lesser number than we saw last year. Nationally, through the end of September, TSA found an average of 18 guns a day at airports across the U.S.
They told us that the vast majority are loaded and that totals out to be over 5,000 turned up by TSA nationwide this year. Compare that to last year, it was over 6,700. So again, I didn’t run the numbers, but it seems like maybe it’s looking to be a slight decrease this year. It’s interesting because more passengers moved through TSA this year nationally. Between January and September, there were 678 million folks who were screened.
And that included like a new record for summer travelers. So it seems like the increase in passengers isn’t necessarily yielding an increase in the number of guns collected.
Chris Quinn (16:24.972)
I think that having a loaded gun would just keep you on alert and that you would never, ever put it in your luggage or leave it in your luggage. But maybe because of the open carry laws, people are just so comfortable having their guns around that they don’t think about it as unusual anymore and they don’t realize it’s there. It’s not like having contraband in their luggage.
It just happens so often and it’s a serious thing. You have to pay huge fines for this. I just don’t get how we have these numbers. Yeah, they’re dropping, but they’re still relatively high. A loaded gun in luggage going on to a plane. I mean, it just can’t happen. And it’s good that the TSA finds them.
Courtney (17:11.106)
Yeah, I mean, there are methods if you want to travel with your gun, there are ways to do that. You have to notify folks and it has to be in a special case and it can’t be loaded. But I too had that same thought, Chris, like, is it just kind of a matter of folks used to carrying them phone keys, wallet, gun, you know, it’s just how they head out the door. I’m intrigued by this as well.
Chris Quinn (17:35.886)
Okay, listening to today in Ohio. We talked not long ago about the immediate need for Cuyahoga County to get a board certified child abuse doctor on staff with the hospitals all but demanding it. We said that the county finally fill the job.
Lisa (17:51.498)
Yes, but it took a while. Apparently there aren’t that many child pediatric, child abuse specialists out there, but we snagged one. Her name is Dr. Kristen Iniguez. She was hired by Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital to be on their staff, but also part of Cuyahoga County’s Child Protection Team. That’s under the auspices of Canopy Child Advocacy Center.
So she will start in January. She comes to us from Marshfield Child Advocacy Center in Wisconsin. She was there for 13 years, evaluating children for neglect, trauma, physical and sexual abuse, and trauma related to violence. So the shortage of candidates who specialize in physical abuse, and everyone’s looking for one, but they’re really hard to find. They actually had a national search. Canobie executive director, Jennifer Johnson says,
We do have medical staff for sexual abuse exams and we’ve done about 64 so far, but we were missing that trained board certified pediatrician. So they did get a letter. There were three Ohio health systems got a letter from the department of child and family services, urging them to fill these key positions immediately.
Chris Quinn (19:03.98)
I imagine that it takes somebody with a strong constitution to do that job, to constantly be interviewing kids about being abused. mean, they’ll give you nightmares and just remove your faith in the world to hear all that. So I wonder what they do to cope with it. Maybe they feel good because they’re rescuing kids from abuse, but we’ve had crime reporters that…
after dealing with crime for enough years just don’t want to do it anymore because they don’t want to write about the suffering of children. And I imagine that in this position where it’s so concentrated, you need some strategies to keep yourself sane.
Lisa (19:45.536)
Yeah, but this is a mission, this is a calling, I think, for people. yes, but they do probably have to have some self-coping skills.
Courtney (19:55.904)
And remember what kind of the point of this position is to kids have suffered physical abuse. And usually there’s a whole slew of interviews they have to go through recounting their trauma. But this person there, the kid who’s already been traumatized doesn’t have to keep reliving it over and over this person’s supposed to streamline that retelling of it. So they’re doing right by those kiddos. And that’s a big win for Cuyahoga County kids.
Chris Quinn (19:56.28)
Yeah.
Lisa (20:15.402)
Right.
Chris Quinn (20:19.918)
Yeah, it’s a key. Yeah, it’s a key position and good for the hospitals for putting the pressure on to get it filled. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The Cleveland Museum of Art has what sounds like a spectacular exhibit coming before the year ends. Lisa, what’s it about and how do people get tickets?
Lisa (20:38.208)
Yeah, this is exciting. actually called my mother because she’s a member of the museum. I said, get those tickets. So it’s called Picasso on Paper and tickets went on sale yesterday for this major exhibition. There will be 300 Picasso works from across his 80 year career. They organized this exhibition with the London Royal Academy of Arts and the I don’t know if I’m saying it right. Musee Picasso Museum in Paris.
The exhibit opens December 8th and runs through March 23rd and it’s going to be, interest is going to be very high because the Cleveland Museum of Art is the only North American venue for this exhibit. It was originally scheduled at the museum for September 2020, but the pandemic derailed that. But since then they’ve actually added new works. So these are exploring his use of paper as an art medium. So there are collages, there are guitars made of paper, and then there are
prints and works related to some of his more famous pieces. So he was experimenting before he created some of these pieces. Tickets, like I said, are probably in high demand. You can order by phone. You can buy them in person at the museum or online.
Chris Quinn (21:46.914)
Yeah, it sounds like it’s going to be something special, a real talker for the winter when we need something to do. How do you know how long it’s there for? It starts in December, but is it here for a little while?
Lisa (21:56.476)
Right, it’s going to be there through March 23rd, so you’re going to have about three, almost four months.
Chris Quinn (22:02.518)
Yeah, it just it’s wonderful that they get this kind of thing. Having that museum in Cleveland just gives us a nice boost. I can’t wait to see it. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. This isn’t a local story, except that Sean McDonald, our reporter, wrote it, but it’s interesting. Courtney, should we stop buying gift cards?
Courtney (22:22.454)
Yeah, maybe ease up on it. Sean tells us he went through data from Bankrate, which is a personal finance website. It shows us that a lot of folks are not using the gift cards they receive. And according to this website’s recent survey, two in five Americans have at least one unused gift card. These folks have an average of $244 in unused gift card money. And that’s way up from 2021 when the average was like half of that $116.
And one in three Americans told Bankrate they’ve lost money either because their gift card expired, they lost it, or the retailer went out of business before they could use it. At the same time, everybody still gives gift cards and maybe this gives us some perspective to be a little bit more deliberate in how we roll it out. You don’t know what to get someone, maybe don’t just default to an obscure gift card that you don’t know that they’re gonna use. Sean tells us that,
You can get gift cards for broad based kind of retailers. Think Amazon where you can get whatever you want and you’re definitely going to use that money. Or if you know someone’s like a particularly like there are Starbucks every day kind of person go for that, but maybe don’t just give them out willy-nilly. a little bit more thoughtful.
Chris Quinn (23:39.98)
Yeah, it’s not really surprising. I think all of us have unused gift cards, which is just a bonus to the establishments that sold them because they get to sit on the money if you don’t ultimately use it. Although don’t they eventually have to make that an unclaimed fund?
Courtney (23:56.002)
There are some rules from the FTC that like require you to be able to have access to it for five years or you can roll over money from an expiring gift card into a new one. Not sure about what you’re talking about, but there are some protections that are in place.
Chris Quinn (24:12.458)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Chris Quinn (24:39.788)
Cleveland officials want to make sure employees have time to vote. What have they done to help that other employees employers might want to adopt Courtney?
Courtney (24:51.404)
Yeah, Cleveland mayor and city council have agreed to this new offering for city workers. They’re giving four hours of paid time off on general election days every year. So city employees have carved out specific time. They can tap that time and go out and head to the polls. And when this was being discussed before city council a few days ago, one of bibs advisors said, this is really aimed at removing barriers for folks to vote. They cited a 2022.
US Census survey that found about a quarter of registered voters who don’t vote miss the vote because they were just too busy. And you can see how the workday can get in the way of getting to the polls. So, you know, while recognizing that this is a broader problem, Cleveland wanted to at least address it in their own house and take care of their own employees. For the first year, there’s going to be a bit of a caveat.
Only non-unionized workers are going to have this benefit at Cleveland. That’s because they’ve got to add the change to the collective bargaining agreements that govern pay time off for unionized employees. similar to other city benefits, we kind of expect this benefit to be rolled into those future contracts so that all workers get this benefit, but they have to get to that point in the process before that can happen.
Chris Quinn (26:10.83)
I remember there was talk, maybe it was before the pandemic, about making Election Day an actual holiday so that it makes it easy for everybody to vote. Whatever happened to that? Did it just kind of disappear in the fog of the pandemic?
Lisa (26:17.932)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney (26:25.836)
Yeah, I mean, that was a talking point, but I really haven’t heard it revisited since then, like you, but it is an issue, right? I mean, you know, when this was getting passed, one of the backers of this idea on city council, Jenny Spencer talked about how America’s kind of an odd duck when it makes elections in the middle of a work day and doesn’t carve out that time for folks to participate in their democracy. She remarked that America makes it pretty hard to vote.
Lisa (26:42.412)
America’s kind of an odd stuff when it makes elections in the middle of a work day and doesn’t part out that time for folks to participate in their democracy. She remarked that America makes it pretty hard to vote. it does seem to be a problem that ought to be addressed.
Courtney (26:54.274)
So it does seem to be a problem that ought to be addressed.
Chris Quinn (26:58.86)
Yeah, I think if it were a holiday, would increase the percentage of people who are voting. with all the attacks that have been made on our election system, making it a holiday could make it a reason to celebrate our cherished election system instead of allowing people like Donald Trump to tear it to pieces. So good move by city of Cleveland. I hope others follow.
Have a great weekend. Thanks, Courtney. Thank you for listening. Come on back Monday for another discussion about the news.
