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FOIA is a lie

FOIA – really stands for Forever Obstinate Information Access

Posted on September 12, 2023 @ 10:07 pm by David Esrati

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August 10, 2021, I filed an appeal in Federal Court asking to force the FBI and the DOJ to turn over recordings of former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, that were played to the Grand Jury. I knew the tapes existed because someone on the Grand Jury is only 2 degrees separated from me (which is often the case in Dayton). If you aren’t familiar with everything is 6 degrees from Kevin Bacon, in Dayton, we’re lucky if you aren’t 1.7 is my running joke.

While tapes played to a grand jury are usually protected, in the case of public officials doing naughty things, Ruth Bader Ginsburg ruled on this back in 1987 when she was on the 12th district Court in Senate of Puerto Rico v. U.S. Dept of Justice. Her ruling was that:

noting that the D.C. Circuit has “never embraced a reading of Rule 6(e) so literal as to draw ‘a veil of secrecy … over all matters occurring in the world that happen to be investigated by a grand jury.”

Summary of this case from Boehm v. Fed. Bureau of Investigation

This means that naughty elected officials can’t just hide the evidence of their naughtiness by having them presented to a grand jury, and then doing some horsetrading (like becoming a Confidential Informant) to make it all go away.

Now, I’m making a leap here, that Nan traded something with the feds, the same way her pal disgraced City Commissioner Joey D. Williams did when he got caught 1 year into his final term, accepting a bribe in exchange for demolition contracts. The only difference? Williams was allowed to stand for re-election with an agreement to resign if re-elected, and Whaley, dropped out of her re-election campaign for Mayor at the last minute- and instead ran a futile race for Governor, bilking donors out of millions while she was supposedly still gathering intel for the FBI and DOJ.

But, of course, since you read this blog religiously, you knew all that. The real question that needs to be answered sooner than later, is if people charged with Federal Crimes should be able to stand for reelection? (Like a certain former president with at least 4 different indictments).

At some point, the FBI and the DOJ need to be held responsible for NOT informing the public that Williams was a crook- and costing us a very expensive special election that would have been totally unnecessary if Williams had been charged back in 2015 when he was caught red-handed, instead of waiting until Apr 30, 2019 to indict him along with Clayton Luckie, Roshawn Winburn and Brian Higgins as part of “The Culture of Corruption.”

My question on “indictment day” to the Feds prosecutor, US Attorney Benjamin Glassman, was “$130M went missing at Wright State, you didn’t prosecute anyone, this is for a maximum of $250K and you are telling us that only Black Men are guilty of corruption in Dayton?”

He didn’t have an answer then, they don’t have an answer now, and the reality is, the people are losing faith in our system of checks and balances in Government.

3 Federal Judges recused themselves from my FOIA appeal and the fourth tried to dismiss it by claiming I hadn’t properly hadn’t appealed my request 3x each to BOTH the FBI and the DOJ (which are 2 fingers of the same fist). She ignored the legal decision I cited from RBG entirely.

And here we are, still with nothing happening except filing after filing, at my expense, not to be reimbursable. The only way I get paid for my time is if I write a book or a movie screenplay about fighting the Federal government against impossible odds.

What it comes down to, is the Feds have been trying to delay, playing stupid, saying I have no proof of anything, knowing full well, I can’t disclose my source, and that I’m not supposed to have seen the Higgins discovery which implicated Williams. When I filed my “proof” a few months ago, they reacted with lightning speed filing to seal and strike my filing– which the court still hasn’t ruled on.

Of course, I’ve already published it all, and nothing on the Internet really goes away, so, the cats out of the bag that the court realizes it has a racial disparity problem with Juries in the Southern District Of Ohio, and that I’d published the Higgins discovery long ago, before being ordered to destroy it- so it was still there.

But, here’s the thing, this whole question about the public losing trust in our institutions is getting very dangerous. And when I read a NY Times article that quoted presidential hopeful and current Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis saying:

“All of these deep-state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on Day 1,” Mr. DeSantis said during a New Hampshire campaign stop late last week. The governor, a Navy veteran, used similar language about the Department of Defense late last month, saying that if elected he would need a defense secretary who “may have to slit some throats.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/us/politics/trump-republican-primary-candidate-trust.html

I think I’d had enough of the courts sitting with their thumbs up their ass on the question of “did the FBI and DOJ commit a felony by not arresting Williams while still in office?

Here’s my motion to show cause, asking for the court to decide on this question, or resign if they can’t seem to find the time to do their job, Aug 8, 2023:

The Freedom of Information Act was passed in 1967 so that a government of the people, by the people, can’t be corrupted by the people in power. These delays by the judges, covering for the imbeciles in the FBI and the DOJ that can’t catch the real crooks to save their lives, has real implications. They are setting a precedent, that even if you get caught committing a heinous crime in office, you can just cooperate, provide nothing else, and not only stay out of prison, but keep your reputation intact.

This is unacceptable, and it needs to stop. If in fact, Whaley isn’t dirty, didn’t commit any crimes, then releasing the tapes should be easy. But, since they spent so much time and effort on this investigation, it’s time for some accountability.

Or maybe the judges just want to wait until all hell breaks loose and throat slitting becomes the standard for taking care of those who dare to question the validity of our Federal Government. That they’ve prosecuted and imprisoned the pawns in the Jan 6 insurrection but refuse to indict the instigator in chief, should tell you everything you need to know.

Justice only is applied to the little people anymore. And just like freedom, information, isn’t free either.

Ban Paqui chips- not guns

Guns don’t kill people, spicy chips do.

Posted on September 8, 2023 @ 3:15 pm by David Esrati

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Two days ago, the New York Times told the world that “Harris Wolobah, 14, of Worcester, Mass., died at a hospital on Friday shortly after eating the chip, his mother said”- the chip, Paqui’s “one chip challenge” comes one to a box for $10 and dares you to eat it- without any water, milk, ice cream- and see how long you last. It’s a ridiculously spicy chip made by Amplify Snack brands, a division of Hershey foods since 2017.

The chip “was made with the Carolina Reaper, which has been measured at more than two million Scoville heat units, the scale used to measure how hot peppers are, and the Naga Viper, which has been measured at just under 1.4 million Scoville units. Jalapeño peppers are typically rated at between 2,000 and 8,000 units.”

It was voluntarily recalled the next day. The autopsy won’t be complete for 12 weeks, but this one death (and the coming lawsuit) scared Hershey’s out of the nuclear hot spicy chip business.

Yet, hundreds of American’s die daily by getting shot. Guns make our country one of the most dangerous places on the planet, but gun manufacturers have nothing to worry about, because, well, guns don’t kill people, people kill people and Congress has been bought by the NRA.

Imagine if with every shooting, lawyers could sue gun manufacturers for everything they have, because they sold a product that was unsafe?

Or we required gun owners to carry million dollar insurance policies to make sure that no one gets shot with their guns?

Bet something would change.

But, no, that’s not the American way, even though we did manage to ban “Lawn Darts” or “Jarts” after just a few deaths of children.

The Paqui chip may be banned even faster.

Because, now we know, guns don’t kill people, hot chips do.

Tipp City School Board Member Anne Zakkour gives a Nazi salute and Seig Heil to the board president who resigns

Tipp City School Board- 2 different stories

Posted on September 6, 2023 @ 2:46 pm by David Esrati

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This is a follow on to the last post, where I talked about “Journalism 101 on investigating candidates and politicians” and how the news isn’t necessarily what it used to be.

Two stories out of last nights Tipp City School Board meeting:

The Dayton Daily news: “Tipp City school board president Patry resigns abruptly“

update: after this blog post was published, they changed their story and headline to “Tipp City board member gives Nazi salute during meeting” same URL. Losers.

Dayton 24/7 Now has this “Tipp City school board member gives Nazi salute to board president during meeting“

The Dayton Daily had this: “Simon Patry, president of the Tipp City Exempted Village Schools Board of Education, told fellow board members Tuesday evening he was resigning from the board as of midnight (11:59 p.m. Tuesday).
In a statement provided later Tuesday night, Patry said he resigned because of family and business obligations. The announcement came near the end of the board’s monthly work session.”

Zero mention of the Sieg Heil from Zakkour. He’s a class act. She’s in desperate need of an education.

But, what happens in Tipp City, is just a microcosm of what happens in America today where it seems we’ve lost track of civility, integrity, respect, and decency.

The fact that neither Zakkour or Patry were running for re-election is nice, but the crazy part of Ohio law is that once elected to a School Board, there’s almost ZERO chance of getting removed from that position (readers of this blog may remember when I showed that Dr. Adil Bagirov had moved out of the district– and that no one would lift a finger to remove him).

Zakkour should be removed from office. There’s zero room for Nazi salutes in the board room. Imagine if she’s said the “N” word if she was on the Dayton Board? They technically couldn’t remove her either. Ohio has a problem, but this is just the Tipp of the so-called iceberg.
There are 88 counties in Ohio and 608 school boards. There are also Educational Service Centers. There’s a State School Board. There’s way too many uneducated, folks, hiring educational leaders and getting horrible results. One only has to look at how the State could recognize Dr. Libby Lolli as “Superintendent of the Year” while she failed miserably to run our district.

Where you choose to get your news, credible information about who to vote for, to understand what’s happening in your community matters. And, in this case, Channel 45- a FOX news affiliate, seems to be the one where you get “the rest of the story.”

And Esrati.com to point out the errors of omission by the local newspaper of record. Be glad there’s at least one journalist trying to keep you informed in Dayton.

Criminals on the ballot

Journalism 101 on investigating candidates and politicians

Posted on September 4, 2023 @ 10:20 pm by David Esrati

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At the April 27, 2023 Montgomery County Democratic Party meeting, Mike Brill got all excited about his brilliant strategy to attack Republicans- from that day’s paper:

While state legislators make laws, a few don’t always follow them when they’re behind the wheel.

Three Ohio lawmakers racked up more than 10 traffic tickets over the past decade, ranging from speeding violations to tickets for not wearing a seat belt or running stop signs.

At the top of the list was state Sen. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, who had 14 traffic convictions since 2013, including a speeding ticket for driving 80 mph in a 55 mph zone in 2017 in Franklin County. He has been cited nine times for driving 15 or more miles per hour over the posted limit in the past decade.
When asked about his driving, Antani sent a written statement: “I’ve been told I’m a young man in a hurry.

With the issues we face, we need someone who’s in a hurry to fix them. However, I do regret and apologize for speeding and will do better in the future.”

He also argued that the records were illegally released and should not be publicized.

Source: What’s the rush? Antani, other lawmakers rack up tickets – Dayton Daily News

There’s only one problem with this strategy- the Montgomery County Democratic Party doesn’t do a very good job of making sure the people they back are all above board. You don’t have to go back very far to the “Culture of Corruption” investigation where Dems were indicted and convicted: former City Commissioner Joey D. Williams for accepting a bribe in office, Roshawn Winburn- for accepting bribes while employed by the patronage system, Clayton Luckie- who was already a felon from his days as a state rep, Joyce Cameron- former Mayor of Trotwood. Need I go on?

Going back to my start in politics 30 years ago, part of what hurt Richard Clay Dixon in his re-election campaign were charges uncovered by the Dayton Daily News that he’d taken sick days from his Dayton Public Schools job to go on City junkets and double dip illegally. He lost to Mike Turner by 400 votes.

Other candidates have been derailed with details like their voting records- or lack of them. I remember the paper publishing Pam Miller Howard’s random voting record as a way to embarrass her.

Countless times, the newspaper editorial board took positions the wrote me off- never caring what my platform was. I wasn’t backed by a party- or a union- or one of the editors (Ellen Belcher) who was the wife of a democratic Judge in Montgomery County (Dennis Langer).

The reality is, investigative journalism, reporting on and digging into backgrounds is a thing of the past.

And, the parties- with their declining attendance at meetings (tonight they were lucky to have 45 people in the room- and there are 382 precincts that are supposed to be represented) have alienated so many people that they are kidding themselves that they still have power.

Case in point: Jordan Wortham ran, without support of the Republican party last year, spent practically no money, and initially beat Carolyn Rice before the BOE miraculously found not just enough votes for Carolyn to win, but enough to rule out a re-count. Jordan was a candidate for Dayton City Commission last Tuesday, and not a single article has really gotten past calling him a former Dayton police officer who was fired (lawsuit still pending). Not a single mention of his father, former DPD Detective Tony Spells or his mother, Dayton Municipal Court Judge Mia Wortham Spells.

Yet, you’ll always hear that Dayton Clerk of Courts is the son of former Judge Dan Gehres, or back in the day, that former County Commissioner, Clerk of Courts and about a lifetime of sucking at the party teat, Dan Foley was the son of a former Judge from before my time. Foley never had a job that the party didn’t give him, starting as a desk jockey for former Congressman Tony Hall. The only reason Mike Foley is our Clerk of Court now, is because he made signs that looked just like Dan’s and confused the voters (we’re still waiting to hear how bad he was in office- after an investigation started after a whistleblower exposed him for doing politics in the county building).

We know Russ Joseph has been handed job after job, including 2 elected offices by appointment, and now the Deputy Directorship at the BOE- without having to do anything but kiss the party ring. He’s never been off the teat, and his brother Matt Joseph, who is running for his 6th term on the Dayton City Commission has had a pretty sweet run of zero competition thanks to the party power structure.

So, when Mohamed Al-Hamdani says they are going out to the community to have listening sessions to try to bring people into the party, I couldn’t help but say something (as someone who has never been accepted by the friends and family club) suggesting he take lessons from Alison and Tim Benford who run the wonderful South Dayton Democratic Club. You know, where everyone is welcome, they have interesting speakers, and they actually try to give back to the community. Al-Hamdani reminded me that I wasn’t a member of this organization- and not a “democrat”- to which I responded with “Apparently 105,000 voters thought I was”- as I got threatened with being tossed out of the room.

Here’s the crazy thing. Mohamed got to be Party Chair in a vote of winning a majority of less than 180 voters.

And, when he got elected to school board, as part of a slate of four out of eight candidates- he came in third, and failing his running mate Paul Bradley (who’s still sucking at the Dem party teat somewhere in the County Building)

  1. William E Harris 8529
  2. Jocelyn Rhynard 8026
  3. Mohamed Al-Hamdani 8025
  4. Karen Wick-Gagnet 7816
  5. Joe Lacey 7617
  6. Paul Bradley7284
  7. Mario Gallin 5956
  8. Jo’el Jones 4895

Now, of course, the election where nobody voted is over, and now when I publish this, no one can get offended that I’m going relenting to dirty politics (you know, like when the party paid for mailers attacking Shenise Turner Sloss and Darryl Fairchild).

I knew this information weeks before the election, and even shared it with the Dayton Daily news, and the 3 television stations. If I was a paid journalist, and given any respect at all in this community, I’d have called and asked each candidate about these records (which come from an online background check service).

For Chris Shaw, the newspaper has ignored his criminal record in at least 3 elections now:

  • 07/25/2019 Wood County Case TRD1904964 Speed, Guilty 82/65
  • 11/10/2015 Montgomery County Case 2015 TRD 03354 E FND GUILTY TO LESSER CHARGE’ DISORDERLY CONDUCT/ PHYSICAL CONTROL
  • 07/10/2013 DAYTON MUNICIPAL 13TRD09542 Guilty Expired license plates
  • 06/30/2013 DAYTON MUNICIPAL 2013TRD009542 Guilty Expired License Plates, withdrawn- Seat Belt violation, Tail light- one required red
  • 10/30/2010 FAIRBORN MUNICIPAL TRD1009925 Guilty Seatbelt
  • 04/20/2010 MONTGOMERY EASTERN MUNICIPAL 2010 TRD 01369 E Guilty speed
  • 03/14/2007 Montgomery County 07CRB02839 Not Guilty M1 misdemanor- Firearm ID card Required Not guilty M1 Misdemeanor Improper Handling M.V.
  • 11/15/2006 FAIRBORN MUNICIPAL COURT TRD0613688 Guilty Seatbelt
  • 02/20/2001 DAYTON MUNICIPAL 01TRC01760 M1 DUI alcohol/ Seatbelt/CHG Lanes Guilty 17% Breath,ACT PHY CNTRL OF VEH UN INFLU
  • 12/06/2000 Mayors court 00CRB00899-A / 00TRD02438-A/00TRD02438-B Guilty Open Container/NO Operators License/No Front Plate
  • 12/21/2000 Dayton Municipal 00TRD15002 DR UNDER FRA SUS
  • 02/11/1999 Dayton Municipal 98TRD25205 Guilty Driving w/o lic
  • 03/30/1998 DAYTON MUNICIPAL 1998-TRD-007379 GUILTY DRIVING WITHOUT LICENSE
  • 04/21/1998 Dayton Municipal 98TRD07379 Guilty Driv w/o lic
  • 04/29/1997 Franklin County 1997 TR D 120607 Failure to display PLT, Seatbelt usage, Speed, DR U/SUSP-REV, Valid OPS/EXP OPS
  • 03/27/1997 DAYTON MUNICIPAL 1997-TRD-005892 TRAFFIC SPEEDING, GUILTY DRIVING WITHOUT A LICENSE
  • 02/13/1996 Franklin County 1996 TR D 107523 Dismissed- Bond forfeiture Seatbelt Usage
  • 03/23/1996 Dayton Municipal 1996-TRD-005338 Dismissed EXP PLTS, SEAT BELT, RED LIGHT GUILTY Driving without license
  • 3/25/1996 Franklin Municipal Traffic 1996 1994 TR D 145249 Dismissed Speed Paid Waiver
  • 05/13/1995 Dayton Municipal 1995-TRT-008215 Guilty SP 20MPH OR LESS

So we know that before Chris Shaw was anointed to the Dayton City Commission, over the very capable and honest Darryl Fairchild (who had bowed out to allow Jeff Mims to run the previous year- with the understanding that he was waiting “his turn” in line), no one did a background check or published anything derogatory against Shaw.

Newcomer to this election, Marcus Bedinger also has a record of similar issues:

  • 05/12/2014 MONTGOMERY WESTERN MUNICIPAL 2014 TRD 01497 W Dismissed Expired OL/OPERATE A MV WITHOUT A LICENSE, LIGHTED LIGHTS ON MOTOR VEHICLE
  • 08/30/2010 BOWLING GREEN MUNICIPAL 10CRB02187-A Guilty Disorderly Conduct
  • 03/12/2010 Athens 2010CRB00638 Misdemeanor Drug Abuse (Status unavailable) Not showing up in their court records- just on a background check.
  • 12/18/2009 BOWLING GREEN MUNICIPAL 09CRB02971-A Guilty UNAUTH USE OF PROPERTY

I asked Marcus about this, and he gave me a response:

“Though some would try to use my life story as a political cudgel, I am not ashamed of my past, nor have I ever needed to hide from it. I come from a loving family of strong faith, but I have not always walked the path that God or my parents laid out for me. However, it is shameful to try and reduce my character as a Black man navigating life in America to any encounter with the justice system. I have paid my dues when wrong, but I have also paid dues to this system unjustly— an experience that is far too common in my community. So I will not let those instances define me or my future and they haven’t. I teach my sons everyday to be better than my errors and my triumphs. That is the legacy I will leave behind and I am proud of it.”
Please enjoy opining on my college days. You’re a colorful writer. I look forward to it.

Facebook Instant Message Aug 1, 2023

Looking up all the other candidates,

Wortham has a 2019 “Driving on other than the right side” Matt Joseph has a speeding ticket in 2001, Valerie Duncan has a housing code violation, some speeding tickets, an “AFTER STOP” violation, and abuse of 911 system.

Me, well, 3 speeding tickets and a right on red violation, last one was in 2015 and I don’t even remember it.

As to voting records, if the candidate moved out of the county, there will be voting holes. However, it’s pretty clear who always votes, and who doesn’t. Interesting that Valerie Duncan voted in the republican primary in 2012.

Voting records
DatetypeBedingerDuncanEsratiJosephShawWortham
11/8/22GeneralVoted:XVoted:xVoted:XVoted:xVoted:xVoted:x
8/2/22PrimaryVoted:DVoted:DVoted:D
5/3/22PrimaryVoted:DVoted:dVoted:DVoted:DVoted:dVoted:r
11/2/21GeneralVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:x
5/4/21SpecialVoted:xVoted:XVoted:xVoted:xVoted:x
11/3/20GeneralVoted:XVoted:xVoted:xVoted:xVoted:xVoted:x
4/28/20PrimaryVoted:dVoted:dVoted:dVoted:d
11/5/19GeneralVoted:xVoted:XVoted:xVoted:x
5/7/19Primary/SpecialVoted:xVoted:XVoted:xVoted:x
11/6/18GeneralVoted:xVoted:XVoted:xVoted:xVoted:x
5/8/18PrimaryVoted:DVoted:DVoted:DVoted:x
11/7/17GeneralVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:xVoted:x
11/8/16GeneralVoted:xVoted:XVoted:xVoted:XVoted:x
3/15/16PrimaryVoted:DVoted:DVoted:DVoted:dVoted:r
11/3/15GeneralVoted:XVoted:XVoted:xVoted:x
5/5/15Primary/SpecialVoted:XVoted:xVoted:x
11/4/14GeneralVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:x
5/6/14PrimaryVoted:DVoted:DVoted:D
11/5/13GeneralVoted:XVoted:xVoted:X
5/7/13SpecialVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:x
11/6/12GeneralVoted:xVoted:XVoted:XVoted:xVoted:X
3/6/12PrimaryVoted:RVoted:DVoted:d
11/8/11GeneralVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:X
11/2/10GeneralVoted:XVoted:XVoted:XVoted:X
7/13/10Primary/SpecialVoted:dVoted:D
5/4/10PrimaryVoted:DVoted:D

The upper and lower case letters are the stupid way the Montgomery County Board of Elections tabulates if it was absentee or in-person. Guaranteed to be impossible to do a mass search since X and x are the same to most searches.

Draw your own conclusions.

Journalism should still matter.

And, I’m sorry I’ve not been posting more lately, I’ve spent quite a bit of time following the new “Interim Superintendent” at his community conversations and ridiculously long board meetings, and posting those videos on the Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ElectEsrati/videos

Old veteran, returns to the pool where he had his first job as a lifeguard, to recertify

City of Dayton doesn’t want you to swim

Posted on August 27, 2023 @ 10:46 pm by David Esrati

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Back on July 31st I wrote “Why Jermaine and Jonquel can’t swim” and talked about the city’s excuse for barely having the pools open and other questionable management practices. I was also putting out a call for people to sign up for the lifeguard course they were offering for free- so they could get more lifeguards.

I took the course, as did 4 others. Supposedly, they had 10 signed up. Maybe the calls from the head lifeguard scared half the class off. Either way, it was still stupid to close both pools for 3 days to run the class.

Day 3 of the class, the 2 women in the class didn’t show. Now there were only 3 of us. Me, a retired Army Sergeant First Class, and a young kid who was just looking for a job that didn’t involve asking if “you want fries with that.” All of us passed the test, and then, nothing. No calls, no offers. My certificate from the Red Cross came the following Tuesday. I called. Nothing. Sarge was calling too. Turns out, the city doesn’t even hire lifeguards- it hires a temp service to hire lifeguards. Staffco. CompTech.

I tell them what 15 hours I’m available each week- M-F 6am to 9am- and that if they open the pools on Saturday to teach swim lessons, I’ll guard for 4 hours. She says “we can’t work you into the schedule.” I’m scratching my head. I swim M-W-F at Lohrey- and there are 3 guards “working” one on the chair- and 2 twiddling their thumbs. It seems simple that if they had 4 in the morning- they could have 2 at each pool and have both pools open. But, that’s really not the problem- it’s not a shortage of lifeguards at all- it’s that they don’t want people swimming at the pools, they don’t want to have the pools at all.

How do I know? Well, Thursday morning I drove over to Princeton to swim. The pool was closed- because there was lightning. I’m sorry, it’s an indoor pool, there’s no reason to close the pool. I called Kettering, “do you close the indoor pool when there’s lightning?” the answer nope.

In fact, if Kettering didn’t have it’s facilities open 7 days a week, the city would never hear the end of it. In Dayton, people just accept this ridiculous behavior by incompetent middle management. The first time I encountered this “everyone out of the pool” because of lightning- I went and looked it up, and forwarded my finding to the Lohrey site manager. And, when I took the lifeguard course, the book has an entire section that says no, don’t clear the pool except when there’s a power outage.

Weather Conditions and Indoor Facilities

Indoor facilities are safe from most weather problems but may still be affected. Severe weather can cause a power failure; therefore, the facility should have some kind of portable or emergency lightning. In the event of a power failure, you should clear the pool because circulation and filtration of pool water will not be possible. If weather conditions cause safety concerns, you also should clear the deck. Follow the facilitys’s EAP for severe weather conditions.

Page 42 American Red Cross Lifeguarding Manual

If the City of Dayton really cared about the safety of it’s citizens, they should have shut the County Jail down long ago- people actually do die in it, but, there has NEVER been a recorded instance of someone getting injured in an indoor pool because of lightning. For that matter, you’re safer in the pool in an electrical storm than being in the streets in the city of Dayton- where we have a whole bunch of people getting shot. Maybe if the pools were open, kids would be swimming instead of joining gangs? And maybe, Dayton kids wouldn’t be dying by drowning.

As I dug into the whole temp firm thing, I got more annoyed. There can’t be union rules for lifeguards as the director told me, since only 1 lifeguard was actually a city employee- all the rest, working for the temp firm. In fact, one guy, who’d been a temp for 4 years, was finally getting hired full time. Another, who has a Water Safety Instructor license (he’s licensed to teach swimming), is going to let it expire, because they still won’t hire him.

When I put in a Public Records Request weeks ago through the cities new PRR system, NextRequest, and I tried to create an account to track my request, the confirmation email never came. Follow up calls to a very helpful public information officer had her wondering why the system didn’t work. She also told me the city doesn’t use temp firms for hiring- but, no records have yet to show up.

UPDATE

29 Aug 2023, this response came:

· The City of Dayton Recreation Department uses the Temp Agency CompTech. The billable rate is $4.05 per hour and the temporary lifeguards are paid $15.00 per hour.

· There is no policy in place for how long guards are temps. The temporary lifeguards are continuous.

· The City of Dayton employee who is certified through red Cross is Douglas Hoogesteden and his position is Head Lifesaving Instructor (HLI), and position is paid at $20.82 per hour.”

I’m pretty sure that to pay the staffing company, it’s $4.05 over the full pay, including the employers part of taxes and the math works out closer to $25 an hour.

The reality is, if the city is paying lifeguards $15 an hour through a temp firm, it’s more than likely that they are paying almost $30 an hour for the guards- between the taxes, the admin, and the markup by the temp firm. If they just hired them direct and paid a living wage, we wouldn’t have a lifeguard shortage. I’m still waiting for the details on this contract and how many people the city has either directly employed or temps- that can guard.

A few other things have come to light as well. Apparently, the multi-million dollar splash park they built at Roosevelt Commons hasn’t been open since Covid hit. It’s not lifeguard shortages that are the real reason either. According to sources, the plumbing wasn’t designed properly, and the park needs a sizeable investment to be able to come back online. The real question is why hasn’t the city sued the architects, the contractors, the equipment manufacturers- for this useless waterpark? Once again, the kids of Dayton aren’t a priority of the Mayor or Commissioners, who instead of investing in kids and our community- are busy guaranteeing a cut rate airline reimbursement if they don’t fill their flights to Orlando. Really. I can’t make this shit up.

In November, Dayton City Commission approved an air service community partner agreement with the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce. This was approved about one week after Avelo announced it was starting service in Dayton.

Under the agreement, the city agreed to provide $200,000 to the Dayton chamber to implement a minimum revenue guarantee deal with JobsOhio.

The city’s $200,000 contribution was going to be leveraged with a JobsOhio grant of $800,000, which means as much as $1 million would be available to airlines if they could not meet revenue projections, Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein said back in November.

As part of the minimum revenue guarantee agreement, Dayton and its community partners share the risk of launching new air service along with the air carrier, Dickstein said.

“Dayton will only disperse the $200,000 if it is needed,” she said.

Source: Avelo blames subpar demand for leaving Dayton airport

So, you heard it here first, we do have money to subsidize airlines flying to the Magic Kingdom, but, if you want to enjoy a splash park in Dayton, go to Kettering.

By the way, Sarge got hired. It’s kind of a homecoming for him. His first job was at Princeton as a lifeguard and he met his wife there. He told me how the roof used to open, and how popular the place used to be. It’s a ghost town now. He started last week. He’s putting in about 13-15 hours a week, switching between the pools. Neither of us have seen ‘the kid” who passed the class with us. Did the city really close both pools for 3 days, to hire just 1 part-time lifeguard through a temp firm?

Yep.

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