Scale, Scope and Effect: Culture of Corruption
Watching the members of the Dayton City Commission scurry to their cars to avoid saying anything, seeing the Mayor give a late statement and hearing that the City is going to investigate themselves probably didn’t help instill public confidence at all.
The shutting down of the Human Relations Council, which is also the States Minority Business Assistance Center doesn’t help keep small businesses benefiting from government contracting.
Watching political leaders of both parties deny that there are issues with the way they’ve done their deals in the backrooms for decades was just icing on a very bad moldy cake. The FBI’s biggest problem is where to start first and how many people do they have to scare straight to put the whole Monarchy of Montgomery County on notice that the good old days of hiring your brother, a convicted rapist, into the Board of Elections are over (yes, it really did happen). Or the City Managers daddy was storing porn on a city computer while “working” (yes, it really did happen) or…. you get the point.
Just remember, the Montgomery County Democratic Party endorsed Clayton Luckie, Joey Williams and now is endorsing Matt Joseph and Chris Shaw in the upcoming run-off election for Dayton City Commission. They also endorsed three of the fools on the Dayton School Board who were trying to hand over board duties to oversee the districts investments to the treasurer and the superintendent on Tuesday night before the only sane one, John McManus, schooled them on the law (note, Al-Hamdani is nominally an attorney).
When I questioned the FBI, DOJ and State AG why they were only capable of indicting and cuffing black men in this town for corruption, the Dayton Daily refused to attribute my question. Today, they repeated my name, over and over and yet weren’t directly quoting.
Those on the ballot are incumbents Chris Shaw and Matt Joseph, plus challengers David Esrati, Valerie Duncan and Shenise Turner-Sloss.
“If it doesn’t impact the city commission races, there’s something very wrong,” said Esrati….
Esrati, who previously has run for a commission seat, said Shaw and Joseph — the candidates endorsed by the Montgomery County Democratic Party — are part of what he called a culture of corruption that has hurt the community for a long time.
Esrati said the city’s corrupt and unfair activities include spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on properties they then hand over to developers basically for free. He said this creates an uneven playing field for businesses.
Esrati said the incumbent commissioners are “yes” men who do the bidding of the top players in the Democratic Party, which he described as a “monarchy” that takes care of friends.
“This is a real opportunity for the people of Dayton to say, ‘Enough’s enough,’ ” said Esrati, referring to the upcoming elections.
Esrati said voters should elect two new commissioners this fall because corruption has happened on Shaw’s and Joseph’s watch.
Esrati also said the city cannot be trusted to investigate itself, even using an outside firm because it is still being paid by the city.
Esrati said he supports creating an elected position of chief ethics officer to provide oversight and accountability to government offices and agencies.
Source: Charges could affect Dayton races – Dayton Daily News
If you live in Dayton and somehow don’t think that there is a “culture of corruption” here, by all means, vote for Matt Joseph and Chris Shaw, but if you’re sick of being fleeced by these folks, let’s make one thing absolutely clear- there is only one candidate on the ballot who has been pointing these things out for decades (this blog began in 2005 and has over 2800 posts, and my youtube channel has over 350 videos).
Watch the full interview with Cory Frolik of the Dayton Daily news and Jim Otte from Ch 7 here:
Let’s be clear, the FBI could spend several lifetimes investigating and indicting and trying cases in Dayton for corruption. But, what we need to do to stop things like this from happening is very simple. I’ll lay it out in bullet points so that there is no confusion:
- Reduce and eliminate the number of elected offices in Montgomery County. Too many offices and too much duplication make it hard for watchdogs to keep track of funds. Call this Regionalization.
- Ban anyone working in a job under an elected official from being on the central committee of either party to stop the patronage/pay-to-play politics that give people like Russ Joseph 9 lives as an appointed elected official.
- Create an elected office in every county that is non-partisan, as a chief ethics officer that will help and assist citizens with filing records requests, Open Meetings Act violations, oversee the board of elections and assist in ballot/petition processes.
- Create a restriction on funding any non-profit/quasi-governmental operation that receives more than 10% of its funding from government sources of any kind. With tax dollars there must be elected oversight.
- Ban donations to political campaigns from other political campaign funds.
- Any political party must make available all resources such as mailing discounts, or databases to any party member running for office or lose their status as an official party.
- All requests from government for public bid must include a score sheet in the bid package, that must be rated and returned with recommendations, signed by evaluators and available for review by bidders and the public at large. All bids must be placed on a central site maintained by the county. Registered businesses would be auto-notified of opportunities.
- The Sunshine Laws, Open Meetings Act, ORC 121.22 needs to remove the clause for removal from office at the discretion of the county prosecutor or the AG and be replaced with the discretion of the judge or jury in an OMA case. The $500 “per occurrence” fine needs to be re-labeled “per violation” to include every single rebuff, threat, message sent in violation with a cap of $100,000. Also, since we now have an ethics office, they will provide technical assistance to pro-se litigants at no-charge.
I welcome other suggestions in the comments for new rules to end corruption in Montgomery County.
All great ideas. I hope these indictments help change the thinking of the west side democrats but I doubt it. I’d like to see you win however I think you are so far left on social programs that you would lose your mind and spend $$$ foolishly on foolish projects that you think will help the culture of Dayton. I admire your tenacity and always have. You are always willing to take on the government but you’ve never really come out and said what you will do if elected. What will be different? What can you do as a single vote do to make a difference? Just curious.
Also, this is your party that’s under attack. Your people that’s indicted. You are not far from separation. You may try to say you are but in reality, you are a liberal democrat. Who runs the county? Liberal democrats.
Who gets the cheese next David? We shall see. I do think NaN May be next to be Indicted. Her statement was cryptic and led me to believe she’s part of the chaos.
We can only hope.
@YAAR- you have no idea what foolish projects I may have planned. And, you forget- Darryl Fairchild isn’t part of the party anymore. That’s 2 votes. When you consider that any of the other 4 may end up doing a perp walk… things could change on the commission.
When you decide to post under a real name- and stop throwing hand grenades- we may take you more seriously on here.
David — You are making a great contribution to the general good by your many efforts to speak truth to power. I’m pulling for you to win on the 7th and to be on the November ballot. It would be a breakthrough if you would win in November. Something for you to consider is that you bring negative attention to your campaign by emphasizing regionalism. Regionalism is a sharply unpopular idea throughout the wider county and it is a dream that will never materialize. Most voters realize that a Dayton city commissioner pushing for regionalism, regardless of its merits, would be wasting his or her time. Going forward for the November campaign I’d encourage you to set regionalism on the back burner and instead focus on communicating how you will fulfill standards for excellence in your role as city commissioner. How will you be transparent? How will you effectively engage and empower citizens? How will you build the consensus needed to create and advance solutions to the big challenges of the future?
Mike- Regionalism is critical to our success. There are ways to sell it. But, first, we need data.
@YAAR- btw- try talking to Matt Joseph or Chris Shaw on their sites… will they respond?
Do they have a single original thought?
I’ve got plenty of plans spelled out on http://www.electesrati.com and it will be more concise after the runnoff election next week.
David, there is no hope for regionalism. Ask Dan Foley. A better way forward is to vitalize the present structure so that we have a system of effective grassroots democracy. You could envision a future that could find consensus based on a vitalization approach. You’ll find nothing but push-back for efforts to change the structure of the status quo.
@Mike- you run for office. You get to say what you want. The people most against regionalism are the people who have been busy stuffing their pockets with unnecessary payola to way too many folks. Go write on your own blog. Cheers
If the community does not embrace this discussion now, then we will permanently lose control and accountability of our local governments. I like most of these ideas although I think the ethics officer should be appointed. Here are some additional ideas: 1. Pass laws that mirror the Federal Hatch Act and have them apply to County and Municipal Employees. The laws that Federal Employees have to abide by are more strict. They don’t allow employees to campaign while on the clock or on government property. They also prohibit partisan activity and have a ban on raising money for candidates. 2. End City Manager forms of Government. In my High School civics class I learned that Dayton, Ohio was the supposed “progressive” innovator of Municipal government by being the first city to implement the City Commission form of Government and the City Manager. There is nothing progressive or innovative about this. City Managers and Township Administrators are nothing more more than modern day monarchs. Harry Truman when talking about the executive power of the President always said “The Buck Stops Here.” In local government the buck should stop with an elected Mayor who has actual executive power, not some figurehead (or SJW carnival barker Nan in the City of Dayton) that exists most of our local jurisdictions. 3. A County-Wide Fire Department. Local fire departments are having a hard time recruiting and retaining firemen. That’s because we don’t need 20 fire departments in this county that attempt to cover their jurisdictions with part-timers who work for 2-3 departments each. There are many urban areas like Fairfax County, VA that have countywide fire departments that are able to cover their area more effectively. 4. Allow any citizen to run for Sheriff. The office of Sheriff is one of the oldest elected offices in the United States. It was always intended to be headed by a citizen Sheriff to look out for the interests and rights of the citizenry. Sometime in the past the Buckeye State Sheriffs Association lobbied the legislature to only allow certified peace officers who have supervisory experience to run… Read more »
Is it possible we may be witnessing the systematic destruction of the old guard, in Dayton.
If so, much of the credit needs to bestowed upon you, Esrati, for taking the old guard to task for well over a decade, whenever you could speak the truth to power & corruption, you did and never backed down.
Somehow I have this feeling someone was listening to you somewhere and this just may be the beginning.
@david, that’s the problem. Nobody knows what you are planning which I think hurts you in your campaigns other than “ I am different “. Listen, I hope you win. If you do I hope you are sensible and come up with ideas that don’t focus strictly on social programs.
Should not matter who I am. I do find it ironic that you showed to the FBI presser last week and started on full blast and making this into a race issue. That’s one big issue with you. Not about race all the time but democrats always think it is. It’s not always a conspiracy. Criminals are criminals regardless of color.
@YAAR- really, it’s not about race when none of these people should have had the authority to spend any money on demolition or approval of contracts without other people- yet, the only folks that were charged were black?
GMAFB.
Citywide has been a slush fund for decades- who there was involved?
The city purchasing department?
The rest of the commission? The city manager?
As to your claim of “no one knows what you are planning” – really? As if Chris Shaw or Matt Joseph have ever introduced any legislation or questioned any deal that’s been before them. You should be ashamed of yourself.
And, if I’m elected, I still need to count to three – or I’ll just be like Mike Turner or Gary Letizell as the only voice in a sea of stupidity.
The question is- do you want someone who believes in the Sunshine laws or not? There is no other issue.