Background
There have been lone voices on the Dayton City Commission before; Abner Orrick, Mike Turner, Dean Lovelace, Gary Leitzell. Lovelace quickly lost his independent streak, and became just another yes man. With the election of Shenise Turner-Sloss, the people finally have 2 votes that care about them with Darryl Fairchild providing the 2nd voice. Why are 2 votes important? Because they can finally stop the use of the “Emergency Ordinance” provision, which is illegally overused for every controversial issue, from the buying of the old Sears property from a group of well connected Daytonians at 4x the price – so they could put the 5th Waterscape fountain up on one tiny part of the property) to the tearing down of Good Sam with a deed restriction allowing Premier to stop any competition from the site).
The difference between a regular ordinance and an emergency one is that the “emergency” requires 4 votes and takes effect immediately, with only one meeting for public review and comment, and the normal, requires 2 readings, a week apart, with 2 times for the public to comment and review, and it takes effect 30 days after passage. It only requires 3 votes.
There was no “emergency” about an annual budget, other than City Manager Shelly Dickstein is incompetent and corrupt [1] and has the support of Mayor Jeff Mims and his two lackeys Matt Joseph and Chris Shaw, who will do as told.
Something to think about
April 30, 2019, the citizens of Dayton were told we had a “Culture of Corruption” in Dayton and the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) paraded former City Commissioner Joey D. Williams as a perpetrator of corruption. [2] According to them, Williams had requested a bribe from an FBI false front company, United Demolition, in exchange for contracts. He drew out a sketch at the Brunch Club of an enclosed patio he wanted on his home worth about $40K, in exchange, he’d get United Demolition contracts for demolition work from the city.
Now, as you’ve just seen from the budget fiasco, the only way a contract can be awarded is that at least 3 commissioners vote yes on the contract, and the City Manager has presented it as a vetted and legal contract. So, why haven’t at least 2 other commissioners, the City Manager, someone in purchasing, or in the planning department, been prosecuted for allowing this demolition contract to be given to United Demolition?
To be clear- United Demolition was run by Mike Marshall, a former foreman for Steve Rauch Incorporated, who was dishonorably discharged by the Army, and who had a string of lawsuits against him from other contracting failures and less than honorable dealings. His company couldn’t have had past performance, because, it was an FBI sting operation.
The FBI has said, despite what the DOJ PR person said, that this investigation is not closed and is still active. Full disclosure, I have a Freedom of Information Act case pending in the 6th Circuit court of appeals [3], requesting the tapes the Feds played to the Grand Jury of former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, where she was engaged in pay to play. (You haven’t seen word one about this case in the local media, even despite my run for Congress).
The budget that Dickstein was trying to pass with only seven days to review for the public, had millions at stake- some of it for future demolition. Is Dickstein still awarding contracts as hush money, to keep the shady recipients of millions of tax dollars from telling the public how their money is really being spent? This is why Turner-Sloss and Fairchild teamed up to stop the fake emergency ordinance. What really needs to happen is the FBI and the DOJ need to finish what they started and indict the rest of the criminals who supported Williams in his crimes. Of course, the fact that Williams was caught in 2015, and turned into a Confidential Human Source for the next three years of his final term in office seems to keep escaping public outrage. How could Williams make recordings, report to the FBI for 3 years- be allowed to stand for re-election (with an agreement to resign if re-elected – which he did- allowing Fairchild to get elected in a rushed special election) and NOT indict a single other person in City Hall other than the hapless criminal Roshawn Winburn? Simple- the feds have flipped others- in exchange for getting bigger fish caught in their net. It’s why former Mayor Nan Whaley dropped out of her re-election bid at the last minute, forcing Mims to switch to the mayors race, and for the Dems to have to scramble to run Stacy Benson Taylor and Scott Sliver against Fairchild and Turner-Sloss with disastrous results. Remember the hate mail the Dem Party sent out [4]against these two progressive Dems?
Whaley accepted millions of donations in her doomed race for Governor, while probably working as a Confidential Human Source for the Feds. In the meantime, Mims, Shaw, Joseph and Dickstein continue to “serve” despite their complicity in the corruption.
Mims has been a political hack for decades, first on the Dayton School board, then the State School board and then onto the commission. While he thinks he can get away with breaking the law- case in point, his co-chairing a “task force” of local “business leaders” with School Board Member Elect Mohamed Al-Hamdani ( [5]starting the day of Al-Hamdani’s swearing in- ie- he was conducting public business before he’d actually been sworn in) to discuss the demolition and closing of schools, when I was the watchdog with camera pointed in his direction- he stood outside the building while the rest of them went inside- knowing it was an illegal meeting- and yet, not stopping it. Watch this video for the facts:
When Fairchild and Turner-Sloss refused to go along with the budget emergency vote, the commission meeting broke down into chaos. Besides treating the two Commissioners who were doing the right thing like children, Mims, Joseph and Shaw engaged in illegal “round robin” meetings with the City Manager [6]. While ORC 121.22 [7] is absolutely clear that this is illegal, it’s also a law that’s purposefully written to resemble grandpa with his dentures in a glass on the nightstand- it has no teeth. No one is ever removed from office for violating the ordinance in Ohio- but, lawyers can make a ton of money suing for a $500 fine [8].
You can watch the shitshow of the 7 Dec 2022 Commission meeting on the City Youtube channel.
What follows is Mims, Shaw and Joseph having a press conference on Thursday, claiming that Turner-Sloss and Fairchild are going to shut the city down, because the late budget wasn’t passed without any discussion, compromise or review- or competent leadership by the city manager. It’s for this reason, Mims should face a recall, and Shaw and Joseph should get left behind in the coming primary for their seats (full disclosure- I’ll be running).
Shaw, Joseph and Mims all get their press conference filmed and uploaded by the city-
but for some reason, Turner-Sloss and Fairchilds conference isn’t uploaded. Someone in City Hall should be fired for this gross political misstep.
After Turner-Sloss and Fairchild have their conference (video to come tomorrow from me), the Commission meets again on Saturday and a deal is struck after the gang of three tries to stonewall. The only concession? A million bucks toward youth programs and a promise of a series of review meetings for future meetings.
There is no question that this entire shitshow was just the beginning of a realization by many Dayton voters that the “Party Endorsed” candidates, Mims, Shaw and Joseph have been screwing them over for decades. The fact that when a house burns down next to your house in the city of Dayton it will be years before it’s demolished, but if you are School Board Member Karen Wick Gagnet, it will be a mere 6 weeks. [9] (For the record- I love Karen and Jim Gagnet- and they supported my run for Congress, however, facts are facts.)
It’s long past time to clean up City Hall, which would also require a clean up of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, an organization that should be disbanded and reconstituted without any voting members who are elected or work in patronage jobs. Because corruption, breeds more corruption- and the FBI and the DOJ didn’t finish the job they started.
If you care about this city- you should start right now, with making donations to the Turner Sloss [10] and Fairchild [11] re-election campaigns. And if you want to continue to see the whole story, backstory and fully understand what’s been going on in Dayton, you can donate to this site [12], or my campaign site [13], because, the people of Dayton deserve better.
Thank you for what you do
It’s clear that Shelley has never been questioned and is clueless as to why anyone would possibly reject her budget. Matt Joseph and Chris Shaw can be thrown into that group too. They are mad that their scheme of passing everything with zero oversight and under an “emergency status” was brought to light, which tells me they know it’s wrong. Also did anyone else notice that the agreement to put 1 million towards youth didn’t require any change to the budget? Per the Mayor the million from CBDG was discretionary so they can just make that change, soooo what’s stopping them from changing it back?? Makes no sense to me, also them taking a recess and coming back to say they have come to an agreement reeks of back door deals and is illegal for them to meet like that and they just flaunted it. The culture of corruption clearly has not been rooted out here hopefully something happens. I’m not a democrat and probably have complete opposite views of David Esrati but I’d vote for him over these clowns because at least he has his own thoughts and will stand for them and I can respect that.
Thanks for this information. I read the two DDN articles. The first written by By Cornelius Frolik on December 8 Dayton fails to pass 2023 budget as accusations fly; deadline now in question and the second written by Aimee Hancock on December 10, Dayton City Commission passes 2023 budget after strained discussion, negotiations. Interesting that this matter was covered by different reporters and that neither explained the difference between an “emergency” vote procedure and a normal vote procedure. Neither centered on what should have been a key question — “Why was this an emergency? Why was a budget, of all things, not done in an orderly and timely way?” It is only because of your post that I had any knowledge of this key strategy of a phony emergency. Is the issue the incompetence of the city manager to prepare a calendar that gives adequate time or did the commissioners deliberately delay the process that the manager had recommended in order to force an emergency vote? Only three votes would have been required for a normal voting procedure, so the majority of three wouldn’t have needed to have made any compromise with the minority of two had the normal procedure been followed. So why did the majority press for an emergency vote? The articles make it sound like Turner-Sloss and Fairchild had been in agreement with taking an emergency vote and at the last minute changed their minds. Of all of the inadequacies in the budget that Turner-Sloss and Fairchild indicated none seemed to be addressed. Left unexplained is how the additional $1 million in the “youth development fund” will actually be spent. It sounds like, since they didn’t have the votes, their main point was to arrive at an agreement for a different schedule, a different means of transparency, for the next budget process. It was a mystery to me why the movers and shakers in the MCDP were intent of endorsing Stacy Benson Taylor and Scott Sliver over Turner-Sloss and Fairchild. If these endorsed candidates had been elected, this emergency meeting would have been a non-issue, but I’m… Read more »
Do you believe that the “culture of corruption” investigation is truly still on going? If they have flipped other people who are they and who are the big fish they are looking to take down? On a side note the city was given a one time gift of 130+ million dollars, nearly an entire years worth of budget extra and I feel like with what it’s being allotted for we are all going to be looking back in five years and wondering what happened to that money because we will have nothing to show for it.
@Mike Schnell, I’ve got to believe the investigation is still ongoing. They’ve spend millions on this- and come up with bumpkis.
They have said it’s not over. Whaley and Dickstein both are probably wearing wires and giving them more evidence. The question is- how long do we have to continue to be screwed by these criminals.
There is no question that both have engaged in pay to play deals. The fact that the feds refuse to let my case go to court to get the Whaley tapes that were played to the Grand Jury is proof enough.