PD William B. Schatz served for 29 years as legal counsel for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, playing a lead role at an agency that has spent nearly $2 billion of your money, affects how clean your drinking water is and helps determine where Clevelanders settle in the suburbs.
On Wednesday, The Plain Dealer asked Schatz about several possible conflicts involving contractors, board members, a former labor leader and a sewer district easement that runs through a landfill owned by one of his private clients.
In his private practice, court records show that Schatz has represented:- At least four contractors who have done business with the sewer district.
- A sewer board member in between terms of serving as Schatz's boss at the sewer district.
- A former labor organizer who represented security guards who protect the sewer district headquarters.
- all sitting sewer board members at the time.
Schatz reports only to the sewer district's seven-member board of trustees, which represents more than 1 million people in Cleveland and 59 suburbs in Cuyahoga and Summit counties.
He was appointed by the board in 1978 with no contract. More....------------------------------------------
The Plain Dealer and sewer district board member Gary Starr, mayor of Middleburg Heights, confronted Schatz about his unethical practices, prompting his sudden resignation....
William Schatz, who as legal counsel for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, was one of the area's least known -- but most powerful -- public officials, abruptly announced his retirement Thursday afternoon.
His decision came just two days after after The Plain Dealer raised questions about possible conflicts of interest between Schatz' $160,000-a-year tax-payer funded job with the sewer district and his private legal work.On Wednesday, The Plain Dealer had asked Schatz about a several possible conflicts involving contractors, board members and a sewer district easement that runs through a Cuyahoga Heights landfill owned by one of his private clients.
Schatz said he didn't learn of the easement until late last year when a landslide at the landfill crushed an 80-year-old sewer pipe. Repairs could cost $6 million, sewer officials have said.
But sewer district board member Gary Starr, mayor of Middleburg Heights, confronted Schatz during a board meeting, showing him a copy of an easement renewal approved by Schatz's office in 2005. The easement, a limited right to use another's property, runs right through the landfill of the property owner who Schatz had represented in a civil matter at the time.
"It's a clear violation of the public's trust," Starr said. "You cannot serve two masters."The sewer district paid Schatz's client $51,000 for the easement renewal.
Before retiring in shame, Schatz tried minimizing his playing both ends. Showing how the dems in this area feel they can pillage the residents with immunity. Schatz, blinded by greed, still feels he did nothing wrong.....
"I never foresaw the conflict" Schatz said Wednesday. "I still don't see a conflict."Schatz refused to discuss the matter in the public meeting and the board adjourned to a closed-door session where Schatz suddenly announced his retirement, according to Starr and Trustee Thomas Longo, mayor of Garfield Heights.
FYI
ReplyDelete(No email for you; this was the only way I could figure to send it)
Thanks Jill.
ReplyDeleteNo comment on the post dealing with corruption in our own backyard?
King - I really do respect you - I think you are true to your heart and soul. But we've been through this before and you don't accept what I write, which is that I simply don't follow the county party etc. because, as most folks who do follow what I write know, I'm just not a party gal. I don't want to be beholden, I don't agree with people not dissenting and so on.
ReplyDeleteCorruption is corruption. Do I always read about, hear about or write about it? Will you and I always notice the same incidents or decide to write about the same ones? Who can say?
I am dead serious flattered that my opinion is of interest to you - that's not lip service. But again, I just am really an outsider who, less than two years ago, decided to start writing a blog, then reading blogs, then getting involved in Meet the Bloggers to see politicians up close. Before then, other than working for a judge during law school and knowing a lot of lawyers, some of whom became politicians, I am a wonkabee - really. I get lucky with my intuition sometimes, I use logic pretty well sometimes, but that's about it. I really am that modest. I take full responsibility for my opinions and no one else's.
I am sorry - I just don't know what else to say. I don't know Dimora or any of the others you've wanted me to comment on. I'm no familiar with the situations you've described before beyond what's in the newspapers - I can only speculate like everyone else.
Some things, sure, I may know a bit more, or even a lot more. But it just so happens that the incidents you've asked me about are not the ones I know much about. I just don't. I PROMISE - if you ask my opinion on something I actually KNOW about, I PROMISE to give you my opinion.
But, you know - only if you don't ask in a loaded way. ;)
Thanks.
And you are very welcome for the news item.