CLEVELAND, OH – Sandra Morgan didn’t know how to terminate Kenneth Lundy as East Cleveland’s “acting” chief of police and didn’t understand why he should be terminated.  He has a way with women and Morgan was beguiled by the skinny-jeans-wearing younger man.  She had publicly praised a cop Mayor Lateek R. Shabazz knew to be a dirty $200,000 a year payroll thief.

Morgan’s professional background and unregistered work for the British government had not given her knowledge of complex municipal, civil service and collective bargaining laws found in three different chapters of the Ohio Revised Code, and embedded in East Cleveland’s charter and ordinances to know how to handle Lundy and police.  None of the employees advising her, notably former executive assistant and deputy safety director Mansell Baker, nor her deputy director of law, Heather McCollough, possessed the knowledge or will to terminate Lundy.

As a resident who had no history of attending council’s meetings, Morgan had not heard Lundy tell a city council safety committee on October 23, 2024, as Mayor Shabazz had done as the committee’s former chairman, that the East Cleveland police department was not “civil service.”  She didn’t understand that Lundy had never taken a civil service test to be appointed or promoted from an “eligibility list” as a police officer as Section 737.11 of the Ohio Revised Code requires, as well as Sections 28, 29 and 30 of East Cleveland’s charter.

Shabazz and I knew, along with our director of law, Kenneth Myers, that Lundy was hired as a “beat patrol commissioned officer” by recalled ex-mayor Gary Norton, Jr. in 2016.  He could lawfully only work for 180 days without a reappointment by the mayor.

Norton was recalled in December 2016 and replaced when council vice president Brandon King declared himself to be council’s president and assumed the mayor’s office.  He moved faster than the existing members of council could think.

King for the next 8 years treated Lundy as if he was a classified police employee instead of the equivalent of an illegal alien who’d overstayed his 180-day work visa.  King appointed the 180-day employee, Lundy, in violation of civil services laws to the ranks of corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain and chief of police without ever ensuring that each rank was given to him from a competitive examination and an eligibility list. Corporal and commander are not codified ranks.

Pursuant to Section 4117.01(N) of the Ohio Revised Code, a “member” of a collective bargaining union is an employee who was originally appointed from a civil service eligibility list.  The specific language reads as follows:  “Member of a police department means a person who is in the employ of a police department of a municipal corporation as a full-time regular police officer as the result of an appointment from a duly-established civil service eligibility list.”

Lundy was one of 21 out of 23 East Cleveland police officers impersonating “classified” civil service tested law enforcement officers.  Only acting Chief of Police Reginald Holcomb and acting Sergeant Mark Allen were appointed from a civil service eligibility list in 1998.  None of the dispatchers were appointed from a civil service test.

What Morgan did not know, that Shabazz had learned as council’s president, was that Lundy and 20 other police employees were not authorized to collectively bargain through the Ohio Labor Council – Fraternal Order of Police (OLC-FOP).  The collective bargaining agreement King and Lundy negotiated and bypassed council to approve in July 2024 should have been declared void.  Morgan did not know to or how to fight it.

Instead of acquiescing to OLC-FOP employees Lucy Dinardo and attorney Mike Piotrowski, Shabazz filed a letter with the State Personnel Board of Review informing its officials that the city’s police and firefighting personnel had not been operating in compliance with state and charter mandated civil service laws.  The state was informed that East Cleveland’s Civil Service Commission had been non-compliant, and that its annual reports were not accurate.

Grievances filed by non-civil service personnel were denied by Shabazz.  Shabazz informed Dinardo and Piotrowski in writing that the OLC-FOP was engaged in a dues-collecting racketeering scheme to protect 24 indicted and convicted police criminals who were not civil service tested.  Further payments to the OLC-FOP for non-civil service tested employees were refused.

Shabazz has hired a former U.S. Attorney employee to ensure, among other tasks, that the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) complaint he’s filing against the OLC-FOP is investigated.  Unfair labor practice complaints against the OLC-FOP will be signed and delivered to the State Employee Relations Board in the next week.

Shabazz and his team know Morgan lacks the sophistication to comprehend how to manage the corrupt police environment that currently exists in East Cleveland.  Moves are being made to ensure the city’s correct position is well-articulated to outside state and federal authorities irrespective if either Shabazz or Morgan wins the November 4, 2025 general election campaign for mayor.

Morgan also didn’t know Lundy had been impersonating a certified peace officer without complying with mandated annual Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) requirements.  He was not authorized to discharge the duties of a law enforcement officer and wear a weapon between 2017 and 2021 when he was investigating the deaths of Steven Swain and Jamarr Forkland in 2017 and 2019.  Lundy’s lack of OPOTA certification between 2017 and 2021 disqualified him for five years as a police officer who King was, insanely, still promoting.

None of the disqualifying OPOTA information about Lundy’s background was provided by fired ex-prosecutors Willa Mae Hemmons and Heather McCollough as “exculpatory evidence” to the citizens he and other disqualified East Cleveland police were arresting.  Before Shabazz terminated McCollough, she had told officials that reviewing police bodycams to evaluate the lawfulness of police interactions with citizens was not her job.

While serving council as its president and safety committee chairman, Shabazz was disgusted when he learned that a man convicted of murder, Jerry Sims, had been released from a 40-year to life prison sentence because Lundy moved Sims’ girlfriend, Erica Campbell, into his home.  Lundy was investigating Forkland’s death in 2019, and Campbell was allegedly the only eyewitness to Sims hitting him over the head with a bottle, shooting him and burning his body in the car.  Lundy had taken no OPOTA training that year.

Lundy never told Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney Michael O’Malley he was living with Sims’ girlfriend and building a case to keep her out of the alleged killer’s bed and in his.  The non-OPOTA certified Lundy was accused of manipulating Campbell’s testimony so he’d never have to worry about Miller taking his new girlfriend away from him.  His lack of OPOTA credentials were also concealed from O’Malley by Hemmons and McCollough.

Section 109:2-18-06 of the Ohio Administrative Code reads in part that, “Any peace officer or trooper who, in any calendar year, fails to complete and report continuing professional training in accordance with the requirements set forth in rules 109:2-18-01 to 109:2-18-05 of the Administrative Code shall cease carrying a firearm and shall cease performing the functions of a peace officer or trooper until such time as evidence of compliance is filed with and approved by the executive director.”

Morgan knew Lundy had lived with Campbell for five years before O’Malley learned and was forced to seek Sims’ release from prison.  She knew Campbell turned on Lundy after he pressured her to abort their child and then decided to marry another woman.  All the dirt associated with Lundy did not matter to Morgan like it did to Shabazz.

Shabazz won the Eighth District Court of Appeal’s ruling on July 17, 2025 that Morgan had usurped his authority to enter the mayor’s office on May 29, 2025 when King was convicted.  On July 21, 2025, four days after taking a second oath to enter the mayor’s office, Shabazz signed a letter terminating Lundy he had asked me to prepare over the weekend.

All of the above was referenced in Lundy’s termination letter when Shabazz asked Morgan during the campaign’s only mayoral debate if she was going to return the dirty ex-cop as the chief of police.  Shabazz had seen Lundy campaigning with Morgan on election day on September 9, 2025.

Morgan and Lundy were photographed together in the parking lot shared by Shaw High School and Prospect Elementary School on the last day of primary election voting.  Lundy was telling voters of his intent to return under Morgan if she’s elected.  Morgan didn’t say otherwise.

Morgan answered Shabazz’s question with a response she could only have received from Lundy.  She said an arbitrator is going to decide if Lundy returns based on what she’s “heard” about his termination.  Hearing is not reading.  Lundy told voters Morgan was going to overturn his termination and bypass an arbitrator’s ruling.

Unlike Shabazz, Morgan doesn’t understand the city is not required to negotiate with an arbitrator over an employee like Lundy who, for three reasons, is not eligible to collectively bargain.  The first reason is because his original and subsequent appointments were not from civil service eligibility lists.  Beat patrol commissioned officers who overstay their 180-day appointments without a reappointment have no collective bargaining or continued employment rights.

The second reason is because a “chief of police” is a management or supervisory employee and cannot be a member of a collective bargaining union.  The third reason is Lundy’s former appointment as “acting chief of police” makes him an “at will” employee pursuant to Section 124.30 of the Ohio Revised Code, and that’s only if he was originally appointed from a civil service test.  A legally appointed “classified” employee who accepts an acting appointment can return to a former classified rank only if their name is on a current civil service eligibility list for the former rank.

Lundy also voided his grievances when he criminally received a $106,000 payment from ex-fiscal officer Valencia Meeks the day she was terminated on October 10, 2025.  Lundy sought and received the money from Meeks while the OLC-FOP was processing a grievance that would let an arbitrator decide if he was authorized to receive over $69,000 in unused “compensatory time.”

He claimed the rest of the $106,000 was in unused vacation time at his salary of $94,000 a year as a non-civil service tested “captain.”  The $37,000 vacation time accrual was based on Lundy never taking the vacations he showed himself taking on his Facebook page.

Unlike Morgan, Shabazz and I had asked Auditor of State Keith Faber’s office to investigate the authenticity of public employee “accrual balances.”  Section 127.05 of East Cleveland’s administrative code authorizes only non-bargaining unit employees to receive compensatory time.

No more than 200 hours annually can be accrued in a year, and the balances don’t transfer from year-to-year.  An employee uses the compensatory time or loses it.  They can cash out no more than 50 hours per year.  OLC-FOP contract language that extended compensatory time to bargaining unit employees was not an act authorized by East Cleveland city council.

Meeks was specifically ordered not to pay Lundy a dime.  Though he was terminated on July 21, 2025, eight days before she was appointed by Shabazz on July 29, 2025, payroll records show Meeks returned Lundy to the payroll on September 22, 2025 and processed a $106,000 check with an ending date of October 5, 2025. She deposited $100,800.57 in his bank account after taking only $6000 in deductions.  Both Lundy and Meeks have been referred for criminal prosecution.

Shabazz believes but can’t confirm that Morgan campaigning with Lundy is evidence of her support for the crimes he’s committed against the residents of East Cleveland.  He doesn’t think Lundy and Meeks could have executed a $106,000 heist of public funds without communicating and believing their theft and receipt of public funds would not be detected and prosecuted.  If Morgan conveyed to Lundy that he was returning to work, and would receive the $106,000 from her if elected, Shabazz believes Meeks, a mother of two children, would not have placed her family’s economics at risk without her own assurances of protection.

As a private citizen Morgan’s attended two meetings of council since 2023.  The second meeting she attended as a private citizen was on October 14, 2025, four days after Meeks’ October 10, 2025 termination.

When Morgan learned Shabazz had terminated Meeks for giving herself a pay raise from $85,000 to $110,000 without his knowledge and permission, and had paid Lundy the $106,000, as well as issuing a $1.1 million payment to Perk Construction from the federally funded Safe Route to School Fund, all illegally, she abruptly left the meeting before it ended.

Morgan didn’t even stay to answer for the $5.8 million she received from the Ohio Public Works Commission on May 27, 2025, that she never reported to council.  Shabazz reported Morgan’s transfer of the $5.8 million to pay various unauthorized bills to the Auditor of State for an investigation that is ongoing.

Shabazz doesn’t believe Morgan stole the $5.8 million.  He believes Morgan’s inexperience prevented her from reporting it to council and the Cuyahoga County Budget Commission to place in an amended 2025 budget.

Morgan’s relationship with Lundy isn’t her only bad campaign decision.  Her close ties to vendor and federally convicted ex-crack cocaine dealer and mortgage fraudster Darryl Moore is not reported on the campaign finance reports Morgan and her husband, Joseph Harbert, failed to file with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Moore was overheard calling a Morgan campaign poll worker with the message that “Brandon said you are not on your poll.”  Morgan’s campaign is well funded, but she’s hidden her secret backers from East Cleveland voters by criminally failing to comply with Section 3517.10 of the Ohio Revised Code.

Both Morgan and Harbert should have been referred to the Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney if elections board officials obeyed Section 3517.11(C) of the Ohio Revised Code.  King and his dirty crew of ex-dope boys, the dirty cops who protected them and his landbank property laundering pals appear to be secretly backing and funding Morgan.  King’s crew even gifted Morgan their Mayfield Road bar in South Euclid for her watch parties and gatherings.  The in-kind gift was not reported.

If Morgan is promising Lundy or the other dirty cops she didn’t know how to supervise that she’s going to undo the Shabazz administration’s civil service, collective bargaining, management decisions, terminations and grievance responses, it’s another example of a bad decision that will come from her inexperience.  She’ll be repeating King’s bad example and obstructing instead of enforcing the management rights laws a mayor is required to ensure all employees enforce.

[Author’s NOTE:  I am currently Chief of Staff to Mayor Lateek. R. Shabazz and the former Mayor and Clerk of Council of the City of East Cleveland].