CLEVELAND, OH – A civil stalking protection order has been granted against Ward 2 Councilman Timothy Austin for the threats of violence and sexual harassment he has directed at Clerk of Council Stacey White before and after she filed criminal and harassment complaints against him. The order protects White, her East Cleveland resident husband and two children until December 27, 2025. Austin has engaged in the type of conduct that can have him removed from council.
Austin must now appear before the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas on July 11, 2025 at 9 a.m. for a full hearing. Both East Cleveland police and the Cuyahoga County sheriff were ordered to serve him at his home on Speedway Overlook.
The evidence White presented was the evidence Austin created. Over the telephone, I heard him make “sexually suggestive” remarks to her in the presence of Ward 4 Councilwoman Terrie Richardson, a Cleveland Clinic employee. On that June 2, 2025 day, the two unread members of council were exceeding the authority of their elected offices with demands that White accept the oath of office Richardson called herself administering to appoint Austin as council’s president. Richardson is a Cleveland Clinic billing office employee who witnessed and said nothing about Austin’s sexually suggestive words to the clerk of council.
White told the court how he timed his arrival at city hall to coincide with her for no reason as a part-time member of council who is budgeted a home office. There are no “office” duties for council members.
White told the court how Austin used McCollough’s lie that White and Councilor Dr. Patricia Blochowiak had scheduled an unpublished June 2, 2025 meeting of council to appoint Lateek Shabazz as mayor. According to McCollough, Blochowiak was sworn in as president of council.
Between June 2, 2025 and June 16, 2025, when Austin published McCollough’s lie by email, with maliciously worded additions of his own to incite hostilities towards White and Blochowiak, he knew Blochowiak had not ever presented herself as council’s president during any meeting. McCollough’s defamatory claim had already been discredited.
White described how Austin brought three police officers to remove her from the office the day after she filed a criminal and sexual harassment complaint against him with assistant prosecutor’s office usurper McCollough. The unethical attorney accepted White’s complaints, and the next day wrote Austin a letter to terminate her on former interim Mayor Sandra Morgan’s letterhead. The fledgling politician, Morgan, has no control over the Brandon King-influenced hires now repeating the unlawful conduct they learned from him on autopilot.
McCollough guaranteed herself a subpoena as a witness in Austin’s upcoming full hearing when she went with him to the police window to fulfill his retaliation against the complaining witness. The three female cops, who McCollough decided on her own to enlist in Austin’s retaliation, may have to testify if they knew Ord. No. 111.03(a) did not give council’s vice president the authority to appoint, terminate or adjust the compensation of the clerk of council.
“As authorized and mandated by § 102 of the Charter, in addition to and apart from the five elected public officials who are Council members making up the legislative body of the city consisting of one President of City Council, one Vice President and three members of Council, together with a President Pro Tem who may be elected by Council as deemed necessary in the absence of the President and Vice President, the regular and part-time employees of the city within the organizational structure of Council, the legislative branch of the city government, which may be deemed for purposes of structure discussion as being similar to a “municipal department”, the employees may consist of a Clerk who shall be appointed and/or terminated by the President of Council, and Council may also elect such other officers and employees of Council as it deems necessary, to serve at the pleasure of Council. The President of Council shall adjust compensation for the Clerk. In the event that the Council disagrees with a personnel decision that has been made by the President of Council, the decision shall be overturned provided a written letter signed by at least three members of Council is submitted to the President of Council stating the decision that should be overturned and the reasons for overturning the decision.”
Austin didn’t read the words above before he submitted a sham document to assume the authority and $5000 in extra wages of the president of council and decided to terminate White as the clerk of council. Currently the office of council president is vacant. In order to fill the vacancy, Rule 23 of Council’s Rules of Order requires the nomination of a council member and a vote during a public meeting.
The only other way for the vacant office to be filled, pursuant to Ord. No. 111.03(a) is with a president of council pro tem who council votes to discharge the president of council’s duties during the official’s absence. There was no vote during any organizational meeting of council that identified Austin as president of council pro tem. The term is Latin and means “for the time being.”
Austin is the typical resident who decides to collect the 45 signatures it takes to campaign for a seat on East Cleveland city council and a $20,000 a year part time job. He hasn’t read the Constitutions of the United States and of Ohio. He hasn’t read Title 7 of the Ohio Revised Code to know the laws of municipal corporations. He hasn’t read East Cleveland’s charter and ordinances. Council has 24 rules he hasn’t read, either.
In truth, he’s no different than 99.9 percent of candidates for elected office. He hasn’t even “reviewed” Robert’s Rules of Order to learn some of the basic terminology and procedures for conducting orderly public meetings.
Austin’s mother may be looking across the street at his home when the sheriff’s deputies or East Cleveland police show up to serve a warrant and collect his weapons. The law enforcement officers were advised to approach him with caution.
As he reads words that reflect his current self-inflicted controversy and reflects on the effect of the protection order on his status as an elected official whose acts are being seen through both civil and criminal lenses, Austin may consider the lunacy of accepting legal direction from an attorney as crooked as McCollough. She and attorney Willa Mae Hemmons “advised” King and Ernest Smith into convictions. They did so by catering to and backing up the criminal acts they were committing.
McCollough didn’t use the prosecutor’s office to protect the city and citizens from the civil rights abuses, violence and thefts over 24 now convicted cops engaged in while impersonating civil service tested and OPOTA certified law enforcement officers. She was scolded by federal judges for protecting the dirty cops.
Having a dirty prosecutor known for protecting dirty cops, King, Michael Smedley and every other dirty dealer who harmed East Cleveland isn’t an asset to an official who doesn’t want to look dirty. Politically, Austin is being judged by the company he’s kept and keeps, and the actions of his heart instead of his unread head.
Performers Kid and Play tried to advise the audiences who watched their film, “Class Act,” that “reading is fundamental.” Austin still hasn’t gotten the memo.
