Barbara Mattei-Smith

Over $1 million in fees and fines concealed in Judge Will Dawson’s court clerk’s safe

Judge William Dawson had no idea Mayor Brandon King's ex-finance director, Charles Iyahen, was involved in a scheme to pay his wife $107,000 a year. Iyahen should have deducted the county's percentage from the $64,500 Dawson approved and returned the difference to the court's budget.

CLEVELAND, OH – While it’s a duty of the director of finance of a municipal corporation to report to the legislative authority about the condition of its finances, Charles Efosa Iyahen kept his mouth shut about the more than $1 million in fees and fines his clerk of court wife stockpiled in an East Cleveland municipal court office safe for over three years.  State officials learned from me on February 28, 2023 that Iyahen and Judge William Dawson’s clerk of court, Wendy Jonelle Howard, were married in 2022.  She’s now Mrs. Wendy Jonelle Iyahen. The quiet Las Vegas wedding occurred…

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King’s 5-year deficit forecast doubles to $60 million as state commission reduces East Cleveland’s spending

CLEVELAND, OH – The most incompetent mayor in Ohio did not attend the June 20, 2023 Financial Planning & Supervision Commission (FPSC) meeting to learn if the state was going to reduce East Cleveland’s 2023 appropriations to 85 percent of the 2022 budget.  The 2022 budget was $30.5 million.  Eighty-five percent is $25.9 million.  It’s equal to the amount council authorized East Cleveland Mayor Brandon L. King to spend for 2023. King’s greed got the best of him and he wanted a $36 million budget for a city that’s taking in less than $16 million in taxes.  His goal this…

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