Barbara Mattei-Smith

Opinion: Morgan and Shoup will screw themselves by attempting a retroactivity cure for their illegal spending

Honorary British Consul and Order of British Excellency (OBE) Mayor Sandra Morgan arrives to work around 10 a.m. and hides in her office surrounded by her fiscal officer, a Jamaican national and an Eritrean refugee's daughter. No secretary. Employees aren't allowed in the mayor's "wing" like they were during the Shabazz administration.

CLEVELAND, OHIO – Inside the closed doors of East Cleveland City Hall, there should be a frantic search underway for a “legal time machine.” Mayor Sandra Morgan and $400‑an‑hour Receiver, George Shoup III, should be huddled in a “straight panic” meeting. The topic? How to erase 57 days of illegal spending. They should be looking for a legal way to pass a “retroactive” budget that serves as a legislative eraser to wipe away the fact that since January 1, 2026, every city check or contract signed by unbonded and uncertified Director of Finance Lynn Ann Gries has been a violation…

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The state’s $400 an hour East Cleveland receiver, George Shoup, is in contempt of court order he’s paid to enforce

CLEVELAND, OH – For $400 an hour or $3200 a day and a law degree, attorney George Shoup, III is expected to know how to read and obey the court order giving him the equivalent of an $800,000 a year salary.  He’s the so-called “savior of East Cleveland” appointed by Court of Claims Judge Lisa Sadler at the request of Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber.  Shoup earns over four times more than, and has one tenth of one percent of the responsibility of, Ohio Governor Richard Michael Dewine who’s paid $176,000. I underscore his $400 an hour wage because…

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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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