EAST CLEVELAND, OH – According to indicted Mayor Brandon King’s personal attorney, Willa Mae Hemmons, acting chief of police Kenneth Lundy was hired on June 5, 2016 by recalled ex-Mayor Gary Norton without civil service testing as a BPO. While there is no such job classification as a BPO, East Cleveland city council codified a non-classified Beat Patrol Commissioned Officer (BPCO) position in July 1998 that gave mayors the authority to hire them for six months to work on special police assignments. They earn no more than a 3rd grade patrol officer and must officially be “reappointed” by the mayor for each specified six-month assignment.
Under that non-classified job classification Lundy, if King reappointed him as a BPCO for another six months on December 4, 2016, was prohibited from being promoted to the classified ranks of sergeant, lieutenant or captain without his first taking a civil service test as a patrol officer. As a BPCO Lundy should still being paid as a 3rd grade patrol officer instead of $94,000 a year as an untested civil service police captain.

Civil service appointments and promotions for classified police, fire and non-teaching school district employees must be by merit and fitness as ascertained through competitive examinations. There’s no path for King to have appointed Lundy from an unclassified BPCO job to a classified public job without him passing a civil service test with a minimum score of 70. During a Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas hearing in 2023, Lundy testified to having earned a score of 50 even after cheating on his prior years annual OPOTA training tests.
There is no oath of office for Lundy to discharge either a captain or acting chief of police’s duties filed with the Clerk of Council within 10 days after King appointed him to replace the Nazi-lover he’d rigged civil service laws to make his only candidate for chief of police, Brian Gerhard.
King appointed Gerhard acting chief of police in October 2022 to replace his indicted police chief, Scott Gardner. Sometime in April or May 2023, Gardner was announced as the only passing candidate for chief of police for a civil service test the civil service commission Phyllis Mosley presides over did not schedule through the Clerk of Council. There’s no record of how Gerhard became the only qualified candidate to be tested for chief of police.
Gardner replaced King appointee Michael Cardilli, another peace officer who like Gardner the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) refused to authorize to discharge law enforcement duties. Gardner had been indicted and convicted twice of felonies he pleaded to misdemeanors when King appointed him as chief of police. Under Ohio law he was disqualified, forever, from being OPOTA certified. It was during this time that Cardilli and Gardner forged OPOTA training records and submitted a fraudulent invoice for $10,000 to cover the cost of their fake training.

The last civil service tested chief of police was Ralph Spotts after he was promoted by this writer during my term as East Cleveland’s mayor in 2008. He replaced the late Patricia Lane. I appointed Spotts after the East Cleveland Civil Service Commission affirmed my decision to remove Lane. She appealed her termination to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas and lost there and in the Eighth District Court of Appeals.
As a civil service tested chief of police, Lane was entitled to full civil service appeal rights the King administration has denied any lawfully appointed and promoted civil service peace officers on the city’s payroll. Lundy doesn’t have the protections he thinks he has under a collective bargaining agreement that doesn’t apply to his job classification as a six month BCPO who should never have been promoted up the ladder.
Lundy told members of city council on October 23, 2024 that East Cleveland was not a civil service police department when questioned about his promotion to “acting” Chief of Police on January 2, 2024 from the position of captain. Lundy’s admission confirmed that King promoted him from an unclassified job as a BPCO to the classified ranks of sergeant, lieutenant and captain without administering any civil service tests. If he’d been qualified to hold the rank, Lundy’s official term as “acting” Chief of Police expired on July 1, 2024, A civil service tested police captain could not hold the acting police chief’s rank beyond 180 days.
Since he’s never taken a civil service test, Lundy is currently an unsworn private citizen who has impersonated a classified peace officer since June 5, 2016. Last December 2, 2023, Lundy received a warning email from OPOTA that he was not in compliance with annual mandatory training requirements. Only four East Cleveland police officers did not receive OPOTA’s warning email.
After receiving the warning email on December 2, 2023, Lundy and the other recipients were supposed to cease discharging a peace officer’s duties and wearing a weapon on December 31, 2023 without a reinstatement letter or email from OPOTA’s executive director. Lundy told city council that he was appointed acting chief of police by King on January 2, 2024, two days after he was uncertified to discharge any peace officer duties.

Lundy told city council he learned suspended police chief Gerhard did not send any training records to OPOTA by December 15, 2023, and did not receive a written extension from the executive director. Lundy said he immediately reached out to OPOTA to get all the uncertified cops recertified by the executive director. The last 2023 OPOTA entry for Lundy and all but four East Cleveland police officers is the December 2, 2023 warning email. There is no subsequent reinstatement correspondence from its executive director.
During the October 23, 2024 meeting of East Cleveland city council, police officer Todd Carroscia identified himself as a “Commander” who holds the classified rank of sergeant. Carroscia was terminated by this writer as mayor in 2008 for crashing into Charles Hunt and Marilyn Conard on a reckless high speed drive across East Cleveland’s border into Cleveland with a suspended drivers license. Norton rehired him without civil service testing in 2010. He then dropped the cross-claim my administration filed against Carroscia for his reckless behavior. The irresponsible former mayor and thief made East Cleveland taxpayers responsible for Hunt and Conard’s now $12 million civil rights claim against the city.
Carroscia told council he did not take a civil service test to be appointed sergeant or the made up rank of “Commander.” King appears to have created the rank of “Commander” and “Corporal” to give promotions and raises to the non-classified workforce of private citizens he was appointing and promoting to classified peace officer duties without civil service testing. This writer terminated Larry McDonald’s employment as a BPCO in 2007. King reappointed McDonald in 2018 and gave him the ranks of sergeant and commander. McDonald is now under indictment.

Lundy characterized himself to city council on October 23, 2024 as a captain in the union who happens to be the acting chief of police. The chief of police, even an acting one, is restricted from being in a collective bargaining union or negotiating a raise to $94,000 for himself as Lundy did.
Lundy is the re-organizer of FOP Lodge #39 the Internal Revenue Service decertified as a 501.c3 for failing to file tax returns for several years in 2013. His FOP lodge is not IRS certified as a 501.c3 non-profit to receive police union dues without paying taxes. The State Employee Relations Board (SERB) received no notice of intent to negotiate from Lundy’s FOP lodge and council didn’t approve the retroactive wage increase he abused his public office to give himself.
Hemmons wrote to the State Personnel Board of Review (SPBR) that Lundy’s appointment to chief of police would be made pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement instead of through a civil service test. Hemmons is the private attorney King deploys to impersonate East Cleveland’s director of law and to issue unauthorized legal opinions that are truly crazed.
On December 10, 2024 King was notified by SPBR Chairman Terry Casey that an investigation of Lundy’s appointment and promotion, along with the appointments, promotions and OPOTA certifications of other East Cleveland police officers over the past two years, was being opened. He announced the state’s third investigation of the King – Mosley civil service commission since 2021. Casey identified King and Mosley’s current violations of civil service testing laws as “a matter of statewide concern” since Article 15, Section 10 of the Constitution of Ohio mandates testing for all classified workers.
Casey reaffirmed to King in his notification letter that nothing in the city’s charter voided civil service requirements like Lundy falsely told the council. All of the city’s civil service ordinances existed unrepealed. Every elected and appointed official of the city is required to be administered an oath of office filed with the Clerk of Council pursuant to Section 92 of East Cleveland’s charter. In that oath they swear to uphold Article 15, Section 10 of the Constitution of Ohio by swearing to uphold the entire state constitution.
“Appointments and promotions in the civil service of the state, the several counties, and cities, shall be made according to merit and fitness, to be ascertained, as far as practicable, by competitive examinations. Laws shall be passed providing for the enforcement of this provision.”
Lundy didn’t realize the trap his words created for him when he stated falsely and publicly to East Cleveland city council that civil service laws were inapplicable. Hemmons further affirmed King’s civil service misconduct when she wrote to the state that the chief of police would be appointed pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement. State OPOTA laws affirm the civil service requirements for state peace officer certification. Section 4117.08(B) of the Ohio Revised Code does not authorize civil service to be a subject for collective bargaining.
“The conduct and grading of civil service examinations, the rating of candidates, the establishment of eligible lists from the examinations, and the original appointments from the eligible lists are not appropriate subjects for collective bargaining.”
More specifically, Article 1, Section 18 of the Constitution is clear on which governing authority can suspend any state law. Neither King, Lundy nor the collective bargaining agreement he negotiated with the mayor through an unauthorized FOP lodge have the authority to suspend any laws.
“No power of suspending laws shall ever be exercised, except by the general assembly.”

Lundy admitted that he was personally recruiting East Cleveland police officers from the training academies and where ever else he could find them. All of the hires were, like him, untested and impersonating classified peace officers as private citizens. King, as a mayor, is not appointing or promoting police officers from a list approved by the East Cleveland Civil Service Commission presided over by Mosley.
East Cleveland’s Civil Service Commission consists of Mosley as the unelected chairperson, retired Cleveland police officer William Underwood and resident Deborah Fason. Fason was appointed by Casey in January 2024 to replace Rev. David Hunter after King failed to appoint a replacement in 60 days. Hunter resigned in July 2022. King operated a two-person instead of a three-person civil service commission for the remainder of 2022, all of 2023 and the first month of 2024.
Mosley has no statutory knowledge of Ohio or East Cleveland civil service laws and is typical of King’s untrained resident appointees to various boards and commissions who think they’re making lawful decisions. They refuse or don’t know to read and master the laws associated with the public duties they’ve volunteered themselves to discharge as appointed public officials. Mosley’s civil service commission is facing its third state investigation. Mosley seems not to take seriously the instructions in Section 124.62 of the Ohio Revised Code’ for violators of state and municipal civil service laws and rules.
“After a rule has been duly established and published by the director of administrative services or by any municipal or civil service township civil service commission according to this chapter, no person shall make an appointment to office or select a person for employment contrary to such rule, or willfully refuse or neglect to comply with or to conform to the sections of this chapter, or willfully violate any of the sections. If any person who is convicted of violating this section holds any public office or place of public employment, such office or position shall by virtue of such conviction be rendered vacant.”
Mosley, King, Lundy and Hemmons have little regard for the penalties associated with the civil service laws they’re violating pursuant to Section 124.99 of the Ohio Revised Code.
“Whoever violates section 124.62 of the Revised Code shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars or be imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”
Twice the SPBR has investigated the commission for operating without the required number of members. The most recent third investigation, however, is the most serious as it strikes to the heart of King and Mosley’s negligence in failing to ensure the commission meets monthly to ensure classified city and school employees are appointed and promoted by merit and fitness through competitive examinations.

Pursuant to Section 124.56 of the Ohio Revised Code, the SPBR’s investigation of Mosley and the commission’s other non-compliant members could result in criminal prosecution pursuant to Section 124.64 of the Ohio Revised Code. State civil service laws allows city law directors to prosecute violations that Hemmons is abusing the public office to help King administration officials violate. Since Hemmons is a participant in the King administration’s civil service crimes, the state could refer prosecutions either to the Ohio Attorney General or Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney who is already prosecuting King and his organized police criminals.
Since March 12, 2023, Mosley and former King human resources director, Samikia Burton, scheduled no civil service meetings to discuss appointment and promotional tests for police and non-teaching East Cleveland Municipal School District classified workers. A May 2023 entry level exam was scheduled for firefighters in violation of Ord. No. 103.03’s requirement that every board and commission meeting is required to be scheduled through the Clerk of Council.
Pursuant to Ord. No. 103.07, the minutes of the East Cleveland Civil Service Commission were required to be filed with the Clerk of Council after they were approved at the next civil service meeting. King’s civil service appointees filed no meeting minutes with the Clerk of Council in 2023; and only once in 2024. The single set of minutes the Clerk of Council did receive, however, were shared in advance and were never approved by the commission at its next meeting.
Mosley refused and failed to interact in an official capacity with the Clerk of Council and therefore did not ensure that any of the required duties of the East Cleveland Civil Service Commission were performed. No appointment examinations. No promotional examinations. No termination appeal hearings. No resident complaint hearings against police who were violating their civil rights and stealing from them.
A competent civil service commission has the power to investigate citizen complaints against police and other civil service employees and punish them. Had Mosley mastered the civil service commission’s duties, she would have provided residents with the police oversight state civil service laws guarantee. There’s no need for a civilian review board with an engaged civil service commission. Mosley’s last failed meeting was an attempt to conduct a non-public “strategy” session she wanted to hold in secret with commission members, Lundy and fire chief David Worley.

King was initially given until January 9, 2025 to provide evidence of his and Mosley’s compliance with civil service laws in hiring, promoting and ensuring that classified OPOTA-certified peace officers are wearing weapons and discharging law enforcement duties in East Cleveland. After Hemmons responded to the initial December 10, 2024 notice of investigation without the compliance evidence, King was given until January 25, 2025 to provide it. King, Hemmons and Mosley are out of time to forge records that don’t exist now that King has been indicted and is expecting the Supreme Court of Ohio’s confirmation of his suspension.
Residents have no protection from King’s negligence, and they have none from the negligence of his city council puppets like Timothy Austin and Terrie Richardson. Both accepted Lundy’s wrong words as gospel and without question.
Austin was so confidently wrong he wrote a ridiculous email that I was defaming Lundy by questioning the authenticity of King’s appointment of him to acting police chief, captain and any other untested appointments, as well as my challenging his claim of being OPOTA certified.
Austin thinks it’s defamatory to repeat U.S. District Court Judge Solomon Oliver’s observation that Lundy was not credible. The federal official instructed the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority’s chief of police, Andris Gonzalez, to investigate Lundy’s past law enforcement employment history to uncover misconduct he’d left off his employment applications.

Austin is still the Ohio Fire Marshall’s primary suspect in an arson investigation that involved the home of two 80-year-old senior citizens he repaired. The couple owed Austin money. The front and rear door of their home was torched to burn them out and prevent their escape. One of Austin’s subcontractors was recorded at the scene of the crime accusing him in person of the deadly act of arson when he appeared uninvited.
King’s critics say he stepped in to obstruct the arson investigation of Austin like he obstructed the arrest and gun charges against indicted ex-Cleveland Councilman Basheer Jones. A former East Cleveland police officer told this writer King called and ordered them to release Jones from jail. Charges were never presented to Judge William Dawson by assistant prosecuting attorney Heather McCollough.
Lundy’s most recent recruited cop is named Tremaine Golston and King appointed him on October 21, 2024 without filing an oath of office with the Clerk of Council. Golston resigned three days later on October 24, 2024. King and his other personal attorney, McCollough, signed and notarized an October 25, 2024 oath of office claiming that Golston had been appointed on that day after he resigned the previous day. The false oath is the one they transmitted to the Clerk of Council on October 25, 2024.
OPOTA confirmed Golston’s date of resignation was October 24, 2024. McCollough’s fraudulent oath of office was forwarded to the Ohio Secretary of State for a notarial fraud investigation.
On November 26, 2024, Golston, Lundy’s handpicked and untested police recruit, was indicted with 8 other people for tampering with records after an investigation by the Ohio Liquor Control Commission. Golston’s organized crime troubles is evidence that Lundy’s eye for police talent is why Ohio voters in 1912 enacted a constitutional amendment making civil service testing for police, fire and non-teaching school personnel a requirement of hiring and promotions.