Finally inventorying Patrick O’Malley’s computers
It would appear as though Cuyahoga County Executive Director Colleen Corrigan Day doesn’t have any problems with a fair amount of the staff having received their jobs due to political connections.
Cuyahoga recorder orders inventory of recorder’s office computers
Posted by Joe Guillen May 16, 2008 18:13PM
The Cuyahoga County auditor has ordered an immediate inventory of computer equipment in former Recorder Patrick O’Malley’s office.
The reason: O’Malley barred county workers from conducting an annual state-mandated review of the equipment. The ban goes back at least four years.
“They rudely threw [my staff] right out.” Cuyahoga County Information Services Center Director Dan Weaver recalled on Friday. “It didn’t surprise me, knowing his personality.”
Weaver said no other county office or department refused the inventory.
In a letter sent on Friday, Auditor Frank Russo also asked Weaver to investigate all computer equipment purchases O’Malley’s office made in the last five years.
Russo’s directive came a day after O’Malley pleaded guilty to a federal obscenity charge and resigned from office.
The investigation into O’Malley was fueled when FBI agents seized personal computers from O’Malley’s home in 2004. A search warrant said agents were looking for records of a billboard deal and images of child pornography.
O’Malley will be sentenced in August and could get more than six months in prison.
While the Cuyahoga Democratic Party huddled to pare down the list of potential successors to O’Malley — the party’s choice will be on the ballot in November — Republicans had a field day Friday.
They lumped O’Malley with former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who resigned on Wednesday, and Cleveland City Councilman Joe Santiago, reportedly the subject of an FBI investigation.
“These Democrats, someone like Marc Dann or Pat O’Malley, they can’t even live up to the basic standards of competence and ethics in public office,” county Republican Party Chairman Rob Frost said.
Local Democrats, however, said O’Malley’s crime had nothing to do with his public service.
“The recorder’s office has been run efficiently and effectively,” Cuyahoga County Executive Director Colleen Corrigan Day said in a statement. “The personal issue of the former recorder bears no reflection on the operation of this county office or its staff.”
County commissioners are likely to name an interim recorder on Thursday. They are expecting a recommendation from the Democratic Party, which is headed by Commissioner Jimmy Dimora. It is the party that will make the final decision on who will face Republican Cathy Luks in the November general election for recorder.
Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Lillian Greene has joined the lengthy list of possible replacements for O’Malley, which includes members of Cleveland City Council and state representatives.
Luks said, “It doesn’t matter who the Democratic machine comes up with. There can no longer be one-party rule if there is to be accountability.”
Other than judges, there are no elected Republican leaders in county government.
AG Replacements What say You?
Let’s hear from those visiting our site of whom they believe Gov. Strickland should give a temporary appointment to until the November Presidential Elections.
Marc Dann’s resignation sets off a scramble by his fellow Democrats who want to keep control of the attorney general’s office, and by Republicans, who relish the chance to win it back.
So who might be their likely candidates?
Here are some possibilities:
Democrats
State Treasurer Richard Cordray, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates, Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr., Columbus City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer.
Republicans
Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, former White House budget director Rob Portman, U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce, former Attorney General and Auditor Jim Petro, State Sen. Tim Grendell of Chester Township, Delaware County Prosecutor David Yost.
Redfern described the Dann scandal as only “collateral damage.”
Nice way to minimize a situation that has blacked the state’s eye Redfern, this should be an election year slogan for any GOP candidate running. Too bad the George Forbes situation has been swept under the rug and that would be until now. Why isn’t his daughter or their firm facing any charges?
That’s right I have to keep reminding myself this is the party which looks out for the little guy, that is when taking his money to make sure their friends are being taken care of. You wouldn’t want to post any of those jobs as they were to be posted for every qualified individual to have a shot at them would you now?
Just as with Mayor Mike “Slick” Coleman, there still hasn’t been any real exposure about the girlfriends of drug dealers receiving jobs while their men do time? Then again that would require the Columbus Dispatch, John Wolfe and his merry little band of info ignorer’s to actually expose the core corruption in Columbus on the local level in the city.
Fallout just beginning for Democrats
Posted by Mark Naymik/Plain Dealer Politics Writer May 14, 2008 22:40PM
The Democrats finally got rid of Marc Dann, but they will have a harder time purging the former attorney general’s legacy from this year’s elections.
Gov. Ted Strickland and Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern dismissed the notion Wednesday, but their recent actions speak louder than words.
They kicked him out of the party, filed articles of impeachment against him and refused to head off an Ohio inspector general’s investigation into his office initiated by Republicans.
This only reinforces what a liability he had become to the party that promised in 2006 to clean up state government.
“I don’t know that it damages the Democratic Party,” Strickland insisted during a news conference following Dann’s brief resignation speech. “This was not the failings of the party. I think the party responded strongly and forcefully and has taking steps to clean our own house.”
But Dann didn’t make it easy. He heightened the tension — and the damage — by insisting for five weeks that he had done nothing wrong beyond giving in to personal weakness and displaying some poor judgment.
On May 2, Dann, 46, admitted an affair with a subordinate only after a separate investigation of harassment charges against one of his top managers threatened to expose it. The harassment investigation also exposed Dann’s lax management and blind loyalty to his friends who worked for him.
The scandal, compared to the two-year Republican investment scandal that began in 2005, didn’t need much buildup. It involved sex and patronage, easy concepts for voters to grasp that instantly made newspaper cartoons and editorials.
Redfern described the Dann scandal as only “collateral damage.”
“Our response was appropriate, swift and responsible,” he said.
Both sides were playing politics around the Dann scandal.
The Democrats wanted him out in a hurry out of self-preservation. Republicans wanted to keep the story alive. And they won.
The impeachment is over. But the inspector general’s investigation is just beginning and will continue to generate headlines toward the November elections.
Even if it doesn’t, the Republican Party will.
“This embarrassment is far from over,” GOP Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine declared Wednesday. “Marc Dann’s resignation is overdue, and the investigation into his mismanagement and corruption must continue.”
Dann left the attorney general’s office totally alone, just 17 months after arriving as the Democratic Party’s surprise star.
No one, not even Dann himself, believed he could topple State Auditor and former Attorney General Betty Montgomery in the 2006 election. He knocked the Republican Party behemoth out by literally bullying his way into office. He campaigned that year with abandon, shouting to anyone who would listen that he would clean up government and champion consumer causes.
Dann quit Wednesday after the inspector general searched his office, hauling out computers and leaving him and his office virtually paralyzed, an image sure to play this fall.
Dann didn’t even tell his staff before delivering his resignation from the governor’s office. When he was done, he walked out a side door, alone.
O’Malley Pleads Guilty
Could Marc Dann be facing the same fate yet different charges joining the long ranks of Valley office holders?
O’Malley pleads guilty
Posted by Damian G. Guevara May 15, 2008 16:31PM
Cuyahoga County Commissioner Patrick J. O’Malley pleaded guilty to one count of obscenity this afternoon in U.S. District Court, a few hours after resigning his position.
The nature of the computer images was not detailed during the hearing, but O’Malley’s attorney stressed afterward that they did not involve children.
“This does not involve child pornography,” said Ian Friedman. “This is material that involved adults.”
The images in question were deemed obscene enough for them to enter the plea of guilty, Friedman said, but declined to further elaborate.
O’Malley smiled at reporters as he walked into the courtroom wearing a dark suit and blue patterned tie.
Federal prosecutors declined to comment after the hearing.
O’Malley resigned his office as part of the plea agreement. He does not plan to ever run again for public office, Friedman said, though that is not part of the plea agreement.
O’Malley remains free on $100,000 bond. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 22.
Patrick O’Malley Resigns part II?
Is it me or is there something in the water removing Democrats from office in Ohio this week?
O’Malley resigns as county recorder
Posted by Joe Guillen May 15, 2008 14:59PM
Patrick O’Malley has resigned as Cuyahoga County recorder.
O’Malley submitted a letter of resignation on Thursday afternoon to the Board of County Commissioners. Jimmy Dimora, chairman of the county Democratic party and one of three county commissioners, also was specifically addressed as a recipient of the letter.
County Administrator Dennis Madden said the commissioners formally will accept O’Malley’s resignation at Tuesday’s board meeting but it is effective today. They might appoint O’Malley’s replacement at that time.
Thomas Roche, O’Malley’s chief of staff, will lead the office, which tracks property ownership, until a replacement is named.
O’Malley’s resignation is part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, said Ian Friedman, O’Malley’s attorney. O’Malley was charged with one count of obscenity in a criminal information unsealed in federal court this morning. He is scheduled to appear in court today.
FBI agents raided O’Malley’s Chagrin Falls home in 2004 and seized two personal computers.
Cuyahoga County Recorder Pat O’Malley Resigns Flees Country
It appears as though Marc Dann isn’t the only Democrat to be vacating his office in disgrace. We’ve been keeping an eye on this situation as it’s developed in Cuyahoga County.
Not only has Pat O’Malley resigned, he’s now fled the country as well. I guess the feds are too tied up keeping tabs on Marc Dann and his merry band of trouble makers.
Gov. Strickland can appoint anyone he wants to the AG’s office it’s merely a very futile effort to keep Democrats in office across the state now.
WKYC Exclusive: Sources say Cuyahoga County Recorder Pat O’Malley …
Dick Russ Kim Wendel
Created: 5/14/2008 1:03:33 PM
Updated:5/15/2008 6:44:35 AM
CLEVELAND — Channel 3 News has confirmed through three sources that Cuyahoga County Recorder Pat O’Malley is expected to resign his position soon because of a federal investigation and likely indictment.
Sources say O’Malley was to submit his letter of resignation to the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, but the Party’s executive director, Colleen Day tells Channel 3 News, “Nobody has asked for his letter of resignation.”
It is reported that federal authorities are about to indict O’Malley an unspecified charge.
Three and a half years ago, Channel 3 News reported that the FBI had seized computers belonging to O’Malley during an investigation of a billboard deal he had with Cleveland City Council.
At that time, federal officials also asked O’Malley’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Vicki, to turn over his toolbox, a toolbox that supposedly contained evidence of child pornography.
What this latest investigation involves, the one that is reportedly going to lead to O’Malley’s imminent departure from office, no one would confirm today.
In November 2004, Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman Jimmy Dimora told Channel 3 News that it was time then to talk to O’Malley about leaving office.
“My suggestion’s gonna be is, if he, and he’ll know what’s going on with his particular situation, is this the time to cut the strings and be done with it,” Dimora told Channel 3 News.
“I’m going to ask him to make that decision about his political career, is it time to step down?”
Channel 3 News has learned that O’Malley is said to be going out of the country and could not comment today.
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