Send a email to your Council representative - requesting clear accounting of intended CDBG funding allocations.  If you are like me - make sure that IF the Council person  insists on allocating funds to a CDC - that the CDC has community membership on an elected board.

AND read Eric J Brewer at FB:

Some on Cleveland city council are going to hate you having the information I'm about to share. You'll know everything there is to know about how the mayor, council and department heads should be performing the duties of the elected and appointed public offices and jobs they hold. Your knowing as much as they do will make the lazy ones have to work when you start challenging them in the neighborhoods.

Here's a link to Cleveland city council's home page.
http://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/

Here's a link that provides you with information about all of Cleveland's council members and how to reach them at city hall. The authority of a member of council is to discuss and vote yes or no on legislation. They're supposed to discuss the legislation with the people who elected them before they vote on it, so you should be getting copies of ordinances and resolutions from them in weekly meetings in your neighborhoods. They're handling over $2.5 billion in public funds. You know damn well if this was your personal money you'd be watching it closer if these were the folk handling it. http://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/council-members

Here's a link to the Rules of Council. These are the rules they're all supposed to be following for electing the council president, handling meetings, receiving, discussing and passing legislation. It shows also how they can authorize congressional-like investigations of the community issues we've been discussing. 
https://cityofcleveland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx…|Text|&Search=rules+of+council

Here's a link to every state law that controls how cities, villages and townships are required to be managed in Ohio. This set of laws is more powerful than the charter and local ordinances. These are the "general laws" that "apply" to Cleveland and why Mayor Frank Jackson and other mayors lose when home rule contradicts what's written in Title 7 of Ohio's revised code. Title 7 is the bible for governing cities in Ohio.
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/7

Here's a link to Cleveland's charter and ordinances. They are inferior to Title 7 of Ohio's revised code, but they provide more specific detail about how the city is managed under its interpretation of Title 7 in some instances. If these ordinances contradict state law then state law prevails. The ordinances need to be revisited because many are outdated. Cleveland's municipal court judges have determined some to be unconstitutional or inadequately written; and so have the court of appeals and state supreme court. Council is supposed to be reviewing its ordinances regularly. They should be studying ordinances by meeting with department heads to see "how" they are being interpreted by employees. The bottom line is that council is supposed to be reviewing the ordinances they've passed to see if they are helping the people or harming us. Look at it this way. The state told mayors and councils they couldn't pass or enforce any local gun laws. We have a right to openly bear arms. Period. Council didn't repeal its unconstitutional local gun ordinances and left one on the books that was the reason used by cops to shoot Tamir Rice and even Sabra Scott's son, Randy. Council is still trying to pass ordinances to restrict what the state has clearly said is a 2nd Amendment right instead of passing an "open carry" ordinance that tells cops to treat a person openly carrying a weapon like it's no more than a cell phone. Council's business is in the ordinances and not the streets. What the fuck is wrong with sitting on your porch and having a drink? Why can't downtown sidewalks be used by "the residents of Cleveland" to set up tables and sell shit around the stadiums or during events without an expensive azzed permit? There were sidewalk vendors from the neighborhoods lined all up and down Euclid when I was younger. Downtown property owners don't own the mutha fuckin' city sidewalks. They can even write an ordinance as an instruction to police that the smell of marijuana is not probable cause and not to randomly search license plates. Ordinances aren't supposed to fuck the people.
http://library.amlegal.com/…/cityofclevelandohiocodeofordin…

Here's a link to search for ordinances and resolutions Cleveland city council members are voting on. 
https://cityofcleveland.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx

Here's a link to the city record. It's supposed to let you know what your councilmember voted on and how they voted. If you follow the ordinances passed in the City Record and compare what council does to its own rules and Ohio laws you'll see the violations. They are rampant.
http://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/legisla…/the-city-record

Here's a link to Ohio's constitution. I'm not going to tell you which section controls municipal corporations and authorizes home rule. If you read it you'll know.
https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/laws/ohio-constitution

Here's a link to the side of city government Mayor Frank Jackson controls. That's where you'll find the budget.
http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/

And if you want to know how the state auditor evaluates Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland city council's management and compliance with laws and good business practices, here's a link to the 2016 state audit. Contact the state auditor at 216-787-3665 and ask for the "management letters." The management letters are where you'll find very critical and ongoing information about how department heads are managing city funds.
https://ohioauditor.gov/…/2017/City_of_Cleveland_16-Cuyahog…

Bottom line. If you don't read you can't lead if you're an elected official. And if you're a citizen dealing with a non-reading elected official all you're hearing is a pack of lies. Everything about government is in "the code."

  February 24, 2018

Yes, said Councilman Tony Brancatelli, who chairs council's Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee. He said he intends to schedule a hearing shortly. 

Several council members have grumbled about the city's weak code enforcement in their wards, and many of them have arranged for nonprofit community development corporations to assist in flagging problems.

 Eric J Brewer:

My comments in March 2018

See opinion piece by Mansfield Frazier https://www.facebook.com/mansfield.frazier/posts/10215067436869174

 Mansfield Frazier - seriously watch your back with the Land Bank - remember that Western Reserve Land Conservancy(WRLC) board member Mitch Schneider also commands Metrohealth board. Great robbery of the people - WRLC aka Jim Rokakis gets paid by city w/lucrative consultant monies each year and on top of that WRLC "grades" properties in the City , which are demo'd by JR's good buddy Gus Frangos. If it sounds incestuous - it is- going back to the city council's secret code and manipulation of the charter since Forbes days >Mike White. Eric Jonathan Brewer knows about this.

-Council club members "take care" of their own...hence the recycling of Eugene Miller , Sabra Scott Pierce et al. Still waiting to see where  BrianCummins lands - but he could get the treatment given to  Nelson Cintron since  during his time in council. Cummins didn't exactly belong to the club.

- Meet with Michael Houser your County Council rep - what you don't want is Cheryl Stephens in that position. Houser is very smart - out of the gate. He has a lot of potential despite coming from the dysfunctional Cuyahoga County admin under Budish and Sobol Jordan - who took everybody on a ride w/ her MBA program on county time and 2 year stint to vest herself in the PERS she earned under Mike White. Despicable.

- Cheryl Stephens is seriously bad news and should be brought down on criminal charges for her administration of demolitions at the Cuyahoga County Land Bank that led to the Arco Noble Rd dump and more - see her history with Board of Revisions.

The major sick player at Cle City Council you must not trust is Tony Brancatelli - his constituents hate him , but live with so much of his puffed up scary little man tactics that I am sent unmarked mail w/anonymous tips from old time residents. He has decimated the "Slavic" community. He is chairman of  CLE city council's powerful -Development Planning & Sustainability Committee and serves on three other committees – Finance, Municipal Services & Properties and Mayor's Appointments.

Shalira Taylor needs to run a recall campaign against Brancatelli - he is the council go-to person for all of the underhanded secret shit going on in CLE . Michele Burk I hope that SEIU will not let down their guard on Kevin Kelley - he and Brancatelli are in lock step.

AND - it is about time:

https://amac.us/trump-says-billions-in-taxpayer-dollars-wasted-stolen-in-cummingss-district/?

Donald Trump is on a roll. There's a Joe Cimperman in Baltimore who stole block grant funds just like there's a Michael Cosgrove there who mismanaged Baltimore's block grant program like they both did here in Cleveland. Billions in federal funds wasted and stolen in Baltimore. Billions in greater Cleveland. When I met with President George W. Bush's HUD secretary in D.C., Alfonso Jackson, his staff showed me a list of every federal dollar that had been sent to East Cleveland since 1974. He told me HUD held the city accountable for every dime misspent since the the first dime was spent.