I had a conversation with a very smart woman I know, who works for a CDC - she is adamant that Land Bank is good and will not discuss this with me.

 Another woman who is working to create a healthy food network in CLE recently realized the scam behind her shady landlord - Cleveland Bricks LLC- and has mapped their holdings.

 
View Larger Map

 Lily Miller has exposed this outfit here on REALNEO.  How does this relate to the land bank and CDCs?? - from Lily Miller:

The map does not include numerous properties already sold by Cleveland Bricks - which was given or nearly free via the county land bank, Detroit Shoreway, HUD, Tremont West, Fannie Mae , etc.... There have been 185 property transactions relative to Cleveland Bricks since 2008.

http://realneo.us/content/cuyahoga-county-land-bank-report-fraud-waste-hud#comment-34182

There is a shuffle in the CDC underworld - likeable Megan Meister quit the quasi CDC (quasi -because it has w/no board representation) - under Detroit Shoreway Mega CDC run by Jeff Ramsey.

Rumors are that Brian Cummins' assistant, Johanna Hamm (wife of Darren Hamm at Neighborhood Housing Services) wants the position and the salary - but that Matt Zone wants former Detroit Shoreway CDC employee Jennifer Spencer.

I don't know why Jennifer Spencer would want it since she is currently at TeamNEO(?)(or why she also recently went for Old Brooklyn CDC--but lost out to Jeffrey Verespej).  

Either way - it's all a pawn game.  And, the only folks making out are outfits like Brick LLC.  And Safeguard/Forest City - another rumor floating around is resignation of Marie Kitteridge out of Slavic Village... how many will go work at the Land BANK!!

  Of how to create the perfect GRAFT machine agency - not unlike the Land Bank -

Will it take FBI ten years to investigate Cuyahoga Land Reutilization Corp???

Angelnward14: During campaign forums and season...every agency in the county that vies for public funding sends the candidates their demographic breakdowns and they swoon over the politicians and work to support the "winners" so that when it's time to fund an agency....the agency is at the top of the list for said politicians...... it's a big business.... I believe that every citizen in our county should get a BINDER BOOK showing them the breakdown (To the pennies) of where every public dollar is spent (A compilation of all the countless agencies that thrive off the public dole)... Then...the real public....should have a voice....but again; Cuyahoga County loves keeping the public at large in the dark....countless redundant unsustainable programs are sustained by the connected....the leadership of said organizations is codependent on funding by the public....and the public is complacent.....sad but true. Our citizens are compiled of enough brilliant analysts that there would be a lot of pork shaved off these pigs.....transparency should be a state law requirement of every not for profit...down to the penny. Too much abuse continues. SMH.

From Lily Miller -back story:

Dec 14 2011

Investigator: Lawmaker seeks probe on grant spending

WKYC 3 (Ohio) - by Tom Meyer



A Democratic state senator is asking the state Department of Development to investigate allegations of misspending at a non-profit agency that uses state grants to help low income residents with heating bills.



State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) said she would request the probe after viewing a Channel 3 News investigation into travel and use of an agency credit card for personal purchases at the Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland.

"If there's nothing to hide, let's open up the books, examine them," said Turner. "If it's all good -- amen. But if something is wrong, somebody has to answer for that."

CEOGC administers the Home Emergency Assistance Program in Cuyahoga County using grants it receives from the State Department of Development. In 2009, the agency got about $3 million in state funds to help low income households, according to its most recent tax return.

The agency also receives about $35 million in federal grants to educate about 5,000 preschoolers who attend Head Start programs in the county, the tax return shows. In all, about 95 percent of the non-profit's operating budget comes from state and federal grants.

Turner's call for an investigation comes as Channel 3 News found that the non-profit's chief executive has routinely hired friends and family at CEOGC.

CEO Jacqueline Middleton, who was once married to the brother of U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes' wife, gets more than $200,000 in salary and benefits. Two years ago, the board gave her a $7,000 loan -- a big red flag according to experts. The agency declined to say whether the money has been repaid.

Middleton's No. 2 - Senior Vice President Brian Gleisser - is paid $160,000. He also serves as a Shaker Heights councilman.

Middleton also hired long-time friend Arlene Wynn as vice president of information technology. Wynn gets $108,000 even though she has a degree is in French education -- not computers. Wynn's husband, meanwhile, gets about $100,000 to run the human resources department.

Another Middleton friend, Charmaine Wilson, is a project manager making $65,000. And Middleton's relative, Angela Armstrong-Alford, is the facilities manager. All told, the agency spends more than $1 million dollars on top executives and another $2 million for their staff.

The Investigator Tom Meyer found in November that CEOGC has shipped top execs to conferences in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Chicago since July at great expense. The Las Vegas trip alone -- where 13 employees traveled to learn how to comply with federal regulations -- cost up to $50,000, insiders say.

The station also reviewed records showing that Middleton used an agency credit card while in Las Vegas to pay for $400 worth of clothes at Saks Fifth Avenue, a $175 meal at a fancy restaurant and a $1,000-a-week rental car.

State Rep. Barbara Boyd, who sits on the non-profit's board, said she had no idea Middleton was charging personal items to the agency.

"You should use your own money," Boyd said. "You don't use somebody else's credit card."

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news?ContentRecord_id=5b00cc7f-13a2-43e8-b0e2-5a207d35b94d&ContentType_id=abb8889a-5962-4adb-abe8-617da340ab8e&Group_id=2b5f5ef9-5929-4863-9c07-277074394357

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SIDENOTE - CDCs like SCFBC get piece of pie in distribution of HEAP funds....

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2014/09/jacqueline_middleton_pleads_gu.html

How the job creation works!!

Racketeering, mob demo contractors, fake CDCs and non-profits that skim off of federal monies designed to provide housing and services for low-income families - all BULLsh#t front from "investors" who depreciate our real estate to rock bottom prices to start the flipping cycle over again, ad nauseum.  

Detroit Shoreway Development Corp and their giveaway of properties to Cleveland Bricks, Slavic Village Development Corporation and their giveaway of properties to Forest City and Safeguard (SAFEGUARD!) - SICK people, sick!  It's the most obvious swindle in the world and you can not see it??  And, who ends up paying taxes in Cuyahoga County?? Not these guys...

 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/10/cuyahoga_county_housing_prices.html

WAKE UP!

https://youtu.be/EKcaBjnbGkA

Too many people get sucked into the non-profit "job creation" at the "Land Bank" and fake green environmental outfit known as Western Reserve Land Conservancy.  But, their schtick only has so much federal mileage left to go.  Artificially depreciating land and property value so that "investors" can pick up the property and sell at inflated price - only goes so far when you have killed the housing and commercial real estate market in this town and redevelopment comes with a hefty DEMOLITION and clean up fee.

WAKE UP Northeast Ohio - stop feeding these monsters.... (stop glorifying Rokakis-Frangos-Cochran) - CROOKS!

SPIN Machine - it's not working...

http://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-ideas/distressed-cities-report-food-deserts-super-tuesday-preview

SEE: 

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/03/clevelands_future_-_beyond_bei.html

(Note: you won't see my comments which are "muted" by NEOMG - I reproduced below for you)

I just returned from Cincinnati - real estate everywhere booming. Columbus just made finalist for the Smart City DOT award towards connected transportation. 

Cleveland suffers from the worst political leadership in Ohio. And, the crony politics here protects two of the region's biggest con artists - Jim Rokakis and Gus Frangos.  First, Frangos "invented" land bank to market Tremont where Rokakis' father ran the coffeeshop across from Annunciation Church.  This strategy, paired with arson and demolitions, made them seem to have the Midas touch. But, their schemes have not served us since then.  

As county treasurer and deputy treasurer - they legislated the sale of tax liens.  Turns out the folks they sold to - Plymouth Park, Aeon Financial, Woods Cove - found it so much easier to just pick up the tax liens of African American families who owned their home outright, but who had fallen behind on property taxes. NAACP investigated and concluded the same.  Nailah Byrd, County General Inspector at the time - you know, Barbara Byd-Bennett's daughter - promised to investigate and never did. When Rokakis-Frangos lost their county gravy train positions - Frangos just reinvented the land bank at a larger level.  And, voila - they drive the demolitions in Cuyahoga County (read all you want into who controls demolition companies) and Rokakis gets a sinecure at the bloated fake non-profit known as Western Reserve Land Conservancy, run by Rich Cochran who make $300,000 helping rich people find "investments" in the inner city.  Carry on!