That Board certainly was NOT working for a very long time, or at least not working in the rate-payers' best interests. But first, the cast of characters. You are referring to Julius Ciaccia, who was with Cleveland Water before moving to the NEORSD. Ciaccia was implicated but not charged in the corruption investigation you mention. Ciaccia replaced Erwin Odeall, who was with the District for a very long time. Odeall was not running the show, however. That honor belonged to Bill Schatz, who lost his job/resigned after conflicts of interest came to light. The US Attorneys are now investigating how Schatz conducted the District's business. They are looking at several MOs: awarding emergency work to favored contractors, enlarging the value of contracts to favored contractors by adding work through change orders, which avoids the public bidding process, and otherwise awarding projects to favored contractors (low bidders who were not properly qualified, second bidders when they didn't like the low bidders). Now the Board members. Keep in mind that many of these individuals have been on the board for a VERY long time. This means that they were either ignorant of how things were operating (and therefore in dereliction of their duties) or they knew what was going on (and were therefore complicit in the corruption). It is hard to see how there could be a third category. Board members now include Mayor Gary Starr, Mr. Libertore, Mayor DePiero, Darnell Brown (City of Cleveland), Mayor Longo, Mr. Sulik, and Ms. Sheila Kelly. Starr is quite vocal about his efforts to ride in on a white horse and rescue the District, but he has been there for so long that he fits into one of the categories above. DePiero hasn't been there long, and you wonder why he took the job. It will only hurt him politically. Map the relationships of those board members (other than the plain fact that some of them were using their influence to raise campaign contributions) and you may learn something about "business as usual" at the District.
RSS
