Last night, I attended a debate at Holy Name Church in Slavic Village. Almost all the candidates were there, and one opponent in particular came in for a little reality check.
I’ve taken a few county council candidates to task for their reliance on county taxpayer money already, and having the gall to run for a seat on the legislative body that votes on the budgets which they themselves will be tapping. The Ohio Ethics Commission has ruled that one of my opponents, James Levin, can keep both his job at county council, should he win, and his job at Ingenuity Festival, which relies on $100,000 per year of county taxpayer money. I guess the reasoning is that the $100k doesn’t rise to the level of requiring resignation from one of the jobs, which I find hilarious.
The real problem with these conflicts is not that they disqualify you from one position or another – Ohio law requires you to recuse yourself from addressing an issue related to the conflict. That means that if county council deals with an issue related to University Circle, and Chris Ronayne is in the council, Ronayne has to take himself out of the discussion because of his role as UCI president. That means that University Circle has worse representation than it ought to have in the council. Residents lose.
That brings us to Clark Broidatelli.
Clark Broida is Tony Brancatelli’s treasurer. Brancatelli was given the ward 12 council council seat without earning a single vote by virtue of his then position as Slavic Village Development Corporation executive director, a CDC which relies on county taxpayer, as well as federal, state, and city taxpayer money. Brancatelli’s executive director job then went to Clark Broida’s wife, Marie Kitteridge, who still holds the job, which still relies on county taxpayer money.
So if Clark Broidatelli wins this council seat, he will sit on the legislative body that has the power to fund his wife’s salary.
How cozy. I bet Frank Russo was taking notes.
And if somehow all of this just reeks a bit too much for even Clark Broidatelli, and Clark Broidatelli has the scruples to recuse himself from discussion of any issue relating to his wife’s job, which is basically anything at all dealing with Slavic Village – guess who loses out. The residents of Slavic Village, who have to go unrepresented on issues before county council because of the musical chairs being played by yet another political clan.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
