HUD was one of the agencies as part of the raid this past week - HUD has nothing to do with a paving contractor in the Engineering department. Stay tuned.

Since HUD agents were involved, there is speculation about which department was the target of the search. Michael Cosgrove, director of Community Development, said he could not comment.

Lou Tisler was making $125K at NHS- Cosgrove is definitely jumping the Jackson ship:

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20170213/NEWS/170219927/lou-tisler-will-leave-neighborhood-housing-services-of-greater

 Eric J Brewer: Blaine Griffin can confirm that when we encountered each other at city hall and he identified Cosgrove to me I told him it would be my intent to fire him and I said it loudly. I've managed a community development department twice. He's covered up some shit for Adam Rosen, Jeff Ramsey and Joe Tegreene at Detroit Shoreway and I have no problem producing documents to support the claim.

I didn't realize Joe was at Detroit Shoreway. He was Dennis Kucinich's finance director and a Cleveland school board member. The last time I heard his name he was an attorney and cops were questioning him about the unsolved murder of Colleen Shaughnessy in the state office tower. Frank should have been watching his back with Cosgrove and the CDC's.

And later:

A special agent for HUD's inspector general requested the search warrant. HUD's involvement means a certain set of federal laws found in 24 Code of Federal Regulations Part 570 that deals with block grants since that's the area of city hall raided. Here are those regulations.https://www.hudexchange.info/…/documents/24-CFR-Part%20-570…

HUD identifies by policy what is described as "eligible activities." The inspector general's role in the investigation suggests to some extent there could be a violation. Here's a link to those statutes. https://www.hud.gov/…/communitydevelopme…/library/stateguide

I'm willing to bet HUD's inspector general is looking more specifically in the area of 24 CFR Part 85.36 under the "procurement" section for the violations of law. https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/CDBGCHAPTER14.PDF

Ewais is or was the city's chief construction engineer and involved in road resurfacing. The side company may be all he's done. It could be more. But a recent transfer Frank made is an indication Ewais isn't the only employee involved in some bullshit. The difference between me and him is I'd have fired both their asses and I wouldn't be writing any "may the force be with you" letters on behalf of Cosgrove.

Eric J Brewer on FB:

Ward 7. Y'all got a good one.

Council held an orientation meeting last week. Of course the person proclaiming he's the first Muslim to serve on city council attended and asked a question. "When am I going to get my money?"

Basheer Jones wasn't talking about his pay check. He was talking about federal "block grant" funds. Jones told his council colleagues he owed some people and wanted to send federal HUD block grant funds overseas. Where overseas he didn't say, but Jones wants to send federal economic development dollars earmarked for Americans living in Ward 7 to some foreigners overseas. He also thinks block grant funds can be used to pay off his debts. Council officials warned him not to even try.

When I heard this bullshit I laughed. I knew this dude wasn't prepared for council, but the questions he asked and his going off on board of election employees for uploading his campaign finance reports so I and others could read them tells me this South Euclid resident is not ready for prime time. To me he's just another political jail bird waiting to happen. You lie to get on the ballot and you'll lie throughout your political career. Then you get caught. Dude's lying reminds me of Gary Norton. Damn. They're both from Morehouse.

So. Ward 7. This is who you elected by 13 votes. You accepted the speeches and all the derogatory shit Jones and Mike White spewed about Tj Dow. You knew your candidate was violating the city's residency laws and you knowingly cast your vote to embrace his criminal misconduct. Albert Ratner of Forest City Enterprises got his wish and so did the board of Cleveland Clinic who's member donated illegally to Jones. And no. Jones hasn't paid back the $3000 in illegal contributions he got between the former chairman of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and the founder of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Instead of using federal HUD block grant funds for free paint, home repairs, street resurfacing, demolition and the elimination of slum and blight in Ward 7, Jones wants to send the dollars overseas and use it to pay people he owes. There goes the new community center TJ was planning. There goes the community benefits agreement. Y'all ain't getting shit. But wait? Where overseas and what's up with this overseas bullshit? Y'all need to ask ya' boy ... Ward 7. When's the first ward club meeting?

The nice thing about 2018 is the Plain Dealer's former publisher, Terrence Egger, who serves on the Cleveland Clinic board won't be able to hide news like this about the people he protects anymore. I'm publishing and building another newspaper one edition and one reader at a time over the next year. Jones will get no protection from me. He'll simply be covered just like every other elected official we'll cover and Mike with his "dark money" can't help him.

Hey Albert. I hear you got jokes. It takes less than 400 signatures to recall a councilman. The way ya' boy's going he'll piss off the ward in 30 days.

And Mike. Remember our conversation about ya' girl Barbara Byrd Bennett when I published Cleveland Challenger during Jane Campbell's term as mayor? Where is she? Jones. You better watch this guy. Look at where people who were close to him ended up.

By the way. I extend my congratulations to Ward 7 on the election of its newest member of council. At $83,000 a year your unemployed YouTube rapper is going to serve you well.

See the above post. Basheer just posted a number of buildings he wants to see demo'd in Hough.

http://realneo.us/content/hough-demos-ward-7-basheer-jones

Eric J. Brewer explains how the abuse of power works:

"Let's say Jackson's new community development director, Cosgrove, is funding “CDC's” for councilmen and working with developers who want certain parcels of property cleared for development. Adam Rosen of the Detroit Shoreway Corporation wanted a renter off W. 65th Street and Detroit and manufactured false information about him to create an interaction with the city with the help of Zone. They then used the created interaction to high pressure the renter's landlord, the owners of Pioneer Savings Bank. When the renter confronted Zone, Jeff Ramsey and Joe Tegreene in writing with their duty-exceeding conduct, and showed in over 185 incidents how Rosen was lying in reports Detroit Shoreway was submitted to HUD for reimbursement, Cosgrove and O'Leary defended and concealed his misconduct from Jackson instead of holding him and Detroit Shoreway accountable for it. When he showed that a commercial tenant made improvements without permits, Cosgrove and O'Leary ignored the violations.