FBI, IRS Agents Serve Search Warrants on Cuyahoga County Offices, Office-Holder Homes

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Commissioner’s, Auditor’s Homes Included in Public Corruption Investigation

OhioNewsBureau 

By John Michael Spinelli

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Hundreds of FBI and IRS agents Monday launched a joint public corruption investigation that included serving a minimum of 0 search warrants on Cuyahoga County offices and the homes of two elected public officials, according to published reports.

One report by the AP said about 200 FBI agents went to the county administration building in Cleveland, where agents, some who came from as far away as Pittsburgh to help with the searches, searched the county engineer’s and auditor’s office and an information services center.

FBI spokesman Scott Wilson said the sudden search today stemmed from a “long-term public corruption investigation" and that he couldn’t offer more detail because the warrants are sealed through the court and because he couldn’t comment on anything items being searched for or seized.

James McCafferty, Administrator for Cuyahoga County, told the AP the county was cooperating with the investigation that included a raid on the center that performs computer work for several county agencies and federal law enforcement and tax officials exercising a search warrant on the office of County Commissioner Jimmy DiMora.

Dimora’s home, in Independence, was also searched, published reports said. Moving from being mayor of Bedford Heights (1981-1998), Dimora ran successfully for Cuyahoga County Commissioner and was reelected in 2002. Dimora’s large personal presence matches that of the important role he plays in county politics, which includes serving as chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

Coverage by other Cleveland media revealed that federal agents were also at the Mayfield Village home of County Auditor Frank Russo and his son, Vince, whose consulting firm, VinCore Corp, is located at the Burke Lakefront Airport. Doan Pyramid Electric in Bedford Heights and DAS Construction Co. in Garfield Heights were also searched Monday as part of the investigation.

Plan to Reorganize Cuyahoga County Government Legislative Approved in June

Time will tell whether today’s raid by federal law enforcement and tax officials of county offices and homes of elected public officials has any connection to or will complicate or simply a push from the Ohio General Assembly to allow voters a chance to reorganize their county government by merging the duties of auditor, treasurer and recorder into a new, appointed county fiscal office.

The idea was proposed by County Commissioner Tim Hagan, a Democrat, and endorsed in the form of a bill, approved by the Republican-ked legislature and Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, that created a study group on Cuyahoga County reorganization.

According to the editorial in support of the bill published by the largest print newspaper in the county and the state, The Plain Dealer, the study group will afford citizens and voters a “deliberative and thoughtful process with the potential to produce a reform proposal that only the most selfish political partisan imaginable would oppose it.”

The study group would be made up of a nine-member Commission on Cuyahoga County Government Reform. House Speaker John Husted, Gov. Ted Strickland and Senate President Bill M. Harris would each name three commissioners, while all nine must be Cuyahoga County residents.

Ohio legislators, who have recessed until the fall, directed the study commission to suggest ways Cuyahoga County could form "a more effective, efficient, and financially and economically viable county government structure." The study panel will pick its own chair, will be subject to Ohio's open-meetings and open-records laws and will have a $200,000 appropriation, which reports say will be used for "research and data gathering."

The study panel, come Nov. 7th, is to propose county-reform legislation, which the General Assembly, in its post-election “lame duck” session in November and December, will be asked to act on the panel's ideas.

If today's raid turns out to be anything more than a fishing expedition, the debate over whether to reorganize Cuayhoga County won't be a debate much longer.

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