Bad Government 7: Elected Leaders & Build Lakewood PAC Took Public Charitable Money From The Poor For Political Propaganda

According to public filings, a Build Lakewood political action committee known as “Voters Engaged to Oppose 64” (the “No Build PAC”) obtained 98% percent of its donations from the Lakewood Hospital Association (LHA). The No Build PAC was formed to defeat a ballot issue that would have given Lakewood voters the right to approve or reject a city council decision to close Lakewood Hospital and prevent charitable money and property from being given away to the Cleveland Clinic (CCF) and other private parties for less than fair value.

Of the $51,077 donated to the No Build PAC, $50,000 was donated by LHA. Mayor Summers, Council President Madigan, Councilmen Tom Bullock and John Litten were all trustees of LHA when the charitable money was diverted to the PAC.

There were only 16 individuals who made donations to the No Build PAC---3 of the 16 donors were elected leaders—Tom Bullock, School Board Member Linda Beebe, and Councilwoman Cindy Marx. Bullock also loaned money from his own campaign as seed money for the No Build PAC. Many of the other handful of donors to the PAC are known friends and supporters of Summers and Bullock, including CCF trustee, Tom Gable.

The same month that LHA funded the PAC, Build Lakewood’s attorney and PAC deputy treasurer, Jay Carson, claimed at city council last fall, "We [Build Lakewood] are not the political or marketing arm of anyone." Summers, Bullock, Madigan and Marx were all in attendance. This year, Summers first testified under oath in a pending taxpayer lawsuit that LHA did not fund the political campaign, but then he tried to change his sworn testimony.

The public’s charitable money was used by the PAC to hire a public relations company to make mass mailings to Lakewood residents that contained many false and misleading statements and propaganda. For example, the false PAC mailings said that passage of issue 64 would “Kill Jobs” ---Since the hospital has closed, nearly a 1,000 jobs have been lost and more job losses and business closing are predicted.

LHA was a public charity whose mission was to provide hospital services for all citizens of Lakewood---all of LHA’s assets and charitable money were owned by the City of Lakewood. So Summers, Bullock, Madigan and Litten all used their positions on a public charity to allow charitable money to be used in a campaign waged by a small handful of people aligned with those political leaders.

Issue 64 was narrowly defeated and the same elected leaders who supported and continue to support the No Build PAC propaganda are now claiming the defeat of that issue to be a mandate of the voters to close the hospital and give public property to CCF for free.

Taking money designated for the poor and using it for dishonest political purposes is reprehensible.

It is also very bad government.