Backroom dealings or business as usual and conflicting law opinions?
The Blade has part of the story, that Fox Toledo covered last night. WSPD talked about this yesterday as well, what was interesting was no one mentioned who Council President Mark Sobczak and Councilman George Sarantou met with, it wasn’t attorney’s involved in the case. I’ve been able to determine one person who met with them representing the Midwest Retailer’s Association was Dan Ridi, who heavily lobbied City Council back in April and May.
An interesting tidbit of information comes from back in May in an email written to some of the media by Scott A. Ciolek, one of the lawyers representing Midwest Retailers Association, in response to an email exchange between Mr. Ridi and Councilman Joe McNamara concerning Mr. Ridi wanting to meet with members of Council, where it was expressed there was a process that had to be followed once a lawsuit was filed and one of the City Attorney’s had advised against such a meeting with the case being in litigation.
Part of what Mr. Ciolek stated:
It should be noted, contrary to what Mr. McNamara suggests in this exchange, that it is always appropriate for parties to meet to discuss a settlement even after litigation has started. It is especially appropriate when both sides legal counsel are present.
It does not appear in this situation that legal counsel was present from both sides…It’s interesting that one of the City Attorney’s specifically advised against Council members meeting with members of the Midwest Retailer’s Association in May and now it’s being stated that the meeting took place with the consent of the Law Department…Why the change in position was made by the Law Department is not clear, it’s also not clear if the same City attorney was involved which could be a factor.
I’m not a fan of the legislation that was adopted by Council to regulate convenience stores, but this type of a situation continues to create the impression that our City is not being ran by the rules of Council or even our Charter, that they can be tossed away when they are found not to be convenient be followed.
Maybe the law department just didn’t get that memo. It seems like whenever there is conflicting “he said/she said” type situations, that is usually the reason given. Anyway… they should of had someone from the law department with them, just to cover their butts.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:18 pmGet real. Money talks.
According to the Lucas County Board of Election’s 2005 Campaign Finance reports filed by Finkbeiner, DAN Abu-RIDI
(’Abu’ means ’son of’ in Arabic) gave the Fink a $5000 check on 8-03-05.
This is the same Dan Ridi that gets special accomodation from Finkbeiner’s puppet, Mark Sobczak.
If that kind of loot doesn’t get a candidate’s attention, nothing will.
Except for the $15,000 given to him by Jerry James, dispensed thru various family members. Jerry happens to own CRESTLINE PAVING, the firm with the red trucks that you may have seen everywhere in Toledo working on city paving contracts.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:24 pmHmmm, could this be a smoking gun? Ask ramon. HAAAAA yeeeeee
Voter
August 6th, 2008 at 8:57 pmHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMM, oh my, just ask ramon about backroom DEALINGS OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!! HHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE you may not want to know what i’m talking about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
August 6th, 2008 at 10:38 pmOne of the attorneys from the Midwest Retailers Association was on “Eye on Toledo” Wednesday night and said that it was not only appropriate, but encouraged by the judge in the case for the two parties to meet. He also said that unlike the information reported, that this meeting did not settle the lawsuit in any way.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:23 amBRIAN M!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!! NO REMARKS FROM YOU????????? HHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. voter
August 9th, 2008 at 9:46 pm