Former Councilwoman Dennard indicted

 

Former Cincinnati Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard has been indicted by a federal grand jury on public corruption charges, the U.S. Attorney's office announced Wednesday.

 

The indictment contains no additional details on Dennard's alleged offenses, but does charge her with seven counts total of honest services wire fraud, bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and attempted extortion.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/03/11/former-councilwoman-dennard-indicted.html

Who does Tamaya have dirt on? 

 

Is former Cincinnati City Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard considering plea deal in corruption case?

Former prosecutor: New filing suggests plea deal

 

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/is-former-cincinnati-city-councilwoman-tamaya-dennard-considering-plea-deal-in-corruption-case

 

Dusing reviewed a motion filed this week by Dennard’s attorney, Stephanie Kessler, asking the judge for a one-week delay in the deadline to file pretrial motions. The reason, she wrote, is because Dennard is “in discussions with the government.”

 

“It is absolutely industry jargon for this is headed in a certain direction, and yes, a plea is on the way. We just need time to work out the details,” Dusing said. “This means to me that she is going to plead guilty and likely be cooperating with the government in the case, which is a euphemistic term for helping them make their next case."

4 hours ago, Ram23 said:

Who does Tamaya have dirt on?

 

It was hilarious how the Channel 9 editing implicated Cincinnati City Council with its superimposition of ordinary council business over ominous narration. 

 

Plus, that lawyer looks like he went to about 25 too many Phish shows in the 90s. 

2 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

Muething will be interim city manager until a permanent city manager is recommended by Cranley and confirmed by council. Cranley has said he is unsure whether he is going to do a national search for a new city manager. He has 18 months left in office. An interim solicitor also will be chosen.

 

 

 

Hmmm.  Duhaney leaving town just as Tamaya Denard announced plea deal with the Feds.  Either he's in trouble or he's skipping town before it all hits the fan. 

4 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

 

Hmmm.  Duhaney leaving town just as Tamaya Denard announced plea deal with the Feds.  Either he's in trouble or he's skipping town before it all hits the fan. 

I think the rats are fleeing the ship before it takes on water. It's just odd how many city managers we have gone through the past seven years 

So, uhh...back to City Council news...

 

Dennard plea agreement reveals potential prison sentence

 

Former Cincinnati Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard could face between 24 and 30 months in prison under the plea agreement she signed Friday that was released Monday.

 

The plea agreement, which still must be carried out before U.S. District JudgeSusan Dlott, calls for Dennard to plead guilty to one count of honest services wire fraud.

 

It also would require her to pay back $15,000 Dennard allegedly received from Frost Brown Todd attorney Tom Gabelman, a cooperating witness in the case, for her vote on a Banks-related development issue.

 

Under the federal sentencing guidelines, prosecutors and Dennard's attorneys have set her offense level at a 17; presuming her criminal history category is 1, she would face 24 months to 30 months in prison. Dennard has no known criminal history. The prosecution has agreed not to have Dennard's offense level enhanced. Under federal statutes, Dennard could face up to 20 years for the single wire fraud count.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/22/dennard-plea-agreement-details.html

 

Former Cincinnati council member pleads guilty to corruption charge

 

Former Cincinnati Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of honest services fraud in federal court downtown.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/29/former-cincinnati-council-member-pleads-guilty-to.html

 

Jeff Pastor disappears for a week under mysterious circumstances:

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/09/15/cincinnacincinnatti-city-councilman-jeff-pastor-tweets-cryptic-statement-traumatic-family-experience/5811407002/

 

Quote

Pastor put his 5-bedroom historic North Avondale home on the market over the weekend for $695,000. The home was the subject of several media stories after it came to light Pastor's then mentor and boss, who was seeking help from the city on sewer issues, purchased the property on his behalf. At the time, in the Spring of 2018, Pastor said he was paying the mortgage and not beholden to anyone, including his mentor. The property was later transferred to his name.

 

 

 

 

11 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

Jeff Pastor disappears for a week under mysterious circumstances:

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/09/15/cincinnacincinnatti-city-councilman-jeff-pastor-tweets-cryptic-statement-traumatic-family-experience/5811407002/

 

 

 

 

 

Yea, not that we need to know all the details about someone's life especially in times of personal tragedy but that release was really weird. I hope all is well no matter what is going on.

 

Special prosecutor won't charge Cincinnati City Council members

 

A special prosecutor has declined to charge five members of Cincinnati City Council criminally for dereliction of duty after they violated the Open Meetings Act in 2018.

 

Patrick Hanley, a former federal prosecutor appointed by Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, sent a letter to Deters with his recommendation.

 

"After considering this particular matter at length, I have concluded that such a criminal charge against the five council members ... is not warranted and therefore decline prosecution," Hanley wrote.

Remember how Bush used 9/11 to justify the Iraq invasion even though Iraq had nothing to do with it? Cunningham was on the radio today complaining about that councilman in the Gang of 5 mini-scandal who dropped his cell phone in a hot tub.  

 

https://www.citybeat.com/news/blog/21001544/dont-sit-in-a-hot-tub-and-group-text-your-city-council-friends-about-that-butterfly-you-stole-more-cincinnati-news

On 9/16/2020 at 9:54 AM, jmecklenborg said:

Jeff Pastor disappears for a week under mysterious circumstances:

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/09/15/cincinnacincinnatti-city-councilman-jeff-pastor-tweets-cryptic-statement-traumatic-family-experience/5811407002/

 

 

This morning:

 

Quote

Source: Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Pastor arrested on federal bribery charge

 

FBI agents arrested Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Pastor early Tuesday on federal bribery-related charges.

 

Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney’s office would discuss the case Tuesday morning, but a source with knowledge of the investigation confirmed the arrest.

 

The charges against Pastor, a Republican, involve the potential development of the former Convention Place Mall at 435 Elm St., across from Duke Energy Convention Center downtown.

 

there was always something about Pastor that seemed a bit off. I could never put my finger on it, but it seemed as if the guy was a bit shady sometimes. I wish I could say i was shocked. 

I appreciated Pastor's libertarian leanings, but I would say he was hardly able to be counted on as a reliable vote on council.

I like Pastor. Too bad if true.  

 

Sunderman's quote in the article:

 

“I believe in the presumption of innocence,” Councilwoman Betsy Sundermann said. “If he’s innocent, he needs to fight this, but he needs to do it outside the walls of City Hall. He needs to resign.”

 

If he is innocent, there is no reason to resign.  

I kinda though he'd get voted out one day for being way too honest and open, not for this. I guess we will see what pans out.

 

Another Cincinnati council member arrested

 

Cincinnati Councilman Jeff Pastor has been arrested by the FBI as a part of a corruption investigation, according to multiple media outlets.

 

Pastor, a Republican who is in his first term on council, was taken into custody Tuesday, The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com reported.

 

Pastor is the second Cincinnati council member to be arrested this year. Former Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard is set to be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty to a bribery scheme involving the Banks music venue project.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/11/10/another-cincinnati-council-member-arrested.html

He had a gross handshake, like many politicians. 

Overall this doesn’t surprise me at all. I believe I mentioned on this forum a while back that the transactions and planning of the new convention center hotel and surrounding lots have seemed odd from the beginning. 

Cincinnati Councilman Jeff Pastor pleads not guilty to corruption charges

 

Cincinnati Councilman Jeff Pastor pleaded not guilty to a sweeping federal indictment on bribery, money laundering, extortion and honest services fraud charges hours after he was arrested Tuesday morning at his home.

 

Between the summer of 2018 and early 2019, Pastor allegedly accepted $55,000 in payoffs from developers in exchange for his vote or help on projects, according to an indictment unsealed by the federal court on Tuesday. Pastor faces up to 20 years in prison.

 

Tyran Marshall, a Pastor friend, also was charged, with prosecutors alleging that he set up a charity to collect the payments for Pastor.

 

Pastor wanted the developers to pay him and Marshall annual salaries for their help in pushing through projects, federal authorities alleged.

 

U.S. Attorney David DeVillers described City Hall as having a "culture of corruption" and a "culture of pay to play" where business people are expected to engage in this type of activity.

 

"It has to end," Devillers said.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/11/10/pastor-pleads-not-guilty-to-bribery-charges.html

Wow that’s pretty sad. City Hall having “a culture of corruption” is really bad news/press for Cincinnati. Now to be fair he also mentioned Ohio as a whole has a big issue with this kind of pay to play stuff. It sounds like there are many other investigations ongoing too. The FBI mentioned in the press conference 1 of the projects involving the fraud by Pastor was “ completed to a certain extent” that’s interesting. I’m thinking (Convention Hotel? Just the purchase and demo?) and the other unnamed project ended up being canceled. Who knows how many projects have been delayed or canceled over this kind of mess.

Edited November 10, 20204 yr by 646empire

5 hours ago, 646empire said:

Overall this doesn’t surprise me at all. I believe I mentioned on this forum a while back that the transactions and planning of the new convention center hotel and surrounding lots have seemed odd from the beginning. 

 

Yeah Pastor is going to go to prison for taking $50k~ in bribes but Smyjinas got or is going to legally get $5 million on the Millennium deal for what is essentially a skim.  

 

It's kind of crazy to see Ndukwe position himself as the good guy when he's the one who walked away with millions from the Tower Place deal Cranley handed him in exchange for endorsement of his 2013 campaign.  

 

5 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

Yeah Pastor is going to go to prison for taking $50k~ in bribes but Smyjinas got or is going to legally get $5 million on the Millennium deal for what is essentially a skim.  

 

It's kind of crazy to see Ndukwe position himself as the good guy when he's the one who walked away with millions from the Tower Place deal Cranley handed him in exchange for endorsement of his 2013 campaign.  

 

Yikes. The obvious thing to have had done is go with the 3CDC plan. Which would have used the little bit of resources they had to broker a deal for a hotel across the street on a ready to go parking lot, 5th/Plum and leave the Millennium Hotel as is until a stand alone convention center expansion was actually feasible. But instead for some odd reason (wink-wink) the city chose to spend the money they had and pursue a complex purchase and demo of The Millennium. Now we have no money and are left with an even more expensive project that almost certainly needs to combine the hotel with a convention center expansion because it’s the most practical direction to expand in the first place.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they now go back to a plan of building a 6-700 room hotel on the 3CDC lot and leave the Millennium Hotel site as parking until they find money to expand the Convention Center by itself. Which would show it was all for nothing and the funny business the city is involved in.

^Closing and tearing down the Millennium would have been a terrific temporary boon for all of the other hotels, including the W&S sweethearts on Lytle Park.  It took them four years to renovate the Anna Louise Inn into The Autograph.  They had to pay for the women's home to move and then tens of millions to redevelop their building.  Their sunk cost is massive.  And now that they're finally open they're likely operating at 20% occupancy.  

4 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

^Closing and tearing down the Millennium would have been a terrific temporary boon for all of the other hotels, including the W&S sweethearts on Lytle Park.  It took them four years to renovate the Anna Louise Inn into The Autograph.  They had to pay for the women's home to move and then tens of millions to redevelop their building.  Their sunk cost is massive.  And now that they're finally open they're likely operating at 20% occupancy.  

Ive tried to give the city the benefit of the doubt in thinking they pursued the Millennium so hard just to take all those rooms out of the market that way a new hotel would be even more attractive to a financing bank and Hotel Operator. But this Jeff Pastor situation along with the other council member earlier this year just shows how much of a mess could really be going behind the scenes.

^If this had all taken place 20 years ago, investigative journalists at The Enquirer and Post would have been feasting on this story.  But The Post is gone and the Enquirer is populated by wet blankets, so nobody's out there to put the pieces together.  

14 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

^If this had all taken place 20 years ago, investigative journalists at The Enquirer and Post would have been feasting on this story.  But The Post is gone and the Enquirer is populated by wet blankets, so nobody's out there to put the pieces together.  

Don't worry, Jason Williams put the pieces together...it's the streetcar's fault.

 

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/columnists/politics-extra/2020/11/10/cincinnati-corruption-how-culture-paved-way-city-hall-problems/6226122002/

Didn't someone post a few years ago about Pastor being under investigation by the FBI?

I guess there was something to that afterall

8 hours ago, mcmicken said:

it's the streetcar's fault.

 

One big reason pay-to-play politicians like Cranley hate projects like the streetcar is that hundreds of property owners within a few blocks of the route share in the benefits. There is no single developer that stands to make billions from it and there is no easy way for politicians to "skim a little off the top" of the deal.

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/11/12/pastor-retains-dusing-in-corruption-case.html

 

Quote

Two Pastor associates told the Business Courier he does not intend to resign his seat and will fight the charges against him in federal court. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be named discussing private conversations. They said they have spoken directly to the Republican councilman since the FBI arrested him Tuesday morning at his North Avondale home.

Yeah this sounds about right for him. He also pleaded not guilty.

The City Charter should definitely have an impeachment procedure. perhaps a unanimous 8-0 vote with Mayoral signature. Something to force someone out of their position for situations like this.

22 hours ago, taestell said:

 

One big reason pay-to-play politicians like Cranley hate projects like the streetcar is that hundreds of property owners within a few blocks of the route share in the benefits. There is no single developer that stands to make billions from it and there is no easy way for politicians to "skim a little off the top" of the deal.

 

That's why Righties don't consider people like Township Trustees and local school boards (instead of county or state) "Big Government" -- all those micro-governments are easy for their construction companies and HVAC businesses to corrupt. Whereas they never get a chance to corrupt the Feds like giant companies do.

U.S. Attorney David DeVillers: "It would seem that a 'culture of corruption' has developed at City Hall."

 

Mayor John Cranley:

Pastor's new attorney claims that he has his own recordings of the guys wearing wires for the FBI:

 

Quote

 

In an interview with the WCPO I-Team on Thursday, Dusing hinted that Pastor may have his own evidence in the case.

“What if I was shaking you down and you knew it,” Dusing said. “What if I was recording you, and you knew it, and you were recording me back?”

 

 

 

So has Pastor been recording absolutely every conversation he's had for the past three years on council?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem is that council still has too little power in negotiating development deals. Most of that power lies with the Mayor. Frequently the Mayor negotiates a deal behind closed doors and brings it to council for approval — at which point they are told they need to quickly approve the deal or we will lose out on an amazing opportunity!!!! Cutting council out of all negotiations just makes our "weak mayor" that's actually a strong mayor even stronger.

 

On 11/12/2020 at 4:53 PM, taestell said:

U.S. Attorney David DeVillers: "It would seem that a 'culture of corruption' has developed at City Hall."

 

Mayor John Cranley:

This actually made me lol. I'm sure that Cranley, a former developer and real estate lawyer, has nothing to do with any of this. 

Edited November 18, 20204 yr by ucgrady

Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld arrested on federal corruption charges

 

 

FBI agents arrested Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld Thursday morning on federal charges accusing him of accepting bribes in exchange for favorable votes, a source with knowledge of the arrest told The Enquirer.

 

Sittenfeld, a Democrat and the presumptive front-runner in next year’s mayoral election, was arrested at his home in East Walnut Hills. 

 

Elected to council in 2011, Sittenfeld has amassed a campaign war chest of $710,000 on his way to becoming one of the city’s most powerful politicians. 

 

The federal charges mean one-third of Cincinnati’s City Council – three sitting members of the city’s top legislative body – have been arrested this year on corruption charges related to city development projects.

 

________________________

 

What is going on!?

Sittenfeld getting arrested blows the mayoral race wide open. Going to be really interesting to see who jumps into the race now.

You kept hearing that there would be another shoe to fall and a potentially bigger one. This apparently is it. 

Is Rob Richardson able to run next year? I really liked him as a candidate back in 2017.  I think the stank of City Hall right now means there's definitely an opening for a non-council member to seize on that.

This is nuts.  After Pastor was arrested, I was talking with a friend who has a source that said 6 of 9 council members could be arrested and Sittenfeld was definitely one of them.  I didn't believe it, but maybe he was right.  I liked Sittenfeld, too bad. 

I'd be surprised if Smitherman doesn't retract his previous statement and enter the race now.

 

Considering the Gang of 5 mess, and now this. I would say his career in politics is over

 

I felt sittenfeld was a decent guy on the whole, a bit of a pie in the sky dreamer type. Tended to be influenced by the wrong people sometimes.  Ultimately, I am not overly surprised by this. Through my own interactions with him and a number of developers and other investors I know, they have made references to things going on below the surface with him. PG was big on the city development side and always hobnobing with the developers in town. The joke about  PG is that he kept a pair of large scissors in the back of his car to run to the next ribbon cutting of ground breaking for the photo op. 

 

If there were 6 people to go down the 3 additional would seem to be the rest of the gang of 5, however, I doubt that is the case. I do not see Landsman in this as he is probably a bit naive to some of this stuff being a new member. Even Seelbach, as much as I do not like the guy, he did not get as intwined in development the way PG did. I can see Wendell Young going down though and would not be a surprised to see that. Other than that, maybe some council staffers go down too. 

A shocking embarrassment.

I cant help feel for his wife and young kids. 

The big problem with this kind of corruption is that the effects from it can be seen around town for decades, even centuries. Crap projects, buildings gutted or demo'ed for bad reasons, good developments pushed out for bad.

good lord

32 minutes ago, 10albersa said:

Is Rob Richardson able to run next year? I really liked him as a candidate back in 2017.  I think the stank of City Hall right now means there's definitely an opening for a non-council member to seize on that.

 

Yeah this opens things up for people like him that a lot of people around town know but were pushed out due to even bigger names or huge spenders.