FBI Investigation in Cuyahoga County Leads to First Phase of Charges

A three-year FBI investigation of Cuyahoga County (which includes Cleveland) appears to have begun with a sting operation involving building inspectors, where an undercover agent offered bribes, and they were accepted, according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Six building inspectors were charged in May.

But as with most such investigations, the easy acceptance of bribes, or other sorts of unethical behavior, by lower-level employees or officials usually indicates an ethics environment that at least tolerates, if not encourages, such behavior. The investigation usually spreads. The arrest of the building inspectors is only, as one article calls it, the "first phase."

Last year, the homes and offices of a county commissioner and the county auditor were searched, and another Plain Dealer article says that "the cases all stem from the investigation of how private businesses obtain lucrative public contracts."

It turns out that the Cuyahoga County auditor's office also "has more than twice as many employees as Franklin County" (which is 75% the size of Cuyahoga), according to a state audit reported on in the Plain Dealer. There are reports of political appointments in this and other offices. So there appear to be problems not only with public contracts, but also with public hiring. Stay tuned.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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