Pictured is Cleveland Ward 4 Councilman Kenneth Johnson
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher and editor in chief, and a political, legal, an investigative reporter who trained as a reporter for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's leaders in Black and alternative digital news
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio –
Among some 20 applicants, Marian Anita Gardner has been appointed by Cuyahoga County Probate Chief Judge Anthony Russo as the interim replacement for Cleveland Ward 4 Councilman Kenneth Johnson, whose four-year term ends Dec 31 and who was suspended from office on April 20 by a three-judge panel of retired judges appointed to hear the matter by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor.
That suspension follows a 15-count federal indictment and arrest on theft and public corruption charges.
A longtime Ward 4 resident who leads a nonprofit community organization dubbed Concerned Citizens Community Council, Gardner is not running in the crowded race for election to the Ward 4 council seat this year, which might be why she was selected as Johnson's interim replacement, sources said on Wednesday.
The next city council meeting is on Monday.
A loyal Democrat, Johnson. 74, and his attorneys have asked the full seven-member Ohio Supreme Court to hear and reverse the suspension decision by the special three- judge panel of retired judges.
They say the suspension is flawed under state law because it was requested by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and not the federal prosecutor's office that is prosecuting his criminal case.
Johnson will continue to get his annual $87,000 salary pending the outcome of the criminal case, unless he loses reelection this year as his and all of the other council seats, and the mayor's office, are open in 2021 and contestants are lining up in the crowded races for mayor and city council.
The state law at issue, specifically Ohio Revised Code Section 3.16, authorizes suspensions from public office in pending cases of felony indictments of Ohio public officials that involve the public's trust and otherwise meet the requirements under the statute.
But the statute is rarely applied, data show.
Some twenty people, including Johnson, have taken out petitions to run for city council in Ward 4, one of 17 wards in the largely Black major American city of some 385,000 people.
At least half of them applied to replace Johnson in an interim fashion, but Judge Russo, after interviews, chose Gardner to serve out the remainder of his city council term.
The counts of the indictment against the suspended Black councilman who has held office since 1980 accuse him of filing false tax returns, falsification of records, witness tampering, and two counts of conspiracy to commit theft from a federal program.
The indictment was unsealed earlier this year in district court as an FBI investigation continues into the councilman's monthly expense account relative to city monies he gets for his ward and federal monies earmarked for the non-profit Buckeye- Shaker Square communities he serves.
It says that Johnson demanded the maximum amount of $1,200 monthly for his ward from the city's coffers but could not prove how much of the money, which has allegedly been requested for several years, including in 2019, has been spent.
His supporters say the prosecution and the suspension from office are politically motivated by Republicans, and otherwise racist.
Johnson's longtime aide, Garnell Jamison, 61, was also indicted, as was John Hopkins of Cleveland Heights, the former executive director of the Buckeye -Shaker Square Development Corp. in ward 4, which encompasses the Buckeye area near Shaker Square along the Shaker Heights border, and the Woodland Hills and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods.
The criminal charges come following a plea deal with federal prosecutors involving Robert Fitzpatrick, a Johnson affiliate and 35-year city employee who pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges that he conspired to commit theft from a federal program.
Also at issue are federal and state monies regarding the Kenneth Johnson Recreation Center on Woodland Avenue, which is named after the councilman, and is one of several city recreation centers that Fitzpatrick oversaw.
Cleveland Mayor Jackson, a four-term Black mayor who is not seeking reelection this year and a Johnson ally, has not commented on Johnson's indictment, and City Council President Kevin Kelley, a mayoral candidate, is taking a wait and see approach, though he has been critical of his council colleague.
Mayor Jackson and all of the city council, nearly half of its members Black, are Democrats.
Jackson is the city's third Black mayor.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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