The East Cleveland Narrator 2014 Issue 7, November | Page 2

he East Cleveland Narrator • November 2014 • Vol 1 • Issue 7 9 DIGITAL EDITION EXTRAS EAST CLEVELAND FINANCE DIRECTOR RESPONDS TO NOVEMBER 24 FINANCIAL COMMISSION MEETING Wednesday, November 26, 2014 Ohio Auditor David Yost at‐ tended the City of East Cleve‐ land Financial Planning and Su‐ pervision Commission meeting Monday, November 24, 2014. Yost said that, because of the city’s inancial crisis, the city needs to: • Generate new revenue. • Make additional budget cuts. • Renegotiate debt amounts with creditors. • Or merge with another municipality. East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton did not attend the meeting. He indicated publicly at October’s Commission meet‐ ing that he could not make the “Time's up...What I think is the most realistic option is filing Chapter 9 bankruptcy.” -Jack Johnson, East Cleveland Finance Director one in November. He could not be reached for comment. Finance Director Jack Johnson also did not attend on Novem‐ ber 24. By telephone on Tuesday, November 25, he told the Narrator his second em‐ ployer, t he city of Independence, required that he attend a meeting there that day. “I had no idea the state auditor was even going to be there,” said Johnson. Johnson said East Cleveland of- icials are not currently dis‐ cussing the option of merging with other cities. Regarding Yost’s recommenda‐ tions to generate new revenue and make more budget cuts, Johnson said, “We are looking at a million dollar shortfall…I think that what needs to be done has to be done by the end of the year…Time’s up.” What should be done, accord‐ ing to Johnson? “What I think is the most realistic option is il‐ ing Chapter 9 bankruptcy,” he said. Johnson spoke of the loan Yost’s office originally recommended, in July, the city seek. At Novem‐ ber’s meeting, Yost gave the loan idea a thumbs down. In a a letter submitted to committee members, he wrote: “his office cannot support borrowing without a clear plan that elimi‐ nates the structural deicit.” In July, why would the auditor’s office recommend that the city seek a loan when the city’s i‐ nances were in the same critical state then as they are now? Responding to Yost’s statement, Johnson said, “It is a real big disappointment that one part of the auditor’s office suggested a loan while another part said ‘We’re not going to do that.’ It’s deinitely mixed signals.” Time that could have been spent trying to solve the city