East Cleveland City Hall falling apart, state steps in during fiscal emergency

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - East Clevland City council members say that there are major health and safety concerns at City Hall, and it’s been like that for years. They say that since the city is facing a fiscal emergency, it’s likely things won’t change anytime soon.

19 Investigates brought cameras inside City Hall and the conditions were shocking. City council president, Juanita Gowdy, says City Hall — along with the city itself — is literally falling apart.

“We have an East Cleveland City Hall, and it looks like an earthquake done came in here,” said Gowdy.

During our tour we found blocked hallways and exposed wires hanging out of walls throughout the building.

“The floors have been like this for a long time,” said Gowdy. “This is the main door that you come into City Hall.”

There were concrete floors cracked open in the main entrance.

“This is terrible,” said Gowdy.

Ceilings in the men’s bathroom were waterlogged and caving in. The women’s bathroom had cracked mirrors, wall tiles missing, and a toilet clogged and out of order.

The rusty radiator was literally falling apart.

One of the bathroom faucets pulled out of the sink and another sink had no nobs to turn the water on. There were holes in walls and ceilings throughout the building.

We found large cockroaches in city offices. Gowdy showed us an office that was built for council members that she says has been under construction for years.

It was cluttered, with unfinished drywall and a large hole in the ceiling.

“This right here is supposed to be the bathroom,” said Gowdy.

The office’s bathroom was in complete disarray. Gowdy then directed us to one of the main entryways.

“We have a plaque on the floor, when you come in the side door, with Brandon King’s name on it and it cost a lot of money.”

The plaque consisted of black marble tiles that included the mayor’s name inscribed in them. In a text message the mayor’s chief of staff said the plaque likely cost a couple of thousand dollars.

Gowdy questions why the mayor would spend money on a plaque when the entire building is in disarray.

“It’s falling totally apart,” said Gowdy.

Gowdy said one reason the building is falling apart is because the city is in a fiscal emergency. According to the State of Ohio Auditor’s Office, the City of East Cleveland has a history of fiscal emergencies dating back to the ‘80′s. It has been in constant fiscal emergency since October 2012.

“We’ve been in and out of fiscal emergency for over 20 years,” said East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King.

King says that because of this, the city is now just focusing on basic services like police and fire. But Gowdy says the mayor hasn’t told council where the city has recently been spending taxpayer dollars.

“We don’t even get a monthly report from nobody,” said Gowdy. “No monthly report. We should have a dialogue of a monthly report, we don’t got that.”

“Part of being in fiscal emergency is that there’s a fiscal commission for the fiscal oversight, right,” said King. “There’s seven members on the fiscal commission, right? One of the members is a city council president,” said King, referring to Gowdy.

When asked about whether council members were receiving financial reports, King responded.

“It is not, definitely not true,” King said. “In fact, right, you can go on our website and see the bank reconciliation statements, right? Granted we are behind.”

19 Investigates checked the city’s website and it shows there were no reports filed after March 2023.

Currently, the City of East Cleveland is operating under the oversight of a fiscal commission that was directed by the Governor’s office.

That’s because the city still hasn’t submitted an approved fiscal recovery plan which was due in June. Because of that, the State of Ohio Auditor’s Office tells us they reduced the city’s spending to 85% of what was spent last year.

In an email, a spokesman with the auditor’s office said, “perhaps the citizens should be asking if they are being appropriately served by the ongoing dysfunction in their city government.”

King tells us there have been improvements made to City Hall and it’s currently under construction, but he couldn’t tell us when it would be completed.

The state auditor’s office says as of May of this year the city has a deficit of $34M.

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