EAST CLEVELAND TATTLER

Issue Number 25, October 2012 eastcle lev get you Send an email to eastclevelandleaks@gmail.com to get the Tattler emailed to you

City leaders concerned that mayor is suffering a nervous breakdown over $8.2 million deficit, FBI investigation, state auditor investigation, strained marriage

NORTON CRACKS
Just as the Ohio Auditor of State is waiting for applications from people to serve on a fiscal commission that will oversee Norton, Council and the Municipal Court, the mayor tells residents the fiscal emergency is no big deal and that he plans to hire more cops. Council is quietly asking if the mayor has lost sight of reality.
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. suffered a mental breakdown in June after his wife caught him cheating and the feds started investigating him for bribery!
By CLYDE CLODHOPPER What if a mayor becomes mentally unable to function in the job? Thats a question council members are asking themselves in the wake of several events over the That damn past year that raise concerns about Mayor Gary Eric Brewer made Nortons mental stability. being mayor look so At a recent resident meeting Norton told the easy. I need to audience that the record-breaking $8.2 million smoke a joint. deficit he created, almost 45 percent of the citys $17.5 million budget, is no big deal. Council members Joy Jordan, Nathaniel Martin and Chantelle C. Lewis were shocked when they heard Norton told residents the astonishing lie that he was going to hire more cops. His statement is wild and erratic, said councilman Nathaniel Martin. Here we are facing a deficit of well over $8 million and hes going to make it larger by hiring more police? A deficit means the city is out of money. What Norton said doesnt make sense. Council has quietly wondered over the past year if public revelations of the body of lies Norton has shared with residents, other government officials and the media has unnerved the mayor to the point Bi-polar civil rights leaders son has Pathological lying is a mental illness! been readmitted to the Mayo Clinic that he may have already suffered a nervous breakdown. Stress has sent Gary Norton to the hospital at least twice since he became mayor. Observers Signs of a mental breakdown seems to have first say Norton has lost weight and looks like hes not sleeping well. Council is concerned that surfaced when Norton went on a lying spree at the Nortons made a record number of erratic and untrue statements about the city and its beginning of 2012 to hide his administrations finances over the past year. Norton has said privately he believes people are against and creation of a $5.7 million deficit, and the city being hate him. Said one source, Norton is asking community leaders to tell him what people placed in fiscal caution by Auditor of State David are saying about him, causing some to call him paranoid. I strongly believe he needs help. Yost. If we had $3.5 million in cash on hand we Records show he didnt stop paying himself as Norton told the Plain Dealers James Ewinger a wouldnt have had a $5.7 million deficit or been instructed by council, and that he wasnt just getting whopper of a lie on January 4 when he claimed he placed in fiscal caution, Martin said. $45,000 as safety director. Councils attorney, exwould quickly pay off the $5.7 million deficit with But Nortons lies didnt stop with his outrageous mayor Darryl Pittman, revealed in a Writ of $3.5 million in revenue on hand and the rest coming proclamation that the citys huge deficit had been Mandamus he filed in August that Norton was from his secret agreement with Cleveland Clinic resolved. He then told the media that council had paying himself another $45,000 to be his own CEO Delos Cosgrove. He also falsely accused excut his salary so hed no longer perform the safety deputy safety director for a whopping annual salary Mayor Eric Jonathan Brewer of creating his deficit. directors duties if he wasnt being paid, and that he of $130,000. Martin said the information Norton gave the Norton continued his lying spree in March when Plain Dealer was incredibly inaccurate because Yost was going to violate the citys charter by turning the required full-time job of mayor into a part-time one. he told the Plain Dealers Tom Feran that he and had just placed the city in fiscal caution.

TATTLER, NO. OCTOBER EAST CLEVELAND TATTLER, NO. 2, OCTOBER 2012

MORE RELIABLE THAN THE PLAIN DEALER

Council worried that mayor may have mental health issues

now ex-finance director Jack Johnson miraculously found $3.2 million in an overlooked Keybank account left there by ex-mayor Brewer. Norton never produced records to back his false claim after council passed a resolution that ordered him to do so a month later. East Clevelands political leadership and worried residents grew even more concerned about the mayors mental stability after Norton went to the Plain Dealer and Clevelands television news media with another lie that council had failed to fund employee medical benefits and school crossing guards. Council president Joy Jordan said she was alarmed when the mayor pulled crossing guards off the streets and decided to wear one of their jackets and take to a corner himself to prove his wrong point. He recklessly placed the lives of the citys children in danger and used the media to create a drama to try and embarrass council, Jordan said. We had to pass a resolution to force him to spend the money we authorized for crossing guards and employee benefits. I thought his decision to play politics with the lives of the citys children was dangerous and erratic. A source close to the mayor says he has confided in friends that the last year has been particularly devastating for his marriage, career and reputation as all seem to be crumbling around him. A nearby Newbury Road neighbor told the East Cleveland Tattler how he has noticed that Nortons wife, Cleveland school principal Shalom Norton, and the couples three daughters havent been around the house for quite sometime. We havent seen her car or the kids bikes, the neighbor said. Norton publicly humiliated his First Lady in February when he and the police chiefs secretary were caught behind the A.M. McGregor Nursing Home in a compromising position in his cityassigned Ford Explorer. Cops said the police chiefs secretary lifted her head from the mayors lap, opened the passenger door and walked to her car without saying anything after one of her two police co-workers said hello. A close family friend said Shalom packed the kids and left her husband the day his infidelity was revealed in the East Cleveland Tattler. She returned the next day. The mayors car sex scandal spilled into the public arena after Norton encouraged the city employee to attend a public council meeting to confront council members for passing out copies of the East Cleveland Tattler edition that carried the front-page story about the cheating duo. To make matters worse, sources said Norton placed his wife at an even greater risk of contracting a sexuallytransmitted disease when he began a sexual relationship with a Cleveland Heights woman after the police chiefs secretary dumped him and removed his photos from her Facebook page to save her own marriage. The East Cleveland Tattler learned that the Cleveland Heights woman recently broke off her relationship with the cheating mayor. A close family friend has admitted that pressure on the First Couple now affects their three daughters. The oldest child has reacted negatively to the growing tension between her parents. Norton is known to make derogatory public comments about his wifes weight to other men, and was once caught cursing at his three girls. The family friend said Nortons also worried about his future. Garys confided to friends that hes terrified of losing to Joy Jordan next year for re-election, the family friend said. The fiscal emergency kills his ability to ever be considered for another management job, so he has to fight to stay in city hall. He knows that once his name is Googled on the internet hes done. Gary knows hes facing the harsh reality that no one will trust an ex-politician whose name is plastered all over the internet for leaking stolen pictures of an opponent to the media, calling cops to remove the council president from his office, and one who creates a huge deficit after less than two years in office. A keyword Google search for Mayor Gary Norton confirms the family friends thoughts because it begins with an East Cleveland Tattler article about him being caught cheating on his wife and goes on to list other news links that detail numerous acts of corruption, deceit, incompetence and dirty politics. Media and government expert Jon Davis said Norton has made a mess of his life with a stream of lies and malicious acts that have created bitter enemies for a mayor he described as recklessly vicious. Gary is the typical smile in your face stab you in the back politician the public despises. He masks his dishonesty with a smile and pretty words, Davis said. Hes done very nasty things to a lot of people who hate him and believe their hatred is well-deserved. He wont get any sympathy because his public and vicious treatment of other people hasnt left him with any sympathizers. Davis said council has good reason to be concerned about Nortons mental state-of-mind because hes under an extreme amount of selfcreated pressure. Davis said Norton is facing an $8.2 million deficit and upcoming state audits with potential findings for recovery. He said the mayor has to pay HUD almost $600,000 to cover community development director Joe Mazzolas mismanagement of the block grant and the citys $2.2 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant that Brewer wrote before leaving office. With Johnsons resignation as finance director, Nortons administration has become a train wreck. Davis said even Norton loyalists like Mike Smedley are jumping ship. Smedley was overheard saying he was seeking another job because he wasnt making any money. Serious child safety issues cost Smedley 40 students at the Safe Haven Achievement Daycare he owns. The boy did it to himself, Davis said. Thats whats so sad about him. Even if he lied and used stolen property to win the mayors race, he had everything going for him once he took office. People follow the power and he had it. Garys biggest problem is his inability to overcome his troubled childhood and being raised by drug addicted parents as he told Cleveland Magazine in an interview. Even the fact that he humiliated his parents, like hes done his wife, is a cry for help.

Say YES to Issue 48 to say NO to the Mayor paying himself $130,000 a year at the citys expense!
No one disagrees that the salary for East Clevelands mayor is low. But Gary Norton gets paid $40,000 as mayor, and pays himself $45,000 as safety director and another $45,000 to be his own deputy safety director for a total of $130,000 a year. Clevelands mayor earns $132,000 a year. On top of it all, Garys been lying to the citys residents by telling them that council cut his wages even though hes broken the law to keep paying himself. Whats worse is that Gary has created an $8.2 million deficit in 33 months and our city is returning to fiscal emergency. More suffering for East Cleveland residents and more money for Gary. That aint right.

Is this how you want East Clevelands mayor spending your money? A $10,000 raise to an employee he was caught sexing it up with in a city car. It just aint right.