By August 26, 2015 Read More →

Mayor Summers: Facts Missing from ‘Slanted’ Local Newspaper Article

Mayor Summers

Mayor Summers recently sent this statement out to his supporters in response to an article recently published in a local Lakewood newspaper.

Dear supporter,

Over recent weeks, we’ve heard and read mistruths about me in the local media and online. I want to make sure you are given correct, factual information. Below is a response made by the city’s law director to an article recently published on the front page of the Lakewood Observer involving my wife Wendy’s service on a local nonprofit board:

Jim O’Bryan’s Observer article “Mayor Summers Receives Advisory Opinions From the Ohio Ethics Commission” (Aug. 18, 2015) is entirely misleading and factually inaccurate.

Here’s the truth:

Mayor Summers wanted to ensure that he avoided any real or even apparent conflicts of interest as discussions around the hospital moved forward. In May 2015, I asked the Ohio Ethics Commission to help the city evaluate any actual or potential ethical conflict between our elected officials and the various boards involved in the Lakewood Hospital situation.

The Commission made no findings of any existing conflicts. The Commission did help us identify a situation that could have given the appearance of a potential conflict in the future. For many years, long predating his term as mayor, Mayor Summers’ wife Wendy had served as a volunteer on the board of the Lakewood Hospital Foundation.

The foundation is completely separate from the hospital or the Lakewood Hospital Association. It raises funds to support the hospital but is completely unconnected to any hospital decision-making. Moreover, Wendy Summers was a board volunteer, with no operational role within the foundation.

Nevertheless, to avoid even the possible appearance of any conflict in the future, Wendy stepped down from the foundation board.

In its story, the Observer neglected to write that the city contacted the Ohio Ethics Commission to make completely certain that there are no ethical conflicts; that the commission advised the city only on potential conflicts; and that to avoid even the perception that there could be a conflict, the Mayor’s wife Wendy stepped down from the volunteer charitable work she had been doing for many years.

You could be forgiven for reading the Observer’s article and not coming away with these core facts, especially if relating these facts doesn’t seem to have been the purpose of the article to begin with. 

Kevin M. Butler
Director of Law
City of Lakewood

There are great things happening in Lakewood but we have lots of work ahead of us. I hope that as a community, we can tune out untruthful campaign noise, and stay focused on moving Lakewood forward. Thanks for all the support you’ve given to our city, to the reelection campaign and to Wendy and me.

Sincerely,

Mike Summers

Posted in: Politics

3 Comments on "Mayor Summers: Facts Missing from ‘Slanted’ Local Newspaper Article"

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  1. FellowLakewoodite says:

    Rick Uldricks (owner and what I assume is sole writer for the Lakewood Citizen), Haven’t you recently begun working for the City of Lakewood as a Housing Inspector? Does this not give the impression of impropriety and impartiality when posting articles in reference to a political matter between your employer and the Lakewood Observer?

  2. LakewoodProud says:

    How could he be biased when all he did was publish a statement from somebody with no additional commentary or editorial? Come on, now…

  3. FellowLakewoodite says:

    LakewoodProud I agree with your point. My issue in general on this is that Mr. Uldricks seems to have made a concerted effort to hide the fact that he is the owner/writer of this online blog/newspaper. All I’m asking for is a disclaimer that he is an employee of The City (like ones NPR would use when disclosing a story about a donor). Thanks for your input.