By bobby

March 26, 2010 2:26 PM | Link to this

What was worse than the lack of an audit trail, was the decison to pay $40,000. to a particular group to feed nine people. Is $4400 per person per year being spent on these programs? If not, what made funding this one a priority? We don’t need leadership that rails against the poor, nor do we need for one political party to control the county commission. This is another form of checks and balances… While Ms. Feldman and the County Commissioners are re-directing checks and balances on Human Services money, it might be useful for the community to discuss a system that it’s own recipients have acknowledged is unsustainable. “Property tax approach to fund this community based care through the Human services levy will not be sustainable in the long run…” Jan. 10, 2008 testimony from Mont. County Frail Elderly Advisory Board.

By Raoul

March 26, 2010 4:08 PM | Link to this

Martin, nice commentary and probably not an easy one for you. For what it’s worth, I think this situation is exactly why we see a Tea Party movement. It is a specific example the average joe taxpayer looks to when he complains about government run programs running amok, out of control, with no body exercising any restraints on the spending or where it goes. The rewards of governmental do-goodyism seems to go to the ones who know how best to milk the never-ending flow of money and not to those truly in need. If you want to understand the mind-set of Tea Party people and talk show listeners, you have all you need contained in your piece. We all want to care for the needy, but not the greedy.

By Joe

March 26, 2010 4:56 PM | Link to this

“Ms. Feldman did the right thing by quickly acknowledging a problem, investigating it and reporting publicly on the depth of the mistake.” While it’s to her credit that she took the bull by the horns, I’m assuming that it is also she who is ultimately responsible for the lack of oversight in the first place. Why did this happen? I’m not saying she should lose her job, but she, or others, should be held accountable. This was an established procedure that didn’t always take place. WHY? Please explain!

By runner

March 26, 2010 9:05 PM | Link to this

I would like to see a break down by age groups who receives the money that the county gives to these feel good programs.

By David Esrati

March 27, 2010 8:52 AM | Link to this

Apparently the editorial board has different standards for different people. Deb Feldman has now been proven as an incompetent administrator on many levels- not only has Montgomery County slipped under her watch, a lot of money is unaccounted for. Never mind she’s been playing games pushing money to the Dayton Development Coalition under funky names like “Dayton Projects Inc” and her family profited greatly in the Sears building deal for the Riverscape fountains. Yet, the same editorial board wanted to hang Mike Robinette from the rafters because he opposed money to the Austin Pike exchange. No graft, no corruption- just a dedicated public official doing his job instead of what the development community of Dayton wanted. It’s time to end this double standard. Feldman needs to go.

By Gregg Gibson

March 27, 2010 9:21 AM | Link to this

Esrati, your incessant “I have all the answers for the Dayton area, just listen to me and watch my ridiculous analyses on your website” have been repudiated by the voters numerous times. Your need to be important and relevant is clinical, please get some professional help. County government does have its problems, Sheriff Phil Plummer has “proven” he is incapable of making tough and intelligent decisions and he should be replaced by the voters in 2012. The same goes for our Coroner Jim Davis. Allowing the wrong person to be cremated is going to cost the County 10’s of thousands of dollars in a law suit. On the other hand is Feldman, everyone has their faults but incompetence is NOT one of hers. She does not hide behind or under the desk when she has made a mistake like many of the local public officials. Her number one priority throughout her career has been for the betterment of Montgomery County. You are a purveyor of having all the answers yet no one takes you seriously, especially me.

By runner

March 27, 2010 10:11 AM | Link to this

David, do you know who is buying up all the property around the future train station? I think the DDN needs to look into this.

By bobby

March 27, 2010 10:17 AM | Link to this

Mr. Gibson, I would like to add county auditor Karl Keith to your list of county officials to be replaced. The ridiculous land appraisals at Austin Road can not be excused.

By David Esrati

March 27, 2010 10:21 AM | Link to this

@Runner- I’ll start looking into it. I doubt the DDN will do anything until prompted.

By runner

March 27, 2010 10:58 AM | Link to this

I’m just concerned that there might be some inside information going on. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of development will be going on around the train station, and who will profit from it.

By Horace

March 27, 2010 11:49 AM | Link to this

FELDMAN HAS GOT TO GO. We cannot trust our tax money to this incompetent woman any longer. It appears so many in Montgomery County executive positions are either criminals or stupid, either way, between this adminstrator and Phil Plummer the county appears to have a lock on stupid people making stupid decisions or not doing their jobs. Either way, hit the road.

By davidss2

March 27, 2010 2:44 PM | Link to this

Thank goodness for David Esrati. I’ll bet people criticized things that Martin Luther King exposed about the status quo in those days, didn’t they. ——-Our problem here is the money politicians are too entrenched into the county/city government to be removed and eliminate the graft. Include the bias of the Dayton Daily News and their editorials into that responsibility probme. We need a Plain Dealer or Akron Beacon Journal with inverstigative reporting and incisive editorials. ———-Greg. G.: that would be “alluded to” rather than “eluded to.”

By Amazed

March 27, 2010 3:32 PM | Link to this

Feldman is incompitent and should be fired. What I find truly amazing is that the DDN has picked the county as a target. Why not the city of Dayton? I can assure you they have more than their share of corruption. By the way Horace, Phil Plummer didnt do anything wrong as proven by this paper.

By Amazed

March 27, 2010 3:42 PM | Link to this

Feldman is incompitent and should be fired. What I find truly amazing is that the DDN has picked the county as a target. Why not the city of Dayton? I can assure you they have more than their share of corruption. By the way Horace, Phil Plummer didnt do anything wrong as proven by this paper.

By Raoul

March 27, 2010 3:48 PM | Link to this

All this local sniping back and forth has little to do with the problem presented in Gottlieb’s piece. It is a story of a too-big government that has so much funding it either cannot keep track of where the money goes, doesn’t care where it goes as long as each gets enough for their sacred cows, or knows where it goes and doesn’t care if it’s wasted or diverted from it’s intended recipients. All of your sniping seems childish and petty. There are too many of you, and the weight of all of you governing us is squeezing the life out of us. Feldman should just collect all the wasted money she finds and give it all back to us. Sorry to interrupt your sniping!

By Gregg G

March 28, 2010 9:19 AM | Link to this

@Esrati, I do not need to run for office to have knowledge of the events going on in the County\City. Your brief explanation of the Sears deal sounds like the City of Dayton made some special arrangement for the buyers to sell more quickly than you liked. If tax dollars were spent by the buyers, presumably the City by your statement, then an investigation should have been conducted to determine if foul play was involved. I fail to see how Deb Feldman “profited” in this. I do not pass down the sins of the father or relatives if sins were committed to the son, in this case the daughter. Horace, as for Sheriff Plummer, he hired his sister as a contractor which is against state and ethic laws. He appointed her after he was appointed or elected Sheriff. He doesn’t have anything to worry about according to Esrati since Mat Heck does not prosecute what could be a difficult political case\situation.

By Mont Co Citizen

March 28, 2010 10:53 AM | Link to this

I have to say that I have a great deal more problems with the lack of oversight by county officials than by any alleged misconduct by Sheriff Plummer. The monies used to pay the accessors are not tax payer funds….the fund is from the mortgage companies. Also, who was hurt? Maybe someone else who could possibly have gotten the job instead of the Sheriff’s sister. Who was hurt by the theft of taxpayer money intended for the needy? All the other social service programs in Montgomery County that did not receive funding or received inadequate funding because of the theft.

By Bill

March 28, 2010 11:42 AM | Link to this

@mont.co. citizen, if you don’t care your Sheriff follows all the Ohio Revised Code and and Ethic Commissions laws then what can I say. He is the chief law enforcement of the county and was caught putting his relatives hand in the cookie jar.

By runner

March 28, 2010 12:27 PM | Link to this

I heard the clerk of courts lost his badge for working in a wine store while being a part time cop, which was breaking the law.

By Mont Co Citizen

March 28, 2010 2:16 PM | Link to this

@Bill….so do you have information that the rest of us don’t? The Ohio Ethics Commission was asked for a ruling on this back in January, and to my knowledge, they have not ruled.

By Mat

March 28, 2010 5:47 PM | Link to this

The ethics commision takes forever to make a ruling, once a ruling it is sent to the local prosecutors office for evaluation if criminal charges are warranted.

By Ben

March 29, 2010 9:01 AM | Link to this

I think David and Greg are getting off point and making this personal. Back to the point at hand - Feldman. If she didn’t know the inspections and visits weren’t happening as they were supposed to, then she wasn’t properly doing her job and should go. The other option is that she did know and did nothing about it until it was pointed out which means she was not doing her job and should go.

By Ben

March 29, 2010 9:03 AM | Link to this

I think David and Greg are getting off point and making this personal. Back to the point at hand - Feldman. If she didn’t know the inspections and visits weren’t happening as they were supposed to, then she wasn’t properly doing her job and should go. The other option is that she did know and did nothing about it until it was pointed out which means she was not doing her job and should go.

By Ben

March 29, 2010 9:05 AM | Link to this

I think David and Greg are getting off point and making this personal. Back to the point at hand - Feldman. If she didn’t know the inspections and visits weren’t happening as they were supposed to, then she wasn’t properly doing her job and should go. The other option is that she did know and did nothing about it until it was pointed out which means she was not doing her job and should go.

By davidss2

March 29, 2010 9:38 AM | Link to this

Feldman should be gone. But she’s a symptom of the inbreeding that happens when all three commissioners are of the same party and the city and county machines have been run primarily by the Democrat Party. Another symptom is that a commissioner can be arrested for drunk driving and get the case handled by a friend judge; doesn’t this parallel the handling that DDN is recommending here for lack of insight and accountability for misuse of county money, in this case? We need a change on the commissioners to get someone there who’s more interested in doing a job for the voters rather than being a (Democrat) party girl and showing off how many “important” people she knows. We need to slim down county politics and slim down the city as well.

By Greg Hunter

March 29, 2010 10:36 AM | Link to this

Yes finding the evidence is difficult as Corporate Papers are private ie you cannot see who owns what, but if someone gets a divorce I can look up the private details of someone’s entire life. The Law is used by the connected to protect their interests. The DDN’s role as the 4th estate is too expose the corruption not cover it up. But all these people are friends so no harm no foul. Pool Little Debbie.

By Greg Hunter

March 29, 2010 10:40 AM | Link to this

Yes finding the evidence is difficult as Corporate Papers are private ie you cannot see who owns what, but if someone gets a divorce I can look up the private details of someone’s entire life. The Law is used by the connected to protect their interests. The DDN’s role as the 4th estate is too expose the corruption not cover it up. But all these people are friends so GREAT harm but no foul. Poor Little Debbie, but poorer still are Mont. Taxpayers.

By Bob Morris

March 29, 2010 8:53 PM | Link to this

Greg, as far as I know you have never served in the public arena. You are a gutter snipe who has no life except to hang out on these boards or doing goofy videos with your pal, i’ve run for office 4 times but couldn’t fill in my petitions right. Get a grip, I would love to see you do Feldman’s job for one year. Unfortunately, my comic relief would be at the expense of the Poor Taxpayers of Montgomery County. I hope to see your name on the ballot for County Commissioner in 2012 and can’t wait to see you solve all the proplems you solve with all your answers. I will be the first to sign your petition.

By David Esrati

March 30, 2010 7:34 AM | Link to this

Bob Morris- you suffer from CEO disease. The belief that only one person is qualified to do the job. The reality is- the job of a good leader is to groom successors. As to what Greg and I talk about - or as Ben says- making it personal- these little deals to help friends are costing the entire community REAL money and hurting all of us. The deals on Teradata and the attempt to hike the hotel tax point to favoritism for RG Properties. This is the second “editorial” supporting Feldman in as many weeks- this is damage control by friends of Feldman- not reporting- not based on the facts. If we just looked at plain stats about how the county has fared under her leadership- all indicators would point toward failure. Loss of population, jobs,increase in sprawl, property value declines, growth of government- a generally unfocused delivery of services of questionable value (like oversight of the $). Let’s move forward. Time for new leadership- someone with an actual plan they can articulate- not someone who flies under the radar most of the time.

By Bob Morris

March 30, 2010 7:27 PM | Link to this

David, to infer Deb Feldman was the leader and responsible for, your words; loss of population, jobs, increase in sprawl, property value declines, growth of government- a generally unfocused delivery of services of questionable value (like oversight of the $)is both simplistic and ridiculous. David, please check out the organizational chart for County Government. You will see the County Commissioners are at the top of the food chain, only because they appropriate the revenues received by the County. They are on the same level as the rest of the elected County Officials otherwise. The County Commission is who directs public policy, allocates the revenues, directs economic development and oversees expenditures. Feldman is their instrument; she is not the initiator or director of policy. I have attended community many meetings which Ms. Feldman is a participant and I HAVE NEVER SEEN YOU at one. There is no ground swell against Deb Feldman because those who are in the know, the movers and shakers, those involved in trying to make government work in this area know she is a commensurate professional who is above reproach. Her job is to fly under the radar; the elected officials are the ones who should be out front creating policy and directing the issues of the day, not Deb Feldman.

By Riverdog

March 31, 2010 8:13 AM | Link to this

Too bad we can not make comment on the story at hand. Mrs. Feldman should go as well as the staff that failed to do the proper oversight. The County is full of people who are assigned jobs that are not done correctly if at all.That is not a revelation to anyone who is around the County building with any regularity. WE the tax payers should turn down tax levies and demand from the elected officials more accountibility.I was at the County Building yesterday and saw the same old attitude that has been present forever. They are plenty of people unemployed right here in Montgomery County who can do a better job at running this County than those who currently have the job.Maybe on May 4th we will stop shoveling OUR money at broken systems and take some action to start recovery.

By Raoul

April 1, 2010 4:14 PM | Link to this

I repeat, the weight of all the government is squeezing the life out of us. The government is too large, the oversight is too small. The incentives for goverment employees to do good work are too little, the earnings they make are too much. The perks are too large, and the services rendered too small. Government workers are stealing our money from us by not being held accountable. We need government to be run with extreme efficiency, or it will eventually crush us to death.

By David Esrati

April 7, 2010 9:14 AM | Link to this

@Bob Morris- funny, I’ve never seen you anywhere either. Do you have a blog? Have you run for office? The Commissioners make $85K a year each. The County Administrator makes $185K How you can say she isn’t the CEO- just shows you don’t understand the form of Government. She is the leader- they are the board of directors. She puts things on the agenda for them to approve- not the other way around. It’s her agenda- her lack of vision and direction that have contributed to all those problems listed. And- she damn well has responsibility for oversight and accounting.

By Bob Morris

April 11, 2010 11:02 AM | Link to this

@David Esrati, no David I don’t have a “blog”. Too many of those idiots out there already using valuable broadband width, kinda like you. Nor do I have an infantile “video” as I do not have a narcisstic need for attention like some people, kinda like you. Here’s the fact David, politicians put their wants, desires, policies, directions forth to those under them. Please learn how governmnet really works and maybe some day, just maybe, you will win an election. I have grown bored with your rants but will respond to your expected illogical reply.