Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito -- Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.
Today a lawsuit was filed in the Greene County Court of Common Pleas against the City of Xenia, City Council and City Manager for various violations of Ohio Election Law, violations of Title VII of Ohio Revised Code, Fraud and Misappropriation of Funds.
The lawsuit is seeking permanent and temporary injunctions against the City of Xenia’s use of public funds for advertising and promoting Issue 7, an income tax levy increase of 28.5%, and is attempting to put a stop to further spending of taxpayers funds on surveys and consulting activities of Avakian Consulting, a political consulting firm contracted by the City of Xenia for the apparent purpose of helping with the passage of Issue 7 in the May 4, 2010 election.
While the City of Xenia publicly denies that the reason for the no-bid contract with Avakian was for the sole purpose of facilitating the passage of Issue 7, internal meeting minutes, City Council statements, statements from City Manager Percival, and e-mail exchanges between Xenia employees and Avakian tell a different story, and show that the City is indeed spending taxpayer dollars to fund, promote and facilitate the passage of a ballot initiative, in violation of Ohio Election Law. Avakian Consulting also helped the city of Huber Heights with a passage of a tax levy initiative, something which has been referenced by Xenia City employees, showing the focus of the City is the passage of this levy and the promotion of the levy passage to residents.
The lawsuit also seeks a temporary injunction against the Greene County Board of Elections, asking the court to remove Issue 7 from the May 4 ballot until the questions about the City’s activities have been fully answered.
You can read the complaint below:
Way to go! I hope the bureaucracy steps out of the way and actually allows some justice to be done here, for once.
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