Public Corruption in Richmond Heights: State Auditor Investigation Called For

For Immediate Release

Public Corruption in Richmond Heights: State Auditor Investigation Called For

Richmond Heights Mayor Daniel Ursu and Richmond Heights candidate for mayor Dawud (Dave) Ali collude for an unbid contract to develop a gas station at Chardon and Richmond Roads through enactment of an ordinance authorizing a $200,000 grant application for clean-up of the Brownfield site planning that goes into the pockets of mayoral candidate Dawud Ali, who will acquire the property for free.

Richmond Heights Councilwoman at Large and mayoral candidate Miesha Headen further calls the planned no-bid development contract a robbery of tax payer dollars. “Dan Ursu should have set this out to bid. Instead, he is steering a contract,”said Headen.

The Brownfield site, located at 26102 Chardon Road is delinquent in taxes, owing the Richmond Heights Local School District and the City of Richmond Heights an amount exceeding $100,000. Through his deal with Dan Ursu, Dawud Ali stands to bypass the public auction process, acquire the real property and the environmental remediation for free.

Headen says, “not only does Ali plan to line his pockets with more than $300,000 of our taxpayer dollars, he and Ursu are doing this no-bid contract when other developers might pay the site's back taxes owed to our children. It must stop.”

“Why,” asks Headen, “is Dawud Ali, a person who has no history of civic or government involvement in Richmond Heights, suddenly interested in running for Mayor and spending thousands of his own dollars? It is because he and the Mayor have been working on this back room deal for more than a year.”

“There is an unlawful interest in a public contract at issue. Daniel Ursu has designed a political kickback scheme whereby Ursu gives the Chardon Road property and the cost of its remediation to Dawud Ali in exchange for Ali entering the Richmond Heights mayoral race and diluting the black vote.”

“Why else would Ali run against Ursu while simultaneously working for a $200,000 no bid contract with him? Even worse, by not having bids, our kids lose again through the loss of a true gas station developer who would pay the delinquent property taxes.”

Headen is calling for a Special Investigation from the Ohio State Auditor, the Ohio Elections Commission and the Ohio Ethics Commission today, as well as the further investigation of Ursu and Ali's plan to hide their collusion from voters in yesterday’s passage of the $200,000 ordinance pay-off.