Lawyer to guide elections board through voting-machine process

01/01/04

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has settled on hiring a lawyer, not a high-tech consultant, to help it purchase electronic voting machines.

Now it can start paying his $285-an-hour bill.

The board, led by Chairman Tom Coyne, spent much of last year complaining that it needed a high-tech consultant to guide the $20 million upgrade of its paper-ballot system. But the board abandoned the idea after it hired a new director last summer.

Though the county prosecutor's office acts as the board's legal counsel, it recommended that the board hire lawyer James Friedman of Benesch Friedlander to oversee negotiations with vendors.

Friedman's hourly rate is actually a bargain, according to the cover letter to his proposed contract, which must be approved by the county commissioners. "Mr. Friedman's regular hourly charge," the letter states, "is $360."

Race matters:

Cleveland's black civic and religious leaders are forming a group to gain more influence in city and county politics: the African American Men's Political Action Committee.

The group will raise money to help promote black male candidates, particularly in the next mayoral race. But part of the impetus behind the effort is confronting the predominantly white business establishment.

"We can't allow the business community to set the agenda," said one black civic leader involved in the effort.

School lessons:

Former Lakewood Mayor Madeline Cain, who learned a harsh political lesson in November when vot ers booted her from office, will teach poli tics at Cleveland State University during the spring semester.

She will preside over a four-credit class called "State Government and Poli tics," according to the CSU catalog.

Cain, a former state representative and former English teacher at St. Augustine Academy, has a master's degree in public administration from CSU.

Goodbye:

John Barnes Jr., who earned a job at City Hall by campaigning for Jane Campbell in the 2001 mayoral race, has been dumped.

The affable former state representative was one of hundreds of city employees laid off in December.

Barnes, who earned less than 2 percent of the vote in the mayoral primary before jumping to Campbell's side, had already been pushed aside. He was demoted in September 2002 from director of community relations to the meaningless but important-sounding "international affairs liaison."

Deadlines:

It's put-up-or-shut- up time for potential candidates. The filing deadline for the March 2 primary is Friday.

Expect few surprises. Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan has already filed to run against incumbent commissioner and fellow Democrat Tim McCormack.

And State Sen. Eric Fingerhut, who has been running for U.S. Senate for nearly a year, officially filed Tuesday. He offered a comment that should double as a New Year's resolution for all voters.

"We must make some important decisions about our future and we must make them now," he said.