No permission forms for officials over take-home cars: I-Team

CLEVELAND (WJW) — The FOX 8 I-Team has uncovered new questions about top city of Cleveland managers driving take-home cars.

We found some records missing. Confusion over others. Even no permission forms for officials making headlines over take-home cars.

Last month, Assistant Safety Director Jakimah Dye crashed a city car with kids on board. Last week, the law department told us it has no record of a form giving Dye permission for a take-home car.

And, no record of permission for former Safety Director Karrie Howard.

City policy says everyone driving a take-home car needs to fill out a form outlining justification and insurance. Then, a Department director or the mayor’s office needs to sign that.

Yet, the city found, after that recent crash, Jakimah Dye didn’t have proper insurance. Plus, she told the city she didn’t know the policy against kids in the car.

And, safety director Howard resigned after he admitted to the I-Team that he didn’t know the policy, either.

Howard told us, that week, “You have all of these policies, you know, in play, and sometimes we become familiar with them by (pause) happenstance.”

The mayor recently ordered a review of the city’s take-home car policy. And soon officials will go over that to decide if they should make any changes.

Meantime, consider what we found in asking about records for Dina Wilson, a top Hopkins Airport manager.

The city says, last year, she put 39,000 miles on a city car. We requested Dina Wilson’s records 11 months ago. Days ago, the law department told us, the city has no approval form for her take home car. But now, the city says a supervisor did, in fact, give her permission back in 2022. Then, we also just got an approval form signed a year ago.

Additionally, on one request for gas and mileage, we got back a random 6-month period of time with fuel records involving multiple city employees.

Councilman Brian Kazy said, “It’s, definitely, something we need to take a deeper dive and look into.”

The councilman told the I-Team he wants clear records for take-home cars. No confusion and the same rules for all City employees and managers.

“If there’s supposed to be a memo or permission to take a car home, why not? Who’s holding that person accountable?” he said.

We’ve reported the assistant safety director faces discipline over her take-home car. Her hearing has been postponed a couple of times. It has, now, been set to happen soon.