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CLEVELAND (WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team found former Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich now getting directly involved in the legal fight to stop the Browns from moving to a dome in Brook Park.
Kucinich filed a complaint in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court asking a judge to allow him to act on behalf of taxpayers. He believes the city has not done enough to try to stop the Browns from moving.
The Browns are taking steps to build a dome in Brook Park while the city is pressing a lawsuit to stop that.
But Kucinich told the I-Team on Friday afternoon that, “it’s about keeping the team in Cleveland. It’s about following the law. There’s a number of steps the city skipped.”c
Kucinich wrote the Modell Law restricting sports teams from moving, but he argues that the city has not carried out a key part of that law which calls for the city to look for other owners.
“The law was written so that if the team decided they were going to leave, the city or a group of local investors could come in and buy the team. The city has an obligation here,” he added.
Kucinich also points out, the city has talked about remaking the lakefront even with the stadium.
“The city’s action in court is directly contradicted by the mayor’s publicly recognized lakefront development plans,” he wrote in his filing.
Kucinich also refers to what Mayor Justin Bibb recently told the I-Team about the Browns moving.
“It’s sad. It’s unfortunate, but at the end of the day, my job as mayor is to make sure we deliver on a world class lakefront that our city, our region, our residents can be proud of,” Bibb said.
To be clear, state lawmakers recently changed the Modell Law to allow teams to move anywhere in the state. The city has argued that change should not affect the battle over the Browns since this fight began before the change in the law.
The Browns have argued that none of this should matter since the team would not move until the end of the lease in three years.
So much is not settled.
Kucinich said this filing is hundreds of pages and it took many weeks to pull together. Again, Kucinich hopes the court will allow him to be part of the legal fight.
“There’s an attempt to raise issues that maybe haven’t been raised before,” he said.
We reached out to the city of Cleveland and the Browns for comment. The city said the law director had not yet seen the complaint, so the city could not yet comment.
Kucinich’s filing also states, “As a taxpayer and former member of the Ohio Legislature, Relator has standing to seek to prevent the waste or misapplication of public funds and the abandonment or impairment of statutory protections intended to guard those funds.” And, “Taxpayer standing to enjoin unlawful expenditure or waste of public money. State ex rel. Nimon v. Springdale, 6 Ohio St.2d 1 (1966) Taxpayer may bring an action to enjoin misapplication of municipal funds when city officials fail to act.).”
It adds, “This Verified Complaint addresses the City’s failure to fully and timely invoke R.C. 9.67 upon receiving the Browns’ notice of intent to relocate—and the City’s parallel pursuit of lakefront redevelopment, as demonstrated in credible news reports that presume the stadium’s absence after 2029, contrary to R.C. 9.67’s protections (Exhibits G, H),” the motion states. “Relief is urgently required to preserve the six-month statutory window and purchase opportunity, prevent irreparable harm to public investments and contract rights, and to ensure Charter-compliant handling of lakefront public trust lands and the stadium parcel.”
It is not known when a judge may rule on this.
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Ed Gallek
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