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Resident calls for forensic audit after alleging preferential treatment of contractors and a costly land purchase
Summary
At the Jan. 5 North Ridgeville City Council meeting, resident Robert Baumgartner alleged failures in transparency, cited a $375,000 payment for a 0.06-acre parcel and called for an independent forensic audit, charter changes for financial oversight, and limits on executive authority; city law staff described the public-records process but no formal audit was ordered.
Robert Baumgartner, a member of the public who addressed North Ridgeville City Council on Jan. 5, accused city officials of systematic transparency failures and asked the new council to order an independent forensic audit.
Baumgartner said the city had identified 10,000 emails responsive to his public-records request and that selected engineering firms that have donated to the city were given advanced project updates before the public. He told the council he had obtained Lorain County auditor records indicating the city paid $375,000 to Red Lion Property Management LLC on March 15, 2023, for a 0.06-acre parcel and said the purchase price implied a per-acre valuation “I don't think there's any property in North Ridgeville worth that.”
“You have to go out and find these things,” Baumgartner said, urging council members to propose their own legislation and to use emergency clauses judiciously. He recommended three formal responses from the council: an independent forensic audit with subpoena authority to review land acquisitions, appraisals and contract selection; a charter amendment to remove the finance director from reporting to the executive and instead have the finance director report to council; and curbs on unilateral executive authority over police, contracting, land acquisitions and permitting enforcement.
Council granted Baumgartner an additional three minutes to continue his remarks during the public-comment period. Baumgartner said he was “stating what public record shows and what is missing,” and told council that until appraisal and negotiation records are produced taxpayers lack a way to evaluate the transaction.
City law department staff member Moriarty responded later in the meeting to questions about public-records handling, saying the city fields roughly 600–650 public-records requests a year and logs each request; some requests require clarification or narrowing, some records do not exist, and the city sometimes needs time to respond. “We get those, we log them, we try to respond to them timely,” Moriarty said, and he invited the requester to follow up with his office.
No motion to commission an independent forensic audit was introduced during the meeting. Baumgartner said documents he had requested were not produced; the council did not take formal action on his three recommendations at the Jan. 5 session.
