New Report: Ed FitzGerald committed a "Breach of the Public Trust"

The skies of November are turning ever gloomier for Ed FitzGerald. It turns out that it's not just crazy right-wingers like me who care about Ed FitzGerald's lack of a valid driver's license for over a decade. Cuyahoga County Inspector General Nailah Byrd nailed Fitz with a 45-page report which is summarized here in the Plain Dealer.

I think props are due to Byrd who a lot of people thought might give Fitz a pass. After all, he did appoint her. And hey, she could have waited another couple weeks until after Election Day to release the report.

Here are some nuggets from the article. The entire 45-page report is embedding there, if you are into reading such things.

Byrd had taken heat for not being sufficiently independent of FitzGerald, who recommended her for the job in 2011. But in the report she levies strong criticism, noting in its conclusion that the county under FitzGerald had disciplined other county employees for driving through the course of county business without a license.

"Based on this alone, it would be disingenuous and an apparent double standard if no discipline is pursued in this instance. Moreover, FitzGerald's disregard of County policies regarding operating personal or County vehicles on or in the course of County business, without a valid driver's license, is a breach of the public trust that sends the wrong message to County employees and taxpayers," the report reads.

Here are some tidbits which someone could write an entire article on:

• Upon review of FitzGerald's driving record, "it is clear there are over 21 months during his tenure as County Executive when he did not hold a valid driver's license."

• The absence of the county executive's vehicle logs for the year of 2012 hampered the investigation. Byrd wrote the FitzGerald administration "improperly destroyed them."

• FitzGerald aides offered spotty recollections of whether they had seen FitzGerald drive himself while county executive. FitzGerald himself conceded he had probably driven himself to county events, but when shown specific events on his official calendar, he could not remember whether he had driven himself or not.

 Are we reduced to trusting the "spotty recollections" of aides who "improperly destroy" documents?

• FitzGerald told investigators he had never driven without insurance.

Also all you right-wingers should take note that Ed FitzGerald never removed a mattress tag or took more than one newspaper out of those self serve boxes over at Kamm's.

Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for FitzGerald's gubernatorial campaign, said in an email that FitzGerald cooperated with the investigation so it could be released in a timely manner -- in contrast to recent state investigations that have involved Republicans.

"[T]imely manner...." Boy, oh boy, is she sore that this came before the election. She knows the man is going to lose, but we are headed into record-setting territory now, and Lauren Hitt's name is going to be immortalized along with Fitz's.