October 09, 2023

Good evening, Council President and the honorable members of the Cleveland City Council. My name is Noel Cummings, and I am a black woman of trans experience, and the victim of a fraud perpetrated and now being covered up by past and present members of the executive management team of the GCRTA, as well as past and present members of the Board of Trustees, including Board President Charles Lucas, and former member Mayor Justin Bibb, who were notified of the allegation by copy of an email I sent to interim and acting CEO Floun'say Caver on October 31st of 2018. Justin Bibb has also refused to respond to the email I sent to him as Mayor on February 14th of '22, which I forwarded to each council member on March 31st of '22, and pleaded with you to encourage him to respond. Today, I am again pleading with you to do the right thing and not participate in what appears to be a conspiracy amongst past and present local elected officials, including County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley, to ignore my allegation, and see this easily discernable fraud covered up.

But turning a blind eye to crime does not mean the crime disappears, it simply means you lack the courage, ethical centering, to call it out, and for elected officials, that means corruption.

My allegation of fraud, which is grounded in part by an unappealable determination by OPERS, which states that the terms of a settlement agreement I receive violated the Ohio Revised Code, and placed the onus for that violation on the public employer. This merits the independent investigation that the Bureau of Criminal Investigation of the Attorney General's office has stated that it can perform. According to Special Agent Supervisor Mark Kollar of the Bureau, the request has to be made by a law enforcement agency with jurisdiction, including the Cleveland Police Department, which I have requested to do so.

On October 5th of 2022, I provided an in-person statement to the Financial Crimes Unit. On November 7th of 2022, I contacted Police Chief Drummond as a follow-up. To date, Chief Drummond has not responded. The refusal of GCRTA and other officials to respond in good faith to this allegation of fraud and malfeasance at the highest levels of the GCRTA not only represents participation in the coverup, but an egregious performance failure, dereliction of duty, and an inexcusable breach of the public trust. This is corruption. There must be accountability and consequences. I am not just a victim in this matter, but the whistleblower, and if you continue to ignore my efforts to expose this crime and the corruption that now attends it, you will be effectively protecting the wrongdoers and hiding the wrongdoing, which is also an inexcusable breach of the public trust.

I urge each of you to please join me in calling for the full and independent investigation this matter warrants so that justice at long last may be served, because the facts do not change, the truth never grows old, and I will persist. Thank you.

Hello, Councilmen. I have come here today because I am in great danger, and I would like the assistance of whoever is willing to help me.

I have been fighting a civil case since May 1st. I have stated myself clearly. I have stated to the federal court, the appellate court, the Common Pleas Court over and over again how I would like to do my contracts. I done my facts in law, not just hearsay, and I have ended up being homeless because of the situation that has circumvented my life. I don't know what else to do.

I talked to the officer in the Mayor's Court, and he told me to get in contact with the news or with anyone I can. My case is going all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court.

I sleep on the ground pretty much every day. I dodge the rain as much as I can, I move as specifically as I can to keep myself in control as much as I can, but it's getting cold and I don't know what else to do. That is all I am here to say is, anyone who is willing to help me achieve what I had when I had a home and I was functional and human, I would appreciate it but as it stands now I have been destroyed. As the Magna Carta would say, I have been destroyed, and I was not destroyed by the law of the land or by 12 of my peers. And I feel very strange. I feel very strange. So yeah, thank you for listening to my plea.