I worked at Cuya­hoga Coun­ty when the FBI raid­ed it. Dozens of peo­ple went to jail for their cor­rup­tion and greed. Projects and staff were man­aged poor­ly, bud­gets and strate­gies were opaque, many of the peo­ple work­ing there got their jobs because they were polit­i­cal­ly con­nect­ed. The Board of Com­mis­sion­ers was replaced with an exec­u­tive-style gov­ern­ment, and the first Coun­ty Exec­u­tive was a micro­manag­ing mega­lo­ma­ni­ac who treat­ed the remain­ing staff like they were all crim­i­nals, despite being too irre­spon­si­ble to renew his dri­ver’s license for sev­er­al years. A project that start­ed my last year there took 8 years to fin­ish and was mil­lions over-bud­get.

How­ev­er: the City of Cleve­land is the worst place I have ever worked.

The rot­ten­ly cor­rupt Cuya­hoga Coun­ty of 2008 did a bet­ter job at the duties of gov­ern­ment than the City of Cleve­land does in 2023.

Orga­ni­za­tions keep the employ­ees they deserve.