CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, this week, officially announced his intent to keep Warrensville Heights Mayor Brad Sellers on the nine-member board currently overseeing multi-million-dollar plans to renovate the Global Center for Health Innovation, despite Sellers’ pending legal concerns.
Budish recommended Sellers on Monday to serve a second term through April 2025 on the Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Development Corporation (CCCFDC) Board, a copy of the letter obtained through a records request shows.
The recommendation must still be approved by the board, which is also currently pushing faster movement on the proposed $46 million in renovations to transform the failed Medical Mart and Global Center into an extension of the attached convention center. Sellers continues to lead those efforts as president of the board.
Sellers would have remained in the seat regardless, until a new person was appointed, according to the board’s bylaws.
But the official nomination clears up confusion about Sellers’ future on the board after he shared information during the quarterly board meeting last week that indicated his position had already been secured. The county later denied it, saying Budish had not yet made an appointment.
At the time, a county spokeswomen declined to answer questions about whether Budish supported having Sellers on the board while the state is investigating allegations that he used his position as mayor to grant himself a tax abatement and signed a notarized document claiming to be debt-free while owing thousands of dollars in unpaid property taxes.
The information came to light as part of a cleveland.com investigation during Sellers’s brief run for Cuyahoga County Executive.
The county prosecutor’s office has referred Sellers’ case to the Ohio Ethics Commission for review of potential violations and recommended actions. Cleveland.com reached out to the commission for an update.
Ad Choices