What does it look like when a government entity tries to quietly buy judicial cooperation, gets caught, pretends it didn’t happen, and then attempts to quietly resurrect the same deal under a different name?
It looks a lot like what’s happening right now with Cuyahoga County’s courthouse renovation saga — and the Today in Ohio podcast keeps shining a spotlight on it.
Cuyahoga County judges have been complaining for years about deteriorating conditions inside the justice center — leaking roofs, broken elevators, outdated courtrooms, and decades of deferred maintenance. A $150 million arrangement between the judges and county government emerged as a proposed fix. But critics quickly raised alarms, suggesting the courthouse money was essentially being used to purchase judicial votes on a state-required committee for the county’s controversial new jail project…