My Councilman can’t see the conflict

George Nemeth reports:

When Cleveland City Councilman Michael Polensek couldn’t find a favorable loan to buy a foreclosed house on his street this summer, he called in a favor that the average resident in his ward would have been hard-pressed to receive.

Polensek asked the community development agency he funds with federal tax dollars to buy the house for him while he looked for a loan that he liked. Collinwood & Nottingham Villages Development Corp. did just that, and Polensek bought the home on the far northeast side six weeks later.

Critics say the deal potentially violated several Ohio’s ethics laws because of the councilman’s close ties with the agency.

Polensek is the founder of Collinwood & Nottingham, which depends on the councilman for its very survival. The agency has received more than $900,000 from Polensek’s annual allocation of community block grant money since 2004.

In 2006, records show, more than 60 percent of the agency’s funding came from Polensek.