See what I-TEAM found now about City of CLE vehicles
CLEVELAND (WJW) — The FOX 8 I TEAM has uncovered pictures of car seats for kids in a City of Cleveland vehicle at Hopkins Airport.
This comes to light after we revealed a City Safety official is facing discipline after crashing a city car while driving with kids on board.
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And, we’ve also revealed an airport official taking a city car home about 70 miles away. So, we went one-on-one with the Hopkins Airport Director.
We asked him about one of the top members of his management team. Records show Dina Wilson put 39,000 miles on a take-home car in one year while living about 70 miles away.
We asked, “Why do you allow someone in your top management to drive a take-home car when she lives seventy miles away?” Bryan Francis answered, “So, I’m not gonna speak about any individual person.” He aid the overall use of take-home cars at Hopkins Airport is under review and he added, “I may make some calls that will change the way that we operate. It’s certainly something that warrants us looking further into.”
Weeks ago, the I TEAM created a firestorm. We revealed Assistant Safety Director Jakimah Dye crashed with kids in a city car. Internal discipline against her is still pending. Additionally, her boss, Safety Director Karrie Howard resigned. He admitted to the I TEAM he also had driven with a child in a city car.
As for the picture of the airport vehicle with child car seats inside, we asked Bryant Francis, “Is that something you’re investigating?”
He said, “I can tell you that is part of the overall look into that. That is something that we’re also looking into.’
Back to the official with a take home car living seventy miles away. The I TEAM asked for records showing when and why she had to go to the airport last year after hours, but the city told us it has no records. Meantime, her take-home car approval form shows one boss signed it. Yet, we noticed spots for two others to sign are still blank. We also went to Cleveland City Councilman Kerry McCormack. He leads the Council Transportation Committee.
He said, “Learned about it today from you. So, I appreciate you bringing it to my attention.” He added, “Fundamentally, I think folks should be using their own car to get from their house to work. Again, if they’ve got City business in the community, or something like that, that’s a different story.”
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Bryant Francis told us, any changes with take home cars should happen soon. He said, “I’m looking at what changes need to be made.”
City Hall has also been conducting a citywide review of the use of take-home, or commute utility vehicles.
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