Dunham Tavern Museum Members Want Ohio Supreme Court to Rule on Cleveland Foundation Dispute—Cleveland Scene

“With the release of recent census data giving rise to widespread reports that Cleveland is now the poorest large city in the U.S.—on top of what was already known about the city’s staggering inequality, poverty, and infant mortality rates,” the brief reads, “it would be hard to think of a worse time for Ohio courts to send the message that such an enormously influential and wealthy community foundation [the Cleveland Foundation], the oldest in the nation, is above the law; particularly in a case where the foundation seeks to usurp historic greenspace that was reclaimed by charitable donations intended precisely to preserve the land for the public’s enjoyment.” …

“My clients are not opposed to the Cleveland Foundation building its new headquarters in the Midtown neighborhood, and would welcome such a development,” Pattakos said last year. “It just doesn’t belong on the Dunham Tavern greenspace that community members recently donated $700,000 to restore, consistent with the Museum’s mission and historical character. There are plenty of alternative sites that would do, and my clients are entitled to answers in court about who Mr. Collins and Mr. Wagner sought to benefit by rushing this transaction through in violation of the Museum’s bylaws.”

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