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Now I'm going to take the time to simplify and explain the issues as best I
can. I also want to tell you, as far as I can figure out, what happened and
why. I also hope to expose just how corrupt and rigged the system was, and
possibly still is. Equally important, I'm going to try and suggest ways of
changing the system, so if and when it happens to someone else, it doesn't take
them twenty-four plus years to obtain justice.
I want to start at the beginning in Rossford, Ohio. What should have turned
out to be a fairly successful business venture for a young entrepreneur turned
out to be a twenty-five year plus nightmare for no other reason than that I attempted
the American dream of owning my own business and being in control of my own
destiny. Unfortunately, I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that I would
have to bow down and kiss the government’s ass to accomplish this. And if that
wasn't enough, when I attempted to fight their corruption, I had to fight them
in a legal system that they owned lock, stock and barrel.
This dilemma started when I was in the process of attempting to receive the
city of Rossford’s permission to operate the landfill business. After meeting
the requirements they set for obtaining a permit, a Rossford councilman, who
just happened to be their ex-chief of police, slandered me by calling me a
liar, cheat and thief in an open city council meeting. Why? Because I had
answered, " yes." I had met the criteria for receiving their permit,
which I had. I still to this day have no idea what possessed him to do that,
unless it was my youth or the fact that I brought the property owners with me
to assist me.
Unfortunately for him and the rest of city council members, his
irresponsible accusations put them in an awkward situation: they could either
issue the permit, like they agreed to in the first place, or I would file a
lawsuit and force them to issue the permit. Either way I would have received
the permit and they knew it, so they begrudgingly issued it, fully knowing that
they would be able to square off with me at some other point in time. Then
there'd be hell to pay.
In all honesty, I believe the only person not willing to participate in any
revenge was Ben Schultz, the mayor of Rossford when this first took place. The
reason I say this is that we never had any problems when he was the mayor. He
without a doubt was a man of his word.
Now, by no means did he ever make any exceptions for me, because, to tell
you the truth I don't think he liked me either, especially after what happened
in the city council meeting. Believe me, if I had done something wrong he would
have made sure I was punished accordingly, if for no other reason than to make
amends with city council. As far as the members of the Rossford city council, I
believe that the majority, if not all of them, secretly harbored an extreme
amount of resentment toward me over the fact that they basically forced
themselves into issuing me the permit. There's no way around it: they were
furious.
It wasn't my fault that their scheme had just back-fired in their faces. I
use the word "scheme" because I believe that they all knew in advance
of the council meeting what their fellow council person’s intentions were and
never attempted to stop him. Not one councilman seemed surprised when he blared
out to everyone that I was a liar, a cheat and a thief. They all just sat there
with a smug look on their faces waiting to see what my response would be. The
last thing they expected was for me to have the signed contract with me and to
have this blow up in their faces, but that's what happened, and they were
livid.
After that humiliating experience, I'm sure that in the back of their minds
they knew that eventually they'd either find or create a way to get back at me
for something they basically did to themselves. What they needed was someone
obsessed with the situation and angry enough to carry the ball. Well, a short
time later they got their wish, because Councilman Louie Bauer was elected the
new "king," I mean the new mayor of Rossford, and their prayers were
answered.
I have never held any illusion that there was any grand plan of government
out to get me. What I do believe is that there were some very damaging mistakes
made by several people in the Rossford local government which could have cost
the city of Rossford a fairly large sum of money and the council simply refused
to deal with it in an ethical or legal manner. Unfortunately, they allowed
their mistakes to be turned into revenge and their delivery boy turned out to
be Louie Bauer.
The reason I say that about Louie is that when he was a councilman we had
several heated discussions, one which turned very ugly and which Louie never
forgot. Louie had passionately argued for my company to be able to accept
reject roles of fiberglass. Then after convincing everyone to vote for it,
Louie voted against it. When I asked him why he did that he just screamed at me
never to question his judgment. He knew what he was doing.
At that point I wasn't really worried about Louie causing any major problems
because I felt that the mayor and some of the other councilmen would keep him
in line like they had to keep their retired chief of police in line. I never in
my wildest dreams thought that Louie would become the new dictator--I mean the
mayor--of Rossford.
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