Battle Between Cleveland, C&D Recycler Continues

The stage is set for another bruising battle between the city of Cleveland and a contractor whose concrete-recycling operation is generating dust and controversy near the Northern Ohio Food Terminal.

A month ago, the city's building and housing inspectors cited Granger Materials Inc., the Perk Co. and Norfolk Southern Corp. for running the portable rubble crusher without proper permits.

The city ordered the business to stop. Granger's lawyer, Robert McIntyre, has argued the plant is legal, and trucks continue to rumble in and out of East 40th Street and Crayton Avenue.

They dump concrete debris that is crushed and refined into material for construction projects. Food handling companies a short walk from the site complain that the dust is a nuisance and a threat to their businesses.

McIntyre told city officials that water is in constant use to suppress the dust, and that other sites in the gritty neighborhood - unpaved parking lots, similar recycling businesses - could be sources of dirt.

City inspectors are poised to ratchet up enforcement.

"The city has issued its warning," Cleveland Law Director Subodh Chandra said last week. "We will follow through as necessary to protect the surrounding businesses."

Chandra's threatening tone is nothing new to one of Granger's top officers, Angelo Martin, and lawyer McIntyre.

The city sued Martin in February 2002 when another company in which Martin is an officer, Martin Enterprises Inc., used the same portable recycler to crush piles of rubble off Valley Road, at Martin Enterprises' headquarters, records showed.

Nearby residents complained about noise and dust and signed petitions to stop the work. Twice, the city's Board of Zoning Appeals rejected Martin's request for a special permit, but the rubble recycling continued, lawsuit documents showed.

The city said the general industry zoning off Valley Road didn't allow rock crushing without a special permit.

But McIntyre argued that the company wasn't crushing rock. Rather, it was recycling concrete, a use that conforms with the zoning. Further, Granger Materials held a legitimate air-pollution permit from the state for the portable recycler, McIntyre noted.

He also attacked Councilwoman Merle Gordon in court filings, accusing her of perjury and unduly influencing city inspectors and departments to crack down on Martin.

McIntyre charged that Gordon perjured herself during a deposition by denying that she circulated petitions against the portable recycler on Valley Road. Yet in a later deposition, she acknowledged she had gathered petition signatures, McIntyre said.

In court documents, Gordon and city lawyers said McIntyre had confused the issue by combining two petition efforts against the portable recycler, one in 2000 and another in 2001.

Gordon said she circulated petitions in one effort, but not the other.

Yet in a late May docket entry, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Judith Kilbane Koch wrote that some of Gordon's actions were "inappropriate." Despite that, the judge rejected Martin's request that Gordon be held in contempt of court.

Cleveland Law Director Chandra was critical of Koch's entry.

"It was a bit unfair for the court to express a personal opinion without explaining what was inappropriate," Chandra said in an interview last week.

The accusations against Gordon have led to nasty exchanges between Chandra and McIntyre.

In a June 12 letter, Chandra accused McIntyre of breaking a commitment to drop the claims against Gordon if the law director got personally involved with settlement talks. Chandra joined negotiations, but no settlement resulted.

Chandra wrote that he had informed his staff to view McIntyre "with extreme professional caution," and to take nothing he says at face value.

In response, McIntyre wrote that his commitment rested only with a successful settlement. Chandra's accusations are "not what I would expect of a law director of a major city."

The arguments, and animosity, are carrying over to East 40th and Crayton.

McIntyre makes the same argument there - Granger Materials is recycling concrete, a legal use of the land.

Chandra said locating the dusty business so close to food handling companies "certainly seems to show a great deal of disregard and disrespect."

McIntyre is defending the Perk Co., also cited by the city. Perk has nothing to do with the site, McIntyre told city officials in a letter.

City lawyers insisted Perk is leasing the site, which is owned by Norfolk Southern.

The railroad was also cited by the city. Railroad spokesman Rudy Husband said the railroad would seek to mediate the dispute. But if any city laws had been broken, the railroad would terminate the lease, he said.

Meanwhile, businessmen around the food terminal want to know how a rubble recycler ended up near the city's food hub.

Councilman Michael Dolan, in an interview last month, said he negotiated a lease between the railroad and a real estate holding company for the site.

Dolan said he did the work as a lawyer in private practice and earned several thousand dollars for the service.

City officials identified the holding company as CAJ Properties Inc., whose statutory agent is listed as Anthony J. Cifani of Bedford Heights. Cifani is an officer with Perk.

Dolan said he set up a meeting between businessmen involved in the recycling and Councilman Frank Jackson, whose ward includes East 40th and Crayton.

Jackson, through City Council spokeswoman Maxine Greer, declined to discuss Dolan's involvement in the recycling operation.

Granger, Perk and Norfolk Southern had 30 days to comply with the city's orders to gain proper permits, issued May 28. The 30 days have expired and building and housing officials are waiting for the next move by the Law Department.