Cleveland: Port boss ouster prompts Hagan call for accountability

CLEVELAND -- The public does not know the details of why former Cleveland Cuyahoga Port Authority President and CEO Adam Wasserman got a golden parachute to leave his job.

And one Cuyahoga County commissioner is using the episode to call for more governmental accountability over boards that run the Port, RTA and the Sewer Authority.

Adam Wasserman got $300,000, paid legal expenses and a year and a half of health coverage to "resign" from his job of running the Port Authority.

In a brief press release, the Board said the move came by "mutual agreement."

The City of Cleveland appoints six of nine Port board members, and Cuyahoga County appoints three.

Two commissioners say they were told Wasserman's departure came because of his hardball management style.

"If he had been willing to accept some assistance and counseling in terms of his management style, he probably still would have been there," said Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones.

The board's choices seem to have boiled down to firing Wasserman, facing an expensive lawsuit or paying him to leave.

"You have to show 'cause.' Obviously, they didn't have a cause that made them comfortable going to court," said Commissioner Tim Hagan.

"Am I happy with a $300,000 buyout? No one should be happy... People get paid to go away because that's the way it is today...the public is entitled to a full and complete investigation," Jones said.

Hagan did not support Issue 6, the county reform measure voters passed.

But he's now suggesting that the new powerful county executive should use the Wasserman episode to explore getting control of the Port, RTA and Regional Sewer Authority Boards.

All the boards have appointees from multiple governments.

"The Port (and other boards) ought to be under one authority, so you have a responsible government accountable to the public. These boards and commissions are hidden governments," Hagan said.

Wasserman did not return calls from Channel 3 News for comment.

Port directors are declining to be interviewed about the severance package and circumstances that led up to it.

Issue 6 proponent Marty Zanotti called Hagan's idea "interesting." But he said it makes no sense until county government itself is well on the way to being remade.

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said he had no comment on Hagan's proposal to consolidate control of the various boards.