A word of caution to homeowners searching for Cuyahoga County’s online property tax calculator. Don’t be duped by bogus websites capitalizing on the flurry of interest in the county’s new home valuations.
High up in the search results for “Cuyahoga County property tax calculator” is a site called “cuyahogacountyauditor.org.” Don’t visit it. The site is full of pop-ups and links that one would be ill-advised to click.
Internet domain records show that someone registered the URL in February. The domain is associated with an address in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The county has submitted a takedown request through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and flagged the site with Google and the Federal Trade Commission, according to Executive Chris Ronayne’s office.
You’ll know that a county website is official if it uses the .gov domain. The bona fide site for the county’s reappraisals is here.
Cleveland seeks number cruncher for TIF projects
Mayor Justin Bibb is looking for a consultant to advise City Hall on a much-used – but hard to explain – way to finance development projects: the TIF.
Known in full as tax increment financing, TIFs are a keystone of Bibb’s plans for downtown Cleveland. The city placed most of downtown, the Flats and part of Ohio City into a TIF district. Part of the new property tax revenue generated in the district will go toward infrastructure projects that support new development.
The city’s outgoing finance director, Ahmed Abonamah, told council that the consultant would offer economic analysis on TIFs. In other words, they’d check the math to make sure that Cleveland’s TIFs produce as much money as promised.
City Council last week appropriated $150,000 for the consultant. The mayor hasn’t made the hire yet. He’ll have to go back to council for sign-off on the contract.
New leader on City Hall’s city desk
The managing editor at News 5 Cleveland has jumped over to TV20, City Hall’s government access television station.
Janelle Bass Hawthorne is now TV20’s news director. She oversees TV20’s reporters and the photographers in City Hall’s Photo Bureau.
The job of news director – a common role in broadcast shops – is a new position that the Bibb administration created to enliven the city’s TV image. Available on cable networks and online, TV20 covers City Council hearings, mayoral speaking appearances, youth sports and more.
Bass Hawthorne has a Master’s in business administration from Baldwin Wallace University and years of experience in TV news.
As with anyone changing jobs between TV stations, she’ll have to get used to a new catchphrase. Out are News 5’s “On Your Side” and “We Follow Through,” and in is TV20’s slogan, “We Are Cleveland!”
