CLEVELAND Area contractor pleads innocent

The former city worker was released on $50,000 bond.
By AMANDA C. DAVIS
and PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CLEVELAND -- A Vienna-based contractor has pleaded innocent to federal charges that he agreed to give money to a Warren official in an effort to secure a demolition contract on the Hotel Regency.
A federal grand jury in Cleveland indicted James Matash, 38, of Centennial Drive, owner of M & amp;M Demolition Inc., on a charge of extortion and a charge of program fraud.
He entered his plea Tuesday and is free on $50,000 bond.
M & amp;M has handled many Warren jobs, including demolition of the hotel on U.S. Route 422, which was destroyed by fire in 1999.
The indictment accuses Matash of agreeing to pay $5,000 to an unidentified public official in Warren to ensure he was awarded the demolition contract for $108,421.
The indictment does not identify the public official who, Mayor Hank Angelo said, no longer works for the city.
Grant: A portion of the demolition's cost, $83,421, was paid for with a federal Community Development Block Grant.
City council at that time voted against using a CDBG for the project but was told the formal bidding process was bypassed and M & amp;M was already paid because the site was deemed a safety hazard.
Angelo said that when possible improprieties about the job were discovered, the city contacted the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification, which called the FBI.
He said the FBI took 10 sets of city records from departments in the past year, including engineering, building and planning, community development and the auditor's office.
Matash was fired in 1996 as equipment operator with the water department.
Letter of termination: His letter of termination says that on "at least a dozen occasions," Matash met on city property during work hours with individuals suspected of theft.
"The sole purpose of [the meetings] ... was to plan, facilitate, conduct and encourage the receiving, retaining and disposing of stolen property," the letter says.
On Oct. 25, 1996, Matash was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of receiving stolen property in several thefts in the summer of 1996.
The federal count of extortion carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and program fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.