Council voted 7-3 (Johnson, Roybal and Wiechman were the no votes) to approve a new plan to give taxpayer money to the mayor’s favorite charities.

$100,000 was part of the budget approved in late 2014. This subsequent action creates a evaluation committee selected by the mayor. The committee will make recommendations to council at a meeting in May about which groups the city should support. The make-up of the committee will be two members of the Lakewood Legacy Foundation, two city council members and three residents. All the members are appointed by the mayor. Wiechman wanted to amend the resolution to remove the mayor as the committee selector and instead make it the Lakewood Legacy Foundation, but the motion died for lack of a second.

Wiechman noted the mayor and his designated successor Paul have had eight years in office to establish a giving program to charities. However, they waited to implement this plan just six month before the election in which Paul seeks to succeed Murphy as mayor. Wiechman argues this action appears to be designed to win favor for Paul from the recipient charities.