Gus Frangos, Chairman

President and General Counsel, Cuyahoga Land Bank

Gus Frangos was the primary drafter of Ohio’s legislation establishing enhanced-capacity county land banks and expedited tax foreclosure policy. Gus graduated with honors from Cleveland Marshall College of Law and served as an associate attorney at the law firm of Ulmer & Berne, concentrating in business law and litigation. He then served as City Councilman of Cleveland’s 13th Ward, where he sponsored and passed an array of community development legislation. In the early ’90s, Gus was appointed as a Magistrate Judge in the Cleveland Municipal Court, where he served with distinction. In 2004, he was retained by the Cuyahoga County Treasurer to craft legislation to help expedite the tax foreclosure process, specifically for vacant and abandoned properties. These efforts resulted in the passage of House Bill 294. He was also the primary drafter of Senate Bill 353, which established the first “County Land Reutilization Corporation” of its kind. House Bill 294 authorized expedited administrative tax foreclosures of abandoned land through the County Boards of Revision, and Senate Bill 353 enables the establishment of County Land Reutilization Corporations throughout Ohio with enhanced capabilities for the reclamation of distressed properties. Gus’s areas of legal concentration include land-related issues, Constitutional, commercial real estate, zoning, administrative and business transactional law.