Jackson Scores Unimpressive Victory

By Roldo Bartimole

Getting more than 70 percent of the vote is quite impressive – until you look at the vote total. Then it is depressing.

Clevelanders apparently didn’t care much to vote for anyone for Mayor.

Mayor Jackson’s victory was even less impressive when you consider that some hot Council races drew some excitement among voters. The vote could have been even much lower without these contests.

Can you blame the public for being apathetic? I’d say NO!

A livelier campaign might have made for a better result. This campaign can be equated with an old balloon depleting air. No sizzle at all.

It could be a sign that the vast majority of people are satisfied with how life is in Cleveland.

You have to ask, however, how could that be?

The other factor that plays into this apathy is the fact that the bomb hasn’t blown up yet. The financial bomb, that is. It is bound to happen in the coming year, if not shortly after the November election.

The mayor is getting a lot of credit for keeping Cleveland financially above water. I’m not sure though that either it could last long or that it’s even true.

Jackson is fond of saying enigmatically about affairs of the city that it is what it is. Hard to find much meaning in that. It’s sort of saying things aren’t good and they’re not going to get better.

What is is can’t be much of a platform many politicians would want to run on. Jackson quietly finds it soothing.

The word “dynamic,” I’d say, could be used as an antonym for Jackson.

Bill Patmon, who will run off against Jackson in November, isn’t very exciting himself. He tries to appear serious and sincere. It doesn’t work. You get the feeling Patmon thinks he has to compensate for something he did wrong before. It makes him seem, well, sort of faking sincerity.

Unfortunately for Patmon, he hasn’t been visible as a fighter for the “little people.” I think he’d like to be seen as such.

Had he taken some strong stands in recent years he might have a better reputation as a fighter for those at the bottom.

I watched Patmon during his Council career - part of which he spent as the finance chairman. It is the top job below Council President. He ran a good committee. Patmon promised when he started that he would not – as had become the sloppy method – to continue a meeting without a quorum. He kept his promise.

The problem with Jackson and Patmon, however, is that they don’t have very strong leadership talents.

In a city where you need a tough bargainer, there has been a serious dearth of such leadership for many years.

Jackson, for example, allowed the Cleveland Cavaliers to move their training camp to Independence. With that move, a lot of income tax revenue moved from Cleveland to Independence. I didn’t see what Jackson got in return.

Jackson went along with the Wolstein development in the Flats, showering the Wolsteins with subsidies. Can’t think what he got in return. Nothing seems to be happening with the project.

Patmon has ripped into Jackson about the Eaton Corp. move out of Cleveland. Fair criticism, I’d say. However, that move actually was greased long ago by former Mayor George Voinovich and Council President George Forbes in the late 1980s when they opened city-owned land in wealthy eastern suburbs. When the economy revives we are likely to see more movement to Chagrin Highlands to the detriment of downtown Cleveland.

Jackson, to my mind, didn’t make a good enough deal on the Medical Mart and Convention Center either. He should have insisted not only for payment of the city’s properties but a share of the County taxes being collected for 40 years from residents. He didn’t drive a good enough bargain for Clevelanders, in my opinion.

Jackson also seems to be going along with the so-called Opportunity Corridor, a $350-million project, that is unnecessary and will cut through a part of Cleveland that needs help but will become a mere bypass. The project, heavily backed by the Greater Cleveland Partnership, doesn’t seem to offer Clevelanders anything. It allows suburbanites to slide through the city ignoring its problems.

Cleveland is in such bad shape (despite the glee about E. 4th Street, our new version, I guess, of the old Short Vincent) that its officials can’t afford to give anything away without a good return.

Jackson used to be good at getting something for his ward as a Councilman. He or somebody needs to be a lot better working deals that help Cleveland’s residents.

That’s the bargain voters should be demanding. A lot louder than a 10 percent vote.

Jackson Shows Himself A Conventional Cleveland Mayor

One day after winning victory by a large margin, Mayor Frank Jackson showed he’s a conventional Cleveland Mayor by offering Jeff Jacobs $2 million gift.

Giving gifts to downtown developers has been a bad habit for Cleveland politicians.

Particularly when you can see Cleveland neighborhoods fester and die before our eyes.

But keep the payoffs coming, Cleveland mayors.

Cleveland mayors since Dennis Kucinich have been corporate mayors, providing subsidies to Cleveland’s wealthiest.

The list goes far beyond the hundreds of millions of tax dollars.

Jackson will ask City Council to provide Jacobs Investments, Inc. (investment with public funds apparently) with $2-million for an aquarium.

Public scrutiny is so short-sighted that the Plain Dealer article by Gabriel Baird doesn’t even answer the question: Where does this $2-million come from? Pocket money?

My suspicion is that it comes from UDAG paybacks. In other words, money loaned to developers, typically at zero or very low interest rates, and paid back after many years. This is money that could and should be spent in the city’s crumbling neighborhoods.

It’s been the practice of mayors – and apparently Jackson, advertised as a neighborhood mayor – to give the money right back to developers instead of investing it finally in the neighborhoods.

The “aquarium” will be within Jacobs’s private Powerhouse complex.

Now nice that the public pay for this as if it were a public investment.

If opponent Bill Patmon expects to get more than his 11 percent vote he’s going to have to examine Jackson’s record of being the same old give-away mayor and hit him hard.

Patmon should refuse to take any campaign contributions from Jacobs, from the Ratners and Sam Miller or any other downtown developer and challenge Jackson to do the same. Both should return any money they’ve receive from these tainted sources.

All corruption isn’t the illegal kind.

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NOTE: Above when I talked of Jackson’s error in allowing the Cleveland Cavaliers to move its practice facility to Independence and thus lose income tax revenue from the players, a friend wrote that it required more explanation.

The fact is that Cleveland has subsidized Dan Gilbert’s team by helping build Q (formerly Gund) Arena – where practice facilities were built-in – helped build a parking garage, which provides significant parking free to the team, and relinquish all property taxes worth tens of millions of dollars on the arena.

It should get all possible revenue from the team and its owners for those significant investments.

Essentially, Jackson gave away half of the revenues without a fight. James Le Bron?’s alone would help Cleveland.

Having made these substantial subsidies for the team owners (the garage will cost Cleveland some $70 million in subsidies under the Cavs’ arena lease), Jackson allowed them to escape. Now, income tax revenue from the players to go to Independence, as I remember it, on an even basis. In other words, Jackson gave away half of the payroll tax of the Cavs to go to Independence. He got nothing in return.

Cleveland can’t afford that kind of kindness to others.

This was a bad deal. Worse, it suggests a state-of-mind Cleveland couldn’t afford in the past. Now it’s just a disastrous policy.

Patmon Rightly Calls Jackson on Jacobs Deal

Bill Patmon slammed Mayor Frank Jackson on his “gift” of $2 million to Jeff Jacobs for a proposed fish tank for his Flats project. It’s a proper slam of the mayor.

Jackson said that the money could only go to a profit-making business, which I would think is either absurd or an outright lie.

Patmon, a member of the RTA board, suggested that the money be used to help keep alive community circulating buses in Cleveland neighborhoods, as reported in a blog by Henry Gomez of the Plain Dealer.

Jackson scoffed at Patmon saying, “It is amazing to me that someone who touts himself as having such great knowledge of city finances and city government would not be aware of how this money” can be spent.

Jackson said the money comes from a fund that can only be used to subsidize for-profit enterprises. However, he didn’t identify the fund and it seems strange to me.

Neither Jackson nor the Plain Dealer has identified what money we are talking about.

It may well be that Jackson doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Jackson doesn’t say what pool of city money provides this $2 million.

I’d say that if city money can go into bicycle paths then city money can go for transportation for transit-dependent people. In fact, it would be a much better use today.

But more important is the question of how a Jeff Jacobs’s private deal for $2 million, offered this June, jumped ahead of all other possible projects the city could subsidize with the $2 million, no matter where it comes from. I have a list that is years old with projects that should proceed any new deals.

There are scores of other neighborhood projects on the agenda of needs for the city for years.

I have a document from the early 2000s of “Core City Fund Projects” that lists nearly 100 projects awaiting some kind of city subsidy.

These projects total a desire of $55 million in subsidies that were scheduled to trigger $430 million in total project investments.

They do include for-profit business but also non-profits and even churches, presumably non-profit entities.

So if anyone has this concept wrong, I believe it’s Mayor Frank Jackson.

Further, we need to know where the money is coming from, how long Jacobs will hold the $2 million, what interest, if any, he will pay. Further, will Jacobs get any tax abatement or other subsidies for this project?

Jackson, who has played himself as a financial wizard, is way out on a limb with this deal. He has a lot of explaining to do. Now.

PD Egging On An Unnecessary Road Project

We have a problem, Plain Dealer.

The monopoly newspaper has been pushing hard for the so-called Opportunity Corridor. The problem is that the co-chairman of the push is Terry Egger, publisher of the Plain Dealer. He’s a walking conflict of interests.

Multi-millionaire Egger is a board member of the Cleveland Clinic, likely the chief entity to benefit from the proposed road. The road would go from I-490 at East 55th street and slice to, well, the Clinic area.

So Egger has two conflicts of interest – his position as publisher and his position as a Clinic board member along with his position as head of the only newspaper in town.

I wrote Egger for information on his committee’s efforts a while back. Egger punted over to Terri Hamilton Brown. She’s the project head, working at the Greater Cleveland Partnership. The Partnership helped finance a study on the importance of the road, helped with matching $100,000 contributions from the Cleveland and Gund Foundations.

Money is easily gotten for projects that benefit the powerful and wealthy.

Once again today the PD had big headlines: “Opportunity Corridor needed even more now, officials say,” read the top headline on the Metro Page. I had a hard time finding in the article any officials, other than Ms. Hamilton Brown, making comment that would back up that headline.

The same old line is given us by the Pee Dee. The urgency deals with “spawning” economic and community development. Please, give me a break.

What I did notice, however, is that the price of the 2-3/4 mile road has already gone up since the last article by $25 million, from $350 million to $375 million.

Egger, who once complained to me that I overstated his income from the sale of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, made millions on the deal. The numbers came from the St. Louis Journalism Review, which cited Security & Exchange Commission figures. See here for Egger’s wealth.

I inquired about meetings of Egger’s Corridor group. The answer came from Ms. Hamilton Brown.

“The Steering Committee held a kick-off meeting on May 15 at the Plain Dealer…” Well, isn’t that convenient for Mr. Egger.

The next meeting was scheduled for Sept. 1 and was held “in the board room of the Greater Cleveland Partnership.” Also, convenient for those most interested.

The public, well, not so convenient, especially meeting at 9 a.m.

Well, I asked for minutes of the meetings. I’d like to see what’s going on. Wouldn’t you?

“Minutes from the Sept. 1 meeting have not been completed and I am now out of town until Sept. 21. I will forward minutes from both meetings when I return to the office.”

No mention of minutes from the May meeting?

Anyway, I don’t expect too much in the way of cooperation.

Egger is busy putting out an inferior newspaper. The Partnership is busy doing what it always does – taking care of those with power. The Cleveland and Gund foundations are busy doing that they typically do – funding what those in power want funded.

This is a disgrace. Opportunity Corridor, indeed. When people who need transportation are being hit with increased fares and lesser service by the Regional Transit Authority, our leaders are busy wrangling $375 million (so far) for a road we don’t need, for the convenience of people who can afford to travel Cleveland’s streets.

This is simply a very expensive bypass of ghetto residents for those who don’t want to see the seamy side of Cleveland. Let them take Woodland, Carnegie, Cedar, and Chester to University Circle. These are roads, already built, already convenient, and already paved.

You don’t hear much from the black political leadership. I remember when this issue came up years ago, Frank Jackson, then Council President, was a bit hesitant, as I remember. After all, the proposed road went through his ward.

Hardly a stir can one hear from Jackson or any other African-American politician.

Let’s stop building ghetto by-passes and calling them an OPPORTUNITY.

74 Percent Say Press Biased Toward Powerful

The Pew Research Report said that “Nearly three-quarters (74%) now say news organizations are influenced by powerful people and organizations…” What a surprise!

Duh!

Why isn’t it 98 percent? Who are the stupid people who don’t have that view?

Here’s a link to the full report covering opinions 1985-2009: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1341/press-accuracy-rating-hits-two-decade-low

The level of distrust of the press has risen from 53 percent in 1985.

It doesn’t mean, however, that the distrust of the news media mirrors my opinion or yours. In fact, Republicans are more critical than Democrats.

That’s because the myth of the “liberal media” is believed even by the media, revealing amazing ignorance among media people.

What WE need are more Kevin O’Briens to get that 74 percent up.

Phillip Morris Wrong- Stokes Had No Dull Race

Why Phillip Morris would bring Carl Stokes’s name into a discussion of a dull mayoral race is beyond me. Stokes wasn’t in any dull mayoral elections. Not in 1969. Not ever.

I guess Morris needed a column again but couldn’t stir himself enough to go get one.

Morris tries to equate the coming mayoral election of Mayor Frank Jackson and Bill Patmon to the Stokes-Ralph Perk race in 1969.

“Cleveland was locked in the middle of another fairly noncompetitive mayoral election 40 years ago,” wrote Morris today.

Wrong.

The 1969 election was nothing like this year’s election. Nothing at all.

It was a hard fought election. There were 316,000 eligible voters in 1969. Stokes won 120,464 votes. Perk received 117,013. Stokes won by 3,451 votes. That’s not a runaway by any means.

In this year’s primary the reported vote was some 11 percent. Real exciting stuff. One hopes that a few more will get out in November to vote. In 1969, the voter turnout was 75 percent. That’s an election.

In 1967, Stokes won by a smaller margin 129,396 to Seth Taft’s 127,717 with 325,000 eligible to vote. Less than a 2,000 vote margin. A difference of 1,652.

In 1965, when Stokes lost to Ralph Locher, Locher got 87,967, Stokes got 85,675, losing by another close margin, 2,292, or less than 1 percent. There were two other candidates, Perk and Ralph Mc Allister?, in the race.

Do you think the Jackson-Patmon race this year would be anything like those? I guess Patmon would like to think so.

Yes, Stokes had a large ego. He would have to have to do what he did.

Stokes also ran in a much different city, maybe twice the population of today’s Cleveland. There is no comparison with the Jackson-Patmon race other than there are two candidates again.

Can Voinovich Erase an Error on Race Or Is He Teasing Again

If there is anything that has become abundantly clear it’s that Southerners, especially Republican Southerners, can’t cope with the fact that we elected a black President. The Civil War, folks, is NOT the past.

We can see it over and over again. That’s what the “liar” scream of the South Carolinian representative was all about. Wonder that he didn’t bring a Confederate flag to wave. That’s what the crazy Texas talk about succession is all about. And Gov. Tim Plenty played a similar theme.

Maybe somebody should start a boycott on travel south of Washington, D. C. See how they like that.

However, that’s not what I want to say.

There is talk that our former Mayor, former Governor and now Sen. George Voinovich might be one of two or three Republicans that will vote for a health reform bill desired by President Barack Obama.

In a way, it would be fitting for Voinovich as he ends his elective political career. He could a blow not only for fair health reform but against the bigots. There have been hints about Voinovich voting for the bill. However, he has teased on such issues only to draw back to the Right.

A vote with President Obama might help erase a mark he hates on his record.

In his first campaign for state representative, Voinovich attacked his opponent, Democrat Gerald Fuerst, for voting in Columbus for a fair housing bill. The tainted charge helped him win his first office.

It isn’t often noted in Voinovich bios. Voinovich would rather that mark not be on his record. Unfortunately, you can’t change it.

He can make, shall we say, reparations by breaking with his resistant Republican colleagues who attempting to drag down President Obama for purely political and I believe racial reasons.

Who knows why Voinovich has sent out these messages of a possible vote for health care. Maybe his children influence him. Maybe he’s thinking about his legacy. About his obituary.

Voinovich has had a long, remarkably successful political career with few loses. He’s been state representative, Cleveland mayor, Cuyahoga County Commissioner, Ohio Governor and Ohio Senator.

I once gave a talk and glibly noted that Voinovich, then Mayor, had reached his peak. I didn’t believe ordinary people would see him as gubernatorial material. Obviously, I was very wrong.

During his years as Mayor, many believed that George Forbes ran things at City Hall. Forbes certainly gave Voinovich a hard time, as he did all mayors. Voinovich often had to kowtow to Forbes but Forbes lost some of those battles, too.

What angered Voinovich was talk that Forbes ran things. There was a time he got so angry over this slight that he banged his fist and insisted that “I am a leader.”

George, be a leader now, for the nation. Don’t vote the Republican racist line.

More of Your Money Flows To Rich Guy & Mom

The Plain Dealer this morning (09.16) headlined a major public give-away as a “$54M injection” for the Wolstein Flats project. Private development, SUPPOSEDLY.

You call that an injection? I call it a transfusion.

Below I repeat something I wrote when the project was first announced back in 2006. At that time the public money was obscene. Now Mayor Frank Jackson, Gov. Ted Strickland and the feds are simply adding to the loot Wolstein gets. See below for the sad story of a city willing to give, give and give to the guys that take, take and take.

“The city previously allocated nearly $25 million in loans and grants for the Flats,” says the PD. No explanation, as usual. No details, as usual.

“It’s one of the most complicated economic development projects I’ve ever seen,” Warren told the Plain Dealer. Warren, acting more like a used car salesman than an economic development expert also noted that the project “has challenges, but it’s a very strong package.”

What’s so complicated? The city, state and federal money fed money to a developer and he puts up a development that looks like a loser at best.

Here all this public dough is going to Scott Wolstein and his mom, Iris, and what are we getting? Empty office space in the center of downtown. That’s what we get.

In the first phase Ernst & Young’s downtown office will move from one downtown spot to another. Other firms are moving from the Huntington building to the new subsidized project, soaked in public dollars. The loss of tenants damages a historic building at E. 9th and Euclid, already becoming a ghost spot.

Will some Council member at least get into the legislation that for all these public dollars Wolstein will never go to the County Board of Revision for a reduction in the value of his projects? Don’t hold your breath.

This kind of give-away can be announced with no critical analysis by the Pee Dee or anybody else. The mayoral race is over so here’s your payback Cleveland - you get nothing from Frank Jackson.

Wolstein? Wolstein gets whatever he wants.

Read the deal as it stood in 2006. It only got better yesterday.

This was written back in May 2006 when the city opened your pocketbook to the Wolstein group. And here is how it was then before the newest flow of public money for private interests.

What does the money deal look like? As you might expect in desperate Subsidy City, really horrible. An open checkbook to a wealthy developer.

Here’s the line-up of public loot (your money):

- BDOHS (port authority) will provide $11-million in loans.

- City of Cleveland will provide $6-million in Core City loans.

- Cleveland Public Power will provide $3.4 million in services.

- Cleveland Water Division will provide $740,000 in infrastructure costs.

- Cleveland will provide another $1-million from its general obligation bonds.

- The County, City and Cleveland schools will forgo $11,140,000 in property taxes under a TIF (tax abatement) program to help the project.

- Cuyahoga County will provide $1-million in subsidies.

- The State of Ohio will provide a grant of $3-million for “environmental remediation,” matched by a loan from Cuyahoga County of $1-million, both committed from the 2005 Clean Ohio program.

- Tax exempt Parking Revenue Bonds estimated at $8,540,000 will be repaid from Public parking facility revenues.

- Tax-exempt infrastructure bonds estimated to be $9 million are secured by annual payments by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

- The sum of approximately $4,550,000 will be made available through the Federal Highway Administration.

- The federal government has appropriated and the city shall obtain and make available when required for eligible project costs a grant of $1,464,735 from the U. S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration (NOAA grant).

- All rental and condominium units (some 300 units) will be tax abated at 100 percent for 15 years. No cost estimate given by the city, port authority or county.

- The city agrees to enact legislation as necessary to amend and extend the CRA residential tax abatement program to assure that all residential improvements are eligible for the full 15-year, 100 percent abatement of real estate taxes. No cost given.

- The Regional Transit Authority (RTA) will construct a transit station on the RTA Waterfront Rail Line for the project “…all at no cost or expense” to the developer. No total or estimated cost mentioned.

- The city “shall take all necessary action to vacate all existing streets within the project site to the extent no longer require as public improvements for the project, and any easements which impair or adversely affect the development, construction or occupancy of the project, or which lie within the project site and are no longer required for use as public improvements for the Project.” No cost estimate given.

- The city of Cleveland “shall convey to the developer all the land owned by it (the city) within the residential site not necessary for public improvements by official quit-claim deed…” No cost estimate given.

- Under a section called “public improvements”, it states: “Public improvements necessary to support the Residential project will include but may not be limited to the following….

- Abatement, demolition and environmental remediation (including all necessary earthwork and soil clean-up) of the Project properties as they exist as of the execution date of this Agreement so as to allow for construction of the Residential Project.

- On-site paving and landscaping for all areas from the building lines of the Residential Project to the street curb as well as the public spaces of the Riverfront Park described below.

- A Riverfront Park extending from the southern boundary of the Project along the Cuyahoga River’s edge north to the Norfolk & Southern rail line with an eastern edge defined by a realigned Old River Road and a new street network described below. The Park may include but not be limited to the following elements: a riverfront boardwalk, gather places; pavilions; project signage, retail kiosks; and a marina for transient boater use. The Riverfront Park shall be planned in such a manner so as to receive the proposed extension of the Towpath Trail…

- Utility improvements, replacements and/or upgrades sufficient to provide necessary storm and sanitary sewer, water, electrical, gas and thermal heating and cooling services for the Residential Project and the permanent improvements in the public right of way (e. g. street lighting) and property (e.g. Riverfront Park fixtures and appurtenances) for ongoing and seasonal needs.

- Street improvements, realignments and additions to serve the Residential Project and its associated parking facilities, including all necessary traffic control equipment and signage…

- Bulkhead repair, replacement and improvements sufficient to maintain the long-term integrity of the eastern edge of the Project site bordered by the Cuyahoga River.

- The Public Parking Facilities and Private Parking Facilities estimated to consist of a minimum of 1,600 spaces in total and sufficient to serve the retail and residential uses of the Project by way of four structured facilities and no fewer than two surface lots, including all necessary equipment, landscaping and appurtenances.

- An allocable share of land acquisition costs associated with the square footage occupied by the Public Improvement as a percentage of the entire Project square footage (Residential Project plus Public Improvements.)

- Any and all soft costs which may be attributable to construction of the Public improvements including but not limited to architectural and engineering services, lighting, traffic and parking consultants, permits/fees, testing and inspection, temporary utilities, financing fees and costs and capitalized interest on bonds or loans.

- And the city will wipe the ass of the developer whenever necessary.

Oh, that last one. That was just in my notes not the 57-page agreement.

Do you see why I get upset at the Pee Dee and other news outlets and their tolerance of legalized civic corruption?

The Pee Dee last Friday praised the politicians under, “Progress (there’s that word) on the East Bank, an editorial that concluded by labeling the proposed project “an important cornerstone” and a testimony “that big thinking can pay off in Cleveland.” Can these people read?

He was a 2004 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame recipient and won the national Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 1991.

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