Can't You Peasants Ever Be Satisfied?
Partnerships go just so far. Cuyahoga County Commissioners – the see no evil, say no evil hear no evil trio – have been asked to insure that those they do business with pay a living wage to their workers.
What a coalition of groups is asking is a measly $11.86 an hour, or $474.40 a week, less than $25,000 a year. That’s before city income taxes (likely two, where one works, where one beds), state income taxes, federal income taxes, sales taxes, 7.75 percent at minimum in Cuyahoga County, cigarette taxes, gasoline taxes, sin taxes of various assortments and fees, tickets, licenses and other incidentals as property taxes.
The County Commissioners – seeing, saying and hearing not much either – are taking their sweet time about making a decision.
One guesses that they have to consider all sides when they make such heavy decisions.
As the Pee Dee, noted, the Greater Cleveland Partnership (who the hell are they partners with?) says, NO to this wage issue.
It’s a “disincentive to make an investment here,” according to its spokesperson. In other words, it hurts GCP’s only “partners,” big and small business.
It’s not hard to understand why Joe Roman, GCP’s boss, doesn’t like the idea of living wages for common folk, because he must have such a hard time living on his paltry $338,390 annual income (including pension benefit).
Roman’s total take works out to $162.68 an hour for a 40-hour week, a bit more than the $11.86 for a living wage.
Joe, I don’t blame you for being stingy on this issue. After all, it could seriously damage your next pay raise.
We wonder what’s wrong with Cleveland and America.
People like Joe Roman and his employers. Greed is their national anthem.
There are Some Things Not to be Avoided
Phillip Morris, Plain Dealer Metro columnist, is a clever fellow. In addition, I have to say a good writer.
Yet his PD columns often make me very uneasy.
He should be more than a spokesperson for the Uptown view of our world or an apologist of the status quo.
Morris take seems always to have oblique criticism of ordinary people, often blacks.
The column that really brought that home was his take on the Jena 6. In the column, he refers to a “soul brother” who urges him to wear black to symbolize allegiance with the protesters of the Jena 6 actions. It reads almost as a set-up for what he wants to avoid.
The issue involves a brutal beating by six blacks of a white and the judicial treatment they received in rural Jena, Louisiana. The attack became more than a common criminal assault because it followed another occurrence in the town. In that incident, two nooses were hung from a tree that supposedly had been a site reserved for whites only.
Morris rejects the request to join the protest by countering about the tragedy of the shooting death of a young girl in Cleveland.
It’s a different issue, says the man to Morris.
“‘Is it?’ I asked, ‘What about all the little old ladies who are afraid to walk to the ends of their streets to convenience stores out of fear of getting mugged or worse? Shouldn’t we be wearing black or marching for them?’” writes Morris.
First, we can regret and object to both. However, Morris’s ploy seems sharply discordant with what the Jena situation portends. Asteve “Cookie” Thomas was the young girl killed by a random bullet in a shootout.
This is obviously tragic.
Yet the messages of the nooses in Jena are so historically meaningful and shocking they should not be deflected by countering with other wrongs in our society.
“This is an American outrage that demonstrates the continuing shame of racial division in our country,” said
Julian Bond.
John Mellencamp sang, “Jena, take your nooses down.”
Moreover, some 50,000 people - a reflection of the serious reaction by many – demonstrated in Jena to protest the historic racial prejudice and explicit threat delivered by the nooses.
These were sentiments I’d expect to be reflected by a Cleveland columnist. Instead, we get from Morris an attempt to deflect the real meaning of the nooses.
Would a Cleveland columnist deflect a blatant display of swastikas as a signal of hatred by bringing up a street killing here? I do not think so. The two don’t balance.
How Much Trickle Down Do We Get?
The propaganda machine works overtime when Cleveland enjoys a sports playoff game or some other event. The Pee Dee tells us how much revenue is pouring into the city. It’s almost as if your pockets fill up automatically at this happy time. No mention is made about how much the team owners are making, however.
Never, never, of course, are you told of any costs.
How many police, for example, were provided to Cavs, Indian or Browns games, particularly during the playoffs? Mayor Michael White for Gateway’s benefit signed an agreement that if baseball games had 35,000 or more fans, a certain number of police would be provided. As I remember, it was 45 police officers.
Some costs can be certified. Since no one else will bother to remember, I’ll provide some of the costly burden, not accounted for by the promotional coverage by the Pee Dee.
The sales taxes on cigarettes, beer, wine and alcohol cost Cuyahoga County taxpayers $240,557,722.53. Since September 2005, another $29,958,760.56 has been collected for the Browns stadium from the same sales tax. (By the way, the Arts & Culture tax, solely from cigarette purchase in Cuyahoga County, has accumulated $12,070,348.35).
The total, though by no means the entire public funding for these venues, is $282.5-million.
But don’t mention it to the propagandists at the morning newspaper.
Let’s get Terry Pluto on this right away!
I thought I would share this information with readers as resource material for whatever purposes. Most of the figures come from official Board of Election results, however, the more recent election, probably starting with Michael White, come from the Plain Dealer published results, which might not be the final final.
The information follows:
The mayors I have known started with Ralph Locher.
Locher was named acting mayor in 1962 after President Kennedy choose Mayor Anthony Celebrezze as education secretary. By the way, Celebrezze easily won five times in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, and l961. In two of those elections, he was unopposed. The city’s population during Celebrezze’s term was 808,000. The number of voters ranged from 234,730 when he first ran to a low of 145,672 in 1957 when Celebrezze had no opposition. He also ran in 1955 alone.
Locher ran unopposed in 1963.
By 1965, with Cleveland’s population at 876,000, Locher won easily with 87,000 votes to his Republican opponent Ralph McCallister with 22,000 votes.
By 1967, the urban crisis had slammed Cleveland and Cleveland elected Carl Stokes in a close election with Stokes winning 129,396 votes and Seth Taft, a Republican, winning 127,717. A rather amazing 79 percent of the 257,113 eligible voters actually voted.
In 1969, Stokes again edged out his opponent, Ralph Perk, with 120,464 votes to Perk’s 117,013, with again a high voter turnout of 75 percent.
In 1971, Stokes decided not to run and the race became a three-person contest with Ralph Perk earning 88,664 votes, Arnold Pinkney, who had been Stokes’ choice and former chief of staff, 74,085, with James Carney getting 65,725 votes. Again, there was a high voter turnout, 72 percent.
In 1973, Perk won again with 90,839 votes to Mercedes Cotner, clerk of council, a fill-in candidate with 57,488. Voter participation dropped to a measly 38 percent.
In 1975, Perk once again won defeating Pinkney with 98,341 votes to 83,155. Voter participation went up to 70 percent.
In 1977, Kucinich - who had backed Perk against Pinkney in the previous election - ran himself and Perk was defeated in the primary, leaving Kucinich to oppose Edward Feighan, a state representative with a popular political name. Kucinich got 93,047 to Feighan’s 90,074. Sixty-four percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Kucinich lost in 1979 to George Voinovich. Voinovich got 94,047 votes to Kucinich 73,755 with a 56 percent voting turnout.
Voinovich defeated Pat Sweeney in 1981. Voinovich got 107,472 votes to Sweeney’s 32,940 with 46 percent voting. By the way, the population at that time was said to be 573,811.
In 1985, Voinovich defeated Kucinich again. Only this time it was younger brother Gary Kucinich 82,840 to 32,185 with only 37 percent of voters participating.
In 1989, Michael White defeated Council President George Forbes 86,112 to 68,429 in the first mayoral race with both top candidates being African-American. Fifty-three percent of voters participated.
White won in 1993 with 76,633 to 14,131 against a candidate whose name has been lost to me. Thirty-three percent voted with voter registration down to 90,764. When Stokes won in 1967, there were 325,803 eligible voters, revealing figures that reflect the decline of Cleveland’s population and citizenship.
In 1997, White defeated Helen Smith with 67,607 votes to Smith’s 43,393.
White retired as the longest running mayor because he had been elected for four-year terms.
In 2001, Jane Campbell became the first woman mayor of Cleveland, winning 49,062 to some 45,000 by Raymond Pierce, a rather unknown.
In 2005, Frank Jackson, former Council President defeated Jane Campbell with 53,201 votes to 43,930 votes.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole roldoATroadrunner.com
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