Run, Rokakis, Run
By Roldo Bartimole

I think Jim Rokakis SHOULD run for Mayor of Cleveland.

He believes he can’t win. So why run, he reasons? That’s not a good enough excuse for not running.

Winning isn’t necessarily the essence of running; the process of running for the office could, in and of itself, be its real meaning.

Rokakis, who I’ll admit has become a personal friend, offers intelligence and ability that has been lacking at City Hall for the past four years and a human quality that has been missing for a generation or more at 60l Lakeside.

Clevelanders at least deserve to hear what Rokakis believes should be done to improve the city.

Rokakis – known as Jim or Jimmy by friends – will be cheating himself by forgoing the challenge. A mayoral race will test him and, I believe, open other political possibilities for him that would remain closed without this challenge.

He’s a product of Cleveland who has succeeded wherever he has gone. He was a good ward Councilman and now he is an excellent County Treasurer. He hasn’t simply sat back, collected taxes, and run a patronage office, as is typical in county government.

Instead, Rokakis has looked around and found ways to improve the office, come up with solutions – what an important word in today’s world – to problems. He’s inaugurated new policies. The County has enjoyed better investment of its money. He started a housing loan plan to help more than 30 inner suburbs with more than $30 million for reinvestment at 3 percent below going interest rates. He is now pursuing tax revenue from the non-profit, but profitable Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals to help Cleveland and its schools with new revenue by dealing with them to make payments in lieu of taxes on their County properties. That could produce tens of millions in new revenues with the Cleveland schools as chief beneficiary.

What might he do as Mayor? I don’t know and I don’t think he knows exactly. However, he’s an innovator and he’s not afraid to hire intelligent people instead of political hacks who are loyal but possess few other qualities.

What he does as a candidate would enrich the next mayoral election. I would count on a different discussion than we usually experience. I believe he can educate the public, even if losing. Cleveland needs that challenge right now. He will force candidates running against him to work and think harder to keep up.

I certainly won’t agree with everything Rokakis proposes. He’d likely be more interested in economic development by the city than I would. I believe the city doesn’t have the capacity or expertise to be heavily involved in business development. I particularly oppose indiscriminate subsidies to private interests through tax abatements and other forms of gratuities. My belief is that government should concentrate on traditional government functions, from keeping a city clean to making it safe, providing parks, recreation and good schools. By diverting attention from conventional, but crucial, governmental activity, the city diverts itself from the street-scale services needed to make the city livable.

While I see Rokakis as more aware of what needs to be done, he has acted as callously as other politicians have. The best illustration was a Council hearing on Gateway’s desire for tax exemption. I draw from an article I wrote for the Cleveland Edition headlined, “A Disgraceful Six-Hour Meeting,” to reveal Rokakis at his worst. The meeting involved whether Gateway would receive Council’s blessing for tax abatement.

Rokakis, point man for Council President Jay Westbrook at the time, allowed Gateway representatives to drone their position for hours while the few public protesters were made to wait. All the “experts” were allowed as much time as they wanted.

At about 8PM, Rokakis finally called upon those who opposed an abatement of taxes to speak. The media and most Council members had left. As I wrote: “Members of the public were hurried, talked to condescendingly and patronizingly by Westbrook. Rokakis and Westbrook couldn’t resist showing their distaste for one young West Side man (they) both knew personally. He had taken the afternoon off work to attend, only to be treated shabbily and condescendingly by the two Council leaders. (Fannie) Lewis cautioned against such treatment, which she called ‘sneering.’ Lewis rebuked the pair later saying of the support for Gateway’s desire (although it had promised Council earlier it would not seek abatement): “Stevie Wonder can see what’s going on here.”

Rokakis came into office in 1977 at 21 years of age. He was the youngest Councilman ever, winning his seat when he was still an Oberlin student. He had started to run against a popular Councilman. On the filing day two things happened Rokakis said, “Elvis Presley died and Ted Sliwa decided not to run.”

For Rokakis, Cleveland has a strong pull. He didn’t want to move to Rocky River, as he did to get his children in better schools. Now he’s moving back to Cleveland as his children have grown.

Rokakis served - as did many Council members of that time - under the yoke of George Forbes’ tightfisted hold on the Council body. That dictatorial leadership stunted a whole generation of public officials, a legacy the city still suffers. Even so, Rokakis was a problem solver. His legislation created the Housing Court. He pushed a strong anti-smoking ordinance despite opposition from Forbes and Mayor George Voinovich.

Rokakis fought Forbes with humor. It’s a quality that comes easily, sometimes too easily, for him. His quick mouth often requires him to backtrack.

In a 1988 profile of him in the Edition, he told me “I love humor. If you aren’t willing to laugh at yourself… to reduce that which associates with the absurd in this job, you get sick… I see the pressure in Council. It makes people sick. I’ve always had the ability to laugh at myself on the job, and more and more, I’ve been writing humorous letters to unfair critics.” Humor is “therapy,” for him, said a brother.

He used humor to keep Forbes off balance. When George’s brother Zeke was defeated for Clerk of Courts it reflected on George's power. In a public reaction, Rokakis quipped to the Plain Dealer, “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” of Forbes loss.

Forbes later called him into his office and told him that his quip had hurt. “Oh, George you know me. I couldn’t help myself. I just couldn’t resist,” Rokakis responded.

Forbes, Rokakis laughed, thanked me for this “apology.”

Another time Rokakis got caught spreading rumors that Forbes was getting $1 million to help the former Cleveland Electric Illuminating company take over the city’s municipal light system. Forbes called him in to admonish him for spreading false information.

Rokakis contritely apologized, and then, with typical sharp tongue, Rokakis asked Forbes, “What did you get?” Telling the story, Rokakis admits he was wrong, allows a few seconds to pass and asks me, “Probably too low, huh?”

Rokakis wants to run. The polls tell him he can’t win. He wants to run in part because he sees being mayor as proof of his intelligence and ability in contrast to others who have achieved the office. I recently asked him about his personal desire to be mayor and tried to describe the nature of the desire in a word. He offered the proper word, “validation.”

Rokakis, I think, believes he would be the right person to lead Cleveland now but he fears that the journey will be trying and the result not triumphant.

Run, Jimmy, run. What else do you have to do as you reach your 50th year? You’ll be better and we’ll be better for the effort.
from Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole Roldo@Adelphia.net

 (:divend:)