Should Hagan Have Recused Himself from Vote?

FIRST A NOTE: Give Democracy in Cuyahoga County a boost. Go to http://www.putitontheballot.com to volunteer to help put the sales tax increase on the ballot. August is a bad month for such an effort and it needs all the help it can get.

Should County Commissioner Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

I think if he were honest, he would have.

Tim Hagan, it is well known, is a friend of the Kennedy family.

He basks in the Kennedy connection. In his home, there are photographs of him with the Kennedys along with numerous photos of his family, according to an article by Tom Diemer of the Plain Dealer.

Hagan’s sales tax hike will help directly the business of Christopher Kennedy, president of Merchandize Mart Properties and an officer of its controlling corporation, Vornado Realty Trust, a publicly traded real estate investment trust. He is the son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy.

The medical mart is the lure to catch a convention center and key to the spending of hundreds of millions of public dollars for what will be a great tax drain.

Christopher, it is said, is the Kennedy who is most like granddaddy Joe.

Jake Tapper in 1999 wrote in Salon: “The clear heir to the Joseph P. Kennedy type-A businessman’s trophy, Christopher, last year sold the world’s largest wholesale design center, the Merchandize Mart, which Joseph P. Kennedy bought for $12.5 million in 1945 sold for $625 million. ”

Christopher seems well heeled, doesn’t he? Guess he can afford the sale taxes.

Should Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

Hagan seems to gravitate to such wealth. He rose in Cuyahoga County primarily because of his association with the powerful Carney family, having married the daughter of John Carney, brother of Jim Carney.

He became a co-dependent of the Kennedys after he helped Ted Kennedy screw up the re-election for Jimmy Carter against Ronald Reagan.

Hagan quickly blessed the hurried primary attempt by fellow Democrat Kennedy to push President Carter aside. Hagan, as Democratic Party chairman of Cuyahoga County, did this by providing Kennedy with an early endorsement of this important county in Democratic primary races. It was symbolic of the same first-in-the-nation endorsement of John Kennedy by the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party that some credit with propelling JFK to the Democratic primary victory and the Presidency in 1960.

Hagan was making the same bold move despite the fact that this time the President was already a Democrat. It helped elect Ronald Reagan.

However, this move didn’t work, except for Hagan. He became a darling of the Kennedy clan.

Hagan is close enough to the family to be the godfather of Caroline Kennedy Townsend’s daughter, Kate.

Should Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

Yes, he should have. It makes it a bit unseemly for Hagan to push through -- without a vote - a $40 million tax for 20 years, or $800 million tax on us for a family friend.

Hagan, however, has become accustomed to the casual use of public money for private gain. He did the exact same thing with Gateway. Rushed ahead with a project before he knew what WE were paying for it. Thus, the Gund brothers and Dick Jacobs took US for a very expensive ride, thanks to Tim. He had no other choice but to meet their needs after passage of the sin tax, as the County will have no choices with the medical mart and convention center after already assessing the tax. We will have to add new taxes to pay the bills.

It’s a game Hagan has played before.

Should Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

That would have been the honorable thing to do. However, that quality long ago left Tim Hagan.

Hagan’s return to politics was unexpected. He retired as County Commissioner in 1998.

“I’m in the twilight of a mediocre career,” he told the PD self-deprecatingly but truthfully, “But I’m looking forward to going to the grocery store without someone asking me for a job.”

Poor harassed Tim.

He moved, as the PD noticed, as far from the city of Cleveland one could and still be in Cuyahoga County to a “$200,000, 2,400-square foot house he designed in Olmsted Township.” It had 18 acres but he sold 12 behind the house.

Hagan bragged that a new job – that would take only three or four days a month in work – would pay more than the $65,000 he earned as Commissioner, according to the PD story.

He was an advisor to the very wealthy Mandel brothers and their Mandel Foundations. He also lined up, as only these compliant politicians can, other work, as a consultant to MetroHealth Medical Center and work as a creator of a “civic forum” at Cleveland State University on urban sprawl and race relations, again according to the PD.

“The job makes him eligible for a $40,000 annual state pension,” said the story. Hagan, according to his 2007 Ohio Ethics Committee report, collects that pension along with his double-dipping salary as Commissioner. However, the report notes he now holds none of the aforementioned jobs.

“I have relief in my heart,” Hagan is quoted saying of his “retirement” in conclusion to a PD Sunday Magazine piece.

However, though a long-time Democrat was running for re-election, the retired Hagan decided he had to have his job back. He ran against Tim McCormick and won.

[=McCormick=] had alienated some of Cleveland’s movers and shakers by tilting and balking against a convention center. His recalcitrance reflected his similarly correct position on Gateway. McCormick did not officially opposed either but he had not been politically supple enough to go along, as Hagan did.

Was this the reason Hagan ran against McCormick? Was he carrying water again for the Downtown Gang?

It certainly appears so.

He added, apparently, a friend to the party. A Kennedy.

Should Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

I think he did a double-dealing double deal against McCormick and for Kennedy and the Cleveland Downtown Gang.

Hagan engineered the sales tax increase passage at the end of July, giving minor opponents the difficult task of raising 45,000 valid signatures in the middle of a hot summer. It is political engineering by a contemptible public figure, who poses as a respectable liberal.

The question is: Can he get away with it with the voters of Cuyahoga County?

Dimors Gift From Low Bidder

Jimmy Dimora’s a taker.

He took gifts from 58 people, primarily people having interests in keeping in good with public officials. The information comes from his Ohio Ethics filing for 2007. It’s a rather long list.

Among the gift-givers was Robert DiGeronimo of Independence Excavating. Precision Environmental Co., which won a contract last week to demolish the Breuer Building with a bid $915,000 above the low bid, is part of the DiGeronimo/Independence Excavating Co. family.

“In 1988, the DiGeronimo family formed Precision Environmental under the leadership of Tony DiGeronimo, President…,” a company statement says.

The Commission’s vote was 2-1 with Dimora and Tim Hagan voting for the higher bidder, Precision.

Dimora also lists “meals, food or beverages” from 32 people benefactors.

He’s also a double dipper with a pension and his Commissioner’s salary. Isn’t everyone?

In both case, in my experience, the lists for Dimora are longer than typical. Maybe he’s more careful in compiling his lists than most political office holders are.

Among the gift-givers are Dick Jacobs (who also gave to Tim Hagan), Sam Miller, Dominic Ozanne (who also gave to Tim Hagan), Umberto Fedeli, Harlan Diamond, Norma Lerner and Ken Fisher. On the food and drink menu was John Ferchill, Fedeli, Jay Lucarelli, Ray Park, and even colleague Hagan.

Hagan listed only Jacobs and Ozanne as gift-givers. He did not eat or drink on anyone else’s tab, he reported.

Type or quality of gifts are not required to be listed.

A Gift of $75 or more, or gifts of a total of more than $75 from the same source, has to be listed. However, there is no indication of how much more than $75 a gift might be since the total cost of any gift doesn’t have to be listed.

Taxes, taxes, taxes – Cuyahoga residents pay up!

The latest figures show that Cuyahoga County residents have paid $27,876,623 in “sin” (sale) taxes as of the end of July for the Browns Stadium. The total that went for Gateway was $238,472,694.

Many don’t know this but the county sales tax is charged on the “sin” taxes, adding another $16 million to the $238 million.

It just never stops.

Therefore, for the sports stadiums the sin tax has taken $272-million out of the pockets of Cuyahoga County taxpayers since the early 1990s.

That $272-million therefore could not be spent for other things from private expenditures for food, clothing or health or for public needs from health care to infrastructure needs.

Thank you, Tim Hagan. Again.

In addition, another $100 million has been paid for Gateway alone by Cuyahoga County for bond issues passed when it became clear the “sin” tax wouldn’t be enough to cover stadium/arena cost. The bonds were pushed to passage by the same Mr. Hagan.

The cigarette tax for the arts has brought in $9,550,851, as of the month of July. This is another regressive tax by the County Commissioners.

Maybe regionalism should have started with these taxes and with six counties, which enjoy the benefits, paying instead of one. Some sharp County Commissioners would have thought of that. Too bad we didn’t have any.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole roldoATadelphia.net
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