Gateway Wants To Tap City, County for More Bucks
By Roldo Bartimole
Will it never end?
Gateway Economic Development Corp. Chairman Bill Reidy let it drop quietly, almost nonchalantly, during a non-eventful quarterly meeting a week ago.
Reidy said that “the city and county would have to step in” and put up money for Gateway’s capital fund when major repairs are necessary at Jacobs Field and Gund Arena.
What?
Haven’t taxpayers paid enough for Gateway? Now Reidy wants the taxpayers to dig into their pockets for possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital expenses that Gateway should have been putting aside itself.
Gateway, however, can’t put money aside because it has never charged the teams enough to maintain Jacobs Field and Gund Arena.
What’s so upsetting about this is that at that same meeting new representatives from the city – Chris Ronayne, Mayor Jane Campbell’s chief of staff – and Dennis Madden – Cuyahoga County administrator – said nothing about this raid on their respective treasuries.
There might be some excuse since they were attending their first meeting. Both replaced other City and County officials who recently replaced other City and County officials. No one sits in these seats long enough to become knowledgeable about Gateway’s chicanery.
What they may not know is that Gateway bonds paid for by the sin tax will be paid off this year. Nevertheless, the sin tax continues for another 10 years to help pay for city bonds let for the construction of Browns stadium. However, an excess from the sin tax collections was supposed to go to the County. If I remember correctly that sum was to be $68-million. That may be what Reidy has in mind to tap.
“This is our money,” said a County official. He went on to say, the County has paid an extra $100 million on other bonds and has to continue paying. Now, it should derive the benefit from the 10 extra years of the sin tax, he said.
The five-member Gateway board has a revolving membership that keeps the public representatives in the dark since they have little background on what the board has done or what its responsibilities should be.
Reidy’s slip-in of a new responsibility for the City and County means that the teams once again dodge fiscal responsibility.
At this point, the deals Gateway made with the teams are that they pay for improvements under $500,000. But any improvement above that amount is Gateway’s responsibility. Reidy is saying that it’s the public’s responsibility with his warning.
The fact that the stadium and arena are nearing the 15-year-old mark means that there are expectations of major needs in the future, possibly the near future.
So get ready as the shell game continues.
No Faking This Month
The Cuyahoga-Cleveland Convention Facilities Authority (CFA) DID NOT – I say DID NOT - hold a fake meeting this month.
That’s because the CFA cancelled its March meeting.
No meeting, no faking.
And Bill Reidy, chairman of the CFA also, didn’t have to fake being a responsible leader of a phony committee with a phony task.
The reason given for the delay was that Price Waterhouse Coopers?, former employer of Reidy, hadn’t completed its report on the need for a new convention center. (All the firm has to do is redo its last phony report on Cleveland’s need for a convention center. Is that so difficult?)
Members of the CFA are appointed by various political bodies as follows:
County Appointments: Peter Bastulli, principal in the consulting department of Cohen and Company; Reidy, retired partner of PriceWaterhouseCoopers; John Ryan, executive secretary, Cleveland AFL-CIO; Danny Williams, senior vp, Greater Cleveland Partnership.
City Appointments: Ken Silliman, lawyer, former Mayor White economic development official; India Pierce Lee, Senior Vice President, Neighborhood Progress, Inc.; David O’Neill, Jr., partner, Colliers International; Ernest Wilkerson, Jr., lawyer and favorite of Councilman Frank Jackson.
Mayors and Managers Appointments: Pat Sweeney, retired state senator and “consultant”; Dennis Lafferty, executive assistant to managing partner of Jones Day law firm; John George, associated with the lodging and tourism industry.
As you can see, the public isn’t represent among these political appointees who act for institutional interests that have nothing to do with the public interest.
Isn’t it always the way.
No Argument Here
There has been a journalism argument going around that newspapers don’t have as many women writing opinion columns.
That isn’t the case with the Plain Dealer. They have Elizabeth Sullivan, Chris Sheridan, Regina Brett and Connie Schultz. That’s a mean line-up of meaty writers – all women. No shortage of opinions. And now Schultz has won the prize that the Plain Dealer has long sought – a Pulitzer Prize. (Ah, Tom Vail where are you).
Schultz was named for her commentary columns.
And to think that Ch. 19 – that bastion of truth – had her fired from her column just a few weeks ago.
Quite a comeback and well-deserved. Hats off to her and the PD for breaking the Curse. Better than the Red Sox.
from Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole Roldo@Adelphia.net
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