By Roldo Bartimole

A brief conversation with a member of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Authority reveals how seriously the county-city commission sees its job to determine the need of a new convention center.

Dennis Lafferty, Executive Assistant to the managing partner of the Jones Day elite Cleveland law firm, made that clear.

I asked if he were going to follow through on inviting “experts” to speak to the authority to expand its knowledge, "Oh, yes," he said.

“Are you going to invite Haywood Sanders?” I asked. Lafferty smiled knowingly and said that he was not. Why not? I asked. I want only “positive” input, said Lafferty, because “I’m for this.” (Haywood Sanders, Trinity University professor, studies the convention center business. He calls Cleveland’s desire for a new center a futile effort. Maybe Doug Clifton will ask him to write an op-ed piece because the Cleveland PD editor is so intent about the public having adequate information.)

Why bother with the phony meetings and public dog and pony show when the decision has already been made. You, the public, via your County Commissioners, are paying some $400,000 for this fake performance.

The Authority’s real task appears to be a mission to give politicians and business leaders legitimacy to seek tax funding of another major project. At the latest monthly meeting, Forest City Enterprises, the Cleveland real estate firm, took up most of the meeting time to “sell” the Authority on its plan for a new convention center on land it controls - behind, adjacent and connected to its Tower City complex. The three committee heads spoke only very briefly about what the Authority has done since last month.

Chairman Bill Reidy spoke very briefly with little content. Only former State Senator Pat Sweeney of the eight-member board seemed interested to hear more information. He wanted to know if there were any possibilities for other sites for the center. “Are we locked into this?” he asked. Reidy brushed him off by noting tritely that the Authority “accepted the good work” done when the convention center was previously considered. That resulted in two alternatives: Tower City and the extension of the present center.

“Thanks for the question,” Reidy said. The tone, however, implied that we didn’t need Sweeney's input. Reidy prefers the minimum of discussion on public business.

However, the key message was a statement by William Voegele, who presented the plan for Forest City and its owners, the Ratner family and Sam Miller. It was couched to infer Forest City had no self-interests.

“We don’t want to own or manage the convention center,” said Voegele dramatically.

Well, isn’t that big of Forest City. Of course they don’t want to own it. It is going to cost $500 hundred million or more, not counting some 30 years of bond payments. Remember that the County Commissioners about two years ago voted to raise the sales tax to 8-1/4 percent for the convention center that did not materialize. That would have cost consumers a $40 million tax tab a year with inflation added on year by year.

Further, the new convention center will lose millions of dollars every year in operating costs, above a debt that could escalate the cost easily with more than $1 billion in interest.

So Forest City is being big hearted by telling us they don’t want to build it and they don’t want to operate it. No kidding. Forest City isn’t in the business of losing money. It is very politically connected, however, with generous political contributions from Miller and Al Ratner, both observers at the meeting.

If it is such a good site and such a good deal, let Forest City build it, run it and reap what profits it can. Forest City also wanted $50 million for the site for the new center when last discussed.

Forest City wants a new center built with public money over its land for which it will charge air rights, wants it built so that Forest City can add more retail at its Tower City site for profits, and wants it connected to its present facilities to bolster its investments. Well, who wouldn’t?

Voegele called the Forest City site the “most connected piece of real estate in Cleveland.” I wonder then why Forest City has sought and received significant property tax value reductions over the years because it claims economic decline.

Before entering any agreement with Forest City, Authority board members should examine the company’s dealings with the Regional Transit Authority (RTA). It will likely get some of the same treatment.

After RTA allowed Forest City to be construction manager on its renewal of its terminal beneath the Tower City, the real estate company sued RTA on the deal for $25 million, getting $10 million, plus payments of $2.4 million on a similar suit.

RTA also has to pay some $93,000 a month for common area maintenance to Forest City or more than $1 million each year. Apparently, to show that Forest City doesn’t miss a trick, it adds $75 a month for rubbish collection, another $14,000 to $20,000 for electricity and $15,000 to $18,000 for heat and air conditioning, according to RTA in 2000.

One hopes the Authority has more sense than exhibited by downtown Councilman Joe Cimperman, a big beneficiary of Ratner family political contributions. Cimperman took the stage to urge the body to select the Forest City site. Other politicians should observe that this proposal jettisons Forest City’s previous promise for some 2,000 new housing units on the Scranton Peninsula, across from this site.

Of course, Council President Frank Jackson’s demand for a hefty fund for neighborhood projects in Cleveland has been forgotten, just as have the real needs of Cleveland residents.

The pols and downtown business leaders say full steam ahead with welfare for them and higher taxes for you.

Shrinking “News” Paper

How many others have noticed the shrinking of The Plain Dealer’s Metro pages – where local news supposedly informs us?

What really caught my attention, was a recent paper when there were eighteen Sports section pages, and, I believe, eight pages of Metro news, which includes the editorial page and the op-ed page. (At a time when so many people can access the New York Times and other major newspapers, the PD takes up space on its op-ed pages to reproduce Times columnists every day after you can read it on line. More wasted space.)

The slim Metro pages aren’t the only space problem. Paid death notices – obviously a moneymaker for Alex Machaskee – took up almost two to two-and-a-half pages of the 8-page Metro section that day. Weather and ads typically take the back page of the Metro.

What this tells me is that the PD isn’t that interested in informing people about what’s going on in the city. When it moved its production facilities out of town, it must have moved its editorial judgment, too.

I’m looking at today’s PD as I write, and see two baseball stories on the bottom of Page 1 – one article about the Cleveland team buying back stock certificates that’s more confusing than informative, and another about Major League Baseball set to announce a steroid program.

And I am beginning to think editor Doug Clifton has lost all interest in putting out a worthy newspaper.
from Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole Roldo@Adelphia.net

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