Fake Authority, Fake Meetings, Faked Out Public
By Roldo Bartimole
I’ve been attending meetings of the Convention Facilities Authority; it’s an easy way to waste your time.
That’s because the Authority, under Bill Reidy, does nothing of any significance at its Show Meetings. The 11-member board is going through the motions. Everyone knows their aim is to tell the community: We Need a New Convention Center!
The meetings run pretty much as the Gateway gatherings, also chaired by Mr. Reidy. The CFA meets merely as a pretense of doing the public’s business in public. In other words, it is a FAKE.
The CFA, the politicians, and corporate leaders behind it have to pretend they have an open and above-board process. They do it because the CFA at some point has to ask the public to pick up the tab – in the hundreds of millions plus annual operating losses.
Make-believe is absolutely necessary.
Therefore, I go to the meetings to document the charade.
CFA does have a public speaking period at each meeting. At the March meeting, there was some static from several speakers.
Warning shots were fired. Nothing CFA can’t handle.
Don Scott, formerly of Vel’s Party Center, made strong statements about Forest City Enterprises, owner of one of the possible two locations for the new center (the other is the city’s mall site). Scott charged Forest City with racial biases, though he provided no specifics. He called it a “prejudiced company.” Dennis Lafferty, Executive Assistant to the managing partner of the Jones Day law firm and a Mayor and Managers appointment to the CFA, challenged the accusation. Lafferty labeled the charges “unsubstantiated” slurs on a good corporate citizen. Lafferty said that he didn’t think Jones-Day was representing Forest City presently.
Scott warned the CFA on minority issues. He spoke for jobs for African-Americans, no longer a minority of the city’s population. “Good points,” faked the amiable Reidy, as he moved on.
At a prior meeting, Ken Silliman, an appointee of Mayor Jane Campbell and a former official in the Michael White administration, got huffy with Scott. He characterized Scott’s warning about the lack of jobs as dismissal by Scott of hotel jobs that often go to minority workers. Such condescension was insulting. Blacks make up an important constituency in any County vote for a new center.
Jim Barrett, Safety Director under Carl Stokes, repeated the warning about a lack of jobs and contracts for minorities. Barrett issued a warning based on a lesson he said Stokes taught him. Its essence was if blacks could not enjoy the benefits, “kick the table over and nobody gets anything.”
Although Forest City was given as much time as it wanted to present its proposal, a couple of citizens wanted to present a small alternative model for a convention center at the meeting.
Reidy rebuffed the presentation saying, “We don’t provide for presentations,” only comments from the public. Fake it here, fake it there.
Backroom decision-making are the earmark of such anointed community bodies. Yet, the pretense of openness has to be maintained. The CFA also hired two public relations firms this month; expect more bull in the news.
Reidy said that Cleveland would be the big winner with a new convention center. He added that “suburbanites and visitors” would pay for it. I’m sure they will be happy to hear that.
After the meeting, Reidy ruled out sales or property taxes to pay for a new facility. A restaurant food and drink tax was under consideration, along with an increase in the bed tax, he said.
Reidy said customers at Cleveland restaurants - in an undefined area served by the convention business - might charge a higher tax than other County restaurants. (That’s likely to rile downtown Cleveland restaurants, already troubled.) He said the tax would be one to two percent on restaurant bills. That would be atop, of course, the present 8 percent sales tax and “sin” taxes on liquor.
It’s also clear CFA will follow the Gateway governing model for the new convention center. This relieves Cleveland of the operating burden of red ink at the present center and shifts a larger deficit to County residents. (It’s fair to credit Reidy with providing Gateway with a base funding. He got both teams to pay Gateway’s ordinary operating costs, saving it – and them – from the embarrassment of bankruptcy.)
Another unresolved problem would be what to do with the present convention center employees. Likely, present city employees and contracts will burden the CFA.
Whacking Mayor Campbell Becomes Media Sport
Could Mayor Jane Campbell’s state of the city speech have been that bad?
The Plain Dealer spanked her for not being visionary enough. You mean they hadn’t noticed in the last three years.
The Free Times was more mean-spirited, calling her “Ill-prepared, nervous, struggling with the text, gasping for breath…” No one called 911.
Pete Kotz spoofed the speech in Scene in a full-page assault. Parody she doesn’t need; reality suffices.
I didn’t think Campbell did that badly.
She seemed a bit more relaxed and somewhat more confident. She’s not an inspiring speaker, though I thought she did okay with what she has to offer for achievements.
It’s a small bag of accomplishments, but the times have been tough.
I talked to one old-time politician who went through the late 1970s at City Hall and compared Campbell’s time to Dennis Kucinich’s appalling two-year trip. A bad economy limits a mayor’s choices. (Campbell, as this is written, has a new plan, but it actually gives tax revenue away. The plan gives half of income tax revenue back to businesses that locate downtown. After immense public subsidies - past, present and planned for downtown - the city should expect some payoff to it, not another drain.)
Actually, it’s worse now, he thought. Kucinich had more alternatives than Campbell now has. He did raise the city income tax a half-percent. You couldn’t do that now, he said, and other conditions are more desperate for the city than in the late 1970s. Sources of revenue are fewer, possibilities for improvement scarcer.
State of the City speeches tend to be laundry lists. Her talk fit the tradition.
She couldn’t boast, as Mayor White did, about building stadiums and arenas. Once built – and taken credit for – you can’t do that again for decades.
I also thought Council President Frank Jackson made a mistake in appearing after the speech with little to say about it. It reminded me, as I have mentioned before, that he should have delayed announcing his candidacy for mayor. Now his every move will be viewed for political implications.
The news media expect Jackson to respond to Campbell’s positions. By playing his close-to-the-vest game, Jackson came across as uninspiring.
Jackson needs to be more receptive to the public, too. Someone mentioned that at a recent community meeting Jackson failed to engage people in the usual hand shaking and backslapping. It reminds me of his habit, before he became Council president, of standing aloof during Council committee hearings. He would sit apart of the proceedings, rather than at the table with colleagues.
The editorial reaction of The Plain Dealer tells me Campbell won’t be their candidate. The PD’s approach looks to shoot holes in her candidacy.
It also appears the public isn’t receptive to another Campbell run.
The fretting Corporate elite are hand wringing about what to do. The corporate elites don’t have a candidate. There’s plenty of reason for upset among the ruling leadership.
Can business leaders come up with a reliable alternative to an unsuccessful mayor and a relatively unknown quantity as a rival?
They’re trying.
Rumors of candidate’s names floating around reveal how agonizing the situation is for the power people. One name tossed about is Fred Nance, managing partner of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. Nance is African-American in a city with a majority black population. Nance handled touchy legal and other chores for Mayor White, particularly the Cleveland Browns deal – from the loss and retrieval of the team to the construction of the $350 million Browns Stadium.
He would be an ideal candidate. He doesn’t live in Cleveland, though that’s not been an unsolvable problem. But why would he want to leave a prestigious position for an income - probably at least 10 times less - to become Mayor of Cleveland.
George Voinovich’s name has surfaced, too.
Oh, not THAT George. Though the powers would love to have him. No, it’s George Voinovich, the son who practices law in Akron.
James Draper has been diddling around about running. The Cleveland Police union would like him to run. The former Campbell Safety Director revealed a testy disposition in his appearances before Council. Moreover, he seemed to consider work somewhat an imposition. Neither trait a good sign for the top job.
Robert Triozzi wants to test mayoral waters now. He’s a twice-elected city judge and he has Tom Andrzejewski, who ran another underdog’s mayoral victory march, helping him. Triozzi was district director for Eric Fingerhut when he was the 19th district Congressman.
Most attractive, Triozzi ruled against the Discover Card in favor of a cardholder caught in the credit trap. The woman owed $1,900 and tried to pay off the bill over time. However, with charges, fees, and interest by the credit card company, her $3,492 bill increased to $5,564.
The Washington Post quoted him last Sunday saying, “How is it that the person who wants to do right ends up worse off.” It was an article on the bankruptcy law before Congress. The bill helps the billionaire Lerner family, owners of the Cleveland Browns, along with other wealthy people. Both our Senators – Voinovich and Mike DeWine – are voting for it.
That would be the kind of thinking that could make the Cleveland mayoral race more interesting than we think.
Maybe the carping attitude of the news media, however, anticipates a dull city election this October (primary) and November (general election).
PD Knee-Jerk Attitude on Wal-Mart Predictable
The Plain Dealer took Councilman Joe Cimperman to the woodshed for legislation that may have put the skids to Wal-Mart’s opening a superstore in the Steelyard Commons in the Flats.
Didn’t see much written about Wal-Mart's reputation. The big box firm invites opposition by rabid anti-unionism, low paying benefits and jobs, and sometimes-illegal actions against workers.
Maybe the PD would be less objectionable if it also took Wal-Mart to task for its corporate behavior.
You can always tell the PD bias when it uses words like “plague,” “knee-capping,” and “hullabaloo.” Such descriptive words are always reserved for those who want to limit the powerful.
When the newspaper takes on Wal-Mart, then it can criticize Cimperman. Until then, the paper simply expends knee-jerk editorializing.
The Steelyard plans were being rushed, a situation the PD would be grousing about if it were something it didn’t inherently favor. There were promises of 1,800 jobs. Now, where have I heard that before?
Both sides would do well to think more about the decision, which seemed what Council was trying to do with a compromise solution. It looks as if Wal-Mart would not be deterred from its take-no-prisoners style.
from Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole Roldo@Adelphia.net
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