PD Biased Choice of Sutherland Over Lawson Jones

Ask yourself, if Republican Debbie Sutherland were running against Tim Hagan would The Plain Dealer be endorsing her? I doubt it. Tim Hagan does the bidding of every Establishment desire. He's the leader of taxing Cuyahoga County residents for every millionaire's desire for government subsidy of their businesses.

And he's the darling of The Plain Dealer editorial bosses, particularly its director Brent Larkin. Larkin protects Hagan, a hypocritical and arrogant politician. But a politician that favors big business, as does the PD.

The PD endorsement of the current mayor of Bay Village over Peter Lawson Jones was weakly demonstrated, racially tinged (I say this because she choose to oppose Jones rather than Hagan) and a hint of what the PD will do in the Presidential election endorsement.

Why Peter Lawson Jones has taken to defending the deal for a new medical mart and convention center, thus putting himself in alignment with a sales tax he voted against I can't fathom. (Rea on about his sponsorship of a meeting selling a new convention center.) However, Jones can’t be blamed for the sins of other Democratic office-holders but that’s what the PD does with its endorsement of Sutherland. That's unfair.

They blame Jones for voting against the increased sales tax (a quarter percent) while ignoring that the taxpayers were bypassed and had no vote in the matter.

Sutherland seems to be on both sides of the issue, supporting the tax yet criticizing aspects of the project. If she would be a change as a Republican to the business-favored Commission, I'd like to know how. The PD doesn't say in its feeble endorsement.

The PD didn't have the foresight or courage to demand that the financing of the med mart and convention center be funded on a regional basis. Although the PD at every turn supports what it says is regionalism, it has stood by without a word to suggest that Gateway should have been funded regionally, that the Browns stadium should have been funded regionally and that the medical mart and convention center should have been funded regionally, if any of them publicly funded at all.

The PD always favors giving away tax funds as long as the money goes to those who already have too much.

They forgot about regionalism where regionalism would be most fair and most obvious. I guess they want regional cooperation on the easy stuff so they avoid the more difficult.

What the Sutherland endorsement also says to me is that the PD will endorse John McCain and Sarah Palin in the Presidential campaign over Barack Obama.

This too will be in direct opposition to the economic interests of this area and Ohio.

If the PD chooses the McCain ticket the newspaper is sending tens of millions of dollars in Federal monies to the West. McCain is from Arizona and Palin from Alaska. As we in the mid-west suffer the consequences of lost industry (much of it federally subsidized in some way), the West (and South) siphon off federal subsidies. Our industries suffer from lack of federal, especially military, contracts. The PD endorsement of McCain would be a stab in the back of this area.

The PD should not be allowed to thumb its nose at this area's interest and not suffer economic consequences itself.

The PD does not serve a Republican constituency. Most of its subscribers are Democrats and they have a right to demand it represent their interests in its editorial policies and choices.

While I cannot defend Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo their alleged crimes are minor league in comparison to the highway robbery of legal methods to favor our wealthy businesses and developers. The PD has essentially ignored the obvious over many years.

I think we should send the PD a message that their business is now in a precarious position and they cannot afford to thumb their nose at the majority of ordinary Clevelanders and get away with it.

It Was a Meaningless "Public Meeting"

You would have to describe last week's first public hearing on the medical mart & convention center issue in Cleveland Heights as at least amusing. It was hardly productive. In fact, it was a failure.

People were angered by the presentation.

The meeting, scheduled at 5PM, started nearly a half hour late and then after a nearly 10 minute introduction by sponsor Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones the podium was passed to Squire Sanders & Dempsey boss Fred Nance. He took another 40 minutes of time talking about the report. To no one's surprise a Forest City Enterprise plot on the Cuyahoga River was selected as the best place to build the convention center and Forest City's Higbee's building the best place for the medical mart.

The public, which came out on a day after the holiday to an early evening meeting, didn't fare so well.

You can smile: the public was told it had three minutes to speak, though some were allowed to go beyond the time limit.

There were references to the convention site as "on a cliff," which probably irritated the Forest City executive Alan Krulak, who monitored the meeting. The "cliff" mentions weren't meant to ascribe a proper and site for the convention center.

Another response that brought giggles from the small audience referenced Nance's law firm's expectation of being legal counsel for the $400 million plus bond issue that would finance the $1 billion project. Nance, who is guaranteed to be paid $175,000 by the County, could expect some fancy million dollar fees as bond counsel. No response from Nance. Nance seemed mildly amused by the whole thing.

It was refreshing to hear Jones describe the project as a Billion Dollar undertaking of "public investment"but I wondered to him why then wasn't it presented to the public for a vote. I also chastised government officials for not following their pious pronouncements about "Regionalism" by seeking regional financing. This $1 billion project (it will be more) will be, as Gateway was, financed solely by Cuyahoga County residents. Browns Stadium, the prize of Nance's doing, is paid for by Cleveland residents.

Make sure everyone knows that the tax is now ahead of projection of $40 million a year. It's for 20 years which means more than $800 million. Plus the County has pledged to pay MMPI, operator of both facilities, $103 million over 17 years.

As Nance prepared to give his remarks the audience found that the electronic Powerpoint aspect of the presentation wouldn't work. This gave for some more guffaws when one audience member wondered aloud how much confidence the public could have for a team that couldn't operate a DVD.

Nance said there would be a $26 million or so shortage in County funds, despite the quarter percent sales tax increase voted by Commissioners Tim Hagan and Jimmy Dimora. Audience members noted that both Hagan and Dimora were absent.

He said that could be made up by an extra bed tax or by taking some of the $8 million in bed taxes already going to Positively Cleveland, a name that always has to be explained as what was the Convention & Visitors Bureau.

I wondered why Positively Cleveland was being given $8 million a year yet Nance moaned that the present Cleveland Convention Center was operating at five to six percent capacity. Wasn't it Positively Cleveland's job to help fill the center with visitor? What's happening to our $8 million a year? I know that $303,000 of it a year goes to Dennis Roche, its boss. That's a lot of money for failure.

Where the five or six percent figure comes from also suggest more winging it. When I asked someone knowledgeable at the city about the percentages cited by Nance the quick response was "What is that?"

The way the convention center operates is by "event days" and they vary from 400 events in a good year to 250 events in a bad year. An event can mean every hotel in downtown Cleveland operates at capacity.

Who will pay for the operation or destruction of the present Convention Center? Councilman Brian Cummins – one of the few Council members I'd trust some these days – asked about that little problem. He was rightly concerned that the City of Cleveland would be left holding the bag of a dependent and empty city convention center.

Councilman Joe Cimperman, a corporate toady, seemed to think that such matters could be solved by the subsidy-seeking film industry. Cleveland's just the kind of replacement for Hollywood.

Cimperman and Cummins represent bright, young leadership in Cleveland. But Cummins represents the city resident interests while Cimperman concentrates on the interests of downtown developers.

They were the only two Cleveland council members to appear.

There was no real answer about what tax would pay for a film production center. Certainly the film makers aren't going to line up with their dough since they now seek large public subsidies merely to film in Cleveland.

The meeting was really worthless because the decision has been made and it will take a lot more than a few people griping about the tax, the terrible (always) process and the lack of public input.

Lawson Jones responded to my remark (and writing similarly) that I wasn't impressed with the fact that he didn’t vote for the tax as did his two colleagues – Hagan and Dimora. Truth is they didn't need Peter's vote. He claimed that was an attack on his credibility. Sure and it is, especially because he's out there selling the project now.

The only message would be to dump Lawson Jones in November. However, the Republican candidate is too tied to the powers to be and similarly for the mart and center, thus for the tax.

Michael Benz of United Way Services gave one of the most supportive talks, urging that the project go ahead. It might be ironic that the social service funding agent of our area would be supportive of taxes being spent for more downtown interests. Jobs, of course, are bases of the pleading. It certainly is a bit ironic as Benz, a former executive with a former business front group, now the Greater Cleveland Partnership – today's agent of subsidizing the Moneyed – has a pay package of $279,720. I guess he can afford the quarter-percent extra sales tax. By the way, that figure is two years old so he may be in a bit better shape now.

As Dennis Kucinich told Democrats at the recent Democratic convention, "Wake up, people."

From Cool Cleveland contributor Roldo Bartimole roldoATroadrunner.com

Photo of Peter Lawson Jones by Thomas Mulready

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