Cleveland Magazine Politics

Dimora trial a nationwide hit, thanks to CNN and Ch. 19's Puppet's Court

2012-01-25T10:15:00.002-05:00

At first, the Jimmy Dimora trial was our tawdry local affair. The opening day got a quick mention on NPR, and that's about it for national coverage. Chicago and Detroit scandals become nationwide stories, but Cleveland's not a big city anymore, so news directors on the coasts think our scandals are strictly small-town.

Well, that's sure changed. Thank 19 Action News and its puppets.

Yes, in a mere week and a half, Channel 19 has taken Dimora's Vegas romp and sexual appetite nationwide.

Last Tuesday, it debuted "The Puppet's Court," a daily reenactment of the trial's most salacious testimony and wiretaps. The Associated Press put out a story, and pretty much everyone with a web site has joined in on the fun. Eight days later, a Google search of "Dimora" and "puppets" generates 174,000 hits.

Monday night, Dimora and his cronies really broke out. Anderson Cooper featured 19's puppets on his "Ridiculist" segment, feigning shock that a TV news station would resort to felt to get around a courthouse camera ban.

19's stunt is borrowed -- MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was doing courthouse puppets nine years ago. But within the genre, the folks at 19 are innovating.

Their puppets, provided by Natural Bridges Puppets of Parma Heights, improve on Olbermann's pix on a stick. They talk, shake, sleep. They're more muppety. The dunt-dunt-dunt theme song, borrowed from the '80s courtroom show The People's Court, amps up the kitschy drama. The backdrop of an actual photo of Delmonico's Steak House behind the J. Kevin Kelley puppet in the Day 4 video adds some nice local atmosphere.

In the end, Cooper, like most of us, got lured in by the hooker hook. How could he not? "Is there room for a lady of the evening in the court of puppet opinion?" he asked. His answer: A resounding yes.

Every other media outlet in Cleveland is shaking their heads, saying they'd never resort to such shenanigans. But when the daily paper's front-page story reads like this, and a web site called clevelandescortsnews.com is tenaciously aggregating the daily's coverage -- well, as Hunter S. Thompson once said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." I say, let Action News be Action News!

Update, 1/26: From the Plain Dealer this morning: "Judge Sara Lioi individually questioned six jurors about whether they had heard media reports about the trial. Despite the judge speaking in a low voice to the jurors, she could be heard mentioning the word 'puppet.' "

Take the Dimora scandal tour with me & Ch. 3

2012-01-20T09:03:00.006-05:00

Scandal tourism used to be an overlooked niche in Cleveland's visitor economy, but not anymore.

Not after Channel 3 reporter Amanda Barren interviewed me about the hot spots featured in the "Map of the Fallen Stars," my guide to the Jimmy Dimora trial and the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal.

Check out the video from yesterday's morning show. Then read the "Map of the Fallen Stars" in the January issue of Cleveland Magazine, or online here, for my advice on how you can live it up like Dimora and Frank Russo on your next extravagant, yet discreet, staycation.

Also, follow the link to Channel 3's page about my appearance and let me know if you see what I see: an ad for the Mirage in Las Vegas. ("Stay 2 nights and receive a $65 dining credit!") I guess AdChoices has been following the Dimora trial too.

No more mirrors: My profile of Nailah Byrd, Cuyahoga County's new inspector general

2012-01-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

Down at the Dimora trial in Akron, it's Day 3 of Cleveland's tawdry, FBI-filmed reality show, "Jimmy and Frank Do the Mirage."

But up in Cleveland, things have changed.

Frank Russo's giant wall-length mirror is gone from his old office. So are Russo's black lacquer credenza and leather couches and chairs. And in Russo's old office sits Nailah Byrd, Cuyahoga County's first inspector general, whose job is to bring sunlight and transparency to the government.

Byrd is the taxpayer’s watchdog at the county building, the enforcer of a new ethics ordinance and an independent investigator of alleged wrongdoing in the government. She's one of Cleveland Magazine's 30 Most Interesting People for 2012. And if you think she looks familiar -- yes, she's the daughter of former Cleveland schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

“When I first started, you hear the whispering as you walk down the hallway,” she told me. “Is she the inspector general? What is she going to do? Why is she here?”

You can read my profile of Byrd here and in the January issue of Cleveland Magazine.

Dimora defense: ‘It was his job’

2012-01-12T14:58:00.002-05:00

Jimmy Dimora’s attorney Andrea Whitaker previewed an aggressive defense in her opening statement at trial today.

The defense strategy: Admit that Dimora took gifts from friends. Deny that he ever took cash. Admit that Dimora did favors for people as county commissioner. Deny that he ever did anything official in exchange for anything.

“Jimmy did help these people,” Whitaker said. “That was his job.”

The line became a refrain in Whitaker’s punchy, hour-long statement. “It was his job to let people know about the county red tape and procedures, the things they needed to do,” she said. “It was a perfectly legitimate part of commissioner Dimora’s job, the job of everyone in the county, to respond to these requests.” He helped friends, Whitaker claimed, according to the “same criteria” he applied to everyone else.

Much of Whitaker’s argument echoed the defense Dimora articulated himself in 2008 and 2009: He awarded contracts to the low bidder, based on advice from staff. People asked him for help all the time. He reported all the gifts and meals his friends bought him on his state ethics reports.

Whitaker disputed the prosecution’s depiction of the case as a secret world. Dimora’s friendships were out in the open, she said.

“The government has confused friendship with corruption,” she argued. “The government has confused Jimmy Dimora with Frank Russo.”

Whitaker said the defense is going to call several county employees as witnesses, to testify that several of the contracts, loan extensions, and so forth in the indictment were awarded legitimately, following proper rules. She insisted that businessman Steve Pumper’s assertion that he bribed Dimora with $30,000 is a lie.

“The evidence will show you Jimmy Dimora never received cash from anyone,” she said.

Whitaker signaled that the defense will attack the bribery charges by questioning whether Dimora received gifts in return for anything, and whether some of the “official acts” he’s alleged to have undertaken for the gifts were really official parts of his job.

This could be the core of the case. Earlier, prosecutor Antoinette Bacon asserted that an official act included not just votes, but scheduling or attending meetings, asking other public officials for help, and other informal nudges and recommendations. Whitaker objected, and Judge Sara Lioi reminded the jury that she, not Bacon, will tell them what the law is.

Starting with the less dramatic charges, Whitaker went through the stories Bacon had told about Dimora and the alleged conspirators and argued that several of the things of value Dimora received were gestures of friendship. With the Beanie Wells jersey, for instance, she argued that William Neiheiser paid for it because he and Dimora had been drinking at a Cornerstone for Hope charity auction, and Neiheiser felt bad that he’d egged Dimora on to bid $3,600 he couldn’t afford.

Other times, Whitaker argued that Dimora had used his influence legitimately. She said Dimora had recommended friend Gina Coppers for a job at the Bedford Municipal Court, not in exchange for her having sex with him, but because she had worked for him as senior citizens department director when he was mayor of Bedford Heights.

When taped phone calls are played in the trial, Whitaker asked the jury, “Listen for examples of Jimmy Dimora depriving the citizens of Cuyahoga County of his honest services in exchange for things of value. Listen to them over and over.” They won’t hear any examples, she said.

“Jimmy Dimora is not guilty of being a corrupt politician,” Whitaker concluded.

(Note to concerned readers: Don’t worry, I’m not violating the judge’s ban on blogging in the courthouse. I’m writing from a coffeehouse a block away.)

No smoking gun as Dimora trial opens

2012-01-12T14:03:00.004-05:00

“This trial will take you into a world [filled] with bribery, with fraud, with conspiracy, with obstruction,” said prosecutor Antoinette Bacon, kicking off her opening statement today in the Jimmy Dimora bribery trial.

Across the room, the former Cuyahoga County commissioner turned his head to listen. His cheeks were shorn, his familiar beard gone, leaving his face looking pointy, stern, downcast.

Bacon argued that Dimora and ex-auditor Frank Russo took cash, sold jobs, tried to fix court cases, and came up with “short cuts to give some an unfair advantage over others.” Bribes, she said, helped make Dimora’s back yard “a private luxury retreat.”

“Dimora and Russo realized that some people were willing to buy [their] power,” Bacon argued. “Sometimes, Dimora and Russo were willing to sell.”

Bacon’s opener, in federal court in Akron, included no smoking gun, no single incident in which Dimora was caught explicitly making a gifts-for-favors deal. (Underwhelmingly, she promised the jurors they’d hear phone calls in which Dimora “says something like, ‘If he gets the work, he’ll buy dinner.’”)

Instead, the prosecution is planning a long march through a complex story, overwhelming in its detail. Bacon alleged a conspiracy involving 18 people, and displayed photos of them, one by one, arranged in a pyramid with Dimora and Russo at the top. It took her an hour and 40 minutes to get through it all.

The most vivid story Bacon told, of course, was set in Las Vegas. Her PowerPoint flashed color photos of Dimora’s entourage frolicking in a private cabana at Bare, the Mirage Casino’s exclusive pool. A grainy surveillance photo showed Dimora at the Prime Steakhouse; the $2,200 dinner check was reproduced next to it.

Bacon told jurors they will see video of businessman Ferris Kleem giving casino chips to Dimora. She played a phone recording of Dimora thanking Kleem for sending the “chatty” masseuse (an alleged prostitute, named Suzanne) to his hotel room. In another call, at the trip’s end, Dimora thanks Kleem for his “generosity.” During the trip, Bacon said, Dimora was calling Cleveland, inquiring about Kleem’s bid for a $38 million contract at the juvenile justice center. (Kleem didn’t get the contract.)

Over and over, Bacon yoked Dimora to Russo, his corrupt former friend now facing 21 years in prison. She said they had “an unspoken and unwritten sort of set of rules, almost a conspiracy handbook.” Rule #1, she argued: Only deal with people you trust. #2: Sometimes use an intermediary, a bag man. Dimora’s co-defendant, Michael Gabor, played both roles in several schemes, she charged. #3: Cover your tracks.

That’s what she said Dimora and Co. did after word of the FBI probe leaked in May 2008. She showed jurors checks that Dimora’s wife wrote to contractors who worked on the Dimora home the same day agents confronted businessman Steve Pumper. The prosecutor described Dimora, Russo, and Gabor meeting for breakfast to hear the news or react to it, and Dimora, county employee J. Kevin Kelley, and union leader Robert Rybak meeting in a post office parking lot at night to talk about how they’d react if the FBI swooped in.

Bacon’s statement included two more new revelations. One is that Dimora got a U.S. senator to write a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Romania about a visa application. The applicant’s friend, John Valentin, allegedly did work on Dimora’s house to reward Dimora. The senator, who was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote the letter in 2007. That means it's probably George Voinovich. He was on the foreign relations committee; Sherrod Brown wasn't.

-Adrian Maldonado, who was the county’s head of procurement and diversity in early 2008, is becoming an important figure in the trial. Maldonado had a lot of say in the more minute aspects of evaluating contract bids, since he ruled on whether bidders’ subcontractors were qualified for the job. In one phone call Bacon played, Pumper, who was trying to get work for his company Green-Source, says, “Adrian tells me right now it’s purely political. If you can convince Jimmy to hold off [on rebidding a job], he’ll do it.”

(Maldonado spoke to me for my 2009 profile of Dimora, “Life of the Party.” “If Jimmy Dimora is invested in an issue, he wants to know all the details,” he told me. “Did we do everything we needed to do? Does the aggrieved party have another shot at something else? The second bidder, is he clean?” Dimora or his aides might ask if a contract can be rebid, he said, or they might ask what the law says about the bidding process. “He never said to me, ‘Adrian, your job is on the line,’ ” Maldonado says. “He never asked me to do anything I might be ashamed of.”)

Jurors also got to see a lot of pictures of Dimora’s back yard patio, decked out with gleaming silver appliances and new wood furnishings with granite countertops. They got a long look at a photo of Dimora’s Beanie Wells jersey.

Bacon described the trial to come as a “journey” through a “dark world,” and promised to introduce the jurors to “travel guides” who’ll walk them through it, including Frank Russo.

(Note to concerned readers: Don’t worry, I’m not violating the judge’s ban on blogging in the courthouse. I’m writing from a coffeehouse a block away.)

Mayor Jackson: 'I must be a new person, they tell me'

2012-01-10T10:48:00.007-05:00

Frank Jackson has heard the talk that he's finally gone from caretaker mayor to visionary mayor. It bugs him.

“I’m no different today than I was then,” Jackson says. “It’s just that people see me different, because they’re looking at these things, and they say, ‘Oh, the mayor has come up with ideas!’ ”

He’s talking about his plans to develop the waterfront and close Public Square to traffic, creating a single park. They capped a good 2011 for Jackson, when a lot of people around town thought he stepped up more as a leader.

That helped make Jackson #4 on this year's Power 100 list, published by Cleveland Magazine's sister publication, Inside Business. That's up from #7 last year.

Some of the buzz about Jackson's vision is premature. His highly touted lakefront plan has very little money behind it and is best understood as a marketing move to try to attract private developers. But progress with the Rock Hall induction, sustainability, and downtown jobs have the mayor feeling confident.

“I know people have talked about, ‘Why doesn’t the mayor use the bully pulpit more?’ ” Those critics, Jackson says slyly, “were critical because they thought I ought to use it for them.

“But I do use it for the schools. I do use it for the lakefront, for the square. I do use it for sustainability. And I guess the bully pulpit of the mayor’s office in those areas wasn’t considered as relevant. But now it seems to be.

“Because I must be a new person, they tell me. I must be a new person.”

You can read my article about Jackson here and in the January-February issue of Inside Business. You can see who else made the Power 100 list here.

FitzGerald #1 on Inside Business Power 100

2012-01-06T13:04:00.009-05:00

No one has done more to change Northeast Ohio in the last year than Ed FitzGerald.

That’s why he tops this year's Power 100, the list of the region's most powerful players, in the new issue of Cleveland Magazine's sister publication, Inside Business.

The Cuyahoga County executive has helped to restore confidence in the government he leads by upending a longstanding patronage system. He's also stepped into some of our biggest civic conversations, from regionalism to downtown Cleveland’s future -- expanding our sense of how a political leader can lead.

And he showed a shrewd understanding of power in his high-drama negotiations with Secretary of State Jon Husted over how Ohioans vote by mail.

He's the first politician to be #1 on the Power 100 list since Inside Business began publishing the issue in 2004.

FitzGerald still faces many challenges. His successes on economic development and regional cooperation are modest so far, his housecleaning may be making him enemies in his party, and the political critique of him as an opportunist could resurface since he’s not ruling out a run for governor in 2014.

But he's going to push the limits of local political power again this year. Not only is he about to debut a $100 million county economic development fund, FitzGerald tells Inside Business he'll announce three new policy initiatives at his Feb. 1 State of the County speech.

FitzGerald says he wants human service programs to include strategies for “changing outcomes” — the teach-a-man-to-fish school of social aid. He wants to use the county's casino revenues downtown and on the lakefront. And he wants to advance regionalism by having Cuyahoga County offer to contract with cities to provide some municipal services.

“If you’re talking about having the county emerging over time, possibly in years or decades to come, as the primary provider of [a lot of] municipal service, the county starts to become the city,” FitzGerald told me. “This whole county starts becoming a unified community from a governmental point of view. We’d start becoming one of the larger cities in the U.S., as opposed to the traditional barrier between the city and county."

You can read my article on FitzGerald here and in the January-February issue of Inside Business, published today. You can see who else made the Power 100 list here.

Map of the Fallen Stars: Our handy guide to the Dimora trial

2012-01-04T08:00:00.006-05:00

Jury selection starts today in the Jimmy Dimora trial, an ordeal that may last all winter.

Prosecutors plan to introduce more than 1,000 exhibits to try to prove that the former county commissioner committed 34 crimes, from bribery to obstruction of justice. Dimora's lawyers will likely argue that the feds are mistaking friendly gestures for bribes and favors. They may have simplicity on their side: They have one defense exhibit. (Doesn't that make you wonder what it is? What single object possesses the power to create reasonable doubt?)

To help you understand the trial better, Cleveland Magazine has assembled a handy tourist map to the locations made famous by Dimora, star witness Frank Russo, and the federal agents who tapped their phones. From Delmonico's, the home of the 22-ounce cowboy steak, to the shrine where Russo prayed for an alibi, we've assembled a fun and frolicking Hollywood-style tour, a slim yet valuable guide to Jimmy and Frank's Cleveland.

You can read our "Map of the Fallen Stars" here or in the January issue of Cleveland Magazine.

Update, 1/9: I take back what I said about simplicity. Dimora's lawyers have delayed the trial by filing an appeal, arguing that his October indictment on new charges amounts to double jeopardy. Update, 1/11: Appeal rejected. Opening arguments tomorrow.

FBI investigated failed Ameritrust Tower sale, asbestos contract

2011-12-29T22:17:00.002-05:00

Now's the season when we learn new details about the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal, including the stuff the FBI investigated that hasn't led to charges. Before Jimmy Dimora goes on trial next week, we're seeing a flurry of court filings that reveal a lot about the feds' early moves in the probe.

Here's the biggest news so far. The judge's latest opinion reveals that two of the seven alleged schemes the FBI was investigating as of late 2007 involved the Ameritrust Tower. The FBI showed an interest in the county's $22 million purchase of it and failed attempt to sell it, as well as a $7 million contract to remove asbestos from it.

We've known for a while that the FBI was curious about the county's vacant skyscraper. The search warrant executed on Dimora's office in 2008 asked for documents showing his decision-making on the Ameritrust project. This is the first time in 3 1/2 years we've learned anything more.

Judge Sara Lioi never writes the word "Ameritrust," but it's clear which building she's talking about in her opinion. Lioi explains several steps the FBI took to assemble probable cause to believe a crime had been committed before it asked permission to tap Dimora buddy Steve Pumper's phone in December 2007. She describes a conversation between Pumper and a confidential source who's wearing a wire -- probably Cleveland housing inspector Bobby Cuevas -- about a building that is clearly the Ameritrust Tower:

On November 15, 2007, the Cuyahoga County Commissioners voted to place the property in question up for sale.... a number of calls were placed on the evening of November 15th between, variously, Dimora, Company A, Pumper, and Michael Forlani... Pumper, after rubbing his fingers together in a "money" gesture, stated that the County Commissioners often "want a little action"; and Pumper indirectly indicated to the confidential source that the reason the County had opted to purchase the now-for-sale building in the first place instead of another property under consideration was because the owner of the other property refused to pay bribes or kickbacks.

The main competition for The Jacobs Group, which sold the Ameritrust Tower to the county in 2005, was Forest City, which offered to lease the Higbee Building to the county, and David Goldberg of the former Ohio Savings Bank, who offered a lease on the 668 Euclid building.

Next, Lioi describes an alleged "scheme" that clearly involves the contract to remove asbestos from the Ameritrust Tower. In August 2007, Dimora and Tim Hagan voted to award the asbestos contract to the second-lowest bidder, local company Precision Environmental, instead of the low bidder, St. Louis company Midwest Asbestos Abatement. (Peter Lawson Jones voted against giving the contract to Precision.)

In the judge's words:

[One scheme involved] the bidding process for a contract for "soft demolition" in a building owned by the County. ... a confidential source reported that Dimora had close ties to the individuals who owned a contracting company that had submitted the second-lowest bid... another confidential source reported (second-hand) that several Cuyahoga County officials held a private meeting at which they decided to award the contract to the second-place company despite its higher bid; this second confidential source also reported that a public employee close to Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo told the source that Russo and Dimora had been waiting for a company like the second-place company to need their help...

Sounds ominous, but the judge's summary may help explain why the FBI's interest in the contract did not lead to charges. Some of the FBI's suspicions were based on second-hand stories.

It's also worth noting that Dimora and Hagan awarded the contract to Precision based on the advice of their staff. I interviewed some of those staffers in 2008, and they seemed to strongly believe Precision was the best company for the job. You can read about the asbestos controversy and the purchase of the tower in my June 2008 story "Tower Play."

Also, Dimora's friend Bobby DiGeronimo, whose family owns Precision, spoke to me for "Life of the Party," my October 2009 Dimora profile. He told me that he and Dimora didn't speak about the asbestos contract until after the vote. {Update, 1/6/12: Interesting -- DiGeronimo's relationship with Dimora may come up in the trial. “To this day, Jimmy has never asked me for anything except sports tickets,” he told me in 2009 for my Dimora profile. Now the feds want to talk about those gifts at trial. They're not drawing a connection with the asbestos contract, but with a land sale DiGeronimo bidded on. He tells the Plain Dealer he did nothing wrong. And yes, this is the same Bobby DiGeronimo from the Ohio State football scandal. Dimora got his famous Beanie Wells jersey at a fundraiser for DiGeronimo's charity.}

Two final notes, giving credit where it's due. Fox 8 reported in fall 2007 that the FBI was investigating the Ameritrust asbestos contract. Now we know that Fox 8 was right, and was the first local media outlet to report on the corruption investigation. Also, the Plain Dealer has long claimed that Bobby Cuevas was a key figure in the probe, to the point where they referred to the county corruption investigation and the feds' stings of crooked Cleveland inspectors as part of the same investigation. I had my doubts and said so. But the judge's opinion seems to suggest that Cuevas was one of the feds' two best sources on Dimora and Pumper in 2007.

Kucinich's future at stake on March 6; state approves new map, single primary

2011-12-15T12:15:00.004-05:00

Here's what you need to know about yesterday's compromise on a single primary date, March 6, and a new redistricting map:

• Voters may end Dennis Kucinich's long political career in March. The new map adds a big chunk of Toledo to the ridiculous new lakeshore district linking Toledo and Cleveland. That gives Toledo congresswoman Marcy Kaptur an advantage in a primary against Kucinich.

Now comes the guessing game: what will Dennis' "new direction" be, now that he's faced with a map he opposed? Will he run against Marcia Fudge and Nina Turner? Will he revive the move-to-Seattle talk? My guess is he stays in the lakeshore district and fights -- and he may well lose. (Update, 12/30: He's running in the lakeshore district. And getting very chatty in e-mails to supporters, calling Kaptur his friend and saying he faces a difficult election.)

• The map didn't change much for Fudge, who's off to a fast start against Turner, picking up support from Democrats in Akron. Now Turner has less than three months to build a case against the incumbent. (Update, 12/30: Turner has decided not to run, citing the short time span.)

• Ohio may actually have a say in the Republican presidential nomination. The race is so wide-open, it may still be unresolved by March 6 -- a way more influential date than June 12.

• Cuyahoga County Democrats will pick a new prosecutor the same day as the Kucinich-Kaptur and Fudge-Turner races. Here's Mark Naymik's update on the prosecutor's race, and mine.

• Betty Sutton may have a decent chance to stay in Congress after all. Redistricting threw the Democrat into a November contest with Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci. The new district leans Republican, but Sutton just released a surprising poll that shows her and Renacci tied 45-45. The new map won't change her odds by much.

Update, 12/16: Kucinich sent a message to supporters this morning with no mention of the new map or the congressional race. Sounds like he's hedging his bets. "We have big initiatives we will be unveiling over the next few months -- a national campaign to revitalize our democracy, a new website and toolset to more effectively organize our movement and create change. ... I look forward to doing great things over the next year with this movement."

To read my profile of Kucinich, "The Missionary," click here. To see The Complete Kucinich, an archive of Cleveland Magazine's coverage of Kucinich's career, click here.

Mason mum on race to succeed him, but he's watching

2011-12-07T07:29:00.005-05:00

I ran into Bill Mason last month at an event and asked him if he was endorsing in the race to succeed him as Cuyahoga County prosecutor. No, he said, and gave the standard diplomatic line of an incumbent laying low, some variation on, "There's a lot of good candidates out there."

Then Mason told me about a vote the Democratic Party ward leaders had taken the day before on whether the party should endorse a candidate. Like an NFL fan obsessing over his betting pool, he recited the numbers from memory:

28 votes to recommend

James McDonnell, 26
Kevin Kelley, 16
Tim McGinty, 7
Subodh Chandra, 4
Bob Triozzi, 1

Mason may not be running or endorsing, but the veteran political pro still loves the game.

I was surprised at the results. McDonnell, a defense attorney and brother of county judge Nancy McDonnell, is the least known of the five candidates. (Kelley is a Cleveland councilman, McGinty a county judge, Chandra and Triozzi former Cleveland law directors.)

Mason said McDonnell had been working hard for the endorsement, spending months making the rounds of ward meetings to introduce himself.

I knew this was true. I met McDonnell this summer at Zagara's grocery store in Cleveland Heights, where he was wearing a James J. McDonnell For Cuyahoga County Prosecutor T-shirt. He told me he was visiting Democratic neighborhood picnics and the like.

Back then I might've agreed with Mark Naymik's description of McDonnell in an October report on the race: "He's amiable but over-confident and is relying on a decent ballot name to propel him." Guess he wasn't over-confident after all. All that hard work is paying off.

Just how much it pays off, we'll see today. The county Democrats are gathering at the Music Hall to vote on whether to endorse in the March primary. A winner could get a big advantage. Ed FitzGerald's party endorsement in last year's executive race helped propel him through the primary.

But it won't be easy for McDonnell or anyone else to get that endorsement. As Mason, the experienced party politicker, pointed out, a candidate needs 60 percent of the vote to get it. So the five-way race could remain wide open until the voters get a chance to decide.

Update, 12/8: No one got the endorsement. Anastasia Pantsios describes the meeting and vote on Ohio Daily Blog: McDonnell had support in the western suburbs, Chandra in the eastern suburbs, Kelley in the city of Cleveland.

Update, 12/15: Mark Naymik reports that every Parma Democrat voted for McDonnell. Hmm...

What makes Nina Turner so confident?

2011-12-01T14:12:00.008-05:00

Nina Turner sees an opportunity. The aggressive, ambitious state senator thinks she can defy the odds against congressional challengers and unseat U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge. Why is she so confident?

Visibility and personality, to start with. Turner gets way more attention than your average state senator. She's become a regular on Ed Shultz's MSNBC show as the Ohio liberal who bashes Gov. Kasich and argues that the swing state is swinging the Democrats' way. Take a look at her feisty call for Kasich to apologize to Ohioans for Issue 2 (at the 1:00 mark).

Political commentator Jason Johnson writes that Turner's "passionate, rough-around-the-edges style" resembles the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones' personality more than Fudge's does. That surely sounds like sacrilege to Fudge supporters, who know Fudge was Tubbs Jones' friend, card-playing buddy and anointed successor. But Johnson is on to something. Fudge has a quiet personality for a politician. Compare her MSNBC appearance to Turner's here.

"We are in dire need of leadership with a purpose, and I'm not seeing that," Turner told The Plain Dealer's Henry Gomez. We'll see how well she backs up that argument. But Turner must feel Fudge (right) hasn't been in Congress long enough to acquire an incumbent's usual clout and advantages. With only three years seniority, Fudge isn't the first congressperson local officials turn to when they need help in Washington -- Steve LaTourette is.

Besides, the tentative redistricting map gives Fudge a lot of new territory to cover, from Garfield Heights all the way down the I-77 corridor to Akron. Turner may find it easier to win over voters there, since they haven't voted for Fudge before.

Turner is betting that established politicians in Cleveland and Washington don't have as much clout as they seem. The Cuyahoga County Democrats are sure to endorse the incumbent. So will the old black political network in town -- Arnold Pinkney, George Forbes, etc.

But the local Democrats got beaten badly when they united against county reform two years ago. Almost every black elected official except Turner came out against Issue 6, but about half of black voters supported it. Turner is probably counting on a similar split in the black vote in this campaign. Plenty of Issue 6 supporters, from wealthy businesspeople to civic leaders to maverick Democrats, stand ready to back Turner now because of her risky stance then. Likewise, the infamous race-baiting attack against her for supporting reform could even rebound in her favor. Cleveland voters tend to admire politicians who stand up to bullies.

The case for re-electing Fudge, or betting on her re-election, is simpler and less dramatic. Fudge is the incumbent, she has a bigger political network, her views on the issues fit the district, and Turner hasn't yet made the case for replacing her. Jason Johnson says the Congressional Black Caucus has tried to boost Fudge's visibility lately. They could easily back that up with national fund-raising on her behalf.

But Turner may also be confident because her backup plan is self-evident. She has a safe seat in the state senate -- her term doesn't end until 2014. So if she loses to Fudge but runs a competitive race, she'll still increase her name recognition and her fund-raising base. That could help her take a shot at another higher office in the future. Even by losing, she could win.

Update, 12/5: Fudge announced her re-election campaign today, touting a long list of endorsements from local elected officials, black ministers, and others. An anonymous Fudge supporter serves up a punchy quote to Mike McIntyre for his Tipoff column today: "We're going to beat Nina Turner like she stole something."

12/6: Good PD coverage of Fudge's campaign announcement from Joe Frolik and Henry Gomez. Frolik says Turner faces "very long odds" and that Fudge pledged to run a clean campaign and "disown" (his words) mud-slinging supporters. He offers this diplomatically couched take on Fudge's personality: "If Fudge sometimes comes across as cold or even imperious -- especially in contrast to her gregarious predecessor -- it may be because she's never had to learn to be a good candidate. Now she will."

12/30: Turner has decided not to run against Fudge in the primary, citing the short campaign season now that the vote will be March 6. Her statement leaves open the possibility of running as an independent in November.

Comedian Mike Polk mocks Ohio redistricting

2011-11-14T13:58:00.004-05:00

"Hey, everybody! Are you ready to party? Are you ready to talk about about Ohio congressional redistricting? I know I am!"

With that, Cleveland comedian Mike Polk kicks off his three-minute, profanity-laced mockery of the Republicans' redistricting plan for Ohio. "Shady maneuvering," he calls it. He says the snake-y lakeshore district linking Toledo to Cleveland is so skinny, you pretty much have to live in an I-90 rest stop or a lighthouse to be a resident of it.

"Stop HB 319," flashes a message at the end. That means Cleveland's YouTube funnyman (whose recent Browns rant eerily foreshadowed yesterday's game, right down to the Pontbriand jersey) is endorsing the petition drive against the Republicans' map.

The GOP has introduced a revised map since passing HB 319, but a nonpartisan good-government group says it's almost as unfair as the old one. The Democrats' petition drive has given them some leverage, so the legislature may try to come up with a compromise map this week.

Drawing a map that gets bipartisan support would seem like a monumental accomplishment to everyone in Columbus. But the real question isn't whether both parties like a map. It's whether the map is fair to voters -- whether it leads to competitive elections and creates compact districts instead of stringing faraway towns together. (Like the one on the right here, not the one on the left.)

In other words, the real test is whether that lizard-like lakeshore district gets wiped off the map.

Sen. Patton takes on Linndale, inspired by Cleveland Magazine article

2011-11-07T11:00:00.004-05:00

State Sen. Tom Patton has had it with Linndale, Cuyahoga County’s tiniest town and biggest speed trap. He says he’ll introduce a bill next week to ban towns with less than 201 people from operating mayor’s courts.

Patton, who tried to shut down the Linndale speed trap earlier this year, says Cleveland Magazine’s August story “Greetings from Linndale” prompted him to try again.

“Your article inspired me,” he says.

My story, co-written with former Fox 8 investigator Mark DeMarino, revealed serious questions about the microvillage’s population count in the 2010 U.S. Census. Officially, the census counted 179 Linndalers, a 53 percent jump from 117 in 2000.

But the census results include one block that’s not really in Linndale, one block where nine phantom residents supposedly moved into an industrial zone, and a block that officially doubled in population but doesn’t have nearly that many people a year later.

We also reported that Linndale police officers personally encouraged residents to answer the census. The Census Bureau says that interferes with the census’s confidentiality and could intimidate people.

A low population count could threaten Linndale’s very existence. Current state law only allows mayor’s courts in towns with 101 people or more. The village, which includes 422 yards of I-71 but no freeway exit, raises about 80 percent of its million-dollar budget from court fines generated by traffic enforcement.

“I’m going to quote you quite liberally in my testimony,” Patton told me this morning. “The salient facts that show what length and breadth they went to. … I can’t help but think they acted dishonestly, to be very frank.”

To read Cleveland Magazine’s article, “Greetings from Linndale,” click here. Patton also spoke to Mike McIntyre for the Tipoff column in today's Plain Dealer, which you can read here.

Kucinich & Forbes' redistricting moves, Election Day preview on WCPN's Roundtable

2011-11-04T10:20:00.006-04:00

I just appeared on WCPN's Reporters' Roundtable, where we talked about two Cleveland personalities' reactions to the latest twists in Ohio's redistricting battle.

Republicans have drawn a new map, in a failed attempt to please black Democrats. Dennis Kucinich is trying to kill the map, which revises the peculiar lakeshore district he wants to run in to favor Marcy Kaptur -- it throws in much more of Toledo and subtracts a piece of Lorain County. George Forbes, who tried to broker a deal, can't believe the black caucus didn't go for the new map. But most other Democrats hate the new map and the old map. They're using the threat of a referendum as leverage to shut down the whole process and try to get something better.

Roundtable host Rick Jackson ad libbed a question about Issue 2, Tuesday's referendum on SB 5, which prompted the usual torrent of anti-SB5 calls. (No one in favor of SB5 ever calls in to WCPN.) Polls predict a big defeat for Issue 2.

We also talked a bit about local school levies and a few mayor's races, especially Lorain's and Euclid's.

Bill Cervenik, Euclid's mayor, is facing challenger Charlene Mancuso in a race that revives the conflict I've written about between the town's pro-Cervenik and anti-Cervenik factions. Cervenik has survived past battles over whether he was right to let a black church move into town and settle a voting-rights suit with the Justice Department.

To listen to the podcast, click here.

Mayor wants cars out of Public Square

2011-10-31T14:22:00.006-04:00

Big news on Sunday's Plain Dealer front page: Mayor Frank Jackson tells Steven Litt he wants to close Public Square to cars and make it a huge park.

"I want to see one big square," Jackson told Litt.

The mayor's suddenly talking like the urban optimists I've profiled -- parks advocate Ann Zoller and, in the new November issue of Cleveland Magazine, developer Ari Maron. Like them, the mayor wants to make our public spaces more welcoming to visitors, downtown residents, pedestrians and bikers. He even seems to have had a conversion experience similar to Maron's. Visits to France, Italy and Slovenia have convinced Jackson that we can learn from European town plazas and do more to get people out walking and enjoying downtown.

Politically, this is big for two reasons. Jackson will really have to push for this. Closing Public Square to traffic won't be easy. Commuters will complain. They won't like swinging around a huge traffic circle in the middle of downtown. Buses stop in the square 3,200 times a day, and the RTA will have to find new bus stops for most of them.

But Jackson has a good argument for doing this right now: with the casino, Medical Mart and convention center coming soon, Cleveland is going into the business of attracting visitors to town in a big way. Public Square lies right between the two. Shouldn't it be more inviting?

If he succeeds, a new Public Square could be one of Jackson's signature projects. It could be an answer to critics who complain he's too quiet and has too little vision.

It may have taken him six years to get around to this, but the mayor is doing what leaders do. He's picking up new ideas that are gaining momentum. He's sweeping ideas he doesn't like out of the way (an earlier round of ideas for the square, including the peculiar notion of building a hill over the streets). He's declaring his support for an idea that everyone used to think was off limits.

Joe the Plumber vs. Dennis the Menace? Seriously?

2011-10-28T07:30:00.007-04:00

I can see this coming from 100 miles away, streaking toward Cleveland on Route 2 like a drag race between a Ford pickup and a Prius. Everyone from Stephen Colbert to Fox News, from Politico to The Onion, will want a piece of this action. The most cartoon-colorful congressional race in the nation: Dennis "The Menace" Kucinich vs. Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher.

Seriously, it could happen. Joe the Plumber announced his run for Congress this week. Laugh if you want, but the conservative media darling's name recognition seems to have scared Rob Frost, the Cuyahoga County Republican chairman, out of the race.

Now we are faced with the unholy spawn of Republican gerrymandering, a Frankenstein-monster district that has unnaturally stitched Toledo's peculiar politics together with Cleveland's. One congressional race. Two candidates whom the national media doesn't take seriously and who inspire political satirists to new heights of YouTube-able ridiculousness.

Only two things can stop it.

Joe the Plumber isn't running to take Dennis down. He wants to unseat Marcy Kaptur, Toledo's longtime progressive congresswoman. But the impending Kaptur-Kucinich primary is tough to call. Lots of people think Kucinich has the edge. Brent Larkin is the only person I've seen who's explained why Kaptur has a good chance.

Also, Democrats in Columbus have shrewdly used referendum petitions as leverage to try to force a compromise on redistricting and a new map fairer to Democrats. Negotiations might dismantle that ruthlessly gerrymandered lakeshore district.

I'm not going to get into whether Wurzelbacher is actually a serious candidate. Hey, the guy had the good taste to announce his candidacy at Tony Packo's, which wins him points in my book.

My take on the Plumber phenomenon goes back to his first minute of fame. Why is it that he becomes a hero, a celebrity, a political character, just for asking a presidential candidate a tough question?

Joe Wurzelbacher's life changed the day Barack Obama campaigned at a picnic in his neighborhood. Like anyone would, Joe headed over to see what was going on. Like any good citizen who doesn't like a candidate's politics, he got a second with Obama and challenged him.

Though he's a working-class guy, Joe is the type of conservative who doesn't much like progressive taxation. He told Obama that his tax plan -- to raise rates on people making more than $250,000 a year -- would keep him from buying a business. So John McCain championed Joe in a debate, leaving Obama to make the point that most plumbers don't make $250K.

I see why McCain would make Joe a hero. Populist solidarity with the rich is key to the Republican electoral strategy, no matter how illogical liberals think that alliance is.

My question is, why is it so rare to see a voter challenge a presidential candidate? It should happen all the time. We should expect them to face questions in unstaged situations. But hand-shaking and conversation are old-fashioned in an age of security cordons, nine-figure campaign funds, and stage-managed "town hall meetings." Once the candidates get past Iowa, New Hampshire, and the other tiny early-primary states, facing voters one on one is a rare thing.

You can just imagine presidential candidates' strategists looking at Joe's fame and saying, "That's it. After February, none of this 'regular people at a picnic' crap."

They don't want to risk a gaffe, or any cable-ready unscripted moment. But now it's more than that: They don't want to accidentally spawn a congressional candidate.

To read my profile of Kucinich, "The Missionary," click here. To see The Complete Kucinich, an archive of Cleveland Magazine's coverage of Kucinich's career, click here.

(Photo: Rona Proudfoot of Lorain, Ohio)

City council to consider exempting small music clubs from admissions tax

2011-10-17T13:43:00.006-04:00

*Updated 10/18

For months, fans of Cleveland’s small music clubs have been challenging the city’s entertainment admissions tax. Now they’ll have some legislation they can get behind.

Councilman Joe Cimperman says he’ll introduce a proposed ordinance tonight or next Monday to exempt clubs with less than ~~1,000~~ 700* capacity from the 8 percent tax on ticket sales.

“Local music is a huge return on investment in our communities,” Cimperman says. “Without the Beachland [Ballroom], Waterloo [Road] would be less. Without places like the Happy Dog and Brothers, those parts of town would be less.”

Music fans have been questioning the tax since this summer, when the Jackson Administration hit the Beachland with a $400,000 bill for back taxes, penalties and interest. The Plain Dealer broke the news, but Beachland aficionados really started rallying after this Scene cover story, which recounted the club's 11-year history of operating on a budget as thin as a guitar string.

The Beachland and five other local clubs formed the Cleveland Music Club Coalition to fight the tax. They argue that the 8 percent rate is too high compared to other cities (Columbus and Lakewood have no admissions tax, Cleveland Heights levies 3 percent).

“The goal is to support smaller clubs that have a tighter margin to work with, to support local music in the rock capital of the world,” Cimperman says. Other councilmen with music clubs in their wards — Mike Polensek, Jay Westbrook and Matt Zone — have also been working on the issue.

The ~~1,000~~ 700*-capacity cutoff would exempt a bunch of locally-owned venues, but not their chain-owned competitor, the 1,200-seat House of Blues. One member of the Club Coalition, the Agora, might have to add the tax to some tickets and not others, depending on whether it used its ballroom or main theater.

Cimperman says the exemption won't be retroactive -- which means the Beachland will still have to settle its tax debt.*

Prospects for the proposed ordinance aren’t clear. The admissions tax generated almost $16 million in 2010, a revenue stream Mayor Jackson’s administration may be less than eager to trim in tough budget times. The city already faces a possible $4.5 million dip in admissions tax revenue if the NBA labor dispute scuttles the Cavaliers’ season.

*Update, 10/18: The ordinance was introduced last night, with a cutoff of 700 (not 1,000), and Cimperman, Polensek, Westbrook and Zone as co-sponsors. Clubs that owe back taxes, such as the Beachland and Peabody's, would have to settle their debts before they could qualify for the exemption.

Jackson sounds like he's against the proposal: "People owe, they should pay. We have a city to run. We can't run it on air." See the Plain Dealer story here.

Corruption charge filed against former Cleveland councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott

2011-09-29T14:06:00.008-04:00

The corruption investigation has touched Cleveland City Hall again. Former councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott was charged today with taking $2,000 from businessman Michael Forlani in exchange for supporting his development of Cleveland's new veterans' hospital tower.

Pierce Scott represented Glenville's Ward 8 from 2002 to 2009, when she abruptly and mysteriously resigned from city council.

The charge suggests Pierce Scott asked for, and got, $2,000 in cash to pay her daughter's tuition as well as a job for her son with Forlani's company Doan Pyramid Electric. In exchange, it's alleged, Pierce Scott co-sponsored several pieces of legislation that supported the veterans' hospital tower, including a tax financing agreement.

I say "suggests" because the filing doesn't name Forlani, who hasn't been charged with a crime, or his companies. But the details about "BE 10," "Business 14," and "Business 42" make his identity clear. It also doesn't name the VA hospital tower, but the references to a $120 million project with Port Authority financing are unmistakable.

The filing also says Pierce Scott chewed out an unnamed fellow councilperson at a 2006 finance committee meeting for questioning the amount of minority participation on the hospital project.

"How dare you use your own approach to question a project in my ward without having a discussion with me first," the prosecutors quote her as saying. "I don't mess with your projects and don't you mess with mine."

Sounds like a typical city council turf war, if not for the alleged cash in an envelope! (Update, 9/30: Zack Reed tells the Plain Dealer he's the councilman Pierce Scott ripped into. That makes sense. Reed often pushes for minority participation in construction jobs, and he often breaks the unofficial council rule Pierce Scott so clearly articulated in the quote, that councilpeople don't question what goes on in others' wards.)

Prosecutors filed the charge against Pierce Scott as an information, not an indictment, usually a sign that the defendant is cooperating with the investigation.

The charge finally brings to light a quiet part of the FBI's corruption investigation. The VA project was named three years ago in a search warrant executed on Jimmy Dimora's office. Forlani's Doan Pyramid Electric was raided on the same day. But no county employee was ever charged with improperly influencing the VA project. Instead, a former city councilwoman is now charged with doing so.

Primary moves back to March 6; Kucinich-Kaptur, prosecutor races to heat up

2011-09-23T14:59:00.006-04:00

UPDATED with Kevin Kelley campaign announcement.

Buried in the news that Ohio Republicans rushed their ruthlessly gerrymandered congressional map through the state House and Senate this week was another change: Ohio's 2012 primary will be on March 6 after all, not May.

So if Mitt Romney and Rick Perry battle to a near-tie this winter, Ohio Republicans may actually get a say in who their presidential candidate will be, as Democrats here did in the tight 2008 race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

It also means campaigning will start soon in two big local races. Dennis Kucinich will be fighting to stay in Congress, forced to compete against fellow progressive Marcy Kaptur from Toledo.

And the race to succeed Bill Mason as county prosecutor will get hot fast.

Cleveland city councilman Kevin Kelley announced today that he's running for the job. (No, he's not Parma's J. Kevin Kelley, of corruption scandal fame.) "Kelley’s plans for the office include expanding the community-based prosecution model, improving efficiencies to save taxpayer dollars, and focusing on quality of life crimes that destroy neighborhoods," his press release says.

I've already blogged that Subodh Chandra, Bob Triozzi, and James McDonnell are running. Recently, Mike McIntyre, in Tipoff, basically confirmed a rumor I've heard: that judge Timothy McGinty is thinking about running too.

Meanwhile, Brent Larkin swiped at Mason in his Sunday column, as if to urge voters to elect a less political prosecutor this time.

Cuyahoga Co.'s vote by mail campaign kicks off

2011-09-23T14:30:00.008-04:00

They can't do a mass mailing, so they're inviting you, even urging you: ask us for a ballot!

Cuyahoga County's board of elections kicked off a drive yesterday telling residents how they can vote by mail in this November's election. They've asked 400 local institutions to put a Request a Vote By Mail Ballot Application link on their websites. The link goes to a nifty new page that lets residents create a personalized mail-in ballot application. They can download it, or have it mailed to them. They can also download a blank application.

Voters can also call pick up ballot applications at libraries or call the board to request them at (216) 443-3298.

Cuyahoga County residents got used to voting by mail between 2006 and 2010, when the county sent the applications to every voter's home. Next year, every Ohioan will get an application for the 2012 presidential election, thanks to the bargain between Ed FitzGerald and Jon Husted. But for the this November's election -- mostly a referendum on Senate Bill 5 plus some local contests -- people who want to vote by mail will have to ask for a ballot. So Cuyahoga County -- which still wants voters to vote by mail to prevent long lines at the polls -- is doing everything else it can to make it easy.

Voters in other counties can also contact their board of elections -- here's a list.

Update, 9/24: The fragile bipartisan coalition around Cuyahoga County's vote by mail effort is breaking up.

Rob Frost, county Republican chair (and congressional candidate) has resigned from the county's vote by mail task force, upset that several unions have asked the county for ballot applications. The AFL-CIO asked for 185,000. Frost thinks having the county pay to print them, when they'd be used for a political group's get out the vote efforts, would amount to an end run around FitzGerald's deal with Husted. See today's Tipoff here. Update, 9/26: FitzGerald and others on the task force tell Tipoff that the unions are printing their own applications.

Plusquellic wins Akron mayoral primary

2011-09-14T10:07:00.004-04:00

Even after 24 years, Don Plusquellic is still Akron's indispensable man. So the city's voters decided yesterday, giving the mayor a 55 percent to 43 percent victory in the Democratic primary against challenger Mike Williams.

Plusquellic's record of accomplishment triumphed again over the complaints about his sometimes abrasive personality. Much of Williams' 40-point campaign plan was written as a critique of Plusquellic's leadership style. But the mayor, energized at the chance to take on a longtime rival, spun his combativeness as a positive. "Don Plusquellic is Fighting for Us... Because He Is One of Us," read a campaign flier. "The leader we need in tough times."

The mayor's aggressive, innovative record on job attraction and retention earned him the support of Akron's power elite. His victory party was filled with city leaders, the Beacon Journal reports, including CEOs, University of Akron president Luis Proenza, city councilpeople and Summit County officials.

In his victory speech, the mayor promised to revive his biggest, most elusive goal: setting up a scholarship program for Akron high school students. As he did in my interview with him, Plusquellic said he's willing to “work with anybody who didn’t mislead the public” -- a dig at Williams, who he feels misled voters about his 2008 ballot proposal to fund scholarships by leasing the city sewers.

Akron's intensely combative politics are not about to mellow out. Two pro-Plusquellic city councilpeople lost yesterday, inspiring Williams to renew his opposition to the mayor's leadership. “I’ve got some new members of council who are prepared to change how we function,” Williams said, according to the Beacon. “We cannot tolerate this old way of doing business.”

To read “Tire Calling,” my article about Plusquellic in the September issue of Cleveland Magazine, click here. For other excerpts from my interview in the latest issue of Inside Business, click here.

Kucinich sounds like he'll stay, run against Kaptur

2011-09-13T18:50:00.000-04:00

Looks like the Dennis-to-Seattle buzz was a feint. Here's Dennis Kucinich's reaction to the Republicans' redistricting map:

It is an amazing turn of events that the legislature decided not to dismantle the district I represent.

I have been praying that I could continue to serve my Cleveland-area constituency and it looks like I have a chance.

That is all I could have hoped for.

That's not to say the Republicans have left Kucinich an intact district. He's been thrown into a stretched-on-the-rack monster as thin and ridiculous as the original gerrymander: a piece of Toledo and a piece of Cleveland strung together by a tiny strip of shoreline. I'd call it the Route 2 district, for the lake-hugging highway, except it's so thin that even Route 2 probably slips out of it for a piece. Take a look at it in this pdf.

But Kucinich sees something most people didn't today: the map keeps Kucinich's base together -- Cleveland's West Side and Lakewood.

The new map pits him against Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, an ally and fellow member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It's a cruel dare -- will two friends fight for the same unnaturally created congressional seat?

Will Cleveland have to get to know Kaptur, and Toledo Kucinich, in the primary this winter or spring?

The map sets off a lot more drama. Marcia Fudge's district stretches down I-77 to Akron, peeling away enough voters who know her well that state Sen. Nina Turner might have more of a chance if she challenges her. Steve Latourette gets a bigger slice of Cuyahoga County. Betty Sutton is either redistricted out of a job or into an uphill fight against Jim Renacci, who also may end up representing a piece of Cuyahoga County. Meanwhile, the Democrats and Republicans are fighting over whether the primaries will come in March or May.

But the best storyline is surely the latest twist in Kucinich's 40-plus-year relationship with Cleveland. It's not over yet.

To read my profile of Kucinich, "The Missionary," click here. To see The Complete Kucinich, an archive of Cleveland Magazine's coverage of Kucinich's career, click here.

Plusquellic, charismatic and combative as ever, aims for 7th term Tuesday

2011-09-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

This summer I went to Akron to meet Don Plusquellic, the big personality who’s dominated the town’s politics since he was elected mayor in 1987. I’d blogged about him before and interviewed him by phone long ago. But during his campaign for a seventh term, I wanted to size up the guy in person.

I hoped he’d prove to be as intense, charismatic and combative as his reputation. And he was.

“This is a magic wand,” Plusquellic announced, waving a gavel handle, at a press conference. “It is a magic wand that good people, even probably my own mother, wishes I had waved a long time ago, to bring 35,000 or 40,000 or 50,000 rubber jobs back to this city.”

It was his sarcastic, strong-willed way of reminding voters that he’s spent 24 years trying to expand what a city hall can do for a local economy, while forging partnerships with businesses and suburban neighbors.

I thought I might get a dose of Plusquellic’s endless feud with his motley crew of enemies, the fury he inspires and inflicts.

“I despise ‘em, I think they’re despicable human beings, and I put Mike in that category, of people who lie to the public,” he told me.

“Mike” is Mike Williams, Plusquellic’s opponent in Tuesday’s mayoral primary. Plusquellic thinks Williams misled voters about his failed 2008 plan to fund college scholarships for Akron kids by leasing the city sewers. It’s one of several reasons the mayor’s race has gotten fiercely personal.

Tuesday’s election looks like it’ll be a referendum on Plusquellic — both his record of job creation and his combative politics. You can read “Tire Calling,” my article about the Rubber City’s mayor, in the September issue of Cleveland Magazine and online here.

Race to replace Mason taking shape; Triozzi resigns to run for prosecutor

2011-09-07T15:21:00.004-04:00

People call Labor Day the start of the fall campaign season, but that's much too simple. Here in Cleveland, the 11th Congressional District parade marked the point when two campaign seasons sped up.

The Democrats' campaign to repeal Senate Bill 5 in November got the attention -- it was Labor Day, after all. But it also marked the start of the 2012 race to replace Bill Mason as Cuyahoga County prosecutor.

Subodh Chandra, who was Cleveland law director in the Campbell Administration, and James McDonnell, former North Royalton city prosecutor and brother of county judge Nancy McDonnell, both marched in the parade as candidates for the prosecutor's job.

They launched their campaign websites earlier this summer, but you're forgiven if you didn't know that. Only serious party loyalists have been paying attention so far, with the all-important Democratic primary still eight months away, in May (or March, if the Democrats' petition drive to stop Ohio's new election law succeeds).

Not to be outrun, Cleveland law director Bob Triozzi resigned today and declared he's a candidate too. Triozzi ran for mayor in 2005 and got about 10 percent of the vote, impressing Frank Jackson enough to win City Hall's top-lawyer job as a consolation prize.

Chandra ran for attorney general in 2006 and lost in the primary to Marc Dann, a decision state Democratic primary voters surely regretted after Dann's ridiculous scandals knocked him from office.

It's the first wide-open prosecutor's race in Cuyahoga County in 55 years, the first since Frank Cullitan, Eliot Ness' partner in crusading anti-corruption battles, retired in 1956 and John T. Corrigan won the race to take his place. We've only had three prosecutors since then, and Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Bill Mason both got the job through mid-term appointments by Democratic party insiders.

I wouldn't be surprised if even more candidates jump into this race. Given the office's history, it's an opportunity that opens up once in a lawyer's lifetime.

Ballot war ends; all Ohio voters to get vote by mail application in 2012

2011-09-02T15:06:00.004-04:00

Turns out Ed FitzGerald is a shrewd negotiator, and Jon Husted meant what he said about treating all voters the same. They've ended their battle over voting-by-mail with a dramatic compromise announced this morning.

FitzGerald extracted a major promise from the secretary of state and Republican leaders in the legislature: Husted will send every Ohioan an application for a mail-in ballot for the 2012 presidential election. The legislature will agree to let Husted use federal money from the Help America Vote Act to pay for it. That'll help prevent long lines at the polls from returning in 2012.

The deal satisfies the Republican goal of treating voters in all 88 counties the same. They're doing something I thought they wouldn't do, the opposite of the thrust of their newly passed election law. They're taking urban counties' best solution for overcrowded voting locations and expanding it to everyone, instead of banning it.

FitzGerald had to make a major concession to get a deal with Husted. He had to drop Cuyahoga County's plan to send out ballot applications for the 2011 election. No other county was going to do it, which defied Husted's insistence on creating uniform statewide standards.

Jill Miller Zimon, over at Writes Like She Talks, sounds disappointed, skeptical about the details. But I think the compromise is shrewd. This year's Senate Bill 5 referendum is big, but the presidential election is much bigger.

By using his leverage to make voting easier for people across Ohio, FitzGerald becomes more of a force in state politics -- note how the Columbus Dispatch report calls him "perhaps Cleveland's most powerful Democrat." And Husted gets to reclaim his image as a moderate in ballot controversies. It won't stop the fight over HB 194, but it's the sort of bipartisan compromise on voting issues that has become all too rare.

The biggest question left is, will the statewide mailing only happen once, in 2012? Or will the deal create a precedent that Ohio will follow from then on?

FitzGerald vs. Republicans: the new voting war

2011-09-01T13:19:00.004-04:00

So another ballot battle has broken out in town, another partisan fight about how Greater Clevelanders vote. This time it’s between Ed FitzGerald and Jon Husted, the Cuyahoga County executive and the secretary of state, and it’s about the absentee ballot applications all county residents get in the mail.

I get why FitzGerald and the county council decided to have county workers mass-mail those applications to everyone, now that a new election law says boards of elections can’t do it anymore.

The county has been sending absentee applications to all voters since 2006, and it’s helped prevent a repeat of the terrible polling-place traffic jams that marred the 2004 presidential election. I wrote a lot about the voting problems we struggled with a few years ago, and I don’t want to see them come back.

Still, I’m finding the whole fight disappointing. One reason is I don’t think it’ll end well. Republicans in the legislature, enraged that FitzGerald found a way around their new election law, may simply ban counties from doing it again, making FitzGerald’s clever move a mere one-time victory.

Also, it’s tiring to see FitzGerald fall in with the partisan troops. “All the usual suspects are lining up,” he complains of the Republicans, but by saying that, isn’t he lining up on the other side? His use of the fight as ammo in a Democratic Party fundraising letter escalates the conflict. It’s another chapter in a sorry story: At least since the 2000 Florida recount, we’ve been stuck fighting over dueling Democratic and Republican ways of conducting elections.

FitzGerald didn’t start this particular battle. Republicans in the legislature did when they passed HB 194, which banned the mass mailing of absentee applications by election boards. Secretary of state Jon Husted followed up last week with a directive that did the same, before the law takes effect.

(Democrats are circulating petitions to repeal HB 194, which also cuts early voting at election offices from five weeks to two. They say the law is aimed at their voters. Early and absentee voting helped President Obama get out the vote in Ohio in 2008.)

Republicans’ argument for stopping the mass mailings is that if some counties send them out and others can’t afford it, then the state is tolerating “unequal treatment of voters in different counties,” as Republican state auditor David Yost wrote.

The argument does have a certain logic to it – it’s not “deceitful,” as state Rep. Mike Foley said yesterday. But it ignores the fact that long lines to vote are a more serious problem in urban counties and college towns than in small rural precincts. And it throws out a helpful solution rather than expanding it. Even if you give Republicans the benefit of the doubt about their motivation, they’re still so worried about consistency, they’re insisting on a system that’s less helpful to voters than it could be.

Yost may come out of this looking worse than anyone. He knows that HB 194 doesn’t stop counties from mass-mailing ballots, just county election boards. So his warning that he may punish Cuyahoga County with a “finding of recovery” in its next audit is a misuse of his authority. And his blog post, “The Wreck of Edward FitzGerald,” which slyly connects the county executive with the old county government’s scandals, shows he’s more interested in fighting with a Democrat than watching the books.

Husted’s arguments with FitzGerald are especially disappointing because, until last week, it looked like he was a moderate in the ballot wars, the Republican who discouraged his fellow Republicans from passing a new voter ID law. But his awful reaction to FitzGerald’s move – he said he might block boards of elections from processing mass-mailed ballot applications -- would’ve really caused a vote-suppression scandal.

Connie Schultz got Husted to back off that idea (he said he’d been “thinking out loud”). Her column yesterday encouraged his independent instincts. We’ll need to see a lot more of that side of Husted, if Ohio is going to have any hope of avoiding another partisan blood feud around our voting rules in 2012.

Voinovich on debt talks: House Republicans 'would rather lose than win'

2011-07-25T07:49:00.006-04:00

When the debt ceiling talks in Washington collapsed this weekend, I thought of George Voinovich. I interviewed the former senator June 2 for the current issue of Inside Business, and I asked him about the fiscal future of the country.

"Bleak," he said. "They'll fiddle-faddle around."

Voinovich sketched out a mostly prescient preview of the debt ceiling talks. House Speaker John Boehner "has a problem, because he has a bunch of newer members who really are not dry behind the ears, and many of them, because of their positions, would rather lose than win," Voinovich said. "He’s got to try to keep that group together.

"So I think that the House will increase the debt limit temporarily." (Even that hasn't happened so far. Democrats reject a temporary fix.) "They will then say they’re going to have a 'conversation' about dealing with the debt. The conversation will go nowhere because they will not agree to new taxes.

"The fact is you cannot get the job done without increasing taxes."

That quote there highlights the difference between Voinovich and most Republicans in Washington today. Many House conservatives have refused to raise the debt ceiling without severe spending cuts, but they refuse to raise any taxes to deal with the debt. Voinovich is a different kind of conservative. He's a deficit hawk. Confronting the debt is his top priority, and he'd be willing to raise taxes as well as cut spending to do it.

Freed from life in Washington, Voinovich sounds as frustrated with his fellow Republicans in the nation’s capital as he is with the Democrats. In my interview with him, he explains why he often calls President Obama a socialist. But he also blasts fellow Republicans in Washington for not listening to regular people and putting partisan battles ahead of the good of the country.

To read Voinovich's thoughts in the July-August Inside Business, click here.

Chalk protest aims to save Columbia Building from casino

2011-07-09T14:26:00.007-04:00

The Columbia Building may face a death sentence, but several artistic activists brought new life to it last night. They covered the sidewalk on Prospect Avenue with chalk designs and messages protesting Dan Gilbert's plan to demolish the 103-year-old building to make way for casino parking.

The protest was billed as an "art attack," but it was as peaceful as can be, filling the concrete with color.

"Downtown Cleveland belongs to all of us," read a flyer from the group Save Lower Prospect Avenue. "Its skyline is our calling card to the world and is central to our identity." It urged Clevelanders to call to write Mayor Frank Jackson and Councilman Joe Cimperman, and tweet casino owner Dan Gilbert's @cavsdan Twitter feed with the message "DowntownIsOurTown."

A reprieve for the Columbia is unlikely. City council and the mayor support Gilbert's casino parking plan, and the city's Landmarks Commission voted 4-3 last month to allow the Columbia to be torn down. Still, the art event reminded Clevelanders of the value of downtown's historic character. "If we can't save this one, maybe we can save the next one," a chalk-protester said.

See the Plain Dealer's coverage here.

Update, 7/22: Demolition started this week. This guy captured the scene in a video on YouTube.

Legislature nixes Cleveland's trans-fat ban

2011-07-08T17:45:00.004-04:00

Ohio lawmakers crammed a bunch of stuff into the new state budget, including this: They've overturned Cleveland's ban on trans fats in restaurant food.

City council passed the trans-fat ban in April, arguing that the industrially produced fats are especially bad for people's health. (Here's my blog post about chatting with Matt Zone about the law the night it passed.) It was supposed to go into effect in 2013.

But the Ohio Restaurant Association immediately asked the legislature to step in. They don't like the city law's documentation and reporting requirements. They want one set of restaurant regulations for the whole state, not a bunch of local laws. So the new law gives all power to regulate nutrition in Ohio restaurants to the state Department of Agriculture.

Rick Cassara, owner of John Q's Steakhouse on Public Square, told the Columbus Dispatch he's against cumbersome regulations of restaurants. "I do have a problem when it gets too much into telling us what we should and shouldn't serve or telling the consumer what they should and shouldn't eat," he said.

Joe Cimperman, who sponsored the ban, is furious. "This is an absolute affront," he told the Dispatch. He says Cleveland will sue to defend the ban. He thinks protecting citizens' health is part of a city's home rule powers.

But lawsuits to defend home rule in Ohio have been failing lately. The state has overturned Cleveland's predatory lending law and its residency requirement for city employees, just to name two. What are the odds a food law will survive?

Thoughtful stance on school reforms gets a little less lonely

2011-07-01T10:38:00.008-04:00

"Lesson Plan," Dan Moulthrop's essay in June's Cleveland Magazine, tries to find a middle ground in the polarized debate about Senate Bill 5. Moulthrop, a journalist and former teacher, asks how we can reform education to reward good teaching without waging an all-out war on unions.

It was a lonely place to be, but it's less lonely now. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who opposes SB5, recently asked state legislators to include merit pay for teachers and new layoff rules in the state's budget. This week, they gave him most of what he asked for. (See below for update.)

The conversation Moulthrop wants to have about teaching is becoming more important. It's starting to look like Republicans overreached with SB5. Ohioans will probably reject the law on the ballot in November. The question is, what happens after that?

Nothing, most teachers seem to hope. WCPN's Ida Lieszkovszky got an earful from some of them about Jackson's stance. So did I, on WCPN's Reporters' Roundtable last week, when our talk about Jackson's move brought a string of anxious calls from teachers. One union official quickly dismissed judging teachers by test scores, then said supervisors' evaluations are too subjective. So is there really no fair way to evaluate teachers?

The question is becoming more urgent. Layoffs by seniority are dismantling the staffs of Cleveland's innovation schools, dismissing teachers carefully chosen for their expertise. Reforms of teacher tenure and layoff rules just passed in Michigan. Ohio voters like the merit pay portion of SB5. Change is coming.

That's Moulthrop's message in his essay for us:

Teachers, administrators, school boards and anyone who cares about their community's schools ... should start conversations about what great teaching really looks like, about classrooms where every student is engaged and focused, seeking the next challenge because they know how satisfying it is to learn something new.

Blogging at the Civic Commons this week, Moulthrop amplifies his point. As carefully and patiently as he did in his essay, he nudges teachers to get ready for reform rather than fight it:

Even if SB5 is repealed, it's unlikely that ten years from now teachers will still be paid and retained based on longevity. If teachers don't involve themselves in crafting a compensation system they can get behind, they may wind up having to deal with something imposed on them. That wouldn't be good for the profession and probably wouldn't be good for students.

Update, 7/8: Actually, Jackson was disappointed with what the General Assembly gave him. He's talking about converting some innovation schools to charter schools in order to preserve their staffs against future layoffs by seniority. The staffs would be de-unionized too. See the Plain Dealer story here.

East Cleveland makes a deal over Huron Hospital; Cleveland goes to court

2011-06-29T17:50:00.006-04:00

Cleveland’s suing, but East Cleveland’s cutting a deal. That’s the latest news in the fight over the planned closing of Huron Hospital.

East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton (pictured) and Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove announced today that the Clinic will give the city $8 million over five years to cushion the blow of losing its second-largest employer.

The Clinic also agreed to help with one of East Cleveland’s biggest problems: vacant buildings. Not only will the Clinic demolish the hospital and give the land to the city, it’s also going to knock down a few extra buildings it doesn’t own: some apartments and offices on Euclid Avenue.

Now, Norton, 39, will have to convince East Clevelanders that the deal is worth giving up the fight. He’s already making the case.

“While most cities receive nothing when a hospital closes,” Norton said in a statement, “East Cleveland has worked with Cleveland Clinic to secure financial and other support which will ease our city’s financial pressure, prevent the facility from becoming an eyesore and help us aggressively pursue development opportunities.”

Meanwhile, Frank Jackson’s not giving up. Cleveland filed a federal lawsuit today to try to stop the Clinic from closing Huron’s trauma center, where Cleveland EMS takes 3,000 patients a year.

It’ll be worth watching how East Cleveland and Cleveland get along after this. The last time East Cleveland cut a deal in a big legal battle while Cleveland fought on, it hurt relations between the towns for years. In 1998, when East Cleveland’s Emmanuel Onunwor reached a settlement with the railroad CSX to allow increased train traffic, Cleveland’s Mike White lashed out. He killed talks about Cleveland taking over East Cleveland’s water system, delaying the takeover for a decade.

But Jackson is not as vindictive as White. He may also understand Norton’s position. East Cleveland gets $1 million a year in income taxes from Huron Hospital’s 800 employees. The city’s entire budget is only $26 million. Now Norton plugs that financial hole for a while and buys time to try to attract businesses to all that vacant land.

To read my Dec. 2009 profile of Norton, "Who Wants to Be Mayor of East Cleveland?", click here.

Pepper Pike, Orange, Moreland Hills & Woodmere may merge in 2014

2011-06-22T12:49:00.004-04:00

Everyone talks about regionalism, but no one ever does anything about it. Until today, when Pepper Pike, Orange, Moreland Hills and Woodmere's mayors announced they’re looking into merging their towns together by 2014.

OK, so launching a study, with Cuyahoga County’s help, isn’t exactly action. It’ll take three steps and 2½ years to merge: first the study, then a formal merger commission in 2012, then approval by all four towns’ residents in 2013.

Still, it’s big news, a leap of faith by all four mayors, and a provocative move compared to regionalism baby-steps such as shared fire departments. County executive Ed FitzGerald, who called the press conference, now has something to show for his regionalism efforts beyond his underwhelming no-poaching proposal this month.

“[I hope] it will give encouragement to a lot of other mayors that I know are having these conversations, but having them very quietly,” FitzGerald said this morning.

The four mayors said their goal is to lower taxes across the four suburbs by creating a more efficient government. Even the sight of the four of them together — old and young, men and women, three white and one black — seemed like a mini-poster-moment for regional unity.

“I think it’s time for leaders in smaller communities to try to come together,” said Woodmere Mayor Charles Smith.

“It does not make sense,” said Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers, “for a county of this size to have 57 political subdivisions.”

The merger would make the three villages and one city into a medium-sized suburb of 13,500 people. The mayors have bounced around possible names for a combined town: Chagrin Hills, maybe.

At first glance, it seems like a good marriage. The four towns already share the Orange school district, a recreation department, senior citizens’ programs and a library. Each brings something: Pepper Pike (population 5,979) and Moreland Hills (3,320) are wealthy residential communities with little industry. Orange (population 3,323) has more of a mix of homes and shopping. Woodmere, the tiniest at 884 people, has the Eton Collection and its retail workers’ income taxes.

The Pepper Pike, Moreland Hills and Woodmere mayors sounded sold on the idea. Orange Mayor Kathy Mulcahy was more skeptical. She thanked FitzGerald and his regionalism point man, Ed Jerse, for “giving us the tools to study the concept” and “really measure whether there were savings” from consolidation.

“Everyone’s been touting that as the panacea for all that ails us,” Mulcahy said. “And I want to see the numbers that show us where the savings are and that it truly is the way to go.”

Moreland Hills Mayor Susan Renda said she thinks the four towns can become “a test case for other communities in the region.” That’s why this is a big step. Lots of towns in Cuyahoga County could become stronger in a union with their neighbors.

FitzGerald built drama by announcing the press conference overnight but not naming the four merger-curious mayors. So I bounced the mystery around the magazine offices this morning: Who’s merging? Parma-Parma Heights-Brooklyn and a wild card? Makes sense for Brooklyn, since it’s losing American Greetings. North Randall-Warrensville Heights? Newburgh/Cuyahoga/Brooklyn/Garfield Heights?

It’s easy to play with the map and brainstorm bigger towns. But it’s painstaking to merge tax rates and town halls and weave through the lengthy merger process in state law. Voters, like Mulcahy, will ask tough questions: what’s in it for us?

Besides, even the tiniest towns have an identity and don’t want to lose it. The mayors said they’ll talk about ways to preserve their towns’ identities in a bigger burb.

“Our community will not be gobbled up,” said Woodmere’s Smith. “This will be something to sustain our community, to curb costs, and to preserve the integrity of our community.”

(Photo, left to right: Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers, Woodmere Mayor Charles Smith, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, and Moreland Hills Mayor Susan Renda. Orange Mayor Kathy Mulcahy, not visible, is standing behind Smith.)

Fresh thinking about SB5

2011-06-17T10:31:00.006-04:00

Gov. John Kasich e-mailed his supporters this week, asking them to spread the word about SB5's "common sense reforms." The other side, gathering petition signatures to stop SB5, says the new law will "destroy jobs and harm communities."

Republicans or unions? Teachers and cops or budget-cutters? The arguments are polarized, and they'll get more so by November, when Ohioans will likely vote on whether to overturn the law's limits on government employees' collective bargaining.

It's easy to take a side, and most commentators do. But who's actually writing for the undecided voter? Not many.

That's why I think Dan Moulthrop's commentary on SB5 and the teaching profession is the best, most thoughtful piece I've read on the law -- which is why we published it in the Talking Points section of this month's Cleveland Magazine.

You may know Moulthrop from his role with The Civic Commons, the new civic-journalism website in town, or his previous job as WCPN's morning show host.

He's also a former teacher and co-author of a book, the ironically titled Teachers Have It Easy, on how to improve the teaching profession. (One of his co-authors is Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, co-founder of McSweeney's and the writing and tutoring program 826 Valencia.) The book's just been made into a documentary, American Teacher.

Moulthrop makes it clear he'll vote to repeal SB5 if it's on the November ballot. He thinks its restrictions on unions' dues and memberships amount to a political power grab.

Yet SB5's education reforms go right at an issue he's passionate about: how to define and reward good teaching. He writes:

Despite my feelings about the law, I think it may have created a chance to improve schools.

SB 5 and Gov. John Kasich's budget deal will radically change how teachers get paid. Raises will be based on performance evaluations, peer review (where it's in place), value-added measures (which measure growth in students' test scores rather than just the score itself) and any other criteria established by a local school board.

Many educators complain these requirements are vague. That's not a problem, though. It's an opportunity.

To read Moulthrop's commentary, "Lesson Plan," click here. To see his blog post about it on the Civic Commons, click here.

Me & Feagler, schools CEO & Huron Hospital

2011-06-10T12:43:00.007-04:00

It's been a big news week in Cleveland, and I was lucky to be invited to talk about it on this weekend's episode of WVIZ's Feagler & Friends current-affairs show.

I talked with host Dick Feagler and the rest of the reporters' panel about new Cleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon, whom I met while working on my profile of Peter Raskind, the interim CEO. We discussed the closing of Huron Hospital and its effects on East Cleveland, where I've done a lot of reporting.

We chatted about how Avon will pay for a new I-90 exit -- Julie Wallace, managing editor of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, took the lead on that. Bill Shiel of Fox 8, the third panelist, told Feagler he thought the unusual jury selection for the Anthony Sowell trial was illegal.

The show airs tonight at 8:30 and Sunday at 12:30 pm on WVIZ.

Update, 6/13: Check out the video. The panel discussion starts around the 9:20 mark.

Columbia Building will be razed for casino parking

2011-06-09T12:26:00.014-04:00

The casino trumps the landmark. The city Landmarks Commission voted 4-3 today to let the Columbia Building on Prospect Avenue be torn down to make way for valet parking for the Higbee Building casino.

Preservation advocates rallied to try to save the Columbia at today’s 2½ hour meeting. (One attendee tweeted the meeting.)

But the Landmarks Commission staff had failed to find an alternative that made room for casino parking on that block but spared the vacant eight-story building, built in 1908.

The Jackson Administration, which encouraged Dan Gilbert to open his casino in the Higbee Building, supported the demolition. (Here’s my earlier post on that.)

The casino plans are a painful tradeoff for people who love downtown’s historic character. Losing the Columbia Building means losing a stately, century-old streetscape.

Also, the bridge that’ll connect the parking to the Higbee Building casino will slice diagonally through the historic intersection of Ontario and Prospect. Architecture critic Steven Litt recently called it the type of move that could “erode a city’s visual integrity and sense of place, even its identity.” This attractive rendering of the future casino isn’t accurate anymore, as a commenter on my blog pointed out.

The parking bridge will connect to the Higbee Building right at that attractive corner façade.

It's an awkward change to a much-beloved Public Square landmark -- one that's also going to be heavily renovated to give it that modern, high-rolling casino style.

It’s not easy to wedge a mini-Vegas into a historic downtown. Lots of preservation-minded people don’t want to make the compromise and lose the Columbia. But in this post on his Cleveland History Blog, Cleveland State librarian Bill Barrow gently and humorously encourages them to make the trade.

Update, 6/13: Steven Litt is mad. His Sunday column blasts Rock Gaming for revealing its plans little by little, making it hard to judge the casino's true impact on downtown. He calls the Columbia Building vote kabuki theater, "a form of drama in which the outcome is always predictable."

Jackson, school board switch course, name internal candidate Eric Gordon as new Cleveland schools CEO

2011-06-07T10:00:00.004-04:00

A surprise announcement from Mayor Jackson and the Cleveland school board this morning: They've named Eric Gordon, the district's chief academic officer, as the new schools CEO.

The school board rejected the search committee's top three candidates, all from outside the district. They went back to Gordon, who had made the top nine, but not the final round of interviews.

Gordon, 40, is not the sort of leader who dominates a room. He's more the smart guy who writes the plan and carries it out. He played a major role in creating the academic transformation plan, the Cleveland schools' strategy for reforming itself. He worked his way up from school principal in the Toledo and Columbus areas.

I encountered Gordon several times while writing my profile of interim schools CEO Peter Raskind. It was clear that Raskind was relying on Gordon to bring him up to speed on the schools' key issues. Raskind played a substantial role in the CEO search, and I wouldn't be surprised if he spoke up for Gordon's talents when the front-runners came up short.

Clearly, Jackson and the school board were underwhelmed by the top three finalists. Patrick O'Donnell's Plain Dealer profiles of them made the dilemma clear. Grand Rapids, Mich. superintendent Bernard Taylor has gotten results and impressed his school board, but antagonized the local teachers' union. Chris Scott of Lowell, Mass. was the opposite, beloved by the union but on the outs with her board. Cheryl Atkinson was respected for steering the Lorain schools out of crisis, but the district had not made great progress on state report cards.

With those profiles in mind, maybe the move back to Gordon isn't such a surprise after all.

Update, 5:25 pm: Cleveland.com just posted a sharp article on Gordon's appointment. Patrick O'Donnell reports:
- Raskind was offered the permanent CEO job and turned it down.
- Gordon will get only a one-year contract. "I plan to earn my right to continue," he says.
- Teacher's union president's reaction to the choice: "Wow. Really?"
- Jackson calls Gordon an attractive choice "for what we need to do in a short period of time."
- The mayor predicts the district won't need serious cuts or a tax increase for another two years, thanks to Raskind's work.
- The school board thought the three finalists hadn't innovated much compared to the reforms Gordon has helped implement here.

Update, 6/9: Plain Dealer columnist Kevin O'Brien reacts with measured praise for Gordon, but predicts he'll eventually have to "execute a graceful exit" once the transformation plan "drifts into the rocks of union resistance and the shoals of student and parental apathy." O'Brien's advice for Greater Clevelanders is also rather cynical, but mostly wise: "Don't suspend your disbelief. School superintendents are not magicians." It's a good antidote to the savior/disappointment clichés that attach themselves to big-city school leaders.

To read Gordon's resume (as a pdf), click here. To read "Quick Fixer," my profile of interim CEO Peter Raskind, click here.

As demolition vote nears, casino’s alliance with mayor becomes clear

2011-06-07T08:55:00.000-04:00

Should Cleveland let Dan Gilbert tear down a 100-year-old building to make way for casino parking? Urban activists are getting ready to flood a meeting at City Hall Thursday to say no. They want the Landmarks Commission to block the demolition of the Columbia Building on Prospect Avenue, a designated city landmark built in 1908.

It’s the biggest historic-preservation battle in town since the fight over the Ameritrust Tower four years ago. Preservation Ohio, the Historic Gateway Neighborhood organization, and the Cleveland Coalition, an activist group of young professionals, want to save the Columbia, which used to house Myers University and has been vacant for years.

But Gilbert’s Rock Ohio Caesars says it needs new, modern parking connected to the Higbee Building casino. And Gilbert has Mayor Jackson’s administration on its side.

A clash like this probably became inevitable as soon as Mayor Jackson nudged Gilbert to start his Cleveland casino in the Higbee Building. The mayor is a guy who values his commitments to others. So now that Gilbert’s doing what Jackson asked, Jackson won’t say no to the parking plan Gilbert says he needs. That’s why Jackson’s chief of staff, Ken Silliman, came to May’s Landmarks Commission meeting and argued for demolishing the Columbia (upsetting this writer for Rust Wire).

The activists have a point when they say a mega-sized valet parking facility at one of Cleveland’s main intersections, with several lanes of in-and-out traffic, doesn’t honor Gilbert’s commitment to fit the casino into downtown’s urban fabric. The plan will surely make Prospect Avenue near East Fourth Street unfriendly to pedestrians.

But the casino operators are trying to attract customers like this letter writer who expect easy access to the slots. So when the preservationists say the casino should use older parking, like the May Co. structure across Prospect, Gilbert’s people wave it off. They want the ultra-convenient, ultra-modern parking you see at most every casino, from Las Vegas to Detroit and Windsor.

Cleveland wouldn’t be confronting this tradeoff between its history and its future if not for the casino’s move to the Higbee Building. That’s the bigger story here. You might remember that when we voted on Issue 3 in 2009, Gilbert was saying he intended to build our little Vegas along Huron Road, kind of hanging off of Tower City. You might also remember that, at first, people called Higbee’s a “temporary” casino site.

There’s nothing temporary about the Higbee casino anymore. Gilbert calls it “Phase I” and is poised to spend $350 million on it. “Phase II,” the Huron Road casino project, has been put off until 2015 at the earliest. Cleveland Magazine columnist Mike Roberts has predicted that Phase II will probably never be built.

Jackson is committed to making the Higbee casino site work, so the pressure on the Landmarks Commission is getting stronger. Last night, city council voted to sell a parking garage near Quicken Loans Arena to Rock Ohio Caesars — which plans to link it to the valet parking operation on the Columbia Building site. Two Jackson Administration officials, sure votes to tear the building down, sit on the 11-member Landmarks Commission. The other nine members are about to feel the pressure to OK the wrecking ball.

Huron Hospital to close; Cleveland, East Cleveland may sue

2011-06-06T15:27:00.007-04:00

The Cleveland Clinic will close Huron Hospital in East Cleveland within three months -- setting up a confrontation between Cleveland's mayor and its largest employer.

Frank Jackson is mad. It sounds like he's going to sue. Cleveland's EMS takes 3,000 patients a year to Huron's emergency room. The mayor feels misled, and despite his normally placid personality, his anger when he decides he no longer trusts someone can be ferocious. (Just ask Jane Campbell.)

From his press release:

We have been engaged in what we believed to have been good faith negotiations regarding the ramifications of the closing of a level two trauma center at Huron Hospital. At no time did the Cleveland Clinic disclose their intent to close the entire hospital. In fact, when asked directly about the future of Huron Hospital, Clinic Officials stated that there was no intention to close the emergency room, let alone the entire facility. ...

The Cleveland Clinic has left the City with little choice but to resume legal action in an effort to protect the public health and safety interest of our community.

East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton may well join a lawsuit. Norton, 39, a politically skilled mayor in his first term, is facing a defining moment in his career: East Cleveland isn't just losing a hospital, but also its top employer. (To read my profile of Norton, click here.)

Hospital closings can become major controversies in Cleveland. Think back on the huge uproar over St. Michael and Deaconess hospitals in 2000, one of the key ingredients in Dennis Kucinich's populist legend.

But the savvy Clinic leadership must know this. I expect they know what they're getting into and have decided that now's the time to face up to it, even at the risk of alienating the city's political leadership. From the Clinic's press release:

Many factors negatively impacted this once-thriving hospital, including a steady decline in patient use, a rapidly shrinking population, costly maintenance of the hospital’s aging facilities, and substantial fixed costs that were much higher than the hospital could maintain.

The Clinic will replace Huron Hospital with the Huron Community Health Center, now under construction. Of course, the Clinic didn't put it that way last year when it broke ground on the $25 million health center, though some quotes from Clinic officials then sure read differently now.

Kucinich convinces House to vote on Libya

2011-06-03T12:27:00.002-04:00

Dennis Kucinich might be a gadfly, an "outlier," a radical solo act in Congress, but you can't say he's ignored. Not after today, when the House is finally, belatedly, debating the war in Libya.

Right now, the House is debating Kucinich's bill that would force President Obama to end U.S. participation in the NATO air strikes in Libya in 15 days. It's also debating House Speaker John Boehner's hastily written alternative, which calls on Obama to justify the operation to Congress and prohibits introducing American ground troops. Votes are set on both bills today.

It's a major shift from a few weeks ago, when Congress looked ready to give up on the War Powers Act with barely a whimper. The controversial 1973 law says presidents have to stop military actions after 60 days if they don't get approval from Congress. No president has ignored the War Powers Act like Obama has with Libya. The 60 days came and went last month, with hardly anyone in Congress raising a fuss.

But Kucinich pushed ahead with his bill, which started attracting a surprising amount of support from Republicans ready to stand up for Congress' power to declare war. Take a look at this Washington Post story on the Libya bills, which calls Kucinich "one of Congress' perennial outliers," but says his bill attracted "much broader support than expected."

Boehner almost found himself outflanked. He had to pull Kucinich's bill off the House floor Wednesday out of fear it might pass. "Boehner argued that it would be politically dangerous to essentially turn over the floor to Kucinich," the Capitol newspaper Roll Call reported yesterday.

Kucinich responded with a letter yesterday arguing that his bill is the real way to defend the War Powers Act and Congress' war-making authority.

This may not actually affect the war much. That Washington Post story also says Obama shows no intention of changing his approach with Congress on Libya. But Kucinich at least helped Congress stiffen its spine and assert itself about presidents making war. He made himself a force in the Libya debate -- or rather, he forced Congress to even have a debate about the war.

Update, 2:05 p.m.: Kucinich's bill was voted down, 265-148. Boehner's bill passed, 268-145. Interestingly, more Republicans than Democrats supported Kucinich's bill. 3:05 p.m.: Here's the Post story on the two votes.

Wiretap deluge: Dimora trial moved to Jan. 4, thanks to 44,000 phone calls

2011-05-23T11:39:00.004-04:00

Jimmy Dimora got what he wanted today: His corruption trial's been postponed from September to January 4, 2012.

I don't think Judge Sara Lioi wanted to give the Big D four more months, but she had to concede this is one huge case. The prosecutors have turned over 44,000 phone calls to the defense, totaling 1,589 hours, from 10 different wiretaps (Dimora's phone, Russo's, Steve Pumper's, J. Kevin Kelley's...). The FBI says 8,168 of the calls are "pertinent" to the case. They gave the defense 352 gigs of digitized documents -- more than a million computer files in all.

Faced with that ginormous workload for the defense, and the new racketeering indictment from March, and some appeals court decisions about similar cases, Lioi gave Dimora's lawyers (and co-defendant Michael Gabor's) four more months to get ready.

To the frustrated citizen who's sick of this corruption case dragging on, who can't stand the thought of Jimmy watching the leaves turn amber and gold from a perch on his infamous party deck, the judge offers this promise:

... keeping in mind the public’s interest in a resolution of this case, absent extraordinary unforeseen circumstances, there will be no further continuances.

Four more months to sift through those wiretaps is surely good news for Dimora and his lawyers, Bill and Andrea Whitaker. But they must know that the long-term forecast is gloomy.

In a case like this, where the defense will argue that the defendant's actions all fall into a gray area -- gifts here, favors there, but no tit-for-tat deals, no smoking gun -- a defendant's own words are the prosecution's most effective weapon. Prosecutors rely on wiretaps to cut through the ambiguity and frame their case. The Whitakers surely know this, since they defended Nate Gray at his 2005 trial, and had to ask the jury not to dwell on lines about greased palms and treating politicians like prostitutes.

So which Dimora quotes will be the prosecutors' money lines, the recordings they'll play at trial and quote in closing argument? I laid my bet in "Life of the Party," my November 2009 Dimora profile. I'm going with this chestnut, which Dimora allegedly uttered on March 31, 2008:

I’m trying to make calls, make a living, help my friends make more money than they already got.

Kucinich confirms he may run in Washington -- or Maine

2011-05-11T15:38:00.007-04:00

Leave it to Dennis Kucinich to try something so eccentric, so nearly unprecedented, so ballsy and egotistical that you can't decide whether to admire the little guy or rage at him.

He's just sent out an e-mail confirming that he may move to another state to run for Congress.

Dropping hints about what he'll do if Ohio Republicans carve up his district, he not only name-drops Washington State, he ups the ante by adding Maine -- if only to give the idea coast-to-coast sweep.

It's not terribly different from what his spokesman said last week, but for him to announce he's bouncing the idea around is still a big deal.

Last week I said I didn't buy the idea that Dennis would embark on a nationwide hunt for a new district. I said he might be stoking the rumor for the sake of raising money and making himself more of a national figure. Sure enough, he drops the big tease in a fundraising letter. He's even opened a new e-mail address, options@kucinich.us, so his nationwide supporters can plead with him to run in their town.

I guess it's also possible that this is Kucinich's version of Sherrod Brown's feint ten years ago. Brown threatened to run against Bob Taft for governor if Republicans carved up his congressional seat. The threat worked; Taft gave the order to leave Sherrod alone.

I'm not sure it'd work as well for Dennis. Even if Republicans in Olympia or Kennebunkport beseech their Columbus brethren to spare them the pain of dealing with Dennis, John Kasich and Co. might zero Dennis out anyway, just to get him out of town.

I'll still believe Kucinich is running outside Ohio when I see it. And I think he's playing a high-stakes game here. If he stays and runs for reelection in Cleveland, Rob Frost or whoever else campaign against him will surely use this flirtation as a stinging one-liner to paint him as spacey, arrogant, out of touch. "Dennis doesn't care about you! He's run for president -- twice -- and when things got tough, he talked about running away to Seattle!" But you've got to give the guy credit for knowing how to surprise and provoke friends and enemies alike.

Here's the text of his new e-mail. Bolds are mine.

My Next Move?

You may have heard some rumors over the past week, so I wanted to set the record straight with you: While I'm committed to representing the 10th District of Ohio, I will not rule out a run elsewhere should my district be eliminated or radically altered through redistricting.

From Afghanistan to workers rights, Libya to climate change, there's simply too much at stake for our voice to be eliminated. We cannot let a group of downstate politicians silence me and our movement - they would like nothing more than to stop hearing our calls for peace over violence and the people's interests over corporate handouts.

So, no, we're not going to quietly fade away, and let the corporate interests and status quo have its way. Instead, we're gearing up for a long and difficult campaign in 2012 - wherever that may be. I know it's worth it, and I know we can prevail. But I'll need your help. Can you donate $25, $50, or $100 dollars today?

I've been approached by supporters across the country - from Washington to Maine - to explore options outside Ohio should redistricting force me out of my current district. It has been truly humbling to see the support that has been expressed for me to continue my work in Congress. Right now, my efforts and focus remain on representing my constituents in the 10th District and fighting for peace and justice, but as we plan for our movement's future, I will consider all of these ideas to keep our voice in Congress.

And I say the same to you right now. Do you have a comment or idea I should consider? Is there a option you would like me to explore? If so, let me know by clicking here: options@kucinich.us

Thanks for being with me.

With respect,
Dennis Kucinich

To read "The Missionary," my profile of Kucinich, click here.

How’s the Medical Mart going?

2011-05-06T14:24:00.005-04:00

From the downtown library’s windows, you can see it all: bulldozers clearing the land for the new Medical Mart and tearing the old convention center out of the ground. Only a block-long stretch of Lakeside Avenue still hangs in the air, like a bridge, stripped clear.

In 2½ years, the Medical Mart and convention center, Cleveland’s $800 million hope, will fill in that hole and that plot of land. Will it succeed?

I’ve been wondering about that again this week after reading a couple of articles about the project.

“Medical mart’s tenant list only tentative,” the Plain Dealer’s front page announced yesterday. There’s no news in that headline; MMPI, the Med Mart developers, made it clear in January that their tenant list was based on non-binding letters of intent.

What’s actually new is that the PD called the tentative tenants and got one to (apparently) violate a nondisclosure agreement and spill the terms of its deal. Here’s the story’s second graf:

"Basically they offered us a free showroom for three years and a $20,000 cash incentive to build the showroom," said Jerome Alicki [of Michigan furniture company Industrial Woodworking Corp.]. "I couldn't see any reason not to do that ... I thought if I say no to this, the CEO is going to fire me."

Well, we can’t say MMPI didn’t warn us. Here’s what its vice-president, Mark Falanga, told Cleveland City Council in February 2009, as quoted in my Inside Business story from that year, “Affairs of the Mart”:

We believe we will need to subsidize those showrooms heavily to get them to try something new. … It's going to take many years for this to ramp up, for Cleveland to prove itself to the medical community.

I figured “subsidize heavily” meant “really cheap rent.” But no, it means what it says, at least in Industrial Woodworking’s case: If you move in for free, we’ll help you build the showroom.

There are two ways to react to news like this. One is to say we shouldn’t start judging the Medical Mart until it opens in fall 2013. They told us it’d be a slow start-up, and they’ve got plenty of time to fill the place with good tenants and conventions.

The other is to say, uh-oh. Two days before the PD story, Med City News’ Brandon Glenn published a analysis that asked, “Is the healthcare industry really buying into the medical mart concept?” That’s always been the essential question, the project’s biggest risk.

Glenn looks at New York, where a competing medical mart project fizzled, and at Nashville, where Cleveland’s remaining competitor is struggling to attract tenants and financing and the local business weekly is growing skeptical. It may be good news that our competition is flailing — but it doesn’t mean our project will succeed. Glenn asks whether it’s a sign that the whole concept of medical marts isn’t taking off.

Here in Cleveland, Glenn links to my report that MMPI’s January tenants list included only 5 percent of the companies it targeted on its 2009 prospects list, and only 1 percent of the medical conventions it hoped for. (It’s signed a few more tenants since January, but won’t say who.) Only three tenants are listed on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange, Glenn notes, and two of those are local, Invacare and Steris.

The medical mart remains a promising idea, for plenty of reasons. The mart concept works well in other industries; MMPI’s long success in Chicago is evidence of that. And today, hospital administrators have to travel across the globe to shop for equipment and furnishings; wouldn’t they rather see it all in one place? Medical manufacturers already market their wares at health care conventions, shipping their sales staff and heavy equipment from town to town. Wouldn’t they rather lease a single showroom, next to a convention center, in a city known for its leading medical centers, where customers can also go see the equipment in action?

But so far the idea’s hardly catching fire. “The early results from Cleveland, Nashville and New York suggest an industry uncertain of the benefits that the untested medical mart concept could hold,” Glenn writes. “And Northeast Ohioans need to begin thinking about what happens next if you build it, but not very many people come.”

It’s too early to hit the panic button, even if there were a panic button to push. We’re committed to the project and the business risk -- the hole in the ground is proof of that -- and we’ll at least get a new convention center out of the deal. That’s the built-in Plan B. A state of the art meeting place with windows facing the lake will surely win back some of the convention business lost by the damp, leaky, column-cluttered, 79-year-old hall we just tore out.

For now, all we can do is watch the spending, plan for how to hold MMPI accountable under worst-case and moderately bad scenarios, market the town and the project, and hope that the venture works, the health care industry warms up to the Medical Mart and the risk pays off. The county council has pledged to give monthly updates on the project, while the PD promises weekly reports. Stay tuned.

My June 2009 story, "Affairs of the Mart," is proving to be a good guide to the promise and risk of the Medical Mart project and what needs to happen for it to succeed. You can read it here.

Kucinich to Seattle? Not so fast

2011-05-04T12:42:00.006-04:00

It started Monday with a blog post from Seattle's alt-weekly, The Stranger. "Weird Rumor of the Day," read the headline. Now it's on the Plain Dealer's front page. Could Dennis Kucinich really move to Washington State to run for Congress?

Here's Eli Sanders' post on Slog, thestranger.com's blog:

I'm posting this rumor mainly because it comes from someone with a long track-record in, and deep knowledge of, Washington State politics.

This person notes the recent time Dennis Kucinich has been spending in Washington State, notes that Kucinich has likely been redistricted out of a job in Ohio, and reminds that this state has a brand new district opening up in 2012.

The rumor is that Kucinich may be lining up a run for WA-10. It's a crazy rumor. But, my source adds: "He's just crazy enough to do it."

D.C. bloggers jumped on the rumor. Kucinich's spokesman, Nathan White, fanned the flames. Here's the answer White e-mailed to the Plain Dealer, Talking Points Memo, The Stranger, and anyone else who asked:

After people found out that Congressman Kucinich's district could be eliminated ... [he] received requests from people in twenty states, including Washington State, encouraging him to move and run in their area.

Congressman Kucinich appreciates the interest expressed in his public service. As he has repeatedly said, he fully intends to remain in Congress; he just doesn't know in what district he will run. In the meantime, he is devoted to serving Ohio's 10th district as it currently stands.

Sanders even catches White possibly dropping a hint by hyperlinking the words "in what district he will run" to this article about Dennis' recent appearance on Bainbridge Island, Wash.

Sounds like he's interested, huh? And at first glance it seems plausible.

Sure, district-shopping three time zones away would be a kooky, ballsy move, even more carpetbagger-y than Hillary Clinton or Robert F. Kennedy moving to New York to get into the Senate. But Dennis has had one foot in Washington State and California for nine years now, heading west to raise money from left-coast lefties so he can "run for president" and win re-election with ever-thinning margins at home.

And because Washington state's deadlines fall much later than Ohio's, the PD calculates, he could even take two shots at Congress next year: Ohio's Democratic primary in March, then, if he lost, Washington's in August.

But let's take a closer look at one more thing White told Talking Points Memo.

White pointed to Kucinich's quotes in a recent Daily Show interview in which he and comedian John Oliver discussed the possibility of him leaving the state to run elsewhere in a parody of LeBron James' "Decision" special.

Um, yeah. So is this a joke?

It's not like Seattle, Olympia, and Co. have a shortage of ambitious homegrown liberals. They don't need to import a Clevelander whose anti-free-trade voting record plays way better in the Rust Belt than the tech-savvy home of Microsoft (as this blogger points out).

Maybe Kucinich and his spokesman see the value of flirting with the rumor. It helps Kucinich look like a national figure and could stoke excitement and donations in Puget Sound zip codes.

So, at the risk of biasing Cleveland Magazine's weekly poll, I'm voting no. I say he's not going to run in Washington. Once the Republicans eliminate his district, I think he'll run in the Democratic primary against either Betty Sutton or maybe Marcia Fudge.

The really interesting question is, what does Dennis do if he loses?

The usual ex-congressman move, becoming a K Street lobbyist, is so not him. Neither is following his brother Gary's journey from politician to car salesman. Lots of Cleveland liberals want to buy a reliable compact car from someone they trust, but it's safe to say that's not the life Elizabeth imagines for herself and Dennis.

I've been wondering about Kucinich's backup plan ever since he fixed up and moved into a house he bought a couple of years ago -- not in Washington State, but in Washington, D.C. It's not the typical move of a congressman threatened by redistricting. It's the move of a guy who thinks he's got a permanent place in American politics, whether he holds onto a seat in Congress or not.

What will Dennis do if he's an ex-congressman in 2013? I say part-time traveling activist, part-time chairman of a peacenik nonprofit, part-time MSNBC commentator. You heard it here first.

To read "The Missionary," my profile of Kucinich, click here.

Berea Mayor Kleem’s amazing survival skills

2011-05-04T11:49:00.005-04:00

This blog’s 2011 award for Most Unlikely Political Survivor goes to Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem. He came back from memory loss, medical leave, and two small-town-weird investigations to trounce his opponent in the Democratic primary yesterday.

Until this winter, if anyone outside Berea had heard of Kleem, it was probably because he was one of the guys Jimmy Dimora couldn’t corrupt. The 37-year-old mayor is the second cousin of Ferris Kleem, best known as the guy who allegedly bought Dimora a hooker. Cyril Kleem shows up briefly in prosecutor’s court filings as Public Official 7 – but, as with Ed FitzGerald’s PO14 cameo, that doesn’t mean what you think.

The charges say Dimora and Frank Russo tried to get Ferris Kleem to nudge his cousin toward the worker’s comp organization of their choice. But Cyril didn’t change Berea’s worker’s comp company. Now he’s trying really hard to let everyone know he and his crooked cousin are estranged. They even had it out in public at the Berea City Club this fall.

The mayor’s troubles started a couple of months ago. Olmsted Falls asked the Cuyahoga County’s sheriff’s office to investigate why a “mystery truck” owned by Berea turned up in Olmsted Falls on Christmas Eve. Who was the man who ran back to the truck and sped away when spotted? A Berea cop said he thought he saw Kleem’s car parked at City Hall next to the spot where the truck had been.

Kleem said he wasn’t the guy and that cell phone records and the timing of the police officer’s shift proved it. But the mayor also said his memory of Christmastime was spotty because of his medical conditions — lupus, arthritis, and figromylagia — and depression and suicidal thoughts brought on by his medicine. He said two medical leaves had set him straight and insisted he was fit to serve. The next day, city council president James J. Brown announced he was running to unseat the mayor.

A month later came a second investigation. Berea police confirmed they’d contacted a good friend of Kleem’s because of a tip about a possible break-in. The woman said she saw someone inside her house Jan. 6 and thought it might be Kleem, but she wasn’t sure. Kleem called it a false, dirty campaign rumor. The police soon closed the investigation. Now the word is the two inquiries involved the same woman's current and former homes.

The Plain Dealer called Kleem’s behavior “bizarre” and endorsed Brown. The Sun paper stuck with Kleem, saying he had a record of accomplishment in Berea and a better vision than his opponent. The voters must’ve agreed and decided not to hold the mayor’s health problems against him. (Here's a letter from a supporter claiming Kleem wiped the floor with Brown at their debate.)

It sure makes for more drama than the biggest race for mayor yesterday, over in Parma. That race made almost no news, and in the end, the Parma political establishment came out on top once again. State Rep. Tim DeGeeter, protégé of current mayor Dean DePiero, won the Democratic primary, beating county councilman Chuck Germana by about two to one. It’s the third time DeGeeter has followed DePiero up the career ladder – he also succeeded him in the state house and Parma city council. The Plain Dealer says DePiero and Ted Strickland recorded robocalls for him.

So when DePiero and Bill Mason leave office, their political faction (call it a machine if you like) won’t retire with them. They’ll become the wise men in the background, while DeGeeter will become the go-to guy in the southwest burbs.

Me & Feagler, CMHA and City Hall

2011-04-29T11:38:00.005-04:00

I'm a guest on WVIZ's Feagler & Friends this weekend. We're talking about the Cleveland City Hall cuts, the arrest of the housing authority director, and the proposed fee hike at Kent State.

My favorite part was talking about the wiretaps of contractor William Neiheiser describing the goodies he allegedly offered CMHA director George Phillips-Olivier. ("I said, 'George, you want a place in Florida, get me Phase II.' I says, 'I'm desperate for a f---ng good job like that.' I says, 'You want a good life,' and he agrees. We went to the game [Cleveland Cavaliers playoff game] last night.")

The show airs tonight at 8:30 and Sunday at 11:30 am on WVIZ. It'll also run on The Ohio Channel Monday at 1:30 pm and 9:30 pm and Tuesday at 5:30 am. A podcast will go up Monday morning here.

I'm on the show's second half, with host Dick Feagler and Ed Esposito of WAKR. In the first half, Feagler interviews Joseph Jankowski of Case Western Reserve University and George Newkome of the University of Akron about cutting-edge research at the two schools.

Reform-minded medical examiner coming to town

2011-04-28T13:25:00.004-04:00

Even death can be reformed.

So we learn today, as Ed FitzGerald announces the bona fides of his latest appointee: Dr. Thomas Gilson, the No. 2 coroner in Connecticut, his pick for Cuyahoga County medical examiner.

“Dr. Gilson was credited for reforming and turning around the Rhode Island Office of the Medical Examiner," FitzGerald said in a statement. "When Tom arrived, the office had long delays for service and was not accredited by the National Association of Medical Examiners, but he changed that." Gilson also reportedly worked through a two-year backlog of autopsy reports. (I hope that means the writing of reports, not a backlog of bodies on ice.)

A crusading, reform-minded medical examiner may just be what Cuyahoga County needs right now. FitzGerald needs Gilson to help sort out whether departing coroner Frank Miller brought on any patronage hires. The FBI, prodded by the Plain Dealer, is looking into whether or not Bill Mason or a Mason deputy nudged Miller into hiring Strongsville councilman Patrick Coyne, who's been implicated but not charged in the county corruption investigation. FitzGerald's administration, in turn, is re-examining other hires at the coroner's office for possible ties to Coyne.

Gilson's nomination ends Cuyahoga County's long, weird era of the politician-coroner. Yes, our chief cadaverist ran for election every four years, flummoxing voters who had to figure out whether there was truly a Republican or Democratic way to autopsy. But we haven't had a hard-fought, fiercely partisan coroner's race since 1936, when Samuel Gerber defeated Arthur J. Pearse and took charge of the Torso Murders investigation. Since then, the coroner's office, like most of our county government, has been a Democratic barony, an office where the science of death investigation mingled with the art of one-party rule.

Jackson to lay off 350-400 city workers, blames state cuts

2011-04-27T14:00:00.008-04:00

For five years as mayor, Frank Jackson has prided himself on managing Cleveland's budget with very few layoffs. He can't do that anymore.

Jackson has just announced that he'll have to lay off 350 to 400 city workers because of a $36 million cut in funds from the state. He calls out Gov. John Kasich, who called the mayor his "new best friend" in January.

Typically, Jackson is judging the governor by deeds, not words. The mayor's statement clearly blames Kasich's budget for the layoffs and defends his own management of the budget.

The mayor's complaint to Kasich and the legislature, re-released today, argues that since the state needs to cut 17 percent of its budget to close a deficit, it should cut the local government fund 17 percent, or at most 25 percent. Instead, it'll be slashed in half by next year.

The mayor also released a list of all the cuts he expects to make to city services: in police patrols, fire protection, slower snow removal, fewer flu vaccinations, delays in building and housing inspections. Layoff notices are coming in mid-May.

Here's the press release:

Earlier this month, I shared with you my concerns regarding Governor Kasich’s proposed budget and the drastic impact it would have on the City of Cleveland if it is adopted. Since then, I have continued to analyze the proposed state budget to determine what course of action the City of Cleveland must take to handle the proposed loss $35.7 million in state revenue by the end of 2012.

This state-imposed deficit situation comes after five years of strong budget management by the City, including the use of five-year budget projects, strategic cost cutting measures and significant increases in efficiency. By using these management tools, the City had the flexibility it needed in order to balance the budget every year with few layoffs and very little impact on service delivery, despite a global recession. Today, the state-imposed budget deficit takes away that flexibility.

Now, in order to balance the budget for the remainder of 2011 and to prepare for 2012, the city must reduce its workforce by 350 to 400 employees by the end of May. This will include seasonal, part-time and full-time employees.

These state-imposed cuts will result in service reductions. Despite these cuts, my goal is to continue to provide the best service to the City of Cleveland that we can. For that reason, I am continuing to analyze staffing levels and will finalize the specifics of our plan to cure this state-imposed deficit in the near future. As we move forward, I will provide you with additional updates so that you can understand the impact the state-imposed budget cuts will have on Cleveland.

Until then, you can find more information in the impact statement (pdf) I delivered to Governor Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly and the presentation (pdf) I gave to my management team this morning.

City council legalizes food trucks, bans trans fats on Dyngus Day

2011-04-26T12:51:00.006-04:00

I was out at the Happy Dog last night, celebrating Dyngus Day and pretending to be Polish, when I ran into Matt Zone. He was relaxing with a Dortmunder after an evening at City Hall, where he and the rest of city council had just legalized food trucks and banned trans fats.* Zone seemed pretty happy with the night’s work.

Under pressure from Dim and Den Sum’s Chris Hodgson and other food truckers, Zone, Joe Cimperman, and other councilmen had pushed the mobile-food ordinance through a bunch of committees and made it more liberal than its first draft. The trucks will roll through 3 a.m. at night to catch the last-call crowd. They’ll hit six downtown zones – East Ninth Street, part of Public Square, Perk Plaza, Willard Park (near City Hall), North Coast Harbor, and Euclid Avenue near Cleveland State University.

Outside downtown, in typical City Hall fashion, councilmen will have veto power over whether food trucks can go into their wards. The legislation lasts only six months. Cimperman told Fox 8 he thinks the legislation will grow weaker in November (after restaurants and hot-dog vendors get a chance to complain, I assume). But Zone said he’s confident concerns will melt away once the law takes effect, like they did with the city’s ordinance legalizing chicken farms and beekeeping.

Council also passed two laws as part of the Healthy Cleveland initiative: new restrictions on smoking on city property and a ban on industrial trans fats.*

I had just downed a pierogi-topped hot dog drenched in purple, pickled sauerkraut, a reminder that lots of people think dietary laws aren’t a great fit for ethnic Cleveland. But Zone confirmed that banning trans fats just means getting rid of artificially hydrogenated oils.

Zone and others pushed for a more gradual implementation of the trans fat ban. It’ll go into effect in January 2013, not 2012, with doughnuts grandfathered in until July 2013. That gives the health department time to put the word out, Zone said. “We don’t want to be the heavy-handed government,” he explained.

Smoking will be prohibited in parks, recreation areas, and within 150 feet of city-owned buildings. Other potential restrictions, including an ironic ban on smoking in cemeteries, were dropped. “If somebody’s mourning, they absolutely should have every right, if they’re a smoker, to relieve their pain and their stress,” Zone said.

*Update, 7/8: The state legislature has prohibited cities from regulating restaurant menus, killing Cleveland's trans-fat ban. See my new post.

FitzGerald names fiscal officer, setting stage for more reform

2011-04-25T14:08:00.006-04:00

The people who warned it'd take two years to reform Cuyahoga County government have looked pretty smart lately. All the talk of Ed FitzGerald's first 100 days as county executive, and expectation that patronage hires' heads would roll, has given way to a slower pace.

Sure, the new government has set a new tone, with FitzGerald emerging as a regional peacemaker and he and the council scrutinizing stuff that went unquestioned before, like the palatial new juvenile justice center. But the big cuts to county government, the cost savings the charter's biggest supporters envisioned, haven't come yet.

Now I think they'll come pretty soon. Today FitzGerald announced his choice for chief fiscal officer. That's the accountant who'll take over and merge the auditor's and recorder's offices, sifting through the remnants of Frank Russo and Pat O'Malley's old political hires, to figure out who's really qualified and who the county really needs.

Fitz's choice is Wade Steen (pictured), a CPA with lots of experience, and none of it in Cuyahoga County.

“As we pursue efficiencies in our operations, Wade’s background and experience will be a major asset to our efforts,” FitzGerald said in the press release.

Steen, a city councilman in Upper Arlington, a Columbus suburb, was Franklin County treasurer for two years. So he has experience managing finances for a big urban county that runs more efficiently in some ways than Cuyahoga. He was also Jim Petro's assistant chief deputy auditor, a thoroughly confusing title that I think means he was the No. 3 guy in the state auditor's office. So he also has experience digging through cities' and counties' books and knowing when they look right and when they're revealing a mess.

Most interestingly, Steen is a Republican who quotes Ronald Reagan on his website. ("Reagan's underlying humor poked fun at excessive government regulation and taxation, but also the inflexibility of government to change and the habitual need to sustain 'the beast.'")

That makes him a shrewd choice on FitzGerald's part. Nominating Steen to remake the county's two most patronage-laden offices is a big bipartisan gesture. It strengthens FitzGerald's assertion that Democratic party patronage will have no part in who stays at the county and who goes.

Once the county council confirms Steen, I expect there'll be a quiet period as Steen digs into the books and gets advice from the interim guys who ran the offices for a few months. Then, if FitzGerald's intentions from his campaign are a guide, Steen and FitzGerald will unveil a reorganization that includes substantial layoffs and nudged-into-retirements.

Then we can start to total up the cost savings from the new reorganized government. We'll see if they measure up to FitzGerald's ambitions, the looming deficits, and, most of all, the very optimistic vision of cost savings that the charter's founders trumpeted.

Rob Frost, hoping to roast another Democrat, may take on Kucinich in 2012

2011-04-15T16:56:00.006-04:00

Did you see Dennis Kucinich and Rob Frost on the The Daily Show last night? With Frost playing the bewildered Republican, mystified that people keep re-electing Kucinich? And Dennis peacefully, confidently enduring the usual peacenik and hot-wife jokes, demonstrating his ventriloquism skills, and talking about taking his talents to Edgewater Beach?

Turns out that may be a preview of Cleveland's hottest race for Congress next year.

Frost, the Cuyahoga County Republican chairman, just sent out a sly, burying-the-lead press release. Almost all of Kucinich's redistricting-survival fund is coming from outside Northeast Ohio lately, Frost reports, and he's spending it fast.

Oh, and (in the fourth paragraph) Frost says he's preparing to run against Kucinich for Congress.

Now we know why Frost resigned from the board of elections last week. Here's his press release:

According to reports filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) had only $138,200 on hand as of March 31, 2011.

Kucinich was able to raise just under $215,000 during the first quarter of this year, but showed $112,771 in operating expenses despite being so early in the election cycle, and increased his campaign fund balance by only $96,134. Kucinich’s prior report, the 2010 year-end report filed with the FEC as amended in March, showed him with $42,067 on hand to begin the 2011-2012 election cycle.

Of the $214,361 raised by Kucinich in the first quarter of this year, exactly $1,000 came from donors within Ohio’s 10th Congressional District. Kucinich, an incumbent in his eighth term in Congress, was fined $52,443 by the FEC earlier this year for improper use of public matching funds in his 2004 bid for the US Presidency.

At a time when Kucinich appears vulnerable and out of touch with his Northeast Ohio district, a potential challenger has emerged in Rob Frost, who on Friday formed a Federal Campaign Committee, according to FEC records. Frost, 42, of Lakewood, is Chairman of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County, a former member of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and a former Rocky River City Councilman.

Can Frost beat Kucinich? Match them up solely by political talent and experience, and it's not even close. In 40 years of thrilling and infuriating Clevelanders, Kucinich has demonstrated a remarkable ability to survive and connect with local voters. Frost has never personally won an election outside Rocky River.

So far Frost's shrewdest political move came when he skewered Jimmy Dimora with his "News From the Pork Barrel Buffet" missives in 2007 -- a year before the corruption scandal broke, back when Jimmy still seemed impregnable. He'd surely launch more ruthlessly effective attacks against Kucinich than Jim Trakas' surprisingly weak 2oo8 campaign.

Beyond that, there's no way to handicap a Kucinich-Frost race today, because there's no way of knowing where the two guys would end up running. There's also no way to predict whether Kucinich could survive a Democratic primary battle against, say, Betty Sutton or Marcia Fudge. We don't know whose votes they'd be competing for. Ohio's congressional district lines may not be redrawn until fall.

But guess who'll draw them? Frost's Republican allies in Columbus.

To read "Pork Roast," my profile of Frost from 2007, click here. To read my Kucinich profile from the same year, "The Missionary," click here.

Kucinich calls accused leaker's treatment "Kafkaesque"

2011-04-13T14:33:00.004-04:00

Dennis Kucinich is a busy guy these days. He's not only protesting the war in Libya, scrambling to raise a redistricting-survival fund, and buying a fixer-upper in Washington. He's also angling to become accused Army leaker Bradley Manning's most famous prison visitor.

“What is going on with Secretary Gates and the Department of Defense with respect to Pfc. Manning’s treatment is more consistent with Kafka than the U.S. Constitution,” Kucinich says today.

The Pentagon says it'll let Kucinich visit the suspected Wikileaks leaker, but it won't let them have a private conversation.

"I was belatedly informed that the meeting could only take place if it was recorded," Kucinich says. "Confidentiality is required, however, to achieve the candor that is necessary to perform the oversight functions with which I am tasked as a Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. I was also told that I could be subpoenaed to testify about the contents of my conversation with Pfc. Manning." A United Nations torture investigator who wanted to meet with Manning recently got the same answer: if they met, they'd be monitored.

Manning is awaiting trial on more than 22 counts of leaking secret material and aiding the enemy. The Pentagon says he gave Wikileaks hundreds of thousands of classified documents. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Amnesty International and hundreds of legal scholars argue his detention conditions are punitive, inhumane and illegal. The Pentagon says he's being treated like any other maximum-security prisoner on a "prevention of injury watch," which Manning's on because of a comment he made about suicide. (Gawker writer John Cook doesn't buy many of the complaints on Manning's behalf.)

Kucinich wants to visit Manning to see if his detention conditions, which include being forced to strip naked, constitute torture. Even before the Kafka reference, he's been amping up his prison-protest rhetoric: "Is this Quantico or Abu Ghraib?" Kucinich asked last month. He's also needling Robert Gates, saying the defense secretary risks "a blot on his record" and "consequences under the law" for Manning's treatment.

As district lays off 643 teachers, closes 7 schools, Raskind absorbs the anger

2011-04-06T10:26:00.005-04:00

Last night, Peter Raskind did the job no one else would want. Facing a crowd of angry teachers, parents and students, the interim CEO asked the Cleveland school board to lay off 643 teachers and close seven schools. They did.

“These are very, very tough recommendations to address what is obviously a very, very tough and difficult situation,” the former National City CEO said.

When I wrote my profile of Raskind, “Quick Fixer,” for the April issue, he was still in the honeymoon phase of his job, forging goodwill. But when an interim CEO has five months to confront growing deficits, the honeymoon is short.

Now Raskind’s key transitional in the schools’ future becomes clear. It’s not just to apply his bank-CEO skills to find surgical, strategic cuts – though he’s done some of that, ending 50 administrators’ $500 car allowances and the practice of paying 29 supervisors’ share of their pension contributions. Raskind's temporary position gives him unusual freedom to confront the district’s financial dilemma and act.

The schools are caught in a fiscal vise, pressed by cuts in state aid on one side and a shrinking city on another: falling tax revenue, fewer students. The teacher’s union’s preferred answer, a new school levy, would likely fail at the polls. The union is worried about class sizes growing, and rightly so -- but with the district closing half-empty schools, it’s hard to doubt that it needs fewer teachers than it used to.

Raskind, who’s working for $1 and leaving this summer, can absorb the anger at last night’s meeting, deflecting it from the school board, Mayor Frank Jackson, and his future successor. His layoff and school-closing resolutions, adopted last night, didn’t just cite the $47 million deficit for the 2011-2012 school year, but also a cumulative $398 million deficit projected for the next three years.

So by confronting two or three years of deficits this spring, by absorbing the anger and taking it with him when he goes, he hopes to hand a manageable, right-sized district to the as-yet-unchosen new schools CEO. It’s a test of an unusual idea: that sometimes, some of a community’s problems are best solved by an outsider with nothing to lose.

Update, 4/7: Today's Plain Dealer has lots of details about the layoffs (the district has only 15 social workers, and they'll all be laid off? Really?). An editorial is mostly supportive of Raskind's cuts, but says he "must be far more transparent about the extent of cuts he's making to central office staff -- and more relentless about trimming that and other school overhead." He's promising deeper central office cuts by April 26.

Renovations for new government come in at $1.3 million

2011-04-05T17:37:00.002-04:00

Used furniture helped keep down the $300,000 cost of renovated offices for the Cuyahoga County executive and council, while high costs for electrical installations helped drive up the cost of the new council chambers to almost $1 million.

This winter, a tipster suggested I look at the cost of county executive Ed FitzGerald’s new office, to see if he was being frugal in the face of the county's budget shortage. It took about two months to get a full accounting of the renovations (some of which were ongoing) from FitzGerald’s staff, but they seem proud of the end result.

The county commissioners budgeted about $200,000 for fourth floor renovations before they left office, FitzGerald spokesman John Kohlstrand told me. FitzGerald’s administration added about $89,000 in spending in January, including $16,000 for carpeting to cover 60-year-old floor tile and $18,000 to improve a new meeting room that will be used for press conferences and some council committee hearings.

“We have attempted to be very modest in our overall approach to creating our office space on the 4th Floor,” wrote Kohlstrand in an e-mail. “The layout does not really lend itself to the requirements identified for the new government, but we have tried to make the most of it on a shoestring budget.”

Nearly all the new offices were furnished with all used furniture, including FitzGerald’s office, according to Kohlstrand. (FitzGerald is reportedly using Jim Rokakis’ old desk.) “At this point, the only new furniture expense was $5,572 to purchase 63 portable chairs for the multipurpose room," Kohlstrand wrote. The administration also spent about $50,000 for office equipment and fixtures.

To judge the renovations’ cost, I ran the expenses past Martin Zanotti, one of the main leaders of the movement to create the new government. Zanotti has overseen construction budgets as the former mayor of Parma Heights and CEO of Republic Alternative Technologies.

“With their critical eye on the juvenile justice center, they held themselves to the same threshold,” Zanotti says of FitzGerald and his staff. “It’s a very proper tone to set,” Zanotti says.

Shrewd, too: Re-using old county furniture highlights the contrast between FitzGerald and the juvenile court judges’ infamous $23,000 conference table.

The charter created an 11-member council but left the old government and the transition team with the task of figuring out where the council would meet. Last summer, the transition group chose to renovate the old Justice Center auditorium. The less expensive alternative, renovating the commissioners’ old chambers, would have created only half as many seats for the public. And it might not have lasted as long, since the county administration building may be torn down in the future, if the new Medical Mart and convention center project succeeds and needs to expand. The Justice Center isn’t going anywhere.

Preliminary estimates priced the cost of the new chamber at $888,000. The commissioners budgeted $680,000 in August. Instead, the final cost of the council chambers came in at $980,000, including $272,000 for electrical work.

The electrical expense “struck me as being a high price, though God knows what they ran into,” Zanotti says. “Nothing else seemed grossly out of line to me. It was a reasonable amount.”

Still, to the layman, nearly a million dollars may sound like a lot of money to spend on a single room. It makes somewhat more sense if you saw the auditorium before and after. When I visited last year for a sheriff’s auction, it looked looked exactly like what it was: the end-of-the-line room where a hard-luck county’s tax-foreclosed properties were sold for cheap. It was ugly and cramped, with low ceilings and an awkward layout facing a more awkward stage. Now it’s bright, spacious, equipped with modern communications, a place for a new start, not a space people want to flee. I don’t think the council had anything to do with outfitting the council chamber; it was ready for them when they were sworn in Jan. 3.

The cost of both renovations was paid out of a $7 million transition fund the commissioners authorized. About half of the fund went to the cost of holding the Sept. and Nov. 2010 elections to choose the executive and council. Kohlstrand says about $1.37 million is left for other priorities, including the potential cost of ethics training for county employees.

Mason, FitzGerald ask DeWine to resolve law department dispute

2011-04-01T15:31:00.003-04:00

Bill Mason says he and Ed FitzGerald have asked Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine to resolve their dispute about whether the new law department or the prosecutor will represent the county in court.

“Ed FitzGerald and I have talked,” Mason told me today. “We’ve agreed on some of the stuff that we could probably agree on. But we have completely differing views on some of the big picture stuff. So we both agreed that the best thing to do is, let’s send it to the AG, and whatever he comes back and says, we’re going to bind our offices to that.”

For three months, FitzGerald and Mason have been arguing about who has what legal powers in the new county government. The debate is especially interesting because many people saw the two men as political allies. FitzGerald used to work for Mason, and Mason helped him get the Democratic Party’s endorsement in the primary last summer. FitzGerald has also insisted that a proposed county law against nepotism in hiring apply to Mason, who has hired several relatives over the years.

Their legal dispute is about whether the law department should replace the prosecutor’s civil division. In Ohio, county prosecutors don’t just prosecute – they also have civil divisions that handle the county’s legal work. But Cuyahoga County’s new charter says the law director “shall be the legal advisor to and representative of the County Executive and County Council.” FitzGerald thinks that does away with the prosecutor’s civil division. Mason disagrees.

“I was one of the people who wrote the charter, so I know at least what I was I intending,” Mason says. “I wanted to make sure the elected executive had somebody to talk to about things, a lawyer to bounce [things off] and give them research. So we gave them a lawyer to represent the executive and the council.”

Early drafts of the charter explicitly moved the prosecutor’s civil division into the law department, but that language was dropped when Mason disagreed, lawyer Gene Kramer, the charter’s main author, told the Plain Dealer.

The charter says the prosecutor’s duties, “including provision for the employment of outside counsel, shall continue to be determined in the manner provided by law.” Mason says this state law still gives him the job of representing all county officials in court. He says he’s OK with the law director drafting legislation, giving legal opinions to county departments and negotiating and writing contracts. (His civil division has handled the latter two tasks in the past.)

FitzGerald wants his new law director, Majeed Makhlouf, to take over all non-criminal legal matters. “We have the prosecutor being involved in things that have nothing to do with criminal law,” he told the Plain Dealer this week. “We don’t think that makes sense.”

Even DeWine’s decision may not end the dispute for long. Starting in September 2012, a charter review committee will look at how the new government is working and suggest amendments. If DeWine sides with Mason or splits the difference, FitzGerald and others may push for a charter amendment to explicitly hand over all legal affairs to the law director. But that amendment wouldn’t go to voters in until 2013, after Mason leaves office. And the next prosecutor could still challenge it in court.

Jimmy Dimora, the luau king

2011-03-30T09:14:00.012-04:00

UPDATED with new Dimora charges below.

For decades, ever since the Kon-Tiki in the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel closed, Cleveland has suffered from a sad shortage of tiki culture, a dearth of Polynesian retro-kitsch. The Modern World couldn't make a go of it. The Bamboo House in Bay Village closed. So who'd have thought the South-Pacific-on-the-Cuyahoga revival would depend on Jimmy Dimora?

Yep, Dimora's backyard pool-party deck, allegedly built up with bribes, sounds sweeter with every new federal charge. Now the feds say Dimora got $1,076 for a fake palm tree and used it on a tiki hut instead.

I can't possibly improve on thatgirl's riffs on the news over at Cleveland Love. So I'll take this moment to total up the free-or-discounted swag allegedly built into Dimora's private paradise:

• Patio roof, barbecue shelter, bathhouse, value $60,000, from contractor Steve Pumper

• Brick walls for outdoor kitchen, masonry columns, pool retaining wall, value $25,000-$28,000, from construction contractor Nicholas Zavarella

• Granite in outdoor kitchen, from John Valentin of Salva Stone Design, portion of $3,000

• Refrigerator in pool area, value $1,150, from Ferris Kleem

• Tiki hut, value $1,076, from money manager Charles Randazzo

The luau king must've been a great party host. But when the Big D inevitably sells his little piece of tropicana in Independence to pay for his defense, who's the tiki-partying high-roller who'll snatch it up?

Update, 2:30 p.m.: What a coincidence -- the feds unsealed a superceding indictment of Dimora today with new charges and new news about Jimmy's backyard patio. Today we learn that the FBI thinks Dimora got the pool itself as a bribe!

A new defendant, Anthony Melagrano of Vandra Brothers construction company, is accused of:

• providing and installing concrete for Dimora's pool

• installing a basketball court and a concrete pad for an outdoor bathroom

• installing footers for the outdoor kitchen area.

In exchange, Dimora is accused of voting for Vandra Brothers to get county contracts. Dimora allegedly asked Melagrano for an invoice for the footers in May 2008 after Steve Pumper tipped him off to the FBI investigation.

Dimora faces a new RICO charge -- racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors say he, former Frank Russo employee Michael Gabor, and others formed a criminal racket that committed bribery, extortion, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice. The new indictment includes a racketeering forfeiture claim. The feds now want Dimora to forfeit the entire cost of the free or discounted improvements to his house. I guess the pool party's over.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, the feds also want Dimora's autographed Beanie Wells jersey.

(Photo of the Kon-Tiki from clevelandmemory.org)

Quick Fixer: my profile of Peter Raskind, interim schools CEO

2011-03-23T11:34:00.005-04:00

Peter Raskind will only be CEO of the Cleveland schools until summer, but he wants to solve two years of budget troubles in the next three months.

Last night, Raskind proposed closing seven schools and laying off 650 teachers, part of his plan to manage the shrinking district. Facing a $47 million deficit, he wants to cut $74 million. He knows that a worse deficit is projected for 2012, and he wants to deal with it before he leaves.

Raskind, the last CEO of National City, says he learned lessons during the Cleveland bank’s decline that motivate him to bold action now. “It’s better to get out ahead of issues and confront them than hope they go away,” he told me recently. “Being proactive beats being defensive, even when it's painful.”

My profile of Raskind, “Quick Fixer,” appears in the April issue of Cleveland Magazine and is online now. The April issue is available in bookstores this week and will be on other newsstands by early April.

Most Clevelanders know Raskind as the CEO who took charge of National City just as its aggressive push to grow from hometown commercial bank to a leading national mortgage lender began to bear rotting fruit. Now Raskind has a chance to be known in Cleveland for something other than bank failure. He's taken on an unlikely second career as an interim CEO for troubled government agencies.

Last year, he stabilized the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority and killed its grandiose $600 million relocation plan with a single, swift stroke. Now, after former schools CEO Eugene Sanders’ abrupt departure for Maui, Mayor Frank Jackson has asked Raskind to step in, tackle the deficit and advance the unfinished "transformation plan" to reform the schools.

The peculiar job of an interim CEO gives Raskind unusual freedom to act, without a career-minded leader’s caution. Sanders, faced with a similar deficit last year, closed 13 schools and balanced the budget, but didn’t push hard enough to prevent this year’s sequel.

Still, Raskind’s decisions are sure to provoke controversy. School closings change a neighborhood, and Raskind and the school board will likely hear from upset parents at community forums (pdf) next Tuesday and Wednesday. (Is Raskind “on the right track, or is there another way?” asks Dan Moulthrop on the Civic Commons web site.)

Raskind is also thinking about selling the district’s headquarters, the 1931 board of education building on East Sixth Street. Roldo Bartimole — blogging again after a long break — is upset, pointing out that selling the building would mess with Daniel Burnham’s 1903 Group Plan for the Malls and that public outcry nixed a plan to sell the building in the 1980s. It’s one example of the critical moment the school district faces and Raskind’s brief but key role in its future.

You can read my Raskind profile by clicking here. If you’d like to link to it, you can use this shortcut: tinyurl.com/CM-Raskind.

Cimperman to introduce domestic-partner benefits ordinance

2011-03-18T14:50:00.004-04:00

Cleveland may soon extend health-care benefits to city employees’ unmarried domestic partners. Councilman Joe Cimperman says he’s going to introduce an ordinance to do so this month, possibly Monday.

“We’re a human-rights city,” Cimperman says. “This continues that legacy.”

It'd be another step in City Hall’s drive to promote Cleveland as gay-friendly. City council approved a registry for domestic partners in 2008, banned discrimination against the transgendered in 2009, and worked successfully to attract the 2014 Gay Games. The gay magazine The Advocate named Cleveland the 12th Gayest City in America this February. “This is just one more aspect of Cleveland showing its best,” Cimperman says.

The legislation isn’t just for gays, he notes. City employees who choose not to marry for practical reasons, such as child custody arrangements, could also share their health insurance with their partners.

That’s one of the downtown councilman’s selling points as he works to avoid a repeat of the divisive fight over the partner registry. It passed 13-7 after attracting the opposition of some prominent black ministers.

This time, at the urging of council president Martin Sweeney, the benefits ordinance is being drafted in consultation with a committee that includes two local ministers, including C. Jay Matthews of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, who opposed the registry.

“Part of the reason the council president asked for ministers to be involved is, last time they weren’t, and they felt really left out,” Cimperman says. Matthews “hasn’t seen the final draft,” he adds, “but he’s been at meetings. His response was, it’s the right thing to do.”

The ordinance would make Cleveland the third Ohio city to offer domestic-partner benefits, along with Cleveland Heights and Columbus.

“Some people might vote against it on financial reasons,” Cimperman says. But he argues that cities from Cleveland Heights to Chicago have found partner benefits aren’t a drain on finances. “It’s a plus in recruiting people to work there.”

Cimperman also wants to make the city’s anti-discrimination laws enforceable by civil lawsuits. The 1989 ordinances made discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations a criminal offense — an attempt to be tough on bigots that can actually make the law harder to enforce, Cimperman says. “Are you going to call 9-1-1 because someone at a restaurant said the N-word and they’re not going to serve you?”

Allowing anti-discrimination lawsuits in Cleveland will especially benefit gays, since state and federal civil rights laws do not protect them.

Making Cleveland gay-friendly is a natural evolution of the city’s legacy of strong support for civil rights, Cimperman argues. “We’re lucky to have people who were champions in many different areas of human rights: civil rights for African-Americans, women’s rights, labor rights. I really think it’s one more aspect of our DNA."

Tom Ganley, former congressional candidate, indicted on sex charges

2011-03-15T16:15:00.007-04:00

Updated 7/15 with dismissal of charges; see below.

Turns out the voters who re-elected Betty Sutton to Congress in November saved us from a national scandal. Sutton's opponent, car dealer Tom Ganley, has been indicted on seven criminal charges stemming from an alleged sexual imposition.

The charges are based on allegations that surfaced in the fall, when the woman Ganley is accused of assaulting filed a lawsuit against him. She claimed she went to Ganley's dealership in Cleveland, hoping to volunteer for his campaign and renegotiate her car loan, and that Ganley propositioned her and groped her.

The charges are newsy, but they'd be ten times bigger if Ganley were in Washington right now. Nothing lights up the political blogosphere than congressional sex scandals -- especially if Republicans get caught with their pants down, since they're more vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy. If Ganley were a congressman, the Internet buzz about his alleged advances would make the "Craigslist congressman" look discreet.

As it stands, if the criminal charges are proven in court, it'd mean Ganley had a foolhardy sense of invincibility: who thinks they can get away with treating a woman like that? And while running for Congress?

From prosecutor Bill Mason's press release this afternoon:

CLEVELAND- Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason announced that Thomas Ganley was indicted by a Grand Jury on 7 counts: three counts of gross sexual imposition (F4), one count of kidnapping (F1), one count of abduction (F3), one count of soliciting (M3), and one count of menacing by stalking (M1).

On August 1, 2009, a then 37-year-old female took her vehicle to be serviced at Ganley Chevrolet located on Lorain Ave., Cleveland. Ganley, 68, of Brecksville, invited the victim to his office, where he solicited her for sex and had sexual contact. He subsequently made several menacing calls to her.

Back in the fall, Ganley's lawyer claimed the lawsuit was an extortion campaign meant to cause political harm. OK, yes, political candidates are especially vulnerable to extortion -- though it's worth noting the alleged victim is reportedly pro-life and a volunteer for Republican campaigns.

Now, Mason, a Democrat, is prosecuting the former Republican candidate. But the Ganley camp is simply saying money motivated the accuser. Ganley's camp is very unlikely to try to play a reverse-Dimora card: One of his lawyers is Steve Dever, who used to be Mason's top trial attorney.

Update, 7/15: Bill Mason's office dismissed the charges against Ganley today. "After further investigating the case of State v Ganley and consulting with the victim, this office made a determination to dismiss the case," assistant prosecutor Blaise Thomas said in a statement. "This decision represents the desire of the victim not to go forward to trial."

Russo stickers will go, starting tomorrow, ending era of gas-pump shame

2011-03-14T17:04:00.010-04:00

You won't have Frank Russo to deface anymore. Starting tomorrow, with a ceremonial restickering at the Get Go in Parma, the county's weights and measures department will efface the egomaniacal seals adorned with the former county auditor's lying, million-dollar-bribe-taking smile.

For 13 years, Russo affixed his self-image to every gas pump, cash register and scale in Cuyahoga County in a bid for perpetual name recognition and re-election. It was a sign of how our fair county was different, how once-obscure elected offices became fiefdoms protected by personality cults, patronage, and one-party rule.

(Perhaps you've noticed, traveling around the state, that one can pump gas in Ohio's other counties without learning what their auditor looks like. My favorite seal, in Wood County, south of Toledo, shows off the lovely 1890s courthouse in Bowling Green, not Wood's esteemed and humble auditor, Michael Sibbersen.)

Now Ed FitzGerald, savvily searching for symbols to show the new charter government has brought real reform, has targeted the biggest symbol of all. His press secretary just sent out a proud press release about tomorrow's 2 pm debut of the new sticker. No image has been released yet, but I'm betting on something self-effacing: the county government's logo of intertwined C's, perhaps, or the peculiarly 9 1/2-sided county map.

Update, 3/16: No face or logo on the seals at all, but it does say FITZGERALD in pretty large type.

It's the end of an era -- and the end of one of Jimmy Dimora's bad jokes, one I cringingly recorded in "Life of the Party," my 2009 Dimora profile. "Every time I see Frank," Dimora would tell crowds, "I get gas."

Rob Frost stokes draft-Mandel movement for Senate

2011-03-11T15:28:00.001-05:00

Josh Mandel, the young state treasurer from Lyndhurst, is living a charmed political life. The 33-year-old Iraq war vet just got his new job, and already, conservatives are cajoling him to run fo the U.S. Senate against Sherrod Brown next year.

Last week the Washington Post profiled Mandel in its series "The Rising" about young elected officials with promising careers. Next, conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt hyped Mandel in his Washington Examiner column as Brown's "worst nightmare."

Rob Frost, Cuyahoga County's Republican chairman, likes the buzz. "Hugh has joined the chorus of Ohio conservatives, Republican leaders and business leaders who are trying to draft Josh into the Senate race against Sherrod Brown," Frost writes in an e-mail this morning. Frost wants to draft Mandel too: "Josh has made it clear that he's focused on running the Treasurer's office, but the consensus that is developing in Ohio and across the country is that Josh is our best bet to beat Sherrod."

Ohio Republicans have Sherrod-hunting on their minds this week. The senator is learning, the hard way, the first rule of cyber-era political debate: The first person to invoke Hitler loses the argument.

Meanwhile, Mandel's working to repair his biggest campaign foul, his fall TV ad against Kevin Boyce, widely criticized as Muslim-baiting. From the Post profile:

"I made a mistake, and I learned from it and put it behind me," says Mandel now. "I regret running the ad, and I've broken bread with my opponent and we've both put it behind us."

I get why Republicans dream of a Mandel candidacy, why his quote to the Post — "I'm not ruling it out" -- sounded to them like a horse race's opening bell. War veterans are attractive candidates, and experience in the Iraqi desert adds gravitas to Mandel's baby face. More mathematically, Republicans would be shrewd to run a Jewish candidate from Northeast Ohio -- it'd scramble the electoral map, peel away votes the Democrats usually count on.

Still, the buzz isn't entirely convincing. Hewitt's dismissal of Brown as an "off-the-rack lefty, tired, worn out" underestimates the Democrat's political talents, especially his ferocious campaign skills. I thought Brent Larkin sized up the race right last month: "A Mandel candidacy remains unlikely," he wrote, "as would an eventual victory." So far I haven't seen anything to lead me to disagree.

Lynne Thompson profiled Josh Mandel for Cleveland Magazine in 2008. You can read her piece here. I profiled Sherrod Brown in 2007, after his election to the Senate, and Rob Frost a few months later, when his entertaining missives, "News from the Pork Barrel Buffet," began to poke the seemingly impregnable Jimmy Dimora.

SB5 passes by one vote

2011-03-02T17:30:00.004-05:00

The huge fight over slashing the power of government employee unions looks like it's headed to a statewide referendum. Senate Bill 5 squeaked through the Ohio Senate today. Not only was the vote 17-16, but it only got to the Senate floor after Republican leader Tom Neihaus yanked two opponents of the bill off key committees to head off tie votes.

This Columbus Dispatch story explains it all clearly (though its count is off: six Republicans, not five, joined all 10 Senate Democrats to oppose the bill). For instance, the story succinctly explains one key amendment added yesterday, laying bare the power shift:

The bill would outlaw strikes for any public employee and for law enforcement and firefighters would eliminate binding arbitration, in which an impartial third party is brought in to resolve an impasse.
Instead, the bill sets up a new settlement process for all public workers that would bring in a fact-finder, who would present a public report. If rejected, the school board, city council or other legislative body would then either accept its own last best offer, or that of the union. [emphasis mine]

The Plain Dealer's coverage give us more of the politics of the bill. The breaking-news story shows that four of the six Republicans voting no are from Northeast Ohio, and the piece on today's front page forecasts the bill's ultimate path after it goes to the state House, where it's expected to pass: a statewide ballot this November.

How is Ohio different from Wisconsin?

2011-02-28T11:09:00.003-05:00

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he talks to John Kasich every day. Ohio’s governor is pushing just as hard as Walker to curb the power of public employee unions, sparking massive protests at both state capitols. Both governors are looking at Mitch Daniels’ union-taming, debt-slashing success in Indiana and saying that’s the way to cure their state’s financial illness.

So why is Madison the new capital of American protest, our new Cairo-like TV-drama stage, and not Columbus?

It’s not just that Wisconsin Democrats have upped the drama by deciding the only way to stop Walker’s bill is by a filibustering at an out-of-state Best Western. (A run for the border won’t do the Ohio Democrats’ tiny Senate caucus any good.)

It’s not just that protest is part of the culture in Madison, a classic liberal college town, or that the Wisconsin left is tapping a 100-year tradition of feistiness, which goes all the way back to gutsy progressive Fighting Bob La Follette. It’s not just that the Wisconsin state capitol lets people sleep over, giving the cheeseheads an opening to create a 24-hour happening, a marble-pillared commune. Or that Ohio lefties and unionists are more likely to swamp the capitol on hearing day, then go home and go to work.

The difference might be – might be – that Ohio is in a more moderate mood than Wisconsin right now, and that some of our state’s moderate Republicans are looking for a compromise. Some Republican senators are distinctly lukewarm about Senate Bill 5. They’re not spoiling for a fight. Unlike Wisconsin’s Republicans under Walker, they’re thinking independently, looking to reform collective bargaining with public employees but not tear it up.

Already Senate Republicans have snipped a ban on collective bargaining for state employees out of SB5, preserving their right to bargain for wages. This week, the Senate considers more amendments. As they do, pay close attention to two Northeast Ohio Republicans, Tim Grendell and Tom Patton. Grendell, though a member of the hard-right “Caveman Caucus,” is looking for ways to change SB5. Patton, a Republican and union member, is being super-careful – note his no-comment to Phillip Morris last week – but he, too, seems to be looking for a compromise way out.

I’m not saying Grendell and Patton are the swing votes – Kasich may eke out a victory without them. But their intriguing disagreements with their party say a lot about where the debate may be going – both in the legislature and at what’s probably SB5’s ultimate destination, a statewide referendum this fall.

Ideastream picks up 'Quiet Mayor' theme

2011-02-17T10:52:00.000-05:00

It is hard to write about Frank Jackson. Hard to even have an opinion about him sometimes. Cleveland's mayor defies our usual sense of how politicians act. So journalists, involved citizens, and politicians sputter and puzzle over him. When talk turns to leadership style, you can almost hear people goading him: For God's sake, man, have a personality!

Dan Bobkoff, reporter for Changing Gears, ideastream's Midwest project, is the latest to prod the inscrutable sphinx. "Some call him the Quiet Mayor," Bobkoff says in his report, broadcast on WCPN yesterday. (I smiled when I heard that -- I thought I was the first to dub Jackson the Quiet Mayor, though Google reminds me I may have picked it up from Bill Callahan.)

"Some Clevelanders are yearning for a big personality mayor, like Chicago’s Richard Daley, who can bulldoze his way to progress," Bobkoff says. (That's a clever nod to the ultimate triumph of the modern strongman mayor, Daley's 2003 destruction of Chicago's lakefront airport.) Cleveland Magazine columnist Mike Roberts, a frequent Jackson critic, echoes the lament: "Some days you get the feeling the town doesn't even have a mayor."

In the radio segment, Jackson once again bats away the cliché that he ought to be a "cheerleader" for Cleveland. (This is now his critics' most popular line. It's the new version of the idea that mayors should command the "bully pulpit.") Jackson says if people want that kind of mayor, they should vote for one. He knows city voters like having a no-drama leader.

The more interesting Jackson quotes come from Bobkoff's web-only audio clips. Interesting compared to most Jackson quotes, mind you -- this isn't Chairman Mao's little red book we're talking about, or even Coleman Young's. Still, here's a sampling of Jacksonian bons mots:

Paranoia is only wrong if it's not justified.

Everyone has an ego. When you're in positions like these, you can't survive without an ego. The question is whether or not it's healthy. I try to have a healthy sense of confidence that does not translate into arrogance.

I don't need the recognition.

The government closest to the people is the best government. Government, if left to its own accord, will always be abusive. Always.

The Flats East Bank is a project that we put a whole lot of public subsidy in, more than we should. Much more than we should. But we needed to do that because I had to put to rest the debate. The debate was whether there could be waterfront development in downtown Cleveland.

Those cities and urban centers that positioned themselves for the future survived [the '70s] pretty well. Those -- Cleveland being one of them -- who did not do that and were still trying to hold onto that old way of doing business, we declined. ... The corporate world and the political leadership made a decision to stay where they are or not invest in the emerging economy. As a result of that, they were left behind. My intent is not to have that done on my watch.

People always ask me if I'm running again for re-election. ... I'm not running for mayor to be mayor. ... My purpose is to accomplish my purpose. So my decision on whether or not I run or not is based on whether or not I'm effective. If I get to the point where I believe -- and hopefully I can see that -- that I'm not effective, [then] I've outlived my usefulness. ... I don't want to be an old fighter, not knowing when to retire.

Akron's Plusquellic, ever-feisty, running for 7th term

2011-02-11T15:59:00.007-05:00

The Don is in no mood to retire.

The long-serving, short-tempered mayor of Akron announced today that he's taking a shot at a seventh term.

Don Plusquellic, mayor since 1987, said it wasn't an easy decision -- his children tried to convince him not to run. But as I wrote in the Power 100 issue of Inside Business, Plusquellic has trouble walking away from a fight. He wants to erase the memory of his near-loss in 2007, and he wants to be the guy who conquers the city's serious budget problems.

That means Akron City Hall will remain an exciting place: four more years* of Plusquellic's Sinatra-esque "my way" politics. Four more years of feuds with the Akron cops and the motley crew that tried to recall him in 2009. And maybe even another campaign appearance and endorsement by Chrissie Hynde.

Plusquellic was as combative as ever in his press conference today (covered by Bill Sheil of Fox 8). He addressed his never-ending union-negotiation struggles with the police thusly:

[Should I say,] here, take more and more, and I'll just sit back and let you fill out your own paychecks? Somebody has to stand-up. Is that polarization? I'll let you choose what word you use. But you can't in this world be successful with the 20-something percent of people who are always against everything.

Those 20-plus percenters* may coalesce around councilman and Don-rival Mike Williams, the Beacon Journal thinks.

*Update, March: Brent Larkin thinks another term for The Don is far from a sure thing. "Friends of Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic fear he will have a tough time winning," Larkin writes at the bottom of this column.

FitzGerald replaces engineer, coroner, children's services director

2011-02-11T10:14:00.007-05:00

Here comes the ax. After a quiet first month as county executive, Ed FitzGerald announces that four county officials are heading out the door.

FitzGerald won't keep engineer Robert Klaiber, who failed to notice how his top deputies corrupted his office. He's saying goodbye to coroner Frank Miller, who hired corruption-implicated Strongsville councilman Pat Coyne, then blamed Bill Mason. He's showing the door to Deb Forkas, head of children and family services, who's been held accountable for the deaths of six kids in families her agency monitored. He's also replacing Susan Axelrod, head of senior and adult services.

It's FitzGerald's second dramatic break with the past this week. Wednesday, he announced that four county employees elected to suburban city councils as Democrats will have to resign from either their council seats or their county jobs.

Interestingly, three of them are Parma councilmen: Brian Day, Tom Regas, and Roy Jech. You may remember Regas as Bill Mason's drunk-driving buddy and Day from the board of revisions controversy; also, Day's brother Tom is very close to Mason. Jech is best-known lately for sticking his finger in Dale Miller's face on the Plain Dealer's front page.

The fourth, Danny Colonna, is from next door, in Brook Park. The move is part of the new government's attempt to implement civil service rules and abolish the patronage machines in the auditor's office, recorder's office, and so forth.

The next question is whether Bill Mason's employees who serve on partisan city councils will also have to resign one job or the other. Last March, the Plain Dealer reported that 11 suburban councilpeople worked in the prosecutor's office. If their towns have nonpartisan elections, they're OK. But the ones that have partisan elections may also have to choose.

With DePiero leaving, who'll be Parma's next mayor?

2011-02-02T18:25:00.001-05:00

Now that Bill Mason and Dean DePiero have decided not to run again, who'll be the next king of Parma politics? We'll find out soon. Three experienced Democrats are running to succeed DePiero as mayor of Cleveland's largest suburb: Chuck Germana, Tim DeGeeter, and Mickey Mottl. They'll face off in a May 3 primary.

It'll be an interesting election. DeGeeter, a state representative, is a Mason-DePiero ally. Mottl, former state rep and son of a former congressman, was once a rival of DePiero's. Germana, the former Parma city council president, is somewhere in between.

Germana is probably the best-known outside Parma, thanks to his seat on the new county council and his failed bid for its leadership. He's a solid, reliable guy, the type of mayor Parma was used to having before 2003, when it elected DePiero, then a 35-year-old rising star. If Germana wins the primary and the November election, he'd leave the county council after only a year. When he talked to the Sun News last week, he sounded like he hadn't expected DePiero to bail.

Lots of people didn't. But there are two good reasons DePiero is getting out of politics instead of heading to Congress or Columbus, as Bill Mason once told me he might.

One was foreshadowed in early 2004, when I visited DePiero in Parma City Hall for my profile of him, "The Flamingo Kid." On the way into his office, he introduced me to his administrative assistant and former campaign manager: Vince Russo. Nice guy, very young. I think I asked him if he was any relation to the other political Russos, and learned he was Frank Russo's son. I shook his hand and figured that with that then-golden name, he'd be elected judge within 10 years.

Instead, Vince's brief stint at Parma City Hall linked DePiero to the county corruption scandal five years later. It turns out Frank Russo bribed J. Kevin Kelley to stay out of the 2003 mayor's race. "In exchange for PO2 convincing Kelley to withdraw from the mayoral race, Kelley's opponent gave a thing of value to a relative of PO2," the Kelley charges read. Everyone knew the feds were hinting about DePiero, but he denied any wrongdoing.

The second reason DePiero's leaving is his family. I know, they all say that. But take a look at the Plain Dealer story about his announcement. Below the requisite scandal summary, we learn that DePiero lost his dad and a niece and nephew last year, and that his mother, Roberta (whom I interviewed about Parma in 2009), recently suffered a stroke. Reason enough not to make a bad year worse by spending it traipsing around town, running for re-election, having to answer Frank Russo questions everywhere you go.

So, with DePiero leaving the corner of Ridge and Ridgewood at year's end, and Mason retiring after 2012, who'll command the Parma wing of the Democratic Party -- the remains of Mason's machine, the southwest-county faction that stretches at least from Parma and Old Brooklyn to Berea Municipal Court? My quick guess is DeGeeter -- Mason's support will still help a lot in Parma itself -- but I wouldn't count Germana out either.

To read "The Flamingo Kid," my 2004 profile of DePiero, click here.

Full text of Kucinich's Olivegate letter

2011-01-30T09:46:00.003-05:00

Cleveland's famous vegan became a viral laughingstock this week. Dennis Kucinich sued a Capitol cafeteria for $150,000 because a veggie wrap contained an olive pit that cracked his tooth. After gawker.com broke the story on Wednesday, media from Cleveland to India rushed to match it, and political commentators and comedians ruthlessly mocked him.

At 4:42 p.m. Friday -- that shadowy hour when public figures fire off press releases about bad news, hoping weekend-hungry reporters don't have time to dig in -- a peevish Kucinich announced he'd settled his suit. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post dubbed Dennis' e-mail "one of the more bizarre letters to campaign supporters in modern American politics." It is reproduced here in its entirety.
==

Regarding Settlement of Dental Injury Law Suit

Dear Friend,

Though I would prefer to focus your attention on my work dealing with the profoundly important issues that face our nation, such as job creation, getting the economy back on track, and ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - it seems that some are more interested in discussing my personal dental issues. Given the degree of public interest you should know some details:

This injury required nearly two years, three dental surgeries, and a substantial amount of money to rectify.

The legal action you have heard about was filed due to the severity, expense and duration of the dental injury, the complications which followed and which still persist. I wanted to resolve this matter without filing a lawsuit. The events below involved numerous dental visits, more than are detailed in this summary. The dental injury set in motion a chain of dental and medical events.

When I bit into the olive pit, (unbeknown to me at the time), upon impact the tooth split in half, vertically through the crown and the tooth, below the level of the bone. Externally there was no evidence of a break. This was not about aesthetics. The internal structure of the tooth was rendered nonrestorable. Although the pain was excruciating, I shook it off and I went right back to work.

This tooth is a key tooth which anchored my upper bridgework. The injured tooth and the bone above it became infected. I took a course of antibiotics for the infection, had an adverse reaction to the antibiotics which caused me to have an intestinal obstruction and emergency medical intervention.

Later, my dentist referred me to a specialist who informed me that the damaged tooth had to be removed. A third dentist removed the tooth and I was fitted for a temporary partial. I waited for the bone to heal. An implant was placed, but it failed. Many months later still a second implant succeeded. My bridgework had to be completely reconfigured, a new partial was designed, so this injury did not affect only one tooth, but rather involved six (6) replacement teeth as well. A new crown with a new precision attachment was engineered and put in place. To clarify, no dental expenses were covered by any health plan, nor did I have dental insurance that covered the injury, which, until it was resolved, affected my ability to chew food properly.

The clamor for information about this incident requires that I provide at least this much information. I would have liked to provide such details sooner but did not want it said that I was trying the case in the media. So that is why I declined any interviews about the matter. The parties have exchanged information and after some investigation and discussion have resolved the matter for an amount all parties believe reflects the actual out-of-pocket expenses related to this incident. The terms of the settlement are confidential; however, I feel that the defendants have responded fairly and reasonably. I don't want to have to make another dental visit for a very long time, and will be making no further comment on this matter.

Thank you very much.

FitzGerald to county workers: resign from your political post or quit your job

2011-01-21T16:43:00.008-05:00

County executive Ed FitzGerald just let all county workers under him know they can't be political and keep their jobs. Citing state law, FitzGerald says employees have a choice: resign from their partisan elected office or party position, or quit their county job.

FitzGerald's decision will wipe out the infamous patronage networks in the recorder and auditor's offices, which for years have been full of suburban city councilpeople and Democratic precinct committee-people. The independent elected officials' offices weren't part of the civil service in the old system, but the new charter makes them civil servants.

The new rule applies to anyone serving on a city council in a town with partisan elections. It also applies to anyone who has a position within the Democratic or Republican parties. It doesn't apply if a county worker serves on a city council in a town with nonpartisan elections -- {a distinction the county council may wipe out when it writes a permanent ethics code.}**

It doesn't apply to the prosecutor's office,* another haven of political activity, because Bill Mason doesn't answer to FitzGerald and the charter doesn't convert the prosecutor's office to civil service. It doesn't keep anyone from serving as a poll worker on election day, and I suspect it doesn't apply to the board of elections, which is explicitly bipartisan, not nonpartisan.

Here's the text of FitzGerald's press release. If you want to dig into the nitty-gritty of what a "classified" employee is, here's the state law and the county charter provision (scroll down to part 3).

*Update, 1/24: The Plain Dealer reports that Mason will also comply with the state law, but it's not clear how many of his employees would be classified as civil service.

**Update, 1/25: Turns out serving on non-partisan city councils while working for another government is protected by state law.

==
FitzGerald Sets Decision Point for Partisan Political Employees

CLEVELAND – Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald issued an order today requiring all county employees under his authority to report any elected or appointed political offices they hold to the Human Resources department, giving classified employees a choice to either resign from their partisan political office or resign from county employment.

“This is an obvious legal restriction for county employees that has been ignored in the past. We are compelled to take decisive action to comply with the statute,” said FitzGerald.

Ohio Revised Code section 124.57 prohibits classified public employees from holding partisan political office. County employees will be required to self-report any relevant political involvement and will be subject to discipline for failing to report any relevant activities in a timely fashion.

“Our classified employees who hold partisan offices will be given a choice – resign from political office, or resign from county employment,” said FitzGerald.

Revised thinking on boards of revision

2011-01-19T15:56:00.007-05:00

The county council is bracing itself for its first major disagreement with Ed FitzGerald -- and trying to prevent an all-out war with the Plain Dealer. It’s poised to reappoint two people who joined the boards of revision late last year – after the exposés that called the integrity of local property valuations into question.

The county executive and the daily paper insist that no one on the boards of revision should be reappointed. They want a “clean sweep,” they say. But the council will choose most of the new board members -- and it sees a clear distinction between the longtime board members who served during the scandal years and people named to the board to cope with the scandals’ fallout.

“Someone who came on board after all the problems, and someone who stepped up to help the county out as those taxpayers’ cases were backing up … I think they’re in a different category,” says Jack Schron (pictured), a Republican councilman. He and council president C. Ellen Connally are meeting with the Plain Dealer editorial board today to try to get the paper to give the recent appointees a chance.

Two of council’s eight leading candidates for the boards of revision are post-scandal appointees who joined the boards in August 2010 or later, Schron tells me. (He wouldn’t name them because they haven’t passed pre-employment checks yet, but he said they weren’t Frank Russo appointees.)

“Some of these people, they were asked to take on a yeoman’s task of coming forward and helping our the county in a backlog situation and help work through it,” Schron says. “It’s hard for me to find fault with people who stepped up and made a civic commitment.”

Schron says council is unlikely to reappoint any longtime board of revision incumbents.

“Whether or not they did anything improper, they were in that era where the public is looking for a fresh start,” he says. “Unfortunately, some of them might get caught up in that. … It doesn’t mean they couldn’t be a candidate, but it’s going to be a lot harder to get past all the concerns people have.” That’s not just his opinion: “I do believe that’s the general consensus [on council].”

Four of the 28 candidates council recently interviewed are longtime incumbent board members. That means they arguably share responsibility for the shoddy or questionable work the Plain Dealer exposed: half-days of work, bad record-keeping, board members lowering the tax values of each others’ properties. One has dropped out since.

Seven other candidates joined the boards between August and November 2010, after the exposés. They’re the candidates that the council and the executive disagree over. County chief of staff Matt Carroll confirms that FitzGerald wants even the post-scandal hires cleared off the boards.

“Even those people were not selected in an open way,” Carroll told me Friday. “It was a closed process. People were not given the opportunity to apply. Some people were selected, possibly [people] of quality, but the fact that it was not an open process, that is a reason they could not be reappointed. That is a continuing taint to the process. That’s the difference. [There’s] a different level of quality and culpability, but that [they were] not part of an open process continues to concern.”

This seems pretty weak to me. Someone who joined the boards in the fall isn’t the least bit “culpable” for bad practices exposed earlier. And anyone who gets reappointed will have answered an open posting this time and made it through a four-step screening process.

That’s unlikely to satisfy the Plain Dealer. Like an overzealous watchdog that tries to bite everyone who startles it, it’s made the county council its favorite new chew toy. (It bit the council six times in five days last week: Monday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, Friday.)

That’s why Schron and Connally are trying to get the editorial board to reconsider its opposition to the recent appointees. “Sorry, draining the swamp halfway cannot be an option,” an editorial snarled unpersuasively last week.

If the PD starts howling again about the board of revision, casting council as the old guard, politics as usual, etc. etc., it can probably do a lot of further damage to the council’s reputation. Or it could change its mind and draw a basic distinction: Between those who share responsibility for the board of revision’s past failures and those who don’t.

Update, 1/21: Today's editorial signals a welcome truce, or at least some détente -- ruining my plans to create a drinking game out of the PD's county council coverage. (If the paper uses the phrase "secret meeting," slam your drink!)

Med Mart lands less than 5% of top tenant prospects, 1% of medical event prospects so far

2011-01-17T15:49:00.005-05:00

Cleveland’s Medical Mart is having trouble attracting big national names so far. Its first list of tenants and events, released Friday, showed that developer MMPI has signed a small fraction of the top prospects it identified in 2009.

Ohio companies and organizations make up most of the initial tenant list. Health events make up only about a third of the convention-hall bookings. It’s early – the project won’t open until fall 2013 – but the Medical Mart clearly has a long way to go.

So far, MMPI has landed only five of the 100 national medical manufacturers it named as showroom prospects in a list it shared with Inside Business in 2009. The hunt for national medical trade shows and conferences has been even tougher: MMPI has landed only one of the 264 medical events it listed as prospects two years ago.

InvaCare and Steris, two local medical manufacturers with national profiles, lead the list of 58 probable tenants who’ve already signed nonbinding letters of intent to lease showroom space. They were among the 100 medical furnishings and medical technology companies on MMPI’s 2009 tenant prospect list. The other three it’s landed are medical furniture makers Midmark, Cabot Wrenn Care and Intensa.

Missing so far are leading medical device companies such as Medtronic, Stryker, Philips Medical Systems and Siemens Medical Solutions — all companies MMPI named on its 2009 prospect list, all cited by MedCity News last week as desirable anchors for the Med Mart. The scarcity of big names is a reminder that the merchandise-mart concept is unproven in the medical industry. It echoes the careful, neutral responses I heard about the Med Mart from manufacturers when I was reporting on my 2009 Inside Business story, “Affairs of the Mart.”

Of course, MMPI has moved far beyond its two-year-old prospects list to sign other companies who fit the Medical Mart concept, from Michigan-based distributor Innovative Medical Systems to Johnson Controls, a large Wisconsin-based manufacturer whose building-efficiency products could benefit hospitals constructing new offices. MMPI President Chris Kennedy told Crain's it has letters of intent for all the space in the four-story Med Mart and may have to expand north -- where the county administration building is now -- to meet demand.

Kennedy described the tenant list as “broad and deep” when I talked with him at the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday. “[It’s got] everything from associations, educational institutions, design products and interior finishing products to hard-core medical technology and patient care devices,” Kennedy said. “Within each category, there’s a lot of depth. The team put that together strategically to create a mini-critical mass in each component that would be attractive to certain trade shows. And the trade shows are now coming because they have groups that are totally relevant to their area.”

The Med Mart needs tenants before the convention center can attract medical events. That may be why the 24 event bookings released Friday included only nine medical-related shows. In 2009, MMPI showed me a prospect list of 264 small and medium-sized medical conventions and trade shows. So far, only one event on that list has signed on: the Ohio Optometric Association’s EastWest Eye Conference.

Deal-making should pick up now that MMPI has broken ground, Kennedy says.

“The velocity of deals has increased dramatically over the last 60 days,” he told me Friday. “The reality is, people don’t want to commit to a building that they don’t know is going to be built. Convention managers don’t want to make a commitment four years from now to a trade show hall that might not be there for them. Those are enormous long-term decisions.

“Once they see construction, once they see those signed documents and a timeline that is reasonable, then they commit. And that’s what’s going on now.” MMPI is now signing about one new tenant and one new event per week, he says.

Republicans named to key county council committees

2011-01-13T10:48:00.008-05:00

The new Cuyahoga County council made a major bipartisan gesture this week, appointing councilmen from the Republican minority to two of its most important committees. Jack Schron Jr. of Chagrin Falls will chair the economic development committee, while Dave Greenspan of Bay Village will chair the ethics and rules committee.

That means Republicans will be in leadership positions on two major parts of the county's reform agenda. Economic development is the new county charter's number-one goal, and writing a strong new ethics policy is one of the council's biggest tasks.

Schron (photo on left) is so well-qualified to chair economic development that any other choice would've been a snub: he's a businessman, the president of the Collinwood manufacturer Jergens, Inc. Greenspan (right), who proposed an ethics policy for the county during his campaign, has helped set up a brand-new government before: he was a councilman in the newly incorporated city of Sandy Springs, Georgia in 2007. His committee will also oversee any revisions to the charter.

Eight more committees still need to be organized. The eight Democrats on council will probably get most or all of those chairmanships, setting up an interesting division of labor. Democratic committee chairs will lead the oversight of county government's traditional functions, such as human services, justice affairs, and public works. Republicans will oversee the areas where voters most want change.

You can read the council's press release here. Here's a bio of Schron and a bio of Greenspan.

Jackson vs. FitzGerald: Who has more power?

2011-01-12T10:52:00.004-05:00

Right now, who is the most powerful politician in Greater Cleveland?

Many people say Ed FitzGerald’s new job is the most influential political position in town. Voters’ hopes for change are focused on the new Cuyahoga County executive: Their demands for a more efficient government and an end to corruption and self-dealing, their belief that local government can step up and reverse Northeast Ohio’s economic decline.

“The charter has created a position where Cuyahoga County can speak with one voice,” FitzGerald told me in an interview for the Power 100 issue of Inside Business, out now. “To the extent that I can grow into that role, also to the extent that I can build coalitions, it gives me entrée into all kinds of situations I may not have direct control over.”

FitzGerald debuts in our Power 100 list at No. 9, behind business leaders such as Sandy Cutler of Eaton (#1) and Chris Connor of Sherwin-Williams (#3). The county exec also ranks below one other politician: Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who drops from #2 in last year’s rankings to #7 this time.

Jackson had a pretty tough 2010, considering his troubles with the LED lighting contract and the water department and his futile endorsement of Terri Hamilton Brown for county executive. But politicos will remind you that a city still has a lot more legislative powers than a county. And people who think about power say it doesn't just come with a new job -- it's acquired over time by leading, cooperating, and persuading. For now, Jackson’s still got more clout than Ed FitzGerald, an unknown quantity. But a year from now? Maybe not.

My “Political Shakeup” piece in the Power 100 package tracks the rising and falling influence of Jackson and other Northeast Ohio politicians. Steve LaTourette moves up from #20 to #16 in our rankings, thanks to the November elections and his friendship with House speaker John Boehner. Sherrod Brown, now Ohio’s senior senator, moves up a bit, from #17 to #15, though we’ll see how he adjusts his senatorial style to divided government.

Don Plusquellic holds fairly steady as he ponders whether to run for one more term as Akron’s mayor. The biggest fall? Bill Mason, who had the worst 2010 of any local public official not under indictment, drops out of our top 100.

FitzGerald on Mason: ‘I don’t look for permission from him’

2011-01-11T08:57:00.003-05:00

When I interviewed Cuyahoga County executive Ed FitzGerald for the current issues of Cleveland Magazine and Inside Business, we talked about his relationship with county prosecutor Bill Mason.

FitzGerald once worked for Mason as an assistant prosecutor, and I’d heard it suggested that Mason’s political faction helped FitzGerald clinch the Democratic party endorsement for executive last summer. After a tough, controversial 2010, Mason has said he won’t run for re-election in 2012. Shrewdly, FitzGerald distanced himself a bit from Mason during our conversation — but not by too much. The edited version of the interview in January’s Cleveland Magazine includes some of our talk about Mason, but I’m posting the full exchange on the topic here.

--
Cleveland Magazine: Did you have a dispute with Bill Mason over Issue 6?

Ed FitzGerald: We weren’t on the same side of it. I talked to him about it. He told me that I should be for it. I told him I didn’t think it was well-drafted. I expressed to him all the problems I had with it.

Bill and I have a cordial and professional relationship. We’re not personal friends or anything like that. When I ran for mayor, Bill did not endorse me and did not support me. I was elected to the city council on my own without Bill’s help. When I first talked to Bill about running for county executive, he advised me not to do it and was not supportive.

I started as a prosecutor under Stephanie Tubbs Jones and I eventually was a prosecutor under Bill. But he doesn’t look for my permission to what he does politically, and I don’t look for permission from him for what I do politically.

CM: Why did he tell you not to run for county executive?

EF: Basically, because I hadn’t supported Issue 6. Early on, I think he thought the proponents of Issue 6 would end up picking the next county executive, and they were never going to pick me. I also think he just thought I was going to have difficulty politically, because I hadn’t run countywide before.

CM: This summer, when you received the Democratic Party endorsement, was he helpful with that?

EF: That’s about exactly when he was of some — some — help. But we had a campaign team, and he was never part of that. We set up our own organization. It didn’t rely on any elected official, Bill Mason or anybody else.

CM: People said that his office should have known about what Frank Russo and Dimora were up to and put a stop to it. Does the role of the county prosecutor need to change in the new government?

EF: In my opinion, the job of uncovering any potential corruption, and rooting it out, and making sure processes are in place so it doesn’t happen is going to fall to the inspector general, not the prosecutor.

To read more of my interview with FitzGerald in the January issue of Cleveland Magazine, click here. To read FitzGerald talking about economic development and political influence in the January-February issue of Inside Business, click here.

Frost, Garson's joint statement on Tucson shooting

2011-01-10T17:14:00.005-05:00

A lot of local politicians have released statements on the attempted assassination of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. But this one from Rob Frost and Stuart Garson stands out. It's a bipartisan gesture, especially thoughtful about the biggest question emerging from the shooting: the way we talk about our political opponents.

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Joint Statement of the Chairs of the Cuyahoga County Democratic and Republican Parties

On behalf of the officers, leaders and members of the Cuyahoga County Democratic and Republican parties, we wish to convey our profound condolences for the victims and their families in the senseless and tragic shootings that took place in Tucson this past Saturday. We have no sufficient words to describe our horror and disdain for such intolerance and wanton disregard for human life.

However it is our intention to demonstrate that, although on occasion, our respective parties may share a different philosophical approach to our political issues, we do not perceive one another as enemies. Our democracy can only flourish and thrive in an atmosphere of respect and tolerance for each other's views. As local party chairs we are dedicated to civil discourse that at all times strives to advance our respective positions in a thoughtful and constructive manner.

We hope all our residents of Cuyahoga County will join with us in reflecting on this tragic moment in our hopes that we can achieve a new spirit of political conciliation and cooperation for our families, community and country. We could not ask for any more of ourselves or from each other in the New Year.

Sincerely,
Stuart Garson, Chairman, Cuyahoga County Democratic Party
and Robert Frost, Chairman, Republican Party of Cuyahoga County
--

The whole country is debating whether vicious rhetoric and violent political metaphors had anything to do with the shooting, or whether Jared Loughner is just a lone nut job whose act had no larger meaning. (Essential viewing: this video of Giffords, who happened to read the First Amendment during Congress' recitation of the Constitution last week -- and put special emphasis on the word peaceably.)

But if the shooting becomes any sort of turning point in our politics (and it might not), it could be a moment when "restoring sanity" becomes a bipartisan project, not just Jon Stewart's. That's what Frost and Garson are reaching for here.

FitzGerald says he’s aided corruption investigation: “I talked to the FBI about a lot of things”

2011-01-10T12:10:00.003-05:00

In his inaugural address yesterday, Ed FitzGerald took a moment to kick corrupt former county bosses to the curb. “At a time when we needed great leadership the most, we were betrayed by some of our public officials,” the new county executive said. “Public servants who steal from the people are beneath contempt, and the only use that they’re going to serve is as a cautionary tale.”

FitzGerald’s done more than proclaim good riddance. In my interview with him in the January issue of Cleveland Magazine, the former Lakewood mayor and ex-FBI agent says he’s aided the federal agents who’ve investigated county corruption. “I talked to the FBI about a lot of things the last couple of years,” he says. To read the interview in the current Cleveland Magazine, click here.

The new county executive also talks about how he first learned of his cameo appearance as PO14 in the Jimmy Dimora indictment this fall.

We also discussed his relationship with county prosecutor Bill Mason, a former boss. I’ll post the full transcript of our conversation about Mason here tomorrow.

Portions of my interviews with FitzGerald also appear in the Power 100 package in the latest issue of Inside Business, Cleveland Magazine’s sister publication. There, FitzGerald talks about his Fourth Frontier jobs program, his goals for the Medical Mart project, and his thoughts about the power and influence that comes with his new job. To read the Inside Business story, click here.

Council chooses Connally as president, tackles board of revisions mess

2011-01-03T20:41:00.003-05:00

A really tiny girl belted out the national anthem with a huge, blistering voice. An honor guard marched the U.S. and Ohio flags to their posts. Rev. Marvin McMickle prayed the new council would “resist cliques, schisms, and partisan divides.” And one by one, the 11 new Cuyahoga County council members took their oaths of office with something close to 11 different Bibles, swearers-in, and pronunciations of “Cuyahoga.”

Then they got to work, choosing C. Ellen Connally as president and setting up interviews to fill the troubled boards of revisions.

A month ago, Connally’s bid for the council presidency looked like it was in trouble. The Plain Dealer, supporters of rival Chuck Germana, and a good number of regular citizens were denouncing her for lining up support in a private meeting. But the coalition behind Connally held firm tonight. All seven Democrats other than Germana voted for her.

Despite McMickle’s prayer, the vote for vice-president split exactly along party lines. Sunny Simon got all eight Democrats’ votes, while the Republicans voted as a bloc for Jack Schron. It’s a reminder that, though the Plain Dealer cast the leadership contest as a matter of secrecy versus openness, it was really more about Democrats versus Republicans.

“In this past month and a half,” Connally said, “we’ve come to work together and respect each other's views. ... I recognize the missteps along the way, but I hope in this new year and this new government, we can put all that behind us and move forward.”

The council also started to tackle the fallout from the old government’s scandals. It voted to interview candidates for the troubled boards of revisions starting tomorrow morning. “The board of revisions is one of the most severe problems facing Cuyahoga County,” said Dale Miller. They’re moving fast, Miller explained, because county executive Ed FitzGerald has said he’ll fire any board of revision members who don’t resign, so that the new government can choose its own appointees. The council will choose two members of each revision board, FitzGerald one.

FitzGerald has said he won’t appoint anyone who served on the boards in the past and has asked the council not to either. But council has agreed to interview past board members who’ve reapplied and passed a test and a screening by the county human resources department.

The council also approved the rules it’ll follow. It’ll allow for public comment at the beginning and end of every meeting. It’ll set up ten committees to work on legislation, including one on economic development and one on ethics and oversight. Non-voting members of the public can be added to subcommittees. The idea, Miller said, was to provide for lots of transparency and public input.

When I asked Miller about the rules at a recess, he said he’d e-mail them to me. He sent them about an hour after the meeting ended. (You can read them here.) They include a public procedure for choosing the next council president and vice-president. Yeah, I’d say the council is trying to move beyond the “secret meeting” flap.

To read my profile of Ellen Connally from the November issue of Cleveland Magazine, click here.

At FitzGerald’s first press conference, the buzz of a new start

2011-01-03T14:29:00.003-05:00

An electric drill was whirring in Peter Lawson Jones’ old office this morning. Next door, the wall between Tim Hagan’s and Jimmy Dimora’s offices was already torn down, creating an open space for the new county council offices. A desk that belonged to a Dimora assistant collected detritus and flotsam: a mini-American flag in a pencil holder, a empty heart-shaped candy tray.

The commissioners’ meeting room was bare, the benches ripped out. A little dumpster stood on the dais next to a tool cart. In the corner, by the empty chairs, sat a binder: the county’s 2007 financial report, adorned with Frank Russo’s smiling face.

Ed FitzGerald, the new county executive, walked in and stepped to a podium in the back of the room. It was his first working day in his new job, and he’d already fulfilled a campaign promise. Before 10 a.m., he e-mailed all county employees a new ethics policy. (You can read the e-mail here.)

“We tried to very quickly set a very strong tone when it came to ethics and what we expect of the county employees,” FitzGerald told the reporters in the room. “They can’t accept anything of value under any circumstances.” They’re also required to report wrongdoing by others. A code of conduct for county vendors and contractors will come next. The idea, he said, is “to make sure we don’t have a repeat of what has happened in the last couple of years.”

It was a strange day of transition at the county administration building, full of bare plywood and moving boxes. Seven elected officials from the old government are still in office, until FitzGerald names his choices for their positions. “Some of them are leaving, some are staying,” FitzGerald said.

Treasurer Jim Rokakis was packing up to go. His last day is next Friday. He announced last April that he wouldn’t ask to serve in the new government. Recorder Lillian Greene has also told FitzGerald she’s leaving. Sheriff Bob Reid, coroner Frank Miller and courts clerk Gerald Fuerst have applied to keep their jobs.

FitzGerald said he’ll announce some cabinet appointments next week. A national search for a chief fiscal officer, chief information officer, and development director may take longer. He announced a January 27 jobs summit, the kickoff to his economic development plans.

Outside the window, another fresh start bloomed. Red construction trucks and fencing dotted Malls B and C. “The noise of construction is nice symbolism,” FitzGerald said, noting the buzz from outdoors. “We’re starting a new administration. We’re also starting construction of the Med Mart.”

To read my interview with FitzGerald in the January issue of Cleveland Magazine, click here.

Voinovich's two legacies, in Washington and Cleveland

2010-12-21T12:28:00.001-05:00

George Voinovich hasn’t changed much in 31 years. That’s clear from a moment in his recent Washington Post interview when he recalled his 10 years at Cleveland City Hall.

“When I was the mayor, shooting for those All American City Awards each year was a real motivator,” he said. “And it never would have happened without the private sector and urban pioneers helping us rebuild a city where Cleveland used to be.”

He’s echoing a line from his 1979 run for mayor: “I want to build a great city where Cleveland used to be.” It’s a line I quote in “The Great Divide,” my piece on Voinovich in Cleveland Magazine’s December issue.

My story describes how Voinovich realigned Cleveland politics as mayor by introducing the phrase “public-private partnership” into our vocabulary. In the 30 years since, our biggest arguments haven’t been between conservatives and liberals. They’ve been about whether you see Cleveland the way Voinovich did, especially whether you’re for or against big public-private projects downtown, from Gateway to the Rock Hall to the Medical Mart. The Post interview picks up on Voinovich’s ideology, asking him how he’ll be involved in public-private partnerships after he retires from the Senate Jan. 2.

In Washington, Voinovich will be remembered for his role as a deficit hawk and his moderate politics. He showed both streaks in this month’s climactic lame-duck session, blasting the Obama-Republican tax-cut compromise for running up more debt on one hand, and on the other, voting to allow gays to serve openly in the military and supporting the New Start arms control treaty.

At home in Cleveland, he’ll be remembered for his philosophy of partnership. Last week, when county executive-elect Ed FitzGerald created a task force of business executives to aid the transition to a new county government, his announcement explicitly referred to Voinovich’s 1980 task force that helped the city climb out of default. And the county charter calls for FitzGerald to sit down with representatives of labor, nonprofits and business to develop a new economic strategy for the region. Voinovich may be retiring, but his philosophy is written right into our new government.