Regionalism plan leads FitzGerald’s State of the County proposals

Hoping to unify Greater Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald officially revealed his plan for the county to offer municipal services in his State of the County address today.

“For the first time, cities won’t have a monopoly on providing services,” Fitzgerald said during his speech at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, broadcast live on WCPN. “Over time, we will have the prospect of becoming a cohesive metropolitan area.”

FitzGerald sneak-previewed his proposal a month ago in my interview with him for the January-February issue of Inside Business. Today, he reiterated his argument that the plan offers a way to move beyond Cuyahoga County’s futile, century-old debate about regional unity.

“Our patchwork of individual kingdoms is powerless to execute any strategy to compete in a global economy,” FitzGerald argued. But Ohio cities’ strong home-rule powers make a full consolidation of city and suburbs into a single government nearly impossible, he added.

So FitzGerald wants the county to offer several new services to cities each year, from information technology to infrastructure maintenance. Cities would sign up voluntarily, or still provide services on their own. But FitzGerald said the effort would eventually lead to a “county-wide, metropolitan government” that could better compete with more unified metro areas across the country.

The regionalism proposal was the highlight of his speech’s 12-point agenda, which he called the Western Reserve Plan. It includes two more new initiatives he described in IB's latest issue: a “pay for success” formula for delivering human services and pledge to use the county’s casino tax revenue to improve downtown Cleveland and the lakefront.

FitzGerald also announced a pilot program to buy homes on the verge of foreclosure, a plan to help returning military veterans, a health and wellness initiative and an economic inclusion task force. With a nod to the Jimmy Dimora corruption trial in Akron, FitzGerald concluded by promising to fight any attempt to return to the county’s “old ways” of patronage and cronyism.

“I’ll do everything possible in my power to prevent that,” he said.

FitzGerald #1 on Inside Business Power 100

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.

Jackson vs. FitzGerald: Who has more power?

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 says he’s aided corruption investigation: “I talked to the FBI about a lot of things”

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.

Me on WCPN tomorrow: Mason, Power 100, and more

I'll be on 90.3 WCPN's Reporter's Roundtable tomorrow morning with host Dan Moulthrop, Plain Dealer reporter Mark Puente, and Joe Ingles of the Ohio Public Radio statehouse news bureau.

We'll be talking about Bill Mason, the Inside Business Power 100, Gov. Ted Strickland and challenger John Kasich choosing their running mates, and other stuff. The show starts about 9:06 a.m. and goes to 10.

My Medical Mart story, now online

In my newest feature, "Affairs of the Mart," I take a look at the prospects for the Medical Mart and convention center, Cleveland's biggest downtown project in a decade.

The story is in the June issue of Cleveland Magazine's sister publication, Inside Business, and it's online here.

Here are some key paragraphs:

The Medical Mart project is not the sure bet some supporters claim, nor the certain failure its critics envision. It is a significant risk on a promising concept.

It could give medical manufacturers and medical professionals an easier, more efficient way to connect and do business. But as an unproven idea in the medical industry, it is built on a challenging startup strategy. ...

Once the 77-year-old convention center is replaced with a state-of-the-art one, will conventioneers return to Cleveland? This simpler prospect has gotten much less attention than the Medical Mart. But it could make the project a success, even if the Medical Mart concept fails or takes a while to catch on.

(If you'd like to link to my article, you can use this shortcut: tinyurl.com/medmartIB.)