The County Blowhard

If you want a sampling of what a tyrannical public official with little self confidence is, read this article from Tuesday's Plain Dealer.

Geesh, so much for trying to protect taxpayer dollars and foster unfettered intellectual discourse on County programs. You can imagine how hard it is to exact budget cuts from discretionary County programs when any critique invokes the wrath of hot-headed people in power.

I will post some ideas on the much touted path to County reform shortly.

Scenes From Mall B

Mall B in downtown Cleveland is slated to be torn up and replaced with a raised (not razed) mall space once the Medical Mart project gets underway . This ideally situated strip of green space is part thorougfare and part urban park that is a haven for lunchtime solace. It will be missed for many reasons including the assortment of people and activity that create a much needed break from the dreary confines of downtown cube farms,

Gone will be the walkers, landscapers and the lunchtime gatherings. No more bike messengers meeting for a quick smoke break.

I sometimes talk with a guy who combs the lunch time crowd one person at time asking for spare change. He usually gets cross looks or terse denials. I often engage him, I'll call him Joe, in brief conversations:

Me: This is my favorite time of year. The weather is enjoyable and not too hot.

Joe: I don't have problems with the weather, just individuals. Like myself.

My phone rings and Joe walks away.

The mall will be cease to serve its current role as a collection point for office workers and Joes for awhile. The hole (literally) left in its place will change the dynamic of downtown.

Roldo has a gloomier take on downtown in his most recent post.

Furloughs For Everyone

As the State is grappling with balancing the FY 2010 budget  local governments are also trying to find ways to shore up their fiscal houses.  City and county governments have already had to contend with their 2009 budget cycles and continue to bleed red ink as the recession strains revenue collections.

Staffing costs are the largest component of local government budgets.  A county such as Cuyahoga for example spends as much as sixty percent of its operating dollars to pay employees and provide them with fringe benefits.  Thus any meaningful action that can be undertaken to plug a budget deficit has to involve reducing those people related costs.

The method of last resort is laying off of employees.  Hamilton County , deep in financial distress has already laid off hundreds of people and plans canning more staff this year.  Other counties such as Summit and Cuyahoga  have implemented early retirement programs, the good natured cousin of the lay off.

The relative newcomer to the staffing cut arsenal is the furlough or unpaid leave. Previously, furloughs were a creature of the manufacturing sector.  A plant shuts down for a few weeks and the workers get a paid or unpaid vacation.  The furlough concept is gaining ground as a budget reduction mechanism in the white collar world.  A recent WSJ article highlighted the benefits of using furloughs to cut costs:

Amid the steep job losses, some managers and advisers are touting alternatives to layoffs, including furloughs, pay cuts and reduced workweeks. Some economists say these alternatives slow the recession's downward spiral by preserving jobs, albeit at lower wages.

Some counties in Ohio  are moving to employ furlough programs to check budget deficits that continue to grow unabated.  The only catch has been that O.R.C. does not permit County employees not covered by a bargaining agreement to be furloughed.  Yet another example of the outdated and inflexible means in which county government is organized in the Buckeye State.

In response to the need of counties to have the option of unpaid leave a provision is being tailored for insertion into the Senate version of the budget bill.  The County Commissioner Association of Ohio  has been working on the furlough amendment and plans to have something ready for the Senate bill this month.  Inclusion of the amendment would permit county governments to furlough employees as a cost cutting measure. Of course the deeper the fiscal mess faced by any individual county the more likely lay offs will be necessary. 

Uh, Yeah ...you're going to have to come in on Saturday to make up that furlough time.

This Recall's Got The Jimmy Legs

A recall effort being spearheaded by the Professor at Poli Sci 216 is growing some legs. It's not clear whether those legs will go anywhere. Maybe an infusion of recall Requip will get them on the right track.

Dealing mostly in 330 this blog doesn't care one way or the other if this particular recall effort is successful at dethroning the commish. Being an observer of governance and public policy I can certainly see the appeal of a populist attempt to force change in County leadership. At some point forcing accountability becomes the only arrow left in the quiver.

Now on the other hand I've never been comfortable with recalls. The pitchforks and torches don't appeal to my sensibilities The more recent variety of recalls efforts have been quixotic or downright abusive of the system. Recent efforts in Norton and Akron come to mind. Not to take away from the seriousness of the oust Dimora movement. He certainly has his parallels to King George III.

What this particular movement needs is a bit of seriousness. Sure the Facebook page is a sensible rallying point, its visible and collaborative (Web 2.0 and all that). They are still going to need sheer volume to get this thing it the serious realm.

On top of the momentum there needs o be an infusion of a plan post-recall. If the thing is successful, what next? That tends to be the problem with recalls. Replacing bad with worse is a distinct possibility. That doesn't mean new blood isn't warranted in Ohio's largest county. Most of the time the natural election (or selection) process is the best cure for situations like the Dimora fiasco.

Back to the question of seriousness. Look at the followers the professor mentioned, Bob Bennett and the mouth breathers at WTAM. You mean Bob Bennett is interested in the recall effort, no way. I'll bet Jeff Hastings is on board also. It seems the Dimora recall effort may be the only way the hapless Cuyahoga GOP can get a candidate within a hundred miles of elected county-wide office.

I'm sure there are plenty of good citizens fed up with what they are seeing elected officials getting away with at the County. If you think Bennett has the good people of Cuyahoga County as his top concern then I've got a Deibold voting machine to sell you.

Oh yeah, back to potential successors. I hear that Jim Trakas is available.

In the end this has to be about clawing back some real estate for concerned citizens tired of front page corruption stories and deserved of accountable officials . It shouldn't be about the loyal opposition's pipe dreams or publicity for some guy with a PhD in blogging.

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The Ameritrap Chronicles

Just when you thought there were was nothing left to print about Cuyahoga County's Ameritrust Tower woes comes another piece about the flawed deal. This time a long overdue narrative in the June issue of Cleveland Magazine provides a thorough time-line of the whole plan to move County employees into the asbestos riddled tower on East 9th Street. The piece authored by Erick Trickey provides the most accurate rendition of the deal's conception and subsequent decay into a taxpayer funded real estate debacle (or fiasco) that I have seen so far.

The article does well to paint a picture of the lack of strategic thinking exhibited by Cuyahoga's commissioners on the whole Ameritrust scheme. There has been plenty of criticism from the PD and other media sources on this one but they all seemed to focus on a specific piece of the deal. An example of this being the obsession over one particular contract award to remove asbestos from a building that exudes big brother from its Brutalist visage.

Trickey carefully reconstructs the story of the doomed County plan from past to present, weaving facts about the internal debates and analysis in near perfect chronology. What is apparent is that there was plenty of reservation about the project from internal sources as well as paid advisers but the County administration didn't heed that advice until the project became inundated with potential cost overruns from mission creep.

After stumbling into a deal to sell away the building the County may be off the hook for the gigantic cost of developing the site. That is unless the deal with the developer falls through in which case two of the commissioners think the Count project would restart:

Today, a new county building is a low priority. But Hagan and Jones say the project might be revived if K&D can’t finance the purchase, or if the county locates the new convention center and Medical Mart on downtown’s Mall and expands the site to the west, where the county offices are...

Basically they won't be rid of this one until the ink has dried on the purchase agreement. Even then there's no guarantee that the developer won't have to come crawling back begging for more subsidies.

Dimora's Ameritrust Anxiety Comes Out

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora's outburst (no,rant) at Thursday's BOCC meeting was actually a primal release of pent up anxiety. The two PD reporters, Mark Puente and Henry J. Gomez, that had been "hounding" the Commish about what was basically a patronage hire got more than they bargained for. You see Dimora himself said he's been in the business thirty years. The man has seen his share of patronage hires that have failed the smell test. A seasoned politico like Dimora doesn't get his giant panties in a bunch over questions on a single patronage hire.

What the Commissioner is actually suffering from is Ameritrust Building Anxiety. The press didn't do much with this story until last year, almost two years after its inception. The flood gates finally opened and the backlash against the mishandling of the project and questionable contracting has been mounting ever since. Even though the Board has come to terms to sell the building and get out of the project it is not doing so unscathed. The County and taxpayers will still have to eat several million (like around 10) asbestos laden dollars after the building is unloaded to a private developer. Even when they find a way out their problems don't go away.

The County faced with an aging portfolio of buildings still has to come up with a plan to either consolidate into one site or address the large capital costs of maintaining the existing sites. The last three years have essentially been wasted with the failed attempt to make the Ameritrust site work out as planned. The County is now back to square one and has already burned a lot of time, money and good will with nothing to show.

The Ameritrust Tower is Like a Bad Penny

That seemingly too good to be true offer the Cuyahoga County Commissioners got to buy the asbestos ridden Ameritrust building was just that. The Plain Dealer's Joe “I can't find my notepad” Guillen has a story on the Cuyahoga BOCC's intent to the reject the bid from K&D Group. It's nice to see the PD is finally printing a story on the something that has been known for over a week now.

Apparently the private developer offered a bid that requested the purchase price be financed by the County. Kind of like a reverse mortgage but less palatable. Now the commissioners have to continue the next phase of the “I meant to do that” strategy and go out for another round of bids. Of course K&D was the only bid the first time around. Maybe old man Jacobs is interested in getting the building back? Looks like the County is going to polish this turd (euphemism for creatively manage the results of poor decision making) on their own.

I have a hot tip for Joe Guillen and the PD. You may want prepare for a story on the Medical Mart project negotiations falling through.

Cuyahoga Commissioners Get No Breathing Room in 2008

2008 is still in diapers and the Cuyahoga County Commissioners are already facing a slew of potential problems that will make the new year one full of turmoil and challenges for our strategically impaired threesome. Roldo will have plenty to write about this year.

Board of Elections Voting System Overhaul
This one really bites. The commissioners don't have authority to overturn the Brunner decision to scrap touch screen voting nor do they have any real purview on how the BOE proceeds on the primary election. They will however have to commit millions of County dollars (as required by ORC) to pay for a new system and the subsequent implementation. When the implementation is botched (which is an almost certainty) or the election results are not available until 2009 the Commission will take a good portion of the heat for that even though they re not directly responsible. If they try to challenge the Brunner decision in court they will be branded as obstructionists and will end up wasting valuable time on something they have little control stopping. The County also faces a possible legal challenge from the ACLU on the issue of second chance voting and the lack of in relation to the new system.

Medical Mart Delay
So much for super attorney to the stars Fred Nance on getting a site commitment from the Merchandise Mart Properties guys. It sounds like the sharks who run the firm want the Med Mart located near the Cleveland Clinic and the $43 plus million from the sales tax increase. The whole line about the County constructing the exhibition center portion of the project is not what they have in mind. It's more like MMPI will pick the site, take the public funds to build the whole damn thing and the County can scrounge up the dollars to maintain it. Not exactly what we had envisioned. Now commission president Tim Hagan has had to issue an ultimatum that a location must be picked (the one in downtown before Sam Miler dies) in 60 days or we take back the sales tax money. Who will blink here is hard to say. Don't forget the Board stated they would rescind the tax increase if the deal fell through. What happens to all the dollars that were generated before the tax is rescinded?

Administration Building Meltdown
There has been plenty of bad press for the three on this one. What started out as a way to consolidate County employees at one location in the interest of efficient government has turned into a real boondoggle. It goes from County buying a crappy building from a Cleveland godfather for way too much and sitting back and watching the price tag sore while the original goal of savings gets burned away by mission creep. A Hail Mary pass being thrown up is the hope that the building will be snatched up for the right price by a some unsuspecting private developer. All the more reason the Commissioners need the Med Mart sited in downtown.

Myers University Loan Guaranty Extension
The special secret master decider Judge Gaul will settle for nothing less than Myers University remaining open under new ownership. In order for the school's new plan to be viable the half million dollar County loan guaranty (contrary to how it is spelled in the press the word ending with 'tee' is for appliances) . had to be extended. Approving the thing for the first time last year seemed futile and was not a comfortable decision for these guys but it was originally only for one year. Now the promise for monetary aid may never go away and it's only a matter of time before Case comes a knocking for their loan guaranty.

General Economic Malaise
Stagnant General Fund revenue, mounting foreclosures in the County, a withering downtown, banking layoffs, a new Human Services Levy, 3% budget cuts, sinking employee morale...

Happy New Year.