Recent criticism of the port has focused on secrecy surrounding Port CEO Adam Wasserman’s abrupt and unexplained departure. Meeting with reporters today, Board Chairman Steve Williams sought to dispel the perception of secrecy and said the board bears responsibility for Wasserman’s inability to succeed in the position he held for just two years.

WILLIAMS: I think it’s safe to say that there have been mistakes in judgement with respect to board oversight of the CEO. I don’t know if I can be more candid than that. We could have dug deeper.

Williams also outlined what he believes are the current priorities for the port. Topping the list is assisting the Army Corps of Engineers in funding a suitable location to dispose of materials dredged from the port’s shipping channel. That may cost as much as 150 million dollars and might require a tax levy. Also included on the list were recruiting interim and permanent CEOs, fiscal belt tightening that will likely include layoffs, and rehabilitation of the port’s financing capacity. The chairman said he expects the board to approve the priorities next week. 

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Jay Brinkmann says two things are happening: rising unemployment is causing more people to fall behind on their mortgages and financial institutions are taking longer to foreclose on troubled loans as they try to help.

Jay Brinkmann: Lenders are attempting to deal with people who have lost jobs, or one spouse has lost a job or they had to take a lower paying job and now they are trying to figure out how they can workout payment of the loan going forward.

But the head of Cuyahoga County’s Foreclosure Prevention Program, Paul Bellamy, says if that’s true, Ohioans haven’t yet reaped the rewards.

Paul Bellamy: We continue to see the industry struggle with loan modifications and workouts in exactly the same way as a year or even two years ago. It just hasn’t changed from our end of the table.

The MBA says trouble with traditional prime and fixed rate loans to people with good credit is driving up delinquencies. The MBA’s Brinkmann blames rising unemployment. 

Rouch: The amount of money that we have available in any given year is someone limited.

That’s Jerry Rouch, an environmental specialist with the Ohio EPA. So, what has the agency done with the extra funding?  Well, it’s retrofitted dozens of busses statewide with pollution control equipment, assisted in retrofitting a bevy of home septic systems, and spent much of the money on water projects. For example, it has stepped up efforts like the rehabilitation of the Baldwin Fairmount Reservoir, where solids, mostly from Lake Erie, are removed from dirty and somewhat smelly water, a first step in cleaning the water. Terry Cybulski, the project’s manager showed me around the plant.

Cybulski: We can go in there, you can smell for yourself.

Ida: I’m good, thanks.

Cybulski: It’s just drinking water and lake water, that’s all it is.

Cyblulski says the water purification facility was built in 1985, so it’s really time for some upgrades, things like new instrumentation, a new computer control system, and architectural revisions and that’s what they are using the stimulus for.

Grant Marion is one of the beneficiaries. It’s estimated that stimulus spending has aided about 200 construction workers like him with these new environmental repair jobs.

Marion: It’s been pretty hard, you know, a couple of guys have been off this summer but we’re getting back rolling right now and things are looking pretty good.

Other examples of how the stimulus money is being used?  Toledo is using 540 thousand dollars for hazardous waste cleanup and akron is using several million to help repair its sewer system but nowhere near the 380-million in repairs the federal epa says akron needs to spend. 

Over at the Southerly Wastewater Treatment plant a much smellier process of cleaning wastewater is taking place.  The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is pouring about half of their allotted 10 million dollars from the stimulus bill into renovations to help protect the plant from overflowing during floods.  Construction supervisor David Terken says that has been a problem in the past. 

Terken: Changes in flow rate happen very, very quickly, and our equipment just wasn’t up to it. And so we flooded the facility and there was a lot of damage done.

When the waste water overflows past plant capacity, it ends up flowing into the Erie Canal which is alongside the treatment plant.  That overflow, in turn, gets back into the water system, eventually becoming drinking water. The obvious risk is contamination.

So, from the EPA’s vantage point these stimulus funded projects are necessary.  Again, Jerry Rouch of the Ohio EPA.

Rouch: The benefit is primarily to protect the streams and lakes and rivers in Ohio that the wastewater treatment plants discharge to. And for drinking water projects the main benefit is in providing safe drinking water.

Plus, Rouch says the new machinery being put in place, paid for largely by the stimulus bill, is more efficient and that may save taxpayers money down the road. 

So, 14,000 Ohioans helped under HAMP. Sounds good, right? But compare that number to the more than 120,000 Ohio homeowners who are at least three months late on their mortgage payments. Looking at it that way, only about 11 and a half percent of Ohioans that really need help, are getting it.

The picture gets even less rosy when you compare that ratio to other states which is exactly what Paul Bellamy, head of Cuyahoga County’s Foreclosure Prevention Program, did.

Paul Bellamy: The statistics you were mentioning earlier are to be contrasted with some other states where instead of about 11 percent of mortgages modified under HAMP, almost 30 percent of mortgages have been modified. So Ohio is lagging again.

Lagging so much, that under Bellamy’s analysis, Ohio ranks 49th in a list of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Only borrowers in Indiana and Oklahoma have received less help from HAMP. Wednesday, on WCPN’s call-in program, The Sound of Ideas, housing counselor Mark Seifert from the nonprofit group Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People, told Dan Moulthrop part of the problem is that the program has been exceptionally confusing since day one.

Mark Seifert: I think if they ever figure out the rules - both the government and the lenders - it could make a huge impact. 

Dan Moulthrop: What do you mean by that ‘If they ever figure out the rules?’ Haven’t they made public the rules? 

Mark Seifert: Yeah and they make it public every three weeks and they keep changing them which makes it really frustrating for the lenders and really frustrating for us.

Among the rules that change, Seifert said, are what types of documentation are needed. Another guest on the show, Bobby Ruckstuhl who heads a paralegal firm that works for foreclosure attorneys says simply communicating with loan servicers can be a logistical nightmare.

Bobby Ruckstuhl: The communication attempts that we make - whether it’s delivering information, the third party authorizations or the submissions packages - are routinely lost on every single client. Minimum submissions of three times to a lender before they acknowledge receipt.

Dan Moulthrop: You have to submit the same paperwork three times to a lender in order for them to actually acknowledge that they’ve received this paperwork?

Bobby Ruckstuhl: Absolutely.

James Sassano is a Cleveland attorney who represents lenders. 

James Sassano: In the summer and into the fall, the (US) Treasury Department was issuing weekly updates on HAMP and there was constant training - taking people away from their jobs and trying to learn what the servicing guidelines of HAMP were. It’s settled down a little bit, but nonetheless they are still swamped with many applications.

Sassano also wonders if Ohio’s sinking economy and rising unemployment are making it tougher for borrowers to find loan help. Bellamy at the County’s Foreclosure Prevention Program also suspects that’s part of the problem, but his argument takes a slightly different tack. Loan servicers, Bellamy argues, can find better investment returns by modifying loans on houses in areas where the economy is stronger.

Paul Bellamy: The lower property values and the increasing unemployment...all of these things stack up against and really argue in favor of the loan servicer returning the phone call from California as opposed to the phone call from Cleveland. And it’s sad, but that’s where we are.

Other rust belt states are also near the bottom of the list of those getting help from the federal program; Michigan ranks 35th and Indiana comes in at number 50.

Port Authority officials say federal funding they hoped would finance a move to a yet-to-be constructed site near East 55th Street has not panned out.  Now they’ll turn their efforts toward asking state and local government entities to sponsor the move, or possibly even taxpayers.  Board Chairman Steve Williams projects the new plan will delay construction of a new dike for about two years.

Williams:  “It’s a delay.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that the relocation won’t happen, but clearly in today’s meetings the discussion centered around what the risks that are associated with this option.”

Those risks include not securing funding in time to construct the dike at E. 55th. before space for dredge material from the Cuyahoga River and Cleveland Harbor runs out - also in about two years. 

Williams says the Board is committed to moving port operations to E. 55th Street, and he downplays concerns about a projected timeline of more than 20 years, saying it could start much sooner. 

Williams:  “Should things go well, and we’re able to work through this delay issue here, I think it’s reasonable to think that we have good chance where in the next seven years we could actually start looking at some opportunity to relocate some port operations.”

In other board business, a transition committee has been formed to conduct a search for a new Port Director after its previous director, Adam Wasserman, abruptly stepped down last week. 

Litt:  “The last time the community had a complete presentation from MMPI on the values of this mall location for their project was in March, and we’ve had a complete blackout since then.  No drawings, no images, no plans… nothing.”

Back in March, MMPI had signaled that all was well with the current convention center, and that ground would probably be broken in early 2010.  Now, MMPI says Public Hall’s electrical, plumbing and other infrastructure are sorely inadequate, and repairing and replacing it would put the project some 60 million dollars over budget. 
In addition, the developer hit roadblocks in purchasing two key properties to complete the original plan.  the solution, mmpi says, is to abandon Public Hall public hall and relocate the med mart to a new site - what is now mall C, the area between City Hall and the County Courthouse.  Litt is perplexed at this latest revelation. 

LITT:  “They come to us and say sorry, we want to sever your public auditorium and cast it adrift.  And we’re not even talking about the west side of the mall anymore, we want to put the medical mart on the north end.  Now, that idea shouldn’t be rejected out of hand, it needs to looked at seriously.  But they’ve got some explaining to do - the many, many complex, physical planning issues, special issues, structural issues.”

Councilman Joe Cimperman is equally upset about the change in plans.  He, and many others in city government, had thought the convention center and Public Hall had been signed off on by MMPI as usable and a good fit for incorporation into the project. 

Cimperman:  “You know, in March they scrubbed the building, plumbing was fine, electrical was fine, we can do this, we won’t need to impact the mall… everything was fine.  And then all of the sudden, days after this last election, the whole project has shifted.”

Later Tuesday, at a specially convened city council meeting, MMPI executives gave a detailed accounting of what they found wrong with Public Hall, and outlined their revised plan to build on what will be called Mall D.  Complain as they might about the changes, Council members, including Council president Martin Sweeney, said...in effect...that they aren’t holding a lot of cards.  Sweeney said to dump the project at this late stage was not on the table. 

Sweeney:  “This council stands committed to the project.  We want to make sure it moves forward because we all believe it’s in the best interest of the city.  We’re open to the newest revelation.” . 

Councilman Cimperman repeated his previous concerns to MMPI Vice President Mark falanga.  . 

Cimperman:  “How will we not have the same situation in March that we have in November and you come back in March and say Mall D2 doesn’t work.”

Falanga:  “A lot of this work has been done now on this site.  We’ve vetted this site through our feasibility study, and from what we know today, we could build this.”

That last phrase - from what we know today - leaves mmpi some wiggle room if they do want to change the plan again later.  Falanga assured the council though that mmpi is - quote - “100 percent committed” to the convention center project and promised to come back to cleveland for public hearings on their progress.

All collectors are eleigible for buyouts - 35 thousand dollars for full timers, and five, ten or fifteen thousand for part-timers depending on how long they’ve been employed.  Distel hopes to reduce the workforce by the equivalent of thirty to forty full time collectors.

Distel:  “Our intentions are obvious.  We do not want to have any layoffs, so we are trying to come up with a way to reduce our toll collector workforce without creating any unemployment.”

Toll collectors make more than 20 dollars and hour - which for a full time employee is about 70 thousand dollars a year when combined with benefits.  They’re represented by the Teamsters Union.  Their current contract expires in January of 2011. 

The deal is being called the first step toward wider collaborations, but begins with the two universities leadership roles in the field of engineering.

Dr. Norman Tien is a physics scholar, and Dean at Case Western Reserve’s School of Engineering. He initiated contact between the universities, and says the benefits of such a program could easily reach far beyond the Case campus.

DR. NORMAN C. TIEN: “One of the reasons that we wanted that to be the first step in the progresssion is the similarities between TianJin University and us on the engineering and sciences side, and also the similarities between TainJin as a city, and Cleveland as a city.”

Similarities that include booming bio-medical industries; in each town.

Dr. Tien, who is also an honorary professor at TianJin University, says the program will assist both regions in developing economic development relationships; and that there is already interest among CASE students in the exchanges.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.

Preliminary data from the bureau show 75 Ohio employers cut 50 workers or more – the agency’s definition of a mass reduction – from July through September, up from 49 cutbacks in the same period of 2008. The mass reductions resulted in 12,533 employee separations, up 23 percent from 10,187 a year earlier.

Ohio posted the sixth-highest total of worker separations for the quarter, the bureau said.

Around the nation, the number of mass cutbacks grew 12 percent to 1,776 during the three months from 1,581 a year earlier, the highest third-quarter level since bureau began tracking the reductions in 1995. The number of Americans who lost jobs in mass reductions fell 4 percent in the quarter from a year earlier to 277,924, but the average size of individual cutbacks shrunk by 28 workers to 156.

Factors related to business demand accounted for 48 percent of all cuts, the bureau reported, but employers’ expectations for recalls brightened from last year. Of the businesses that made mass reductions in the quarter, one-third told the government they expect to recall some workers, up from 29 percent last year, the bureau said.

Calling these the worst four months in the last 20 years, Regional Transit Authority general manager Joe Calabrese says previous job cuts and salary freezes this year are just not enough to balance a severely reduced budget; and the only option is to slash more jobs - and reduce how many buses travel in Cuyahoga County.

RTA says the planned 12 percent service reduction is necessary because of a nearly $20 million drop in county sales tax revenue, coupled with a 33% cut in state funding.  Reduced service could be avoided - Calabrese says - if he can re-negotiate contracts with the bus operators.

JOE CALABRESE: “Labor is 70% of our costs. The bus drivers agreeing to salary concessions is key to the amount of service needing to be cut.”

But the odds do not appear to be good for an agreement.  RTA has met with Transit Union Local 268 20 times - but Calabrese says they are not close to a deal on concessions.

So RTA will reduce or eliminate the number and the frequency of busses.  Which routes are impacted will be determined by studying ridership, and county geography.

And even with that - Calabrese says the transit company is fortunate.

CALABRESE: “We’ve been pretty successful in getting some special grants and some one time funding to try to hold things together the best way we can, or things would be worse.”

Service cuts, and up to 185 driver and mechanic job cuts, would take effect April 1.

University Circle is considered one of the city’s jewels, but immediately surrounding areas are mired in poverty.  Chris Ronayne, Executive Director of the nonprofit University Circle Inc., which secured the grant, says doing something that will help those communities is a primary goal. 

Cleveland needs this.  It’s always great when 20 million dollars in new money comes back to your town and we’re going to use it to support what we’re doing here in building what we hope is one of the great eds/meds arts and cultural markets, but with it, it’s intended to help employ those in and around the area with permanent supportive jobs. 

Ronayne’s group plans to apply much of the grant to two specific development projects.  One is a new hotel on Euclid Avenue adjacent to the case Western Reserve University campus.  The other is a mixed use complex on Mayfield Rd. between Euclid Avenue and Little Italy, which will also be the site of a new RTA rapid station.  Other projects are still being developed. 

University Circle was one of 90 applicants awarded the grants nationwide.  The City of Cleveland also applied, but was turned down. 

This leadership change comes two weeks after logistics specialist Patrick Coyle resigned from the Port Authority ... Just 90 days into his job. Coyle and Wasserman had been hired to help transform the port into A vibrant international commerce center. 
Wasserman’s plan called for moving maritime operations away from downtown, to a site near East 55th Street.

Cleveland State University professor Ned Hill of the College of Urban Affairs says that while the board of directors can remain secretive on its’ decision-making, it cannot completely ignore the taxpayers need to know why these personnel changes are happening.

PROFESSOR NED HILL:
“Leadership of the Port is going to have to explain all of this to the public. They do receive public funding, and if the public loses faith in the authority, that’s not good for the long term health of the port, or the economy.”

Hill says the port has also failed to adequately explain how moving the port makes good financial sense. 
The board announcement says the search for a new CEO is already underway - and will be national in scope.

Charmaine Putka: They didn’t help at all. They said if I can’t make the payments to just stop. And then they could foreclose.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray’s suit – filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court - alleges that American Home Mortgage Servicing violated the state’s Consumer Sales Practices Act by failing to offer timely or affordable help to borrowers in trouble.  When the company did offer help, the suit alleges, it charged excessive fees. This is the state Attorney General’s second such suit against a loan servicer. Cordray says there could be more.

Richard Cordray: If loan servicers are not willing to modify loans on reasonable terms and keep people in their homes, we will pursue them through all legal means.

In response, American Home Mortgage Servicing on Thursday filed suit against the state Attorney General’s office – but in Franklin County.  It says the state’s allegations are “entirely without merit” and is asking the Court of Common Pleas to find its practices compliant with Ohio law. 

The company says it services over 17,000 loans across Ohio and has modified nearly 2500.

Opponents of Issue three had argued gambling would not create the jobs Gilbert promised, would spur prostitution and other criminal activity, and lead more Ohioans down a path of destructive gambling. 

Gilbert said his and other investors’ next step is to draw up plans and secure financing.  The ballot measure calls for the creation of a state gaming board within six months, and barring any unforeseen delays the hope is to break ground on the facilities by the second half of 2010. 

Using median household incomes as a basis, the census bureau
surveyed 16 municipalities with populations of more than 20,000 in Cuyahoga County; and 12 similar sized towns in Summit County.

While income reductions in cities such as Euclid and East Cleveland may have been anticipated - drops in North Royalton, Strongsville, Hudson - where income was reduced by nearly 8% - and Brunswick; in Medina County, may not have been.

Economic researcher and analyst George Zeller says such reductions in wealthier suburbs are a strong barometer of the region’s employment troubles

GEORGE ZELLER: “There’s an awful lot of people in Strongsville who work in finance and insurance or manufacturing elsewhere in the county, and those people have been hit very hard just as the people in East Cleveland had - so this is not just a Cleveland & East Cleveland problem by any means.”

Not all communities suffered declining household income.  Several showed INCREASES, including Solon, Westlake and Shaker Heights.  Also showing a nominal boost in the average household income were Cleveland, Lorain, and Parma.

Each annual American Community Survey averages the current year plus the two previous years - that’s to smooth out any anomalous spikes that may occur and give a better idea of trends over several years. 

The data is gathered to help determine how more than $400 billion of federal tax dollars are allocated.

Bellamy:  “The investor had much lower expectations, understood that a lot of the problems were in its origination, and were looking for a way just to get the thing producing income again.”

But in the case of losing a job, which is happening to a greater degree in suburban households, Bellamy says there are fewer options available to a distressed homeowner. 

Bellamy:  “Now you’re looking at a situation where the loan was well underwritten to a strong borrower, but the money just isn’t there to support the rest of the expenses of the household and the mortgage.”

And so as jobs continue to disappear, Bellamy expects the number of foreclosure cases to continue to rise.  Nationally, experts are predicting that the number of foreclosure filings has not yet peaked.

Bill Rice, 90.3

DAVE SHOUP:  They’re called replacement “gilts” --- a gilt would be a female that’s never had a litter of pigs. 

SOUND: door opens to sounds of pigs UP & UNDER

The dozens of gilts in this barn are just a portion of the 3000 pigs that make up the Shoup family swine operation that covers almost 23 hundred acres in Wayne, Ashland and Stark counties.  Most of the animals here are grouped in pens of 12 and, in a few days, Dave Shoup’s crew will walk a male pig through the barn to try to get the ladies aroused.

DAVE SHOUP: We’re going to take the boar through, and try to detect heat and see who’s receptive that day.  And the ones that we find, we’ll move down here and inseminate them.

What happens to female pigs once they are inseminated is at the core of this major battle between the farm industry and animal welfare advocates.  Most of the Shoup herd will spend their pregnancies roaming in indoor pens with other pigs, but some of them will be put into individualized stalls made from steel pipe that have just enough room for a 300 pound pig to move side to side a bit & back and forth a few feet.  The floor is slatted so that animal waste can fall through.  Dave Shoup says the enclosures protect pregnant females.  But, these so-called “gestation crates” have been condemned by the Humane Society of the United States. 

DAVE SHOUP:  HSUS would probably tell you that this animal is so tightly confined for his entire life and can’t do many things that he normally would do.  But, these animals in these stalls have fresh feed, fresh water, and their waste materials are removed through the concrete slats.  So, they have everything that they need. 

A sow at Shoup’s operation can spend as much as thirty days in the gestation crate; at many other farms though, the sows are confined for as much as three and a half months.  A major lobbying effort by the Humane Society convinced California voters, last November, to ban gestation crates and other tight livestock enclosures.  The group met with Ohio agribusiness officials this past February trying to persuade state farmers to support similar treatment measures here.  Instead, the farmers set out to head-off any Humane Society effort in Ohio.

The farmers fear that would force them to spend millions retrofitting their operations.  They got lawmakers to craft the ballot measure known as Issue 2 --- a constitutional amendment that would create an Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board.  This 13-member committee would regulate the treatment of farm animals… As we drive to another livestock barn, Dave Shoup says he’s not afraid of state scrutiny.

DAVE SHOUP: We know that we’d much rather have it in their hands than some outside organization come in here and just raise the emotions of people who really don’t know what goes on out here.

The Washington-based Humane Society argues that the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board would be stacked with members favorable to agribusiness who would prevent meaningful animal treatment reform.
The Shoup family has farmed this country for more than a century.  The operation has tripled in size over the past decade or so.  Shoup, who is also a veterinarian, suspects some people might consider him a factory farmer.

DAVE SHOUP:  People use “factory farm” as a negative connotation to disrespect our industry, because they want the general public to think that, all you care about is making money.  You don’t care about the animals, you don’t care about the environment, your goal is to put pigs through what ever is needed, in order to kick out more pigs on the other side.  Well, farms don’t survive doing that. If you’re mean to them, if you’re crowding them, then they don’t eat, they don’t come in heat, they don’t breed, they don’t have good litters. 

SOUND: Soft squeal of piglets and the snorts of their mothers

As we step into a birthing barn, it’s apparent that the Shoups have animal husbandry down to a science.  There are rows of what’s known as “farrowing stalls”, where mothers lie on their sides, as suckling newborns get their nutrition under the warmth of a heat lamp.

DAVE SHOUP: Each sow gives birth to anywhere from 11-13 pigs.  We actually induce these sows to farrow at a certain time --- just like you can induce a woman to have a child the next day, we can induce these one afternoon to farrow the next afternoon. 

SOUND: truck door slams…engine starts…

DCB: Most every yard along these rural roads has a “Vote for Issue 2” sign on it. Shoup says that farmers, by their very nature, are independents who don’t like being told what to do.

DAVE SHOUP:  Years ago, the family farm was just kind of left alone; there weren’t many regulations for it.  As long as the product you produced was wholesome, nobody seemed to care.  Now, we’ve got people looking over our shoulders all the time. 

Still, Dave Shoup figures that an Ohio-based animal care standards board would weed out a few bad apples in the state and keep everybody honest.  But, what isn’t clear is: if you build it into the constitution, will there be enough legislative oversight to keep the Standards Board honest? 

The resonant chants of a threatened workforce cascaded across Tiedeman Road in both English AND Spanish, as the Hugo Boss manufacturing plant virtually emptied for the rally. Workers were hoping the show of unity would carry back to the clothing maker’s headquarters in Germany.

LEADER CHANTS IN SPANISH: PEOPLE RESPOND

Leaders of the Workers United union say Hugo Boss plans to close the Brooklyn production plant - eliminating more than 320 jobs.  The company has been making men’s suits under various owners - for 165 years.

Pat Sifchek has been working in the payroll department here the last 28 of those years, and is afraid of the impact of a shutdown.

PAT SIFCHEK: “The city of Brooklyn will suffer. We’ll all suffer, there’s 400 people here. We have a warehouse in Savannah too, with a couple of hundred people.”

Hugo Boss sold more than two-point-four billion dollars of product in 2008, and sales through September are up 6%.

Brooklyn workers believe their efforts are responsible for some of the profits, but they feel unrecognized. Coat shop worker Christine Vasquez is the acting union local President.

CHRISTINE VASQUEZ :"It’s a shame Hugo Boss can stand and tell us that all the years we’ve dedicated to them, we’re worth $8.30 an hour? It’s like ...we’re worthless.”

But a statement from a Hugo Boss official - received just before this story’s deadline - the company said negotiations to keep the plant open have resumed.  It said the company is committed to reaching a fair and equitable contract with employees and will continue to work towards that in an appropriate manner.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.

Cimperman:  “As always, the devil’s in the details.”

The current plan from the Port Authority itself would move port operations to the lakefront at E. 55th Street, displacing a long-established marina.  The port’s presence there would also impact the upscale Quay 55 apartments that are less than a decade old.  Cimperman says he’s concerned about these and other issues: for instance, he wants the port to get specific about how it plans to save nature preserve at nearby Dike 14, a now-closed repository for dredged material from the Cuyahoga.  Cimperman also finds fault with the timeline the Port Authority has set for the move - more than 20 years, because the land at E. 55th would have to be created with 20 years of river dredgings.  He says redeveloping the downtown lakefront needs to happen a lot sooner than that. 

Cimperman:  “We know what happens when the Rock hall has an event, when the Great Lakes Science Center has and event.  Yes, it’s those attractions that bring people there, but it’s in the perfect spot - it’s right on the water.  The more we can open that land down there, the more I think people are going to realize they can fall in love with their lakefront all over again.”

BR (on tape): “Is 20-25 years too long to wait?”

Cimperman:  “Way too long.  We don’t have that kind of time.”

Earlier this month Hunter Morrison, head of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at Youngstown State University, called the time line “unacceptable” in an op-ed piece published in the Plain Dealer.  He suggested the Port enter into a regional partnership with ports in Lorain to the west and Ashtabula to the east, both of which currently have an abundance of dock space.  Plain Dealer Columnist Brent Larkin endorsed Morrison’s ideas in last Sunday’s paper.

The articles are creating some buzz over the issue, but Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson isn’t persuaded.  In an interview Monday on 90.3 he suggested the Port Authority’s 20-year plan is adequate, and he’s ready to implement it.

Jackson:  “If these decisions would have been 20 years ago when they shoud have been nade, the we would be living on a new lakefront and this wouldn’t be a question.  The fact that people want to have ideals… that’s nice and I’d like to engage in that, but we have to do things now.”

And while Councilman Cimperman is eager to discuss other possibilities, there is no groundswell of dissatisfaction among council members with the port’s plan - at least not right now.  Several long-simmering projects are now finally getting underway, and in today’s economy, some say, that’s impressive enough. 

Bill Rice, 90.3

The project started earlier this month and employs 200 construction workers. It’ll be finished in the middle of next year. Biden says this Ohio project and other’s funded by federal stimulus dollars have saved and created thousands of jobs. But Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine says the stimulus money is not helping the struggling economy. He says 115-thousand Ohioans have lost jobs since Biden and President Obama took office. Biden also spent time in Cleveland raising money for Tuscarawas County Congressman Zack Space and Congressman John Bocccieri of Stark County. Earlier in the day, he was in Columbus, raising money for Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy. 

JOHN LUNDBERG: “The people that are here see the value that veterans can bring to their organization, so they want to come here to connect with them, to see if they can bring them on board.”

Recruitmilitary has been running job fairs for three years.  During last spring’s event - when the economic meltdown was still relatively recent - hundreds of applicants per hour turned out, with lines snaking out the doors of Browns Stadium.  But today (Thursday), the veterans’ job fair enticed comparatively few job seekers.  Those we spoke to were discouraged by months of rejections and scarce opportunities for jobs with decent pay. 

FRANK FERENGIO: “I am a little frustrated. Only one table here is looking for what I’m looking for. Basically, it’s like every job fair I’ve been at.”

That’s Veteran Frank Ferengio of Cleveland - who’s been looking for more than a year. He complains the collection of security, transportation, and insurance companies here are offering largely entry level positions; at barely entry level wages.

FERENGIO: “It doesn’t help people. Employers just don’t want to pay for the experience. How does that help me? It doesn’t.”

Veteran Yvette Hooper says she’s also disillusioned.  She doesn’t see her big break turning up here. 

YVETTE HOOPER: “I was expecting jobs. (Rick-’instead you’re finding???’) I’m finding schools, and more things that I have to invest my money into that I don’t have money for… I’m looking for a job.”

Klegg: I mean we did physical work so we’re trying to find something that’s easier on our bodies. We’re getting older now, we’ve worked most…well I’ve worked most of my life in the factory and I’m real excited about getting out of the factory and doing something different.

…which is why they spent much of yesterday at an education and community expo in Twinsburg. The pair was laid off from General Electric’s Ravenna plant in May, and both are considering going back to school in a health-care related field, especially since the government will foot the bill with federal stimulus funds.

Wally Hoffer and Frank Tinus are handing out information on Stark State College. They’re regulars at these events.

Hoffer: Certainly individuals are out there understanding that education is a way to more opportunity and maybe a better lifestyle in the future.

And George Bentfeld, District Coordinator for the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services - which sponsored the event - says now is the time to gear up for a new career.

Bentfeld: We want to make sure they have all the training education opportunities they can before we turn the corner on this slight down turn and full production starts up because once production starts up it’s kind of too late you wanna get in there and you wanna work.

Healthcare was one of four industries heavily emphasized at the resource expo, alongside information technology, renewable energy, and advanced manufacturing jobs, all areas where local jobs are expected to grow in the next few years.

Tri-Pointe is the first new “from the ground up” hospital to be built in Northeast Ohio in 28 years. 

It will have fewer beds than Lake East, but all rooms will be private, which means that it will actually be able to accommodate more patients, says spokesman Gary Robinson.  And it will have all the latest medical and information technology, something Lake East could not accommodate. 

Robinson:  “In terms of the kind of technology that’s available today, you’re just not able to retrofit that into older buildings.  So with Tri-Pointe Medical center we were able to put the latest digital technology into the facility.”

Painesville had struggled to convince the Lake Health System to build the new facility in Painesville, but it was decided the more natural and spacious Concord site was a better choice.  LakeEast Hospital will be demolished, with plans on the drawing board to fill the space with new homes and businesses. 

Opponents say Issue 2 is an attempt to head off efforts by animal rights groups like the Humane Society to establish, through their own ballot issues, standards for animal care. 

Ward 14 Councilman Joe Cimperman is among those who have pushed for the resolution.  He says urban farming is becoming more prevalent, and the proposal represents only large rural agriculture interests. 

“It takes power out of the Ohio Department of Agriculture and puts it in the hands of people who are appointed,” Cimperman said, “and does it in a way that I think smacks of big business basically dictating what food policy should be.”

Supporters of Issue 2 say farmers are committed to humane animal care, but that the demands of animal rights activists are extreme, and undermine efficiency in the livestock industry.

Conversation was often animated, as in this exchange when the Mayor charged the proposal was crafted for the state constitution; only to ‘protect’ casino owners in the future.

MAYOR JAY WILLIAMS: “There is no way on earth this creates anything other than a monopoly. That’s why it’s in the state constitution. You can’t have legislative action amend the constitution (Gilbert interjects, argues they could repeal this...)
ends: (Williams) it was difficult to get this amendment… Ohioans have shot it down four times.”

Gilbert calls the strict language a `protection’ for Ohio taxpayers, while also defending charges the state charged too little for gaming licenses, which have sold in PA and NY for up to eight times Ohio’s $50 million fee.

But Gilbert did say that should Issue Three lose, he would not stand in the way of another effort to choose casino operators.

DAN GILBERT: “It’s a well thought out proposal that we think is going to pass and make sense. If it doesn’t, I’m not going to give up on Cleveland and everything else that we’re doing here. I’m in it for the long haul.”

Issue three is endorsed by labor groups, the state police union, and several big city newspapers - opposed by Senators Brown and Voinovich, religious groups, and casino operators in Michigan and West Virginia.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.}

State officials in Ohio said last week that some 13,000 jobs have been saved or created here with stimulus dollars.  But we’re told that’s just a fragmentary figure; a lot of things weren’t counted and most of the stimulus money hasn’t been spent yet. 

Confused?  So are we.  But ideastream® reporter Ida Lieszkovszky has been trying to figure out just what all these numbers mean.

Now, with backing of both towns’ mayors and city councils, 190 acres of Girard’s land is being annexed by Youngstown - but with a tax-sharing plan that guarantees benefits for both cities.

The deal will give Girard 55% of the income taxes generated at the plant, but the border adjustment means Girard will lose 40% of its zoned industrial land. Girard Mayor James Melfi says the city is giving up a lot; but the change for his town also meant considering what is best for the region.

JAMES MELFI: “We recognize the fact that this was possibly a once-in-a-lifetime situation and that we had to make it happen, but we had to do our job, we couldn’t shortchange our community.”

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams points to the regional impact of 400 new permanent jobs and up to 700 construction jobs.
But even with the agreement, it’s not certain V&M Star will come through.  Williams says it’s still weighing the Youngstown site against one or two others. 

JAY WILLIAMS: “We feel that we would be more competitive than any of the other sites, but even if ultimately this project isn’t built here, we now have a site that is ready to accept other economic development issues that would still be of benefit to the community.”

V&M is expected to decide on a site by year’s end.

Both city leaders say the bigger victory is the example set here for co-operation among other towns in Northeast Ohio.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.

The group is criss-crossing the state to alert voters to the potential impact on `their’ livelihood.

Patty Rebman is a third generation owner of one of Lorain’s largest entertainment centers - built around its 48 bowling lanes. She’s studied the research of casino impact in other states, including a Hiram College report released at the end of September.... and she’s scared.

PATTY REBMAN: “Yes I want jobs, but I want to keep my customers. I’m afraid of them bowling a couple of nights a week, they might say, `Ahhh, I won’t be doing that any longer’, so less and less people come into the bowling center… obviously less business for us.”

Owners of similar entertainment operations, bars, and restaurants gathered in Cleveland to reiterate the negative aspects of casinos highlighted by the Hiram report - and to question why the state legislature isn’t looking at more options for gambling.

David Corey heads the Coin Machine, AND Bowling Center Associations of Ohio.
He fears the state is handing out monopolies to the casino’s future owners.

DAVID COREY: “It’s important to create a strategy in Ohio. Just not have one idea, but a balanced, fair, expanded gaming strategy, that will give the state a good deal, Ohioans a good deal, and homegrown local businesses an opportunity to share in the potential rewards.”

The group contends that much of the cash collected in casinos is homegrown as well - they point to research indicating 80-90% of the money spent, will come from Ohioans, not from tourists.

Rick Jackson, 90.3

Raising taxes rarely brings cheers from a crowd but Monique Menifee gladly joined a group chanting to do just that at a rally at tower city Friday.  Issue four - is a proposed levy that would substantially increase what county homeowners contribute to the Cuyahoga Community College budget.  Menifee is a student there.

Tri-c president Jerry Sue Thornton was at the rally too ....explaining that the state is cutting its support for community colleges and the decline in property values also has reduced what they’ll have to operate on ....without the tax hike.

DR. JERRY SUE THORNTON: “ It’s not that we would have to do slight changes if this levy does not pass; it’s major changes. It would be a very different college.”

The cuts have come at a time when enrollment at tri-c is growing as the newly unemployed flock back to school.  Thornton says the school has already trimmed costs in the facing of rising demand for its services. 

The change ...if voters approve...would translate into an 18 dollar tax increase for every 100,000 dollars in home value. 

Rick Jackson, 90.3.

GARY THOMPSON: We ask where they live.  And when they give their address, it turns out they’re in the Township.  So, we say, “We’d love to help you, but you’re not in our jurisdiction.”

For the better part of two centuries, Olmsted Falls and Olmsted Township have been separate communities --- on paper.  But, they have more in common than just their names.  They already share the same school system, the same churches, the same zip code.  And in about three weeks, area residents will vote on the idea of taking that one step further --- the creation of a commission to study the idea of merging. For Township native Jeanine Kress, there are all sorts of reasons to merge.

JEANINE KRESS: Economies of scale would be one.  But, there are other issues, including clout in Washington and Columbus.  Being a bigger city, that could be a relevant issue. 

As it is, Olmsted Township residents have watched neighboring cities nibble away at them for years.  For instance, Berea was able to annex land along a major industrial corridor because the city offered landowners improved services and waterlines that the Township wasn’t able to provide.  Local historian Bruce Banks says that when they lost that land, they also lost revenue.

BRUCE BANKS: The tax base keeps shrinking, because you have less real estate tax, so it gets more and more challenging, the smaller you get. 

But, Banks says not everyone in Olmsted Township …population 10,500… is so sure that banding together with the Falls…population 8,000… will be to their benefit. 

BRUCE BANKS: Some of the people in the Township feel that their control of their destiny will be diluted if we become part of something bigger.

This isn’t the first time a merger between the Township and Olmsted Falls has been proposed.  Several previous attempts have failed to win over the public but more may be willing to at least consider the idea this time.  Longtime Township trustee Karen Straka has opposed past merger efforts, but says she won’t stand in the way of residents who would like to see the issue studied.

KAREN STRAKA: I support the people’s right to vote on the issue, and I’ll help them in anyway I can, but I don’t feel there’s an overall financial benefit for a merger to take place.

Olmsted Falls mayor Bob Blomquist is more upbeat about the prospects.  By conducting a merger study, he thinks that these two small communities could be trail blazers that others would emulate.

ROBERT BLOMQUIST: It would be the perfect case study.  As the region looks to consolidation, as it looks to combinations of different ways to deliver government services, we could answer a lot of broader questions, and perhaps demonstrate a little leadership to the rest of the county and to the region.

Voters from the Falls and the Township will decide November 3rd whether or not they want to be part of such a case study.