This
deparrtment has been the dumping ground for political favors for 20
years. For example if a local mayor were to turn over their city's
workers comp work to a certain company, their dead beat son-in-law
magically gets a job at the recorders office. Or if said mayor is
having trouble getting legislation passed in council that would require
ONLY union contractors on city business, all you have to do is offer
the disagreeable council-person a job at the county recorders office on
the condition that she resign. Then you appoint a "friendlier"
councilman. Problem solved.
Both of these things happened and are now being investigated.
The reader may be speculating on ties to 1-888-ohio-comp.
Carla Rautenberg contributes some thoughts on the Port Authority:
Port authority as self-proclaimed "economic engine." I don't understand
why the Port has funded a private girls' school (Laurel) and a
(prematurely crumbling) parking garage in University Heights.
The Port seems more relevant to the growth and prosperity of Greater
Cleveland than the very questionable Med-Mart/Convention Center combo.
According to recent P.D. and online coverage, the Port is aggressively
adding staff while simultaneously becoming more secretive and less
accountable to the public.
Fannie
Lewis owned land on the East Side where a new jail was being proposed.
I believe it housed a men's tuxedo store or suit warehouse or something
of that nature. It's close to a school. A PD reporter was told about
the connection in order to investigate it, as this location was NOT the
best location. PD never followed up on it. I've always been curious how
she acquired the land, as well.
KJP:
Now we're starting to get closer to the truth.
When I ran the website Clevelandmob.com, there is a whole nest of
organized crime activity surrounding Lucarelli, Dimora, Russo and
others. For more, see my article at:
http://www.clevelandmob.com/sterling.html
Auditor Frank Russo's links to workers comp firm investigated Posted by Rachel Dissell and James Ewinger/Plain Dealer Reporters November 30, 2008 06:30AM
Federal
agents are investigating links between Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank
Russo and a politically connected firm that manages medical claims of
injured workers and employed Russo's son, according to subpoenas and
interviews.
The company, 1-888-Ohio Comp, manages workers'
compensation claims for more public agencies in Cuyahoga County than
any of its competitors.
One mayor said the firm picked up much
of the government business after Russo and County Commissioner Jimmy
Dimora lobbied public officials on the company's behalf.
1-888-Ohio Comp employs Russo's son Vince as a consultant to drum up business.
Subpoenas
show 1-888-Ohio Comp has drawn the attention of investigators as part
of an extensive Cuyahoga County corruption probe. Exactly what agents
are investigating is unclear.
But public officials have told
The Plain Dealer that people employed by Russo -- many of whom also
served as elected officials across the county -- lobbied for 1-888-Ohio
Comp.
Officials also told The Plain Dealer that rejecting
1-888-Ohio Comp sometimes resulted in threats of opposition at election
time. In one case, a Russo employee ran against a politician who did
not switch to 1-888-Ohio Comp.
In June, a Plain Dealer
investigation revealed 93 of Russo's 283 employees hold political rank,
the overwhelming majority of them within the Cuyahoga County Democratic
Party, led by Dimora, Russo's closest political ally.
Of
those, at least 14 are current or former members of suburban city
councils and boards of education, some of which have switched to
1-888-Ohio Comp in recent years.
During the federal raids in
July, agents questioned a number of Russo employees about how they
secured their county jobs. Both Russos, through their attorneys,
declined to comment.
A lawyer for 1-888-Ohio Comp acknowledged
FBI and IRS agents subpoenaed volumes of records about Vince Russo and
his company, VinCore.
But the lawyer said he does not believe 1-888-Ohio Comp is under investigation.
A
search warrant for Frank Russo's Mayfield home sought information about
his son and VinCore. It also sought information about 1-888 Ohio Comp,
company President Jason Lucarelli and his father, convicted racketeer
Samuel G. Lucarelli.
Another warrant for Russo's office sought
evidence that he tried to get clients for his son's business, which was
also raided that day. The younger Russo also works for a branch of Doan
Pyramid, a company that was also raided.
Maple Heights Mayor
Jeff Lansky said Russo and Dimora often invited both Lucarellis to
fund-raisers, where the officials introduced the Lucarellis to mayors
who decided which companies would oversee workers' compensation
programs.
Between 2002 and 2004, 29 public agencies switched
to 1-888-Ohio Comp. Russo and Dimora's introductions played a role in
1-888-Ohio Comp getting the business, Lansky said.
"All that
was done because Lucarelli -- and he had a lot of help from Russo and
Dimora -- pressured a lot of mayors in Cuyahoga County, calling in IOUs
and personal favors and things like that," said Lansky, who was council
president at the time.
1-888-Ohio Comp has surfaced on other search warrants beyond those served at Russo's home.
Federal
agents subpoenaed records from Blaze Building Corp. and Lopat
Development this summer. They were looking for, among other things, any
documents showing communication between company owner Ferris Kleem and
Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem about possibly having 1-888-Ohio Comp handle
Berea's workers' comp program.
Berea does not use 1-888 Ohio Comp, and Cyril Kleem said he has never discussed the company with his distant cousin.
Al
Giuliani, attorney for 1-888-Ohio-Comp, said the company has never
asked Russo or Dimora to wield influence on the company's behalf.
"I
would hope that Commissioner Dimora, like many other satisfied clients,
would continue to recommend our company to other entities, both public
and private," Giuliani said.
Dimora denies exerting any improper influence on 1-888-Ohio Comp's behalf, said his attorney Richard Lillie.
The
commissioner has accepted $8,000 in campaign contributions -- in
addition to gifts and meals -- from Jason Lucarelli. Lillie said Dimora
has spoken favorably of the company because he was pleased with the
quality of service the county has received since 2000, when the company
took over the county's account.
No council vote needed to pick comp firm
1-888-Ohio
Comp has been the fastest-growing managed-care organization, or MCO, in
the state under a workers' comp reform program instituted in the late
1990s.
Every employer insured by the Ohio Bureau of Workers'
Compensation must choose an MCO to help control claims costs. MCOs are
paid by the state, not local governments or companies, based on a
percentage of the premiums their clients pay each year.
Since
no local tax money is involved, the choice of an MCO is an executive
decision. In the case of a city, for instance, it does not require a
vote of the council.
The MCO choices can be changed or renewed only during a 20-day period every two years.
With millions of dollars at stake for the companies, MCO marketing to mayors and other decision-makers can be intense.
1-888-Ohio
Comp makes no apologies for aggressive marketing. The company has
enjoyed success in adding clients, especially in Cuyahoga County.
Company officials boast that growth has resulted from customer service and savings on clients' workers' comp premiums.
Some public officials praised the company.
Paul
Pestello, of the South Euclid-Lyndhurst School District, said he has
seen a decline in claims -- and rates -- since switching in 2006.
Orange School District Treasurer Neil Barnes said the schools have
saved money thanks to the company.
1-888-Ohio Comp officials
say that they have done nothing illegal and that if any of its
consultants acted improperly, it was not at the company's urging.
The
company's business soared around 2000, the same year huge public
employers, including the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, with
Dimora as commissioner, signed on.
1-888-Ohio Comp says it
stands to collect $2.84 million in fees this year from representing
Cuyahoga County governments, but company officials said only 5 percent
of that is profit.
Even though 1-888-Ohio Comp ranks a distant
fifth in overall MCO size, and sixth in the number of public clients
across the state, the company now dominates the market for government
employers here.
1-888-Ohio Comp ranks No. 1 in Cuyahoga County, with 30 percent of the public clients.
Dan
Neubert, who runs the day-to-day operations at 1-888-Ohio Comp, said
Cuyahoga County agencies were targeted because the company is in
Cleveland. The pitch is that the company pays taxes here, employs
people here and is close by to resolve problems.
Neubert acknowledged his company wines and dines some private firms to get their business, but never public employers.
"We don't want to put people in an uncomfortable position," he said.
Mayor says lobbying became harassment
Subpoenas
show investigators are interested in any Russo connection to Samuel G.
Lucarelli, who served 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to
racketeering in 1989 for running a Cleveland gambling operation.
Lucarelli
ran Minute Men Staffing Inc., a temp firm. Minute Men is also mentioned
on the search warrant of Russo's home. Lucarelli does not hold an
official position with 1-888-Ohio Comp but helps recruit clients during
the enrollment period.
Critics of 1-888-Ohio Comp say that it exerts political influence to get public clients.
Lansky, the freshman mayor of Maple Heights, said most of the lobbying with him was through phone calls.
Lansky
was the council president when Maple Heights switched to 1-888-Ohio
Comp. He said then-Mayor Santo Incorvaia and several other mayors told
him at the time that Dimora and Russo were pushing them to switch to
the Lucarelli firm.
Incorvaia denies Lansky's statement. There was "never any type of political muscle to us to switch," he said.
Incorvaia
said he may have spoken to other mayors about workers' compensation
programs but left the MCO decision to his human-resources director and
others.
This year Maple Heights switched back to University
Compcare, which is affiliated with University Hospitals. Lansky said
the switch came after a wearying marketing onslaught by 1-888-Ohio
Comp. For comparison, Lansky said, he got single phone calls from
several MCOs and mailings from others.
But 1-888-Ohio Comp?
"They're
insane," Lansky said. "These Lucarellis, they had my law director
bugging me. Tom Day bugging me over in Bedford Municipal Court. Then
this Vince Russo was calling me, bugging me. I said it's not going to
be your company. Then Sam Lucarelli started calling me.
"Then
he had my brother-in-law calling me up. He was bugging my family. I
finally told them, 'Look, if you don't stop, I'm going to have the
police call you, because now you're harassing me and I have a city to
run.' "
Tom Day is clerk of the Bedford Municipal Court and a
close ally of Dimora's. Day's brother, Brian, a Parma councilman, works
for Russo.
Giuliani, the 1-888-Ohio Comp's lawyer, says the
firm was aggressive because Lansky was being courted by competitors.
But the company never crossed the line into harassment, he said.
Medina
County Commissioner Sharon Ray talked of pressure, too. She said
Brunswick Councilman Tony Capretta, who works for Russo, was upset
after Medina County turned down 1-888-Ohio Comp's bid for business.
"He made threats," Ray said of Capretta.
She
recalls him saying, "The boys aren't very happy with you. We came and
you didn't take care of my friends. They think I should run against
you."
Capretta did not run against Ray but made a failed attempt to unseat her colleague, Republican Steve Hambley, in 2007.
Campaign-finance
reports show the Lucarelli family and company consultants have been
generous contributors to office seekers and officeholders in a position
to pick an MCO.
The donations often came near the open-enrollment periods.
In
2000, near the end of then-Mayor Michael R. White's final term, members
of the Lucarelli family donated $3,000 to his campaign fund. A few
months later, Cleveland switched to 1-888-Ohio Comp.
They donated $15,000 to then-Mayor Jane Campbell between 2003 and 2005, when she was defeated by Frank Jackson.
The Lucarellis have given Jackson $6,000 since he took office.
Campbell
said the donations played no role in the decision to renew with 1-888
Ohio Comp. White could not be reached. Jackson spokeswoman Andrea
Taylor said Cabinet-level staff made the recommendation to stay with
1-888-Ohio Comp and credited it with helping to contain rising workers'
comp costs.
Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic was in a bruising
re-election campaign in 2003 when he accepted $14,600 from Sam
Lucarelli, his relatives and employees.
The contributions were
arranged by Tom Coyne, the former Brook Park mayor. Coyne is a friend
of Plusquellic's and works as a consultant for 1-888-Ohio Comp.
Three
years later, Akron switched to the company as its MCO. Plusquellic's
spokesman said the donations were not connected to the switch.
Representatives of other MCOs also contributed to Plusquellic's campaign.
Also
in 2003, Euclid Mayor Cervenik, in a contentious race, received a
combined $6,000 in contributions from Coyne and Sam Lucarelli.
Coyne is just a good Democrat, Cervenik explained, and Lucarelli is a fan of good government.
State records show that the following May, Cervenik switched the city's MCO to 1-888-Ohio Comp.
Former Plain Dealer reporter Bob Paynter contributed to this story.
Several people have been on this since we seen it come out in the PD.
The common denominator is Abe Bruckman and his connections to at
least four current CDC's. He ended up involved in two law suits, one as
a party, and as a person who was alleged in a conspiracy with
Councilman Santiago in the conversion of the
Clark Metro proprietary work plan that Santiago is asking TWDC to take
over. Just two months ago Santiago requested CDBG money from the City
to be paid to Ohio Canal Corridor. About $5300.00 was to pay-off Abe
Bruckman for a alleged contract that no-one has a signed copy.
Everyone knows Abe. He worked at Clark-Metro, until Councilman
Santiago arranged CDBG money to go to OCNW so Abe could get hired at
OCNW. Read The Plain Press story linked below.
Councilman Joe Santiago defended his use of the OCNW phone
number in his newsletter as a place to reach Abe Bruckman. Santiago
said, “Abe Bruckman was the leader” in developing this plan and “he is
going to finish the report.” Santiago said he is looking for funding to
pay Abe Bruckman to finish the report. Santiago said, “When we
negotiated for Abe to go to OCNW, we talked to Joe Mazzola about
finishing this report.”
Mazzola said no negotiations took place with Santiago to hire
Bruckman. He said Bruckman was hired because he was the best of a pool
of applicants. He said that Councilman Santiago “did’t know I was
interviewing Abe. No one knew.”
After you just read these two comments you must ask who is lying? Did Santiago negotiate or not?
Abe is been a employee of OCNW for about two years. His salary is
paid with HUD CDBG money's dispersed from Santiago and the City of
Cleveland.
Abe just left Old Brooklyn CDC as its Vice President to the Board of
Directors. Just this year he was involved in two controversies. One,
the termination of a CDC employee that was loved by the community.
(This follows my heart) Debra Zeleny helped residents in Ward 15 and 16
to oppose a local bar that had troubles that wanted to become a
nightclub (sound familiar). She helped get over 200 signatures and then
got fired because the bar owner husband was a convicted felon, and the
son or nephew was politically connected to Ward 16 Councilman Kelly
(AKA Napoleon) Campaign records link Trevor Elkins to Kelley, and
Santiago. Well so Zeleny filed suit against the CDC, naming each and
every board member as a party. Eventually she settled. Abe also was the
main focal point this summer of a group of members of that CDC that
called a special meeting of the organization to remove the Officers of
the CDC including the President, and Abe (the Vice President). They
also wanted a vote of no confidence to the CDC's Executive Director, a
suburbanite carpetbagger.
What is interesting is Bruckman via a executive position on the
CDC's Board was responsible to direct the Executive Director to
impliment close to over a million in CDBG-HUD funding in two years,
while being employed at another CDC being paid with CDBG-HUD funding
(Conflict?)
It continues Abe Bruckman sits on the Clark-Metro BRD committee,
which Santiago and the City under his direction to Bob Brown the
Planning Director took over the plan and is collaborating with
Stockyards Re-development to implement the BRD outsude its territory.
That is until it was extended to West 65th.
So for a two year period Abe Bruckman has either worked for, sat on
boards with, or committees at CMDC, OCNW, OBCDC, and Stockyards.
Thanks for the intel on the Cleveland Restoration Society, more
insider influence applied for a CDC employee for work done at 3722 Mack
Ct.
What the question must be is, did Abe Bruckman use his position or
his influence and CDC connections to have CMHA purchase his house?
Per the PD story CMHA used a grant from HUD to buy the properties in question.
Then next question is why did he move to the suburbs, when he is a "Urban Planner".
I have spoken at length with Councilman Cummins, Stan Donaldson the
PD reporter that exposed Abe's house. I even met the Ferris's this
year. They are working for a federal investigation of Abe's shenanigans
at OBCDC.
It is my understanding the CMHA paper trail will point to CDC's and
contracts, and pass-through for developments. So it will take time, the
Feds are slow but when you see U-haul trucks backing up to all the west
side Community Development Corps., you will know why. Abe was a bonus
as he was exposed.
Now of all things Santiago wants to use TWDC into taking over
Clark-Metro's plan, and Abe Bruckman. This I am sure will get Abe
involved in a third legal matter with another CDC.
Well now, if a simple amateur like myself can figure this out, can
you imagine the resources of the FBI, IRS-CID, and the offices of the
Inspector General of HUD can do.
I am going to look forward one day when the HUD money in WARD 14,
goes to the proper census tracts its designated for. I am sure this
happens in other Wards. I am also hoping one day their will be a CDC in
each Ward, with no competition of CDC's for the same money. The poor
people always loose.
I will post a separate story regarding 2520 Woodbridge, its ironic I
know the players in that too. Mr. James Deal, he used to have property
on Starkweather.
Just to make note for the record, I have all the documents, and campaign reports to back my discussion up.
Abe who is Nancy Shuster to you? She has been giving alot of donations to Councilman Cimperman.
Henry (just presently a caregiver to my Mom) Or about over a year
ago as stated right in this blog, " Mooching off my Mom's SSI".
One of my favorite 70's sitcoms was Hogan's Heroes. Remember "Head's
will roll, Klink!" Its funny a small group of west side residents have
been investigating all the CDC's just like Hogan, Newkirk, Carter,
Kinch, an LeBuea infiltrated and disrupted the Germans.
Submitted by lmiller on December 12, 2008 - 3:56pm.
I
am a former, long term employee of Cleveland Housing Court, and I met
Frank Giglio about 15 years ago at this court. He has been harassed by
the city and councilman for a long time. He was sent to jail and had a
one million dollar bond at one time. A much higher bond than most
child rapist, murderers, etc. His yard was bulldozed, he was spray
maced in his face, taken to jail and his dog to the APA. He has been
incarcerated many times over this house. I personally seen one of the
housing inspectors spray flea spray in one of Frank's cats' eyes. I
also witnessed this same inspector bully and threaten to hit Frank. I
helped Frank clean every square inch of this house to save his
belongings from being dumped in a dumpster. This house needed
repaired, but the house was a very beautiful home with tile fireplace
mantels, unbelievable wood work, etc. It was a very solid home and did
not deserve to be demolished.
Unfortunately, Frank did not fit in with the councilman's vision of
Tremont. There are three homes directly across the street from FRank's
house that have been vacant and boarded up for at least 20 years. Why
couldn't this house sit the same way? I have been Frank's friend for
many years and know for a fact that he suffers from severe mental
health issues. The court, city and councilman are all aware of his
mental health problems. Aren't we supposed to look out for people like
this?
And to stip his house of firplace mantels, windows, doors, etc.,
before they tear the house down? What kind of BS is this? And the poor
guy had to go to jail again over this. Unbelievable. Now the
councilman and others involved can now take the land as they have
desired for so long.
!@#^$*)^% councilman, city building and housing, Tremont, housing court, and anyone else involved.
It's reassuring: the Keystone Cops are now protecting our public investment in the Med Mart and Convention Center.
As I read it:
The County set up a Convention Facilities Authority, only to shut it down. (In the famous words of Gilda Radner's Emily Litella, "Never mind". We can sympathize. Emily had these problems all the time: ""What is all this fuss I hear about the Supreme Court decision on a "deaf" penalty? It's terrible! Deaf people have enough problems as it is!")
The County moved remaining $161,000 over to the budget of Positively Cleveland, the tourism folks.
Except, that it won't. The tourism folks moved the money over to the Greater Cleveland Partnership which was news to the Commission. (Another missed communication, according to the tourism folks.)
The GCP took the money and spent it on a $350,00 definitive siting study. Except that it wasn't.
These funds went to a "handful of companies", like engineering firms and Fred Nance's law firm, according to Joe Guillen at the PD.
The resulting report, “Greater Cleveland Partnership Medical Mart/Convention Center Site Selection Committee” said the best place to put the project is on Forest City property at Tower City, according to Roldo.
Except that it's probably not. No architect or planner was involved in the siting deliberation. In Steve Litt's view, the convention center/med mart will turn Tower City into "an urban octopus". (Nice image.)
Nobody apparently bothered to talk to any logistics companies either, according to reporting by Charu Gupta. The tight logistics around Tower City could quickly make the convention center uncompetitive.
In the same article my brother, Hunter, the former city planner for Cleveland, raises some serious questions about slipshod analysis underlying the GCP's siting decision.
And the siting study is, well, not very convincing with the Chicago Med Mart either, because they are doing their own, according to Guillen.
Meanwhile, the City of Cleveland's Planning Commission -- which, you would expect, should be in the middle of these discussions (the convention center is the biggest public project in the city, after all) -- has suffered a case of amnesia. They apprarently stripped out all their documents relating to the convention center from their web site.
But all of this still leaves Nance without his $100,000.
So, he goes back to the County Commission to get his money.
And the County Commission apparently is agreeing to pay the bill. (Did anyone bother to ask for time sheets?)
Is it time to get a grip, yet?
Let's take a step back. The County Commission imposed a tax on the citizens of Cuyahoga County to pay for a convention center and a medical mart without a business plan or a proper siting study. No one has yet explained how all this will work.
And the job keeps getting tougher. There's no explanation of how current economic conditions will impact the project.
Back in 2005, an article in Forbes noted that the convention market was already in the tank:
The biggest 200 shows, a rolling list measured by Tradeshow Week, are using the same amount of space they did in 1992. Attendance has fallen at most centers, even those with new space such as in Indianapolis, Chicago and Atlanta. The thriving destinations, Orlando, Fla. and Las Vegas (which just announced a $400 million expansion), are stealing smaller shows away from other cities, stuffing in several at a time. The smaller trade halls are discounting, even giving space away.
The storm buffeting the U.S. economy threatens to swamp the $175 billion corporate meetings industry as companies seek to cut back on expenditure by reducing the number of conferences they hold.
For years, Forest City has been trying to engineer a Tower City bail-out. (Remember Learn and Earn, the proposal that Crain's called "egregiously misnamed" and the Dayton Daily News, somewhat more poetically, called a "crock"?)
The problem is, of course, that as Forest City tries to fix the game, a lot of people are looking like they just checked into the Keystone Hotel.
This is the only part of the siting study that was available on the web.
Investigations and Brecksville VA by rootiekazoot,
12/6/08 5:14 ET
Flipping through blogspace, strange things can be read (links below). I
cannot say if any of it is true or what it means. Perhaps someone local
and more familiar can elucidate. Here's a summary of what can be read:
The
VA is planning on consolidating Cleveland area hospitals but does not
have full funding to do so. Means, they will close the Brecksville
hospital. The VA also wants to build a new hospital building at
University Circle to handle the Brecksville patients. VA Hospital
director decided to raise money for the new building by leasing out the
Brecksville property for private development. 1000 jobs will go to
University Circle (and be lost to Brecksville?). So in spite of the
stated goal of closing Brecksville VA to save money, much more money
will be spent to build new facilities at U Circle when facilities
already exist in Brecksville.
The VA leased the Brecksville
property to a new company called Veterans Development whose president
is Mr. Forliani. Mr. Forliani is also president of a company named Doan
Pyramid
The Brecksville property was then put up for bid to
developers. Forest City bid, as did other developers. Then the VA
awarded the bid to both the city of Brecksville and Veterans
Development, who will partner to lease the VA property. For reasons
unclear the city of Brecksville bid; perhaps it saw itself as a
commercial developer, albeit with zero experience in that area. Note
that Veterans Development is also responsible for building the new
University Circle building for the VA and is requesting significant tax
incentives from the city of Cleveland- otherwise Veterans Development
will not build. For the tax revenue that was raised, it would go
directly to the Cuyahoga Port Authority, specifically none of it going
to the Cleveland metropolitan schools.
Unexplained by anything I
read is the intricate tie-in between the county, the city of Cleveland,
and the Cuyahoga port authority for what is supposed to be a federal
project.
(Doan Pyramid of course has bid on multiple projects for
the city of of Brecksville, including lights for the ball field and
work for the community center.)
Cleveland council president
Sweeney is being investigated for contractors working on his private
house. While chairman of the airport committee, Mr. Sweeney approved
Doan Pyramid for airport contracts, and Doan Pyramid later worked on Mr
Sweeney's personal house. Doan Pyramid is being looked at as part of
the federal corruption probe of Cuyahoga County government, and has
been subpoenaed in conjunction. As the Plain Dealer puts it, Doan
Pyramid has "...close ties to Dimora and Russo."
Doan Pyramid was
also named for making campaign contributions to a Parma school board
member, and work on Parma school buildings was then given back. CMHA
bosses are being investigated as well, as are Metro Hospital bosses.
The federal investigation pervades county and municipal government
locally, and the raids are continuing over the last few months. The FBI
raided Doan Pyramid offices in July with search warrants. No charges
are being filed at this point as the investigations continue.
According
to the Plain Dealer, the federal investigators are also investigating
the VA hospital deal for what the PD calls "prime development land near
Interstate 77 in Brecksville."
PD also said a few months ago,
"Brecksville Mayor Jerry Hruby, a Republican, who made his city a
partner with Veterans Development in its bid to the VA, did not return
a message left on his cell phone."
This is just what anyone can
read online and in the Plain Dealer. No way of knowing what is going on
or if any of this is true. But it would be really good to hear a
statement from the City about this to clarify things. Really good,
since the VA deal looks like it may be on hold for a long time. It
would also be very good to know exactly why the city entered into
partnership as a developer for the property in the first place- why is
this a good use of taxpayer funds?
Jill Miller Zimon passed along this post to me.
It underscores how far Cuyahoga County public employment is out of whack.
One of the best ways to compare public employment levels is to evaluate the number of public employees per 100,000 population. When you do that, you can see that Cuyahoga County has higher than the national average in public employment in most categories.
Where is Cuyahoga County heavy in public employment overhead?
Hospitals: (Most places don't have a public hospital like Metro Health)
Public Health
Public Welfare
Transit
Water and Sewer
Judicial and legal
Firefighters
Housing and Community Development
Elementary and Secondary School Administration
It's not chump change
Here's how you can use these number to get a ball park of the additional costs from a relatively inefficient public sector. Let's take the Judicial and Legal employment in Cuyahoga County.
Compared to a national average the county (all units of government) employs 148 employees per 100,000 population more than the national average. That's equal to a head count of 1,919 above the national average. (Cuyahoga County's population is 1.3 million.)
If we assume that the average wage is $50,000 and the payroll burden is 35%, the additional overhead in the judicial and legal function of government is costing county taxpayers about $130 million a year. The water and sewer inefficiencies impose a bloat tax of about $80 million a year. That's about the same bloat tax we pay for inefficiencies in our fire department. (This includes only head counts and not the costs of duplicate, expensive equipment.)
A top heavy school system costs about $36 million a year. Inefficiencies in regional transit cost us about three times that: $110 million a year.
Inefficiencies in housing and community development cost us $50 million a year. (These inefficiencies may be offset by the benefits every neighborhood having a community development corporation, but these corporations can also act as fiefdoms or "door keepers" closing down innovation.)
The lost benefits of scale
We should expect Cuyahoga County to realize some savings from scale. The county is one of the largest in the country. But that's not happening.
(You can see the slightly downward sloping line on page 14 of the REI report listed below. There's not much of a scale advantage -- government is a service business, after all -- but there are some. Cuyahoga County falls way above the line. It's leaders are leaving a lot of productivity penalties for the rest of us to pay.)
Here's the web site developed by The Fund for Our Economic Future's consulting team (data through 2002).
You can read through their report here.
You can read through the report we prepared a few years ago at the Center for Regional Economic Issues here.
Finally, there was a recent report on reorganizing Cuyahoga County government, but that report does not really address the underlying cost of government in the county. Their web site is here.
The conclusion: We are paying too much for the government we are getting
The iron triangle: Map the Mess
In my view, this situation reflects the insular politics of Cuyahoga County. There's an "iron triangle" that has allowed this situation to get out of control.
The business community, led by the Greater Cleveland Partnership, turns a blind eye to political excess (and the corruption potential of patronage out of control) in exchange for public sector support of leading real estate developments, such as the the Forest City's relentless steering of the convention center/Med Mart.
These connections have led to a lot of speculation about the connections.
But don't forget Browns stadium, the goofy Cleveland casino "learn and earn" initiative, the Juvenile Justice Center land deal with Forest City, the Jacobs deal on the Ameritrust Tower. The list goes on. Roldo and otehrs have chronicled the abuses.
It's a convenient quid pro quo and a sad consequence of a business leadership controlled by commercial real estate interests. (The shift away from manufacturing leadership started in the 1970's with the collapse of the steel industry.)
The Plain Dealer, meanwhile, has largely turned a blind eye to the abuses, bowing to pressure and too close connections to the business community under the previous publisher. (Weak-kneed editorial decisions have not helped the PD's reputation.)
That might all change now that the PD editors get a brief whiff of a Pulitzer for their coverage of the county corruption scandals.
Bloat taxes power the corruption in the county.
The best antidote is transparency and an aggressive corp of professional journalists focusing on big issues.
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