BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WATER MAIN?

During his most recent reelection campaign Mayor Scott Coleman promised that he would come up with a plan for replacing the Highland Road water main within 100 days after returning to office.

That was an important commitment.
The water main supplies water to a large portion of the city---and to communities to our east as well.
The Cleveland Water Department identified it for replacement several years ago, due to increasing instances of failure of the water main’s joint flanges/rings. 

Replacing the water main will take a lot of thoughtful planning, given the cost and extent of work required.
Having to do it on an emergency basis would cost a whole lot more.

Residents are still waiting for Mayor Coleman to make good on his campaign pledge, and based on the conversation at last week’s council meeting, I’m guessing they’re going to have to wait a whole lot longer.

The mayor appears to be backing away from tackling the water main project, focusing on something else instead: renovating Miner Road.

The mayor is quite familiar with Miner Road. It’s the road he uses to access his home and neighborhood.

Service Director Thom Evans recently reported that the county is willing to reimburse the city for repaving Miner Road---a nice offer for sure.
But the mayor wants to do more than repave the road. He wants to spend several million dollars renovating it.
Replacing the Highland Road water main would cost more.

 

After listening to the discussion at last week’s Council meeting I got the distinct impression that the county repaving offer was driving the mayor’s selection of the city’s next infrastructure project.
That’s unfortunate.

Deciding how to spend public money is the biggest and most important policy decision that the mayor and Council make each year.

The decision about which infrastructure project to tackle next shouldn’t be based on which is the easiest or cheapest to get done.
It should be based on which project is more urgent and more vital to preserving city assets (like water mains) and ensuring the provision of necessary services (like water) to residents.

Money is a tool.
Interest rates are at historic lows.
As a friend of mine (with an advanced degree in economics) pointed out, that means that cities have a unique opportunity right now to borrow money very cheaply. In his opinion, any city would be crazy not to take advantage of that opportunity to pay for big-ticket items, like infrastructure needs.

That got me thinking.

Instead of draining the general fund to pay to renovate one road, as the mayor seems inclined to do, should the city consider borrowing money (at low cost) to do both the Highland Road water main and Miner Road project, preserving capital by repaying for that work over time?

Mayor Coleman is familiar with borrowing money to get municipal needs addressed.
He was part of a team that successfully pursued bond money during former Mayor Fran Hogg’s tenure.
Those bonds financed major infrastructure work, including installation of the city’s new pool.

Deciding to take on debt to get needed work done would take leadership---real leadership---on the part of any mayor.
I’m not sure we can expect to see that kind of leadership from Mayor Scott Coleman.

That’s really a shame.

Residents have to wonder about the mayor’s priorities.

  

Is he really willing to risk a city-wide water main failure so that he can have a smoother commute to work?

GETGO REDUX?

Highland Heights residents anxiously await developer Lance Osborne’s next move after the mega GetGo rezoning issue failed. Will he negotiate or litigate?

Happy New Year!

I was traveling and busy tending to family matters, which distracted me from many normal activities last fall---including writing this blog.

But it’s a new year and I’m back in the saddle.

I have to say that I felt very lucky to be out of Ohio during the last few weeks before the November election----and not just because I missed Hurricane Sandy’s nasty weather.
It was delightful to be able to watch television without being assaulted by torrents of political advertising, and equally wonderful to escape the muck propagated by all those ideologically-driven super PACs.

Although I was out of town, I kept close tabs on the GetGo rezoning issue.

For those of you who missed the results, 5205 Highland residents voted on election day.
Issue 58, the GetGo rezoning issue, passed citywide by 552 votes, however voters in 3 precincts (Wards 1-B, 4-A and 4-B) rejected it outright.
Pursuant to our city Charter, the Ward 4 vote decided the issue. 
Out of a total 1255 votes counted, 775 Ward 4 voters turned thumbs down on developer Lance Osborne’s plan to install a gasoline and diesel dispensing,16 pump mega GetGo gas station and convenience store, huge plastic overhead canopy and 6-by-18 foot LED display ground signs on the former Catalano’s grocery store property.
View the election results: http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/pdf_boe/en-US/ElectionResults2012/Nov2012/11062012officialResultsbyPrecinctTotals.HTM

There’s been a lot of speculation about what Osborne’s next move will be.
Osborne stood to make a ton of money from the purchase/lease back deal he had worked out with Giant Eagle for the Catalano’s property, but that deal hinged on the mega GetGo gas station.
With so much money on the table, residents wonder:

Will Osborne do the right thing and respect the will of Highland Heights voters---or will he engage in a sour-grapes attempt to force a mega GetGo gas station down their throats?

A December 11^th Council executive session---held to discuss unspecified “pending imminent litigation”---could be one clue as to Osborne’s intentions.
Months before the November election, a city insider voiced their belief that Osborne would sue the city if the GetGo zoning issue failed.
Rumors are flying that he’s threatened to do just that.

How ironic.
When pitching his mega GetGo development plan to residents at public meetings before the election, Osborne always made sure to mention that he, himself, was a Highland Heights resident.
I was never quite sure what message Osborne was trying to send. Maybe:

Trust me, I’m one of you?

If the rumors are true, residents will have to wonder whether Osborne’s residency claims were actually a veiled threat. Was his real message:  

Give me what I want or, trust me, I’ll sue you?

I sincerely hope that’s not the case.

How disappointing for the city to be sued by the very person who used his Highland Heights residency status to sell himself to the residents.

At a post-election, November 11^th Council meeting, Former Councilman Sam Paternite spoke for many residents when he told Council:

“Now that the GetGo issue has been settled, I think it is time for Council to be pro-active on the Catalano’s property.

The Supreme Court has given the city the ability to do that---to take the property by eminent domain. The city should make Giant Eagle offer they can’t refuse: either sell the property with restrictions or the city will take it without restrictions…

We can’t let Giant Eagle hold the city hostage just because it wants a GetGo there.

If we just sit they will come at us, suing us trying to overrule the Ward 4 veto.

We can’t go another 7 years letting the (Catalano’s) property sit there…”

In last week’s Sun Messenger, Council President Cathy Murphy agreed with Paternite’s call for the city to be proactive. She said:

 “…we have to seize the opportunity to get something done this year to develop that corner. …I want to pursue development there without a gas station…
It is a vital corner…What’s important now is that we continue the dialogue because there is an opportunity there.”

http://www.cleveland.com/hillcrest/index.ssf/2013/01/highland_heights_officials_loo.html#incart_river

Council is a legislative body. It is not Council’s role to negotiate with commercial property owners and developers.
That role belongs to someone else----the city’s chief executive officer---the mayor.

I think it’s high time for Mayor Coleman---who has been remarkably quiet---to step forward and assume leadership on the issue.
The first thing he needs to do: sit down with Giant Eagle representatives and find out whether Giant Eagle intends to sell the Catalano’s property---as they told Council, a year ago, Giant Eagle would do if it a mega GetGo gas station wasn’t installed there.
If Giant Eagle has changed its mind, the mayor owes it to residents to work with Giant Eagle (and maybe developer Osborne as well) to come up with a new “development plan B” for Catalano’s--one that doesn’t involve rezoning it for gas station use.

The city has offered economic incentives in the past, to foster business growth and expansion in the city.
Maybe it’s time for Mayor Coleman to take that tool out of the shed, sharpen it up, and use it once again.

Whatever he does, he needs to do something---something other than sitting on the sidelines.

TALES FROM THE (ISSUE 58) CAMPAIGN TRAIL

There are 2 groups in Highland Heights campaigning for and against the
GetGo rezoning issue, Issue 58.

Developer Lance Osborne founded the pro-GetGo political action committee (PAC)---humorously titled “Citizens For Improving Highland Heights”.
The treasurer for that group is Osborne’s leasing agent, Steve Passov.

That PAC must have some pretty big bucks to spend.
So far it has mailed out 2 glossy, oversized full-color postcards to Highland Heights residents. Between the color reproductions and the postage, that’s quite an expensive proposition.

The postcards include illustrations of portions of Osborne’s proposed development.  They are quite pretty----colorful and bright with soothing sky blue backgrounds.
Catalano’s, on the other hand, is depicted using a dark and blurry black and white photograph, slugged “Current Conditions”.

Get the subliminal message?

Catalano’s: dark, brooding and bad.
Osborne’s development: bright, happy and good.

The postcards show many things, but so far they have not shown the 16
pump mega GetGo gas station that is the crowning jewel of Osborne’s
development plan---and the raison d’etre for Issue 58.

Why show reality when pitching a dream, right?
 
On the opposite side of Issue 58 is “Residents Against GetGo,” a PAC organized by Councilman-at-large Ed Hargate.
A Radford Drive resident serves as that group’s treasurer.

Since “Residents Against GetGo” is an actual citizens’ group, it has a much smaller operating budget.
Instead of mailing out glossy color postcards, resident volunteers have been fanning out throughout the city, delivering black and white flyers to residents’ homes on foot.

Which brings me to this tale, told to me by one “Residents Against GetGo” volunteer.

THE VOLUNTEER'S STORY

The volunteer was distributing flyers along Wilson Mills Road. She didn’t have her glasses on---she didn’t need them for the outdoor work she was doing.

She noticed a large black SUV slowing down, apparently watching her---which didn’t worry her, but kind of made her nervous all the same.

The SUV made another pass as the volunteer walked her route.
Strange, she thought. I wonder what’s up.

The volunteer stopped to talk to a friend---she figured she visited for 25 minutes or so---and, wouldn’t you know it, shortly after she got back outside she saw the black SUV again.
This time the SUV pulled into the park entrance and stopped.

Confused, the volunteer tried to make sense of it all.
Suddenly it struck her----it must be one of her son’s friends.

“Tommy,” she shouted, spreading her arms wide to give the approaching
male figure a hug.
She got a nice hug and a friendly response back.
“What are doing?” Tommy asked.
The volunteer launched into an explanation…but then suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

Peering closer, she realized that the stranger was no Tommy.
 
 “You’re not Tommy!” she exclaimed.
No, the stranger admitted, my name is Lance.

It wasn’t just any Lance, it was THE Lance. Lance Osborne.

When he found out what she was doing, Osborne pointed his finger and
warned the volunteer---in what she felt was an attempt to intimidate her:

 “There better not be anything false in that literature or you’ll be liable.”

The volunteer told Osborne that there were no lies and that the “Residents Against
GetGo”  flyer told the truth about his development plan.
He continued to harangue her as she walked away.

Way to win over residents, Lance.
 

CLARIFICATION

In a recent letter to the editor I wrote that Mayor Scott Coleman got the cold shoulder from Giant Eagle when he floated the idea of relocating the Cuyahoga County Library to the Catalano’s property.

My source for that statement was someone familiar with both the city and the library.

That source recently clarified the timing of the discussion.

According to this source, library representatives unsuccessfully attempted to discuss the Catalano’s property with Giant Eagle and sought assistance from city insiders in that effort.
It was too late to turn the tide by the time the mayor got involved.

So. bottom line, it apparently was the library, not the mayor, who received the cold shoulder from Giant Eagle.

Different party. Same result.