Upfront

overhaul at the Global Center for Health Innovation that nobody wants, which was initially ballparked at $46 million, has now leaped to $54 million, according to those with a vested professional and financial interest in the project.

A baffled Cuyahoga County Council labored to understand the vagaries of the proposed budget at a meeting last week. Though most of their questions remained unanswered by meeting’s end, they saw fit to move the legislation forward. They will likely pass it on a third reading next month and might as well do so while wearing giant foam middle fingers. Councilwomen Yvonne Conwell and Cheryl Stephens voted no on the allocation Tuesday, arguing that more time is needed to deliberate.

To be fair, others had reservations too, but that didn’t stop them from siding with the convention and tourism industry and the county’s own fiscal advisors, who persuaded them that an increased portion of the public’s money must be spent as soon as possible for the Global Center’s makeover, lest the county fall victim to rising interest rates.

County Council did take the courageous step of greenlighting only about $40 million of the total budget, $30.6 million of which the county will allocate via bond issue and will pay back over the next 20 years in partnership with the Convention Facilities Development Corporation (CCCFDC). The county will also contribute $1.4 million from the Huntington Convention Center naming rights proceeds.

The CCCFDC will contribute $9 million from its reserves, which, as councilman Jack Schron noted, is simply money that the county has already paid to the CCCFDC — “It’s all our money, directly or indirectly,” Schron said. (Bingo!)

But the council decided only to authorize $8 million from its general fund, as opposed to the $13 million envisioned by CCCFDC attorney Jeff Applebaum and the county’s fiscal officer Mike Chambers. The general fund contribution had ballooned from an initial $5 million ARPA designation, and Council was confused about why.

It came to light that this increase included $5 million for a proposed sky bridge connecting the Global Center and the downtown Marriott hotel (a placeholder value, assuming that Marriott will contribute a portion of the total cost), and a $3 million surcharge due to “inflation” and “the supply chain” that everyone on council simply accepted at face value. Three million dollars! Sure! Sounds fair! (It is needless to note that there were no line items or even a general cost breakdown for the council members to peruse.)

Council held back the $5 million for the sky bridge and was no doubt impressed with their restraint. They said they would revisit that allocation once more information — like whether or not the city planning commission will even allow it — becomes available.

The whole meeting was astonishing to watch unfold, given the vehemence with which the public opposes the spending and the multitude of ways the taxpayer bounty could be more effectively deployed.

As is generally the case in the poorest big city in the United States, the argument for converting the Global Center into a formal component of the Huntington Convention Center (thereby making the convention center bigger, fancier, and more “flexible”), was made on the grounds of regional competitiveness and economic impact. Destination Cleveland’s David Gilbert said the enhancements would put Cleveland in the “middle of the pack” for convention business and suggested that every year enhancements aren’t made, Cleveland falls further behind.

That argument would seem to be defeated by Destination Cleveland’s own numbers. Gilbert proudly reported that travel and tourism is one of only two consistently growing industries in Cleveland (the other being healthcare) and has in fact increased each of the last nine years, relative to state and national averages, in terms of number of visitors. (We note dryly that the industry’s miraculous resilience has occurred in spite of the lack of multi-million dollar enhancements at the Global Center. )

The arguments for the enhancements themselves were even more absurd. One of the major upgrades will be expanding the junior ballroom from 10,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet, for example. And during multiple rounds of questioning, Councilwoman Nan Baker kept trying to understand why. The Global Center already has a 30,000 square-foot ballroom, the largest in downtown Cleveland, which can be subdivided into three smaller ballrooms. Was there really a market for a 20,000 square-foot space, she wondered.

Both Gilbert and Ron King, the convention center GM, stressed that the chief benefit of the expanded ballroom would be its flexibility; indeed, the fact that this new, bigger ballroom would be modular and subdivisible into eight smaller ballrooms.

So the county is preparing to spend millions of dollars to build a larger ballroom in order to create smaller ballrooms? Nan Baker asked, genuinely confused.

Yes, she was told. This is what the industry demands.

One’s head spins. Why not just add a few more dividers in the big ballroom and save taxpayers 20 million dollars or so?

Alas. The budget additionally contemplates new escalators and stairways in the main atrium, and a revamp to the meeting room layout on the second and third floors. An outdoor terrace space would be created on the rooftop of the expanded ballroom, too. Talk about a scenic cocktail hour!

The wildest moment of Tuesday’s meeting — putting the arguments for the sky bridge aside — was when Gilbert noted with a straight face that converting the Global Center into the Huntington Convention Center was “cost-effective.”

That’s right. The now $54 million

Would a boondoggle by any other name smell as sweet?

Cuyahoga County council presentation

project, which is wildly unpopular among voters, is “cost-effective” when compared to the cost of constructing a new convention center / convention center annex, which Gilbert pegged at between $150-$200 million.

The chutzpah to make this argument! Residents will recognize that this is the identical line trotted out by the pro sports teams and their chamber-of-commerce attaches when they’re selling local legislators on costly renovations to the stadiums — it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than building a new one, they say — but it’s especially specious here.

The alternative is not, nor was it ever, on the table. The project’s proponents can barely articulate why the enhancements are a value-add — More modular space? Are they serious? — and in any case, there is no threat of any negative outcome whatsoever if these enhancements are not made. Recall that some of the biggest conventions in the country, including the so-called Super Bowl of Conventions, are coming to Cleveland in the next few years and made plans to do so without any knowledge of the Global Center overhaul.

These bozos and their imaginary numbers should have been laughed out of the room. -Sam Allard

When Ward 12 Cleveland City Councilperson Rebecca Maurer arrived at City Hall in January to begin her first term, she hadn’t thought much about constituent services. She understood that councilpeople were often residents’ first call when they wanted to complain about broken streetlights, potholes or noisy neighbors. But she envisioned this direct service work as only one component of the job. Equally important, she thought, should be shepherding ward development projects and working on citywide policy and legislation.

Six months into the gig, Maurer now understands the enormous burden of responding to daily phone calls and emails from constituents. The ceaseless work of putting out fires means that a councilperson rarely has time to take meetings about ward projects or to research and draft legislation. According to Maurer, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Maurer and her staff recently released a report that analyzed constituent calls they’ve received over the past six months. The report illustrates how a city councilperson spends their day and proposes straightforward changes at City Hall that could, Maurer said, make life easier for City Council and city workers while also providing services to residents more effectively.

The fact that only months into her four-year term, Maurer is not only identifying systemic problems, but also explaining to residents why they exist and how they might be solved, is the most radical departure from the city council status quo we’ve seen in years. (The report is an example of what actual transparency and proactive leadership look like.)

Maurer’s office has already received 1,000 calls for service in 2022, the report said, averaging about nine per day. Some of these are handled almost instantly, redirecting a caller to a more appropriate city department. Others can drag on for months, like the case of lamppost replacement referenced in the report, which Maurer said required 26 emails and communication with six different city offices. (One imagines a restaurant’s kitchen with a nonstop flow of orders, meals being assembled on the fly, all while key ingredients are running low and most of the staff has called in sick.) The report said Maurer’s office usually had 100 “open tickets” at any given time.

By comparison, the city’s 311 line has received only 5.5 calls per day from Ward 12 over the same time span. Analyzing the call data, Maurer found that more than 90% of the calls to her office were related to issues that did not require direct council involvement.

“While we are happy to hear from our residents, these calls put a huge strain on the small staff at council offices,” Maurer said in a press release announcing the report. “Ultimately, managing this high of a volume limits our ability to serve residents better. We need to look at systemic changes that can modernize and improve City Hall and provide a better experience for residents.”

The report dovetails with Mayor Justin Bibb’s rhetoric about modernizing City Hall. And its suggestions for systemic changes, largely related to communication and resource allocation, are made in the context of specific cases.

Take garbage bins.

The report notes that thousands of Cleveland residents are on a waiting list to receive new plastic garbage bins from the city, a backlog recently exacerbated by what are referred to as supply chain issues. For years, Cleveland council members have encouraged residents to reach out to them directly about broken bins. Council members then email Waste Management administrators on their constituents’ behalf. This is a grossly inefficient system, Maurer argues.

On the communications front, Maurer suggests that the city send a mailer to all residents currently waiting for new bins explaining the delay and encouraging them to call 311 in the future for new bins. Council members, too, should refer bin replacement requests to 311 and only provide “ombudsman services” after lengthy delays. These improvements should be made in tandem with improved resource allocation, Maurer suggested. Council should be in communication with Public Works to ensure regular bin appropriations so that the department always has a sufficient supply on hand.

“Beginning to move some basic city services off of Council’s plate will begin to improve the balance of time within Council offices and will have positive effects for Council, the Administration, and residents,” the report concludes.

Accomplishing this is not rocket science. The report prescribes a coordinated campaign to promote the 311 line and the sorts of specific services residents can call about. And it recommends starting small, tackling “a handful of high-volume constituent issues where we can make an impact in the next 12 months.”

A number of Maurer’s colleagues on city council quickly corroborated the report’s findings Wednesday morning, based on their own experiences. Council President Blaine Griffin, however, told Cleveland. com that he saw value in council members providing these services to residents, and that residents often call their councilperson because they trust them. He said individual council members should be allowed to approach constituent services how they see fit.

Council people are indeed an important conduit to City Hall for many residents, but Maurer is correct that she and her colleagues spend far too much time on constituent calls, an imbalance which has lead directly, in recent years, to rubber stamp legislation and painstakingly slow progress on popular reforms. What’s also no doubt true is that some elected legislators prefer it that way.

We wrote last year that a fetish for constituent service, as exemplified by former City Council President Marty Sweeney, benefits Cleveland lawmakers “because they can keep winning elections by cutting grass instead of crafting policies that support the wellbeing of residents citywide.” It also benefits local corporations and real estate interests, we noted, “because they can craft policies that support their clients’ wellbeing, knowing that council members are far too busy with constituent phone calls to think critically about their votes.”

Margin of victory for Bride Sweeney against Monique Smith in the hottest Democratic primary matchup of Aug. 2, (as covered in the previous issue of Scene.)

Percentage of vote County Executive Armond Budish secured in his race for the Democratic Party’s state central committee. He lost badly to State Rep. Kent Smith (40%), who also won the primary in the 21st State Senate District, and to Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin (29%).

Amount Cleveland City Council’s utilities committee has greenlit for the purchase of electric vehicle charging stations. The legislation anticipates new electric vehicles in the Cleveland Water Department and Cleveland Public Power fleets.

Percentage of millennials (born 1984-1992) born and raised in Cleveland who stayed in Cleveland by the time they turned 26, higher than the national average of 66%.