Airport Director Ricky Smith is adamant the report was not a prediction - and called a news conference to relay details of a morning call between Mayor Frank Jackson, and Continental CEO Jeffrey Smisek.

RICKY SMITH: “Mayor Jackson expressed his discomfort with the message that was reflected in the story. Jeff Smisek in return reaffirmed his commitment to Cleveland and gave assurances that they will continue to support the Cleveland hub and to support this community.”

Smisek later released a multi-page statement that said the newspaper report distorted the facts… and asserted that future airline plans would have what he termed “minimal impact on front line employees..... including workers in Cleveland.”

20 people stood with Smith at his news briefing, representing vendors, workers, even airport taxi drivers.
Speaking for them was Greater Cleveland Partnership president; Joe Roman.

JOE ROMAN: “This isn’t the time to panic, this is a time to galvanize around the partnerships we’ve already started… The business community believes that pursuing that path is the right way to go.”

But, challenged by reporters to define exactly how much the city trusts Continental, Director Smith demurred - talking instead of an undisclosed “Plan B"… re-stating how much improvement has been made at Hopkins during his tenure - and - how ‘that’ would make the city attractive to ‘other’ airlines… should Continental later decide to REDUCE its’ commitment.

RICKY SMITH:"Our answer is to position this airport to be strong, and to continue to focus on our strategy for developing and attracting air service, and I think if we continue to execute our plan, we’ll be in a good place.”

A lawsuit opposing the merger continues in a California court this week.

Industry analysts and Congressman Dennis Kucinich each say the merged airline would likely reduce flights to Cleveland.

Kucinich requested internal documents from the company in June, as part of his subcommittee investigation of the merger. He’s made no new comments about the issue since.

Home prices increased in 17 of the 20 cities the index tracks, including in Cleveland, leading hopeful sellers to set sights on potentially larger profits.

But, S&P index chair David Blitzer says that while the numbers ARE upbeat… “other, more recent data on home sales and mortgages points to fewer gains ahead.”

That means while house prices are increasing, the real question remains whether anyone is buying, or is preparing to buy.

Reports last week indicated that home sales plummeted in July to numbers lower than any in the past decade, with Northeast Ohio sales of new and existing homes falling 35.5 percent from June to July. That’s down more than 21 percent from July 2009. Condominium sales were worse, falling by nearly 46% from June.

Analysts also say numbers in the beginning of the summer were skewed by the federal tax-credit offer, available to people who purchased by April 30 and closed or will close their deals before October 1.

But Brown says her reach extends beyond the east side. If elected, she wants to unify the 59 communities in Cuyahoga County, and she claims to have support from the west side of the Cuyahoga River.

Brown: “From the west side we have Mayor Kleem from Berea who has endorsed my candidacy, and also Mike Gammella, who is the council president from Brook Park.”

The three east side mayors who spoke at her rally said they support Brown as the Democratic candidate because she is committed to strengthening the county’s health and human services.

The fact that the Ohio Democratic Party has endorsed her opponent—Edward FitzGerald—doesn’t seem to faze her, although Senator Nina Turner lambasted the party for underestimating Brown.

Turner: “They have been very dismissive of her, both the Ohio Democratic Party and also Mayor FitzGerald, and I find it distasteful. What we need in this region is to come together.”

Brown says she hopes to bring the county together with a shared vision that promotes jobs, workforce development and families.

Tom Bier is a fellow at the Cleveland State College of Urban Affairs who is in favor of the initiative. Bier argues that the future of some inner-ring suburbs like Parma and Garfield Heights is in jeopardy as residents move out to communities like Avon and Aurora that are flourishing.

Bier: “In looking long term, I’m talking looking out 40-50 years, the future of Cuyahoga County is very, very negative. The wealth and so much of the economic strength is shifting into those other counties, into Aurora. That’s where it’s going.”

But some mayors and residents are staunchly opposed to the idea. They say their residents pay taxes diligently and their cities have worked hard to attract businesses to the area. They should be able to keep their own revenues.

Others oppose tax sharing because they don’t trust the leadership in declining cities to use the money wisely.

That’s a big reason why Jim, a caller from Rocky River, is adamantly against giving any money to cities like Cleveland.

Jim:” Cleveland doesn’t have their act together. Why should Rocky River, West Lake, share, when those communities don’t have their act together!”

Local leaders do agree on one point. As Medina County Commissioner Stephen Hambley says, Northeast Ohio needs a vibrant core for the entire region to survive.

Hambley: “We are tied together by our regional economy. Over half of the working people of Medina County go outside the county to work.”

Proponents of the tax sharing plan are still trying to get at least half of the cities in 16 counties across Northeast Ohio to support it. Participation is voluntary, and Bier says it will take a least a year to consult with them all. After that, assuming there’s enough buy-in, they’ll need to work with a state legislator to implement the plan.

Among the most recent beneficiaries of the federal program is a mixed residential and retail development, known as the Uptown Project, in University Circle. Another is the Gordons Square Art District on Cleveland’s west side.

The state program, it’s hoped will provide added oomph to the federal tax credits, and spark further investment in low income neighborhoods, says Mark Lundine, Urban Revitalization Coordinator for the Ohio Department of Development.

Lundine: “Banks increasingly, in low income areas are looking for some kind of equity into the project, and that’s exactly what this tax credit provides. It provides a steady amount of investment for banks and financial institutions and also some amount of stability in the length of the deal.”

Government data shows the federal program generates 12 dollars of investment for each one dollar of tax credit. The Ohio program allocates 10 million dollars in its first round of funding, and provides a 39 percent tax credit over seven years. Applications are due by September 20th.

BLOOM: “We have great admiration for the market. But we don’t worship the market. And we understand that there are some things that markets don’t do. That doesn’t make markets bad, it just makes them incomplete.”

Bloom said federal and state governments have a role in funding research and development, educating workers and bringing money to businesses when banks aren’t lending.

Governor Strickland defended Ohio’s business taxes, calling them among the lowest in the Midwest. And he said Ohio manufacturing has rebounded under his leadership.

STRICKLAND: “Manufacturing seems to be the sector of our economy that’s leading us out of this recession.”

But not all businesses in attendance were sold on government intervention. Radhika Reddy is a founding partner of Ariel Ventures, an international real estate developer in Cleveland. She said high wages and environmental regulation have made it tough for U.S. businesses to compete globally. But she did speak out in favor of incentives for manufacturing.

REDDY: “There’s a shortage nationwide in the U.S. supporting incentives for manufacturing. There’s a lot of incentives in different areas-like real estate and all. But less in manufacturing than I’ve seen in the support other countries get.”

Manufacturing in Northeast Ohio has grown in recent months, according to the regional marketing group Team Neo. Its most recent numbers show an increase of between 8,000 and 9,000 manufacturing jobs since January.

KEYS: It was much, much harder to detect what it was they were doing, period. There wasn’t a clear sense of what do they do. What’s it all about?

Some of the candidates, in both parties, are seasoned politicians, but others are political novices like Republican Victor Voinovich, brother of the U.S. Senator.

VOINOVICH: January 1, 2011, this county will finally take itself back from the politicians!

And so far…”the politicians” are not exactly jumping on the Voinovich bandwagon. Even his brother has declined to endorse his sibling’s candidacy and GOP party chair Rob Frost has said…THAT caused other Republicans to steer clear of him. According to the last campaign financing report, Victor Voinovich had raised less than $800 by the end of June.

To hear Victor Voinovich though, that’s all according to plan. He’s touting his business experience as a commercial real estate broker from Valley View.

VOINOVICH: I know about finances, I know about business. For the past 30 years, I’ve been in the real estate business. I’ve done deals all over Cuyahoga County.

Republican rival Matt Dolan also points to Voinovich’s record in business ….as evidence of his unsuitability to be the chief executive for Cuyahoga County. Here’s the way Dolan put it at a City Club debate last week.

DOLAN CITY: You’re running on a platform that you’re a businessman, therefore your business record is an issue in this case. Wait until you see what the Democrats are going to do with your bankruptcies, your tax liens, your personal debt.

Matt Dolan doesn’t have to worry so much about money. His father, Larry Dolan, owns the Cleveland Indians and his extended family put up nearly all of Matt Dolan’s 500-thousand dollar campaign war-chest. He is a successful business man in his own right though, an experienced state legislator, a former state prosecutor and he’s been endorsed by party officials as their choice for the GOP nomination. Those who know him well say he’s a consensus-builder, pragmatic and respected on both sides of the aisle during when he represented a portion of Cuyahoga County in Columbus.

When talking issues, he mentions a plan he says will build regional cooperation. He calls it “Cuyahoga Forward.”

DOLAN: It will establish a non-profit entity that will coordinate all the efforts of the municipalities, and the Greater Cleveland Partnership and COSE, so that we have one voice, one-stop shopping for business development --- so your tax incentives, your financing, your workforce development, your research, and real estate options will all be at one fingerprint.

Dolan is new to Cuyahoga County though…at least in terms of being an actual resident. He moved in from Geauga County less than a year ago. Victor Voinovich likes to point that out.

VOINOVICH: My opponent must have thought with his family money and name he could win this election. Well I have a family name too, but the difference is, I’ve been here my entire life and I do have a track record.

Voinovich has an economic development blueprint of his own, called the “2020 Vision” plan, which he waves in the air at every candidate forum as tangible proof that he’s ready to lead. Recently the Plain Dealer noted that Voinovich’s plan was very similar to a development proposal being used in Brevard County Florida, and hardly tailor-made for the issues of Northeast Ohio.

The third GOP hopeful is Paul Casey, also has a guiding document that he likes to quote at public forums.

CASEY: From Ephesians, “A Battle Against Evil” --- Join your strength from the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the armor of God, so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil.

Casey, a Roman Catholic from North Royalton, says he hadn’t thought much about entering politics, but recently he heard “a calling.” He says he’s the most conservative of the three Republican candidates. He can be vague about specific changes he’d make or policies he’d change for the county but touts his leadership skills as a college wrestling star and a business owner --- he restores old homes. Casey says that he would devote his first year in office to streamlining government, creating a budget surplus and then using the savings to reduce taxes.

CASEY: I hear, loud and clear, the voice of the small businessperson in middle America who’s saying we need to cut taxes, we need to get this spending under control. That’s what I’m here to do.

Tuesday ….a review of the Democratic contenders for Cuyahoga County Executive.

He likes to tout his past experience as a special agent for the FBI … for three years, plus years as in the county prosecutor’s office… as making him an ideal candidate, ready to root out governmental corruption. But Fitzgerald opposed the government reform initiative that grew out of the county’s corruption probe. He says there were some details in the charter he didn’t like.

Fitzgerald can point to a record of accomplishment leading Lakewood, an inner-ring suburb. When he was elected mayor in 2007, he says the city was pretty dysfunctional. He talked about it at a recent eastside candidates forum. ,

FITZGERALD: We were facing our worse budget problems in our history, we had a crime rate that was rising and we had a culture within City Hall that did not reward merit or performance. It was based on who you knew, and not what you knew.

Fitzgerald’s supporters say he’s been able to trim costs and reduce crime. He also says that leading Lakewood puts him in a unique position to unite a county that sometimes seems paralyzed by a diverse set of economic challenges.

FITZGERALD: My particular suburb kind of has one foot in suburbia and one foot in an urban environment. We have affluent neighborhoods, we also have neighborhoods where a large percentage of the people are on public assistance. I have experience as a mayor where I have dealt with both.

Fitzgerald’s leading opponent is Terri Hamilton Brown. She too has an impressive resume, including a master’s degree in urban planning from MIT and an array of backers, including Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and state representative Nina Turner.

Brown says she has a strong record of executive experience and effectiveness in a number of local agencies. She started building that record in Cleveland’s Community Development Department, during the administration of Michael White.

TERRI HAMILTON BROWN: I initially led the housing construction office where we built over 2500 hundred new homes in the inner city. I believe we need a strong core city for our entire county to be strong.

One of her biggest challenges --- and major accomplishments supporters say --- came when she took over as head of a Cuyahoga County Metropolitan Housing Authority that was rife with scandal, 12 years ago.

TERRI HAMILTON BROWN: It was a mess when I arrived. The books were not audited, there had been corruption, there was low performance and low morale.

Brown has been widely praised for turning the troubled agency around…”she won’t tolerate mess,” as one former board member said; supporters say she can be “in your face” but that “she’s not a dictator” and is “inclusive” in her management style. Critics say she lacks the political expertise needed to negotiate the turf issues she would face in leading eleven very diverse districts.

While Fitzgerald and Brown have held the spotlight, others are vying for the Democratic nomination.

Diana Lynn Hill hasn’t gotten any major political endorsements, and that suits her just fine. The Cleveland Ward 14 community activist and Army reservist likes her outsider status, and pledges to bring a sense of discipline to county government.

HILL: I’m not a politician --- I’m a soldier. The leader of Cuyahoga County needs to know what accountability is all about.

Hill might also be described as a bit of a dreamer. Her plan for reviving the regional economy? Convince the Walt Disney organization to build a theme park or resort in Greater Cleveland.

She also says her experience as a jobless, single mom and client of the county’s social services system, gives her a lot of insight on how to improve those agencies.

Another candidate for Cuyahoga County Executive…that you’ve likely never heard of till now… is a bus driver from Brooklyn.

JAMES BROWN: I figured not to make too much of a show. I’m not putting too much into my candidacy, like yards signs or anything like that.

James Brown, no relation to Terri Hamilton Brown, figures it’s enough to publicize his low profile campaign by talking to a few visiting newspaper reporters --- one from Youngstown. And he doesn’t have much to offer in the way of a platform or stump speech.

JAMES BROWN: I would figure, just appoint the right people to the right jobs. Not have any friends or anything like that, you know? Just find the right people for the right jobs and fill those positions.

Hiram College political analyst Jason Johnson says the challenge for all of the county executive candidates is to convince voters that it’s worth their while to show up on election day.

JOHNSON: This is a brand new position that, so far, there’s a tremendous amount of apprehension on the part of the public as to what this position will even do. So, people can’t get enthusiastic about voting for something that they don’t understand what the impact is going to be.

The winners of the Republican and Democrat primaries on September 7th will go on to share the ballot with the Green Party candidate and several independents in the November general election and some of them look particularly strong at this point.

“[N]ow it’s priced at $50,000. ... And I really don’t invite my friends over. I’m just ashamed of my street now. I really am. You know, the houses ... that are not kept up,” she says.

Court Takes Action

Means and her neighbors recently received letters from Cleveland Municipal Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka telling them that one of the former owners of that empty house, mortgage giant Fannie Mae, had been found guilty of housing code violations. As part of its remedy, the court ordered the company to pay restitution.

Thursday, Pianka will hold a hearing to determine whether neighbors like Means can prove they suffered economic loss because of the house that Fannie Mae owned.

Emory University School of Law professor Frank Alexander says it’s an unusual move for a housing court judge.

“Criminal law has long afforded the possibility that a criminal defendant who is found guilty can be ordered to pay restitution to a victim. What is unusual in this case is that the victim[s] are the adjoining owners, who did not initiate the lawsuit necessarily. This lawsuit was initiated by the city,” Alexander says.

To complicate matters, an attorney for Fannie Mae says the property was supposed to have been transferred to Aurora Loan Services in 2008, before the violations were written up. But the paperwork was not filed until last spring. A Fannie Mae spokesman says that on Thursday the company hopes to clear up who owns the house. Pianka also sent similar letters to neighbors of another rundown Cleveland house that’s now condemned. The defendant in that case is a Utah-based company called Go Invest Wisely LLC. Company officials did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Overstepping’ Bounds?

Robert Triozzi, the city of Cleveland’s law director, says the proposed restitution hearings may help frustrated homeowners. “It is an appropriate recognition that other people, other than the city itself, [have] been harmed here.”

But in an editorial, Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer wrote that Pianka’s restitution hearings risk “overstepping the bounds of impartiality.” And legal experts point out that neighbors can already sue negligent owners through nuisance or trespass laws. Others worry that restitution claims could scare off much-needed investors.

Some Cleveland homeowners will be closely watching the restitution hearings. The defendant from Utah, Go Invest Wisely, also owned a dilapidated and graffiti-covered house a few doors down from Edith Crum.

“They buy up the houses, then they go live somewhere else in beautiful mansions, and we’re stuck down here. It lowers the property value and what can you do?” Crum says.

Crum and her neighbors are working with a group of local housing activists to try to get the property condemned. And depending on how Thursday’s restitution hearings go, Crum says the group may also head to housing court for its share of any restitution money.

LIPSTRAW: “The state makes so much money from fishing --- licenses and stuff. And when tourists come up here, they’re also putting money into the local economy with motels, camping, restaurants. One hand feeds the other.”

Several miles away, charter boat owner Rick Unger gets ready to take a half dozen people on a deep water fishing expedition. Unger’s been running Chief’s Charters for ten years and he’s the current president of the 800 member Lake Erie Charter Boat Association. But, lately, he’s been wondering about the future of his business, given the stories he’s been hearing about an invasive fish called the Asian carp

UNGER: “We’re scared to death by it. We’ve seen what it’s done to the river systems. We know what, potentially, it could do to Lake Erie.”

The foreign fish were originally imported to clean ponds in the southern United States, but some of them escaped and have been slowly working their way up the Mississippi. Asian carp reproduce quickly and tend to starve out local fish by gobbling up their food supply. The fear is that they will make their way into the Great Lakes and dominate the waters. And then there’s the jumping problem.

It’s become a comic staple of youtube --- there are dozens of home videos showing rivers choked with hundreds of leaping carp that occasionally smack into the face of a nearby boater. But, it’s no laughing matter for the person who gets his nose or jaw broken by twenty-to-fifty pounds of flying fish. Rick Unger isn’t laughing either. He and others who make their living off the Lake, fear the arrival of the Asian carp could be the death of recreational fishing here.

UNGER: “Bait shops…tackle shops…fish-cleaning houses…marinas --- all of that goes away. Then, you’re going to lose your motels, your hotels, your restaurants, your bars --- all of that would close down for lack of tourism on Lake Erie.”

According to the Ohio Division of Wildlife, sport fishing generates 1.8 billion dollars across the state, each year, with about 800 million of that coming from Lake Erie.

Roger Knight of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources watches tourists get on a Lake Erie ferry. Knight has spent 30 years studying the life of the lake. He’s seen the arrival of a number of invasive species, including the zebra mussels of the 1990s. He says Asian carp could be a much bigger problem.

KNIGHT: “They are very prolific animals, the habitat’s right. Lake Erie would be a perfect place where the odds are in their favor that they would be able to reproduce. And that’s the issue for us.”

Like many communities across Ohio, the Port Clinton area has its share of boarded-up homes, closed restaurants, and shuttered shopping strips. Not as many people are chartering boats, these days, due to a shaky economy.

Rick Unger sits with a bottle of Corona at the end of a day on the Lake. He says his business has been down, this summer, but a busy June and July kept him afloat. Now, the approach of the Asian carp has gotten him thinking about the city of Cuyahoga Heights, where he used to work as police chief.

UNGER: “Cuyahoga Heights had a huge industrial base. As with the rest of America, a lot of those jobs went away --- those factories started closing up or running shorter shifts --- and it hurt my city.”

And he can’t help but wonder if he might have to live through that again.

Last week the bank ceased offering home equity loans and lines of credit and issuing quarterly dividends, and halted its stock buy-back program.

CEO Mark Stefanski acknowledged in the bank’s first ever investor conference call Monday that these are not the best of times for the Third Federal.

STEFANSKI: “We have had losses on the loan side, and our earnings have been weak.”

But, Stefanski says, its lending standards have not changed. Borrowers’ credit scores, on average, are high; loans are made only by non-commissioned associates who don’t benefit from pushing excessively risky loans, and its delinquency rate has been relatively flat.

Stefanski says the feds’ concern is not about Third Federal’s borrowers, but with that 30 percent concentration of lending in home equity.

STEFANSKI: “The home equity line of credit product in itself is probably viewed now differently than it’s ever been before, because of the home values and the way they’ve kind of dropped in a number of markets. And, you know, we do have a concentration in Florida, so that has raised further concern.”

Florida’s drop in home prices was among the nation’s most dramatic.

Some believe that, given Third Federal’s conservative reputation, regulators may be over-reacting. Stefanski says the bank is working out a new regulatory agreement with the OTS, and will disclose them when the agreement is final. He says this is – quote— “truly a new age in regulation”

JEFF SKELDING:"Communities around the Great Lakes continue to dump billions of gallons of untreated sewage into these great natural resources that define the culture and lives and jobs of our region. This practice simply has to end if we’re going to get on top of the business of restoring the Great Lakes.”

The report also shows how health concerns increase exponentially with exposure to germ-laden water. PhD Joan Rose is a water research professor at Michigan State University.

JOAN ROSE, PhD: “We’ve seen that with treatment to these waste water streams, we can actually reduce the risk 100 to 1000 times from these parasites like Cryptosporidium and Giardia and these viruses.”

The Great Lakes Coalition and other sponsors hope to influence Congress, where members are currently debating `two’ bills that could send billions of dollars toward Great Lakes freshwater conservation and protection projects.... projects that would also increase regional jobs in the construction and maintainence of high-tech water control systems.

BERRY: “Demand for capital and consumer goods are up, US department of commerce numbers on corporate investment are up, and the institute for supply management indicators have been up, although they’re sliding back a bit.”

Again, all positive signs, Berry says, but the real question is whether they reflect real long term growth, or are just the replenishment of depleted inventories.

John Stropke, President of Cleveland’s Lincoln Electric, which makes welding equipment, points to the recent history of area companies line Parker hannafin, Eaton Corporation, and his own firm.

STROPKE: I think most if not all of them have exceeded the expectation both on the revenue side and on the earnings side.

Stropke’s optimism is tempered by the uncertainty of the global recovery, but he sees things looking up for Lincoln Electri.

John Grabner, CEO of cardinal fasteners, is looking ahead to new clean energy development for his company, but he doesn’t see it happening yet.

GRABNER: “People we speak are saying they’re waiting. And they’re waiting to make the big investment, and they’re waiting for the government to establish a long term renewable electricity standard. Once that’s done, I think there are some manufacturers ready to make the investment in the capital equipment and the jobs in that growing market. So I think it’s a matter of waiting to see that happen.

The three spoke at Thursday’s Corporate Club luncheon held by Executive caterers in Beachwood.

Pie in the sky hopes, or an effort to produce excitement now - for a big payoff later?

‘A little of both’ says NorTech VP David Karpinski, who acknowledges the survey his group commissioned is just a snapshot in time, with unforeseen changes ahead as the wind energy industry grows.

Nortech is one of several business development groups pushing to step up public and private investment in wind energy. Karpinski believes the industry can flourish in Northeast Ohio, and a proposal to erect several wind turbines on Lake Erie is a good start.

Karpinski says his group’s report is intended to explain the path of offshore wind development - and help with recruitment.

KARPINSKI:"We’re looking for partners that understand the cost challenge, and are ready to commit to really innovating and driving down the cost; to make this thing economically viable over the long term. We’re committed to do it, it’s a challenge, but we’re all ready for that challenge, and we’ve done it before in the region, that’s what we’re good at.”

Critics say the 41-page report fails to recognize the myriad other projects that may be further along the path to building than the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation. That’s the local group pushing to make Northeast Ohio first with an operational wind farm, which LEEDCo President Lorry Wagner calls; a ‘critical’ step.

He notes that Ohio is third in the nation in producing parts for wind turbines, and the prospect of putting hundreds of turbines on the lake could induce companies that actually build turbines, to establish those facilities here.

WAGNER: “Are we going to have the 20% of the regional industry or are we going to have 80%? There’s a lot to be said for doing it first and doing it right.”

Wagner says the race to harness the wind could blow perhaps 600 construction jobs into the region as soon as 2012.

BROWN - “Thousands of teachers who would have been laid off will return to the classroom late this month or early next month. And hundreds of thousands of students who thought they would not see their teachers again, are going to welcome teachers back to the classroom.”

Even with the legislation scaled back and the cost offset, most Senate Republicans - including George Voinovich—voted against moving forward citing remaining concerns.
The legislation still has some hurdles to clear before final passage—including approval by House lawmakers who are already on recess.

By a 6-2 vote, they approved Lorain Treasurer Karen Shawver’s push to hire the Cleveland-run Central Collection Agency, which already does tax research and collection work for dozens of smaller area communities.

Central Collection has an advantage. The IRS only permits cities with more than a quarter million residents to access its records - so it can find discrepancies by running comparisons of local and federal records - something Lorain and other smaller cities just can’t do.

Shawver contends there is no guarantee the collectors will find ‘any’ money. Still, she remains hopeful about Central’s potential.

KAREN SHAWVER:
“Some of the smaller cities have reached up to $100K for the year, and the biggest city of Dayton has collected $250K, so if we’re anywhere in the middle of that; I would say that would be successful.”

Shawver says those who voted no to hiring Central objected to her earmarking any dollars collected for the city’s “Rainy Day”, or emergency fund. They’d rather restore Lorain’s laid off city workers to their jobs.

SHAWVER:
“They thought any money that we collect now; we should be able to use to bring back those services to our residents.”

While some residents may be purposely dodging the tax collector - others simply may not know their liability.

But willful or not, residents who neglected to pay Lorain’s income tax will be assessed late fees, a 10% penalty, and a 1.5% per month in accumulated interest charges, on top of back taxes. The process to find them should take about a month.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.

HAMMIS: He runs a business now that earns somewhere between 80 and a hundred thousand dollars in gross sales. And his net earnings because it’s a computer code programming business...very low overhead.

The Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission awarded Griffin-Hammis Associates a $1.3 million grant. It’ll be used to set up six sites across the state where counselors will be trained to work with people who have complex disabilities that are hoping to start their own businesses. Also, Beachwood-based Vocational Services Unlimited has been awarded more than $355 thousand to help improve transportation options for people with disabilities in Lake County. Here’s Michael Rench, administrator of The Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission.

RENCH: What we’re trying to do through this grant is help some local community folks put together some options so people can have transportation options that are on demand because many public transit systems really don’t work to the advantage of a person with a disability who has to work swing hours.

Rench says helping people with disabilities get work is a good investment because it decreases their need for public assistance at the same time increasing the tax base. The grant money comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the federal stimulus program.

GrafTech International currently contributes technology to the lithium ion cells that power the GM Volt, Nissan Leaf and future electric cars, and it’s just received two Department of Energy grants to pursue development of its patented graphite and carbon-based products.
Brown says Ohio is among the most successful states in bringing government resources to alternative energy development.

SENATOR SHERROD BROWN:
“There’ve been more clean energy jobs in Ohio created as a result of the Recovery Act, the stimulus package than any state in the country.”

Much of GrafTech’s cutting edge work, designed and engineered in Parma, is produced at a plant in Lakewood.

Brown’s enthusiasm for clean energy development is shared by many democrats, and even some Republicans support a proposal requiring that utilities produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources ten years from now. But others vehemently disagree with major portions of energy bills introduced by Democrats last week.

Brown believes the resistance to alternative energy proposals is purely political.

BROWN:
“Put it this way - the influence of the oil industry is far too great in our government. President Obama is trying to break that stranglehold. We’re not there yet, but we’re making progress.”

And, he says, the work at Graf Tech is part of that progress. He says the next major power push for Ohio - will likely be wind farms in Lake Erie.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.

We caught up with Valerie McCall, Cleveland’s Chief of Government Affairs, as she and about a dozen other people representing the city waited to board the plane.

McCALL: “We’re going so we can see first hand what will be expected of us as we host the games.”

This year’s games begin Saturday and conclude the following weekend. About 10,000 athletes from more than 70 countries will compete in close to three dozen sports. McCall says the delegation is required to participate in certain events.

McCALL: “There’s opening ceremonies, closing ceremonies… we have to officially receive the flag, which is a big thing because it lets us know that it comes to our city after this.”

Others along on the trip include staff from the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and Positively Cleveland, as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, the Akron Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, and corporate sponsor Equalsurance.

City officials expect the 2014 Gay Games to draw more than 100,000 athletes and spectators to Cleveland.

WOLSTEIN: “Until the fall of 2008, financing was pretty easy to come by.”

Wolstein couldn’t get credit and the Flats East Bank project was put on hold.

WOLSTEIN: “We had certainly hoped to be under construction by now.”

But cranes may soon be moving into place after all.

A group of foreign investors have put up $20 million to get the development off the ground.

They come from countries as diverse as England, China and Brazil.

ZAI: “Immigrants basically built the US and will continue to do so.”

Eddy Zai is an immigrant himself, and he’s using that experience to encourage other foreigners to make investments in the US. He runs the Cleveland International Fund.

And, thanks to a once obscure US Immigration program, he can offer one huge incentive. It’s called EB-5 and here’s the deal: Invest in the US economy, create at least 10 jobs, and you can be on a fast track to a green card: months instead of years.

Zai says the wealthy foreigners are willing to put up with piddly returns for what they really want.

ZAI: “Primarily it’s education for the children and healthcare—access to healthcare—for themselves. And Cleveland has, fortunately, is a leader in both those two areas.

The government’s EB-5 visa has been around twenty years, but the number of investors getting green cards through the program has nearly tripled during the recession.

Not everyone is thrilled, though. Ira Mehlman is with the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

MEHLMAN: “I think most Americans would find it inherently objectionable that we’re selling admission to the United States. We have always prided ourselves in this country on being a meritocracy. And the people who have the most money are not necessarily the most desirable people to have in the country, the people who are the most likely to contribute. ”

But Zai says this immigration program is just like first class versus coach on an airplane.

ZAI: “The method of getting into the flight between going through TSA security is the same as everyone else. The way the flight operates is like everyone else. But they’re just paying a higher amount to get in. ”

Zai has been logging a lot of airline miles himself, selling Cleveland to the investors around the world. So far, he’s found remarkable success: lining up 40 investors in just a few months.

Now that the Flats financing gives the Cleveland International Fund credibility, Zai hopes to convince more foreigners to invest in Cleveland’s film and healthcare industries. He just wishes Clevelanders would appreciate what they have and make his job a little easier.

ZAI: Between the great schools, the great quality of life, and we need to promote that. So, as investors do come here and immigrants do come here to plant their seeds, we need to be a little more welcoming and certainly more gracious for those opportunities.

But despite Cleveland’s low self esteem, Zai has set an ambitious goal for the Cleveland International Fund.

ZAI: If we could hit 800 jobs—new jobs—in Cleveland, I think that will be the defining moment of the existence of CiF and what we’re hoping to do.

It could be Cleveland’s next immigration story.

The O-M-A’s 2010 report; “Ohio Manufacturing Counts”, ranks the state third in the U.S. for manufacturing employment --- that despite a drop to just 614-thousand manufacturing jobs statewide.

It fairly trumpets the fact that Ohio trails only California and Texas in manufacturing jobs.

Lisa Schaaf is Chief Operating Officer of the Ohio Manufacturing Association.

She says that while overall job numbers ARE down, innovation during lean times helped keep companies from completely collapsing and shedding more jobs. Schaaf also notes that Ohio’s growing high tech industry is not taking jobs, but is helping to support the state’s manufacturing field.

LISA SCHAAF: “There are so many people who have not been in a modern manufacturing facility. They have the wrong picture in their mind about what its’ like, and we’re still battling that.”

Others are not so optimistic. Another report released this week ranks Ohio 45th nationally in a review of employment trends, with the state owning one of the steepest overall job loss stats, for the past five years.

Yet another report --- this one specific to Northeast Ohio --- warns that despite 2009 numbers, car sales could still skid off course, taking regional manufacturing jobs with them.

But Schaaf doesn’t look at it that way.

LISA SCHAAF: “I’m not seeing a doom and gloom - people are going to stop driving cars, we’re gonna stop making cars - downward spiral. I think of the opposite. I think we’re lucky to have our infrastructure.”

The O.M.A. reports concludes that manufacturing investments are Ohio’s leading source of major new projects, with an optimistic 478 of those, in the past two years.

Voinovich says transportation construction is one of the best job creators around, and new and upgraded roads improve the infrastructure and help the environment through energy savings.

His favored way to pay for it? Raise the gas tax.

Voinovich: “I believe Americans are willing to pay a higher gas tax to create jobs, improve our infrastructure and better our climate. And many of my conservative colleagues do not consider that gas tax as a tax, but as a user fee.

The Obama administration has come out against raising the gas or imposing a mileage fee on drivers.

Voinovich spoke at the annual conference of Build-Up Greater Cleveland - or BUGC, where he gave the keynote speech and was honored for his more than for decades in politics, including as Mayor of Cleveland and Governor of Ohio.

John Mitterholzer is a senior program officer with Gund.

Mitterholzer: “What our grant dollars allow users of the Ohio Direction Card to do, if they use five dollars or more at a market, they’ll get an additional five dollars from our grant.”

Four farmers markets in Cleveland now offer the incentive. If the program is successful, the foundation hopes to expand it to other places in Cuyahoga County.

Mitterholzer: “I hope first and foremost, it allows everyone in Cleveland to have access to fresh produce, at least during the growing season this year. That’s really important to me. I also hope that it provides income for farmers.”

Tiffany Leeper runs the Lakewood Farmer’s Market. She says using the food benefits at the farmers market is easy.

Leeper: “Basically, if people have an Ohio Direction Card, they come up to our tent and they can redeem points on their card for tokens that they use to spend with the farms and the other vendors here at the market.”

Eleven farmers markets in Northeast Ohio currently accept the Ohio Direction Card. Leeper says it’s important to spread the word that farmers markets accept food stamps.

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