BOCCIERI – “Yes, I will be voting yes for the bill.”

The CBO says the reworked legislation will cost 940 billion dollars and help reduce the deficit by 138 billion dollars over ten years. Skeptics say the numbers don’t account for all reforms Democrats are pushing. Boccieri opposed the House health bill last year over cost concerns.

BOCCIERI - “A lot of people are telling me this decision can cost me my job. There have been a lot of lies and fear mongering.

In a packed press conference – Boccieri showcased Ohio constituents who he says also helped make up his mind. Jack Hillyer had a heart attack in 2002 and says he’s had trouble with getting coverage.

HILLYER - “This forced me to pay out of pocket expenses, caused me to lose my home, my transportation and all of my assets.”

Boccieri also spoke about his mother’s breast cancer and her ability to overcome thanks to good health coverage.

For 90.3, I’m Manuel Quinones, Capitol News Connection in Washington. 

To view the entire Ted Strickland interview:  http://www.wviz.org/WVIZ/state_of_ohio/29990

To view the entire John Kasich interview:  http://www.wviz.org/WVIZ/state_of_ohio/29913

KUCINICH: “I can’t say there was anything really new but the moment of decision and what he felt was at stake for our nation and for the hopes to make any kind of change down the road gave me more to think about it.”

Kucinich says the President did promise to work with him down the road on other reforms that he’d like to see happen. However, there was no commitment to create a public option. Kucinich has been a strong advocate for a government run plan.

Here’s an edited excerpt from the interview. You can also watch the entire interview here.

The executive committee overseeing the transition has created a number of workgroups staffed by volunteers – many who hold prominent positions with area businesses, agencies and non-profit organizations.  Each workgroup has a specific focus, such as finance and administration, justice services, or human resources, to name just a few. 

McCafferty:  “A number of the workgroups have had multiple meetings already….”

That’s County Administrator Jim McCafferty, a member of the executive committee who has spearheaded the transition from the start. 

McCafferty:  “Those groups have done their organizational work, assigning work responsibilities and really getting ready to start to move into some of the meat of the discussion of what county services should look like under the new government.”

Randell McSheppard is Chairman of the Community Engagement Workgroup.  That’s the group charged with making sure the public has ample opportunity to participate in the transition, by offering ideas, voicing concerns… or actually volunteering time and energy to one or more workgroups.  So far, nearly eleven hundred volunteers have stepped forward.  McSheppard and others at the top of the transition believe they’re a welcome and necessary part of the process.

Randell McSheppard:  “This is a very critical time in our county’s history, and those who want to be involved should be given the opportunity to be involved.  That’s what this whole process is all about, and that’s why our public engagement is working so hard to get to those that signed up but haven’t had the opportunity to be engaged at this point.”

Each workgroup will spend the next five months essentially creating a template for its particular focus of the new governmental structure.  Once their work is finished, the top leaders of the transition team will take those templates, adjust, refine and integrate them, and turn the final product over to new government leaders sometime after the November election.  It will be their task to actually put the new structure into motion. 

Bill Rice, 90.3. 

Republican senate candidate Rob Portman released a statement timed to the President’s visit, calling the 2300-page proposal job-killing, and costly. He said, quote: “At a time of rising unemployment, we want jobs, not more big government proposals that are going to make it harder to get Ohio out of this economic crisis.”

Meanwhile, the President’s health care push is also getting some opposition from the left. Ohio congressmen John Boccieri and Dennis Kucinich are both on the fence about voting for the bill. Only Kucinich showed up for the rally, and when the president introduced him, an audience member shouted “vote yes.” But when asked by a reporter, Kucinich wouldn’t comment on his current position on the bill.

Strongsville tends to lean right. He lost to John McCain there by five percentage points. But the bulk of residents are independents, and John Green of the University of Akron says the trip could have a marginal effect if it can sway skeptical swing voters.

GREEN: The critical politics of the moment is to firm up support among Democrats. And to the extent that he can get independent-leaning voters to pay attention to Democrats, to maybe put pressure on Democratic members, then it could make a difference.

House Democrats are hoping to vote on the health care overhaul bill by the end of the week.

Secretary of State Brunner says the new website, college-vote-ohio.com, is designed to help students navigate their voting choices based on where they live. 

Brunner:  “For instance, a Cuyahoga County Student who elects to go to the Ohio State University in Columbus, unless they would consider that Columbus is now their home, they would then need to know what to do to vote an absentee ballot.”

Students can click on one of several residency scenarios to get step by step instructions for each of their voting options, including how and where to register, how to vote by mail and how to find their polling location should they choose vote on election day.  The site also has resources to help faculty, residence hall personnel and student organizations get voting information to students. 

Jackson:  The city of Cleveland recently signed an agreement with the Princeton Environmental Group to design a 200 million dollar municipal waste to energy facility that will create over 100 jobs. 

Waste to energy means using trash to produce electric power.  In the 80s and 90s it meant INCINERATING trash, and using the heat to power turbines that generate electricity.  Trash incineration has fallen out of favor because of toxic pollutants it pours into the air.  Mayor Jackson says THIS trash-to-energy facility is different, and cutting edge.

Jackson:  “This project uses the environmentally friendly gasification technology to convert solid waste into electricity, and also to help Cleveland Public Power achieve its goal of 25 percent alternative energy source by 2025.”

Princeton Environmental Group of New jersey has agreed to move to Cleveland and set up its headquarters and manufacturing operations here.  Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone is all for that, and is sold on the gasification concept.  Zone was a member of the Cleveland delegation that traveled to Japan last year to see gasification in action. 

Zone:  I believe it’s a foolproof system.  The emissions standards that come out of this facility exceed the EU regulations, which are more stringent than the U.S. regulations.  It’s pretty amazing technology.

As Peter Tien, who heads Princeton Environmental Group, describes it, the gasification unit treats garbage by subjecting it to high heat - about 15 hundred degrees - while starving it of oxygen, to produce a benign but highly flammable gas called syngas (that’s short for synthetic gas) which is then burned to produce steam to power electricity-generating turbines.  According to Tien, the kinds of trash that it can dispose of are almost limitless.

Tien:  “…scrap paper, wood palettes, chemicals, medical waste, pharmaceutical waste, chemical liquids, flammable liquids, tires, rubber, plastics - anything you can think of.”

While Cleveland officials appear convinced of the virtues of gasification, at least one environmental advocacy group is not. 

Angel:  “These are what we call incinerators in disguise.”

That’s Bradley Angel, head of the California-based group Green Action. 

Angel:  “They’re disguised as power plants, they’re disguised as recycling and renewable energy, when in fact they are at best unproven technologies that often make claims that really need scrutiny, to put it in a polite term.”

Angel says Princeton Environmental Group is one of numerous trash-to-energy start-ups trying to gain a foothold in the US with a variety of technologies - so far with little success - He ticks off number of US cities - many in California, but some in other parts of the country - that he says have rejected such proposals because the environmental claims didn’t hold up.  Councilman Matt Zone says he’s heard these criticisms, but is so far unfazed in his support of the city’s plans. 

Zone:  “The Mayor, the city, does not want to go down a path that is going to do something that’s going to be detrimental to the residents here.  We’re going to do our due diligence and move cautiously, but this looks very promising.”

Local environmentalists - like Susan Buchanon of Ohio Citizen Action - say they are uncertain about the gasification technology being proposed.  She points out that the city’s agreement with Princeton Environmental group was negotiated out of the public eye.  But Buchanon says Citizen Action will be gathering more information and following developments closely. 

Bill Rice, 90.3.

But while closing schools is considered essential to boost efficiency in the the district, that’s a relatively small part of the plan, says district Communications chief John Hairston. 

Hairston:  “You can close schools and save a couple million dollars, but if you don’t transform the behaviors of the people who deliver services to kids - that’s not only teachers, but all 8,000 employees - closing schools will not change where we’re trying to go.  So it’s just one part of it, but the other 75 percent is truly academic transformation.”

Hairston says changing behaviors requires a robust system of evaluating teachers and other staff - one that is based more on how well students perform. 

Hairston:  “And if in fact there are more weaknesses than strengths, and there are less challenges in the context of student achievement and we don’t reach the goals, then that in itself would recommend that there would be some drastic moves in regard to those particular personnel.”

The Transformation Plan is expected to cost more than 70 million dollars, and the district expects support from local organizations like the Gund and Cleveland Foundations and the Greater Cleveland Partnership.  It’s also banking on a large chunk - 15 to 20 million dollars - from President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative.  Ohio has applied for some 400 million dollars of Race to the Top funding, and has made the first cut of applicants.  However, not all 16 finalists will get the grant. 

Bill Rice, 90.3

CORDRAY: I think part of that is certainly because of the economic tough times and these predators have been very busy and active in going after people.

In addition to threats like identity theft that have been around for years, Cordray says the recession has introduced new scams. For example, some schemes charge job-seekers up front for non-existent help landing something.

Cuyahoga County had the second highest number of complaints in the state, after Franklin County.

Cordray highlighted the numbers at a Tower City kickoff for National Consumer Protection Week. He also unveiled an internet widget called Scam Alert. It’s a little box anyone can add to a website or social networking page.

CORDRAY: People can alert us and the widget will update automatically on people’s websites and Facebook pages and things. So they will have access, without doing anything other than installing it once, to the most up to date data around the state.

Democrat Cordray was elected in 2008 in a special election following the Marc Dann sexual harassment scandal. Cordray hopes to win a full term against Republican Mike DeWine this fall.

12 percent of bus routes are to be reduced, and 185 people will lose their jobs under the 2010 RTA budget. .  Kucinich wants RTA to cancel some of the job and service cuts, and restore the Lakewood Circulator – the most popular of the community circulators that were eliminated entirely last year. 

RTA says Mr. kucinich is mistaken in believing that there is still stimulus money available for RTA operations.  According to spokesman Jerry Masek, RTA was originally awarded $45 million in 2009 for capital improvements, but Congress later allowed strapped transit systems around the country to use a portion of their stimulus to pay expenses.  Masek says that money was spent last year to help close a budget hole created by the sinking economy and falling tax revenues. 

Voinovich gathered with a group of contractors, union officials, and regional planners - all employers - and solidly behind his efforts to pour federal money into the transportation industry - to enlist their help in ginning up more support. 

Voinovich:  “This thing has the opportunity to bring us together on something the President could embrace. But I think no one appreciates the impact that transportation industry has on the economy. It’s enormous!

Thousands of Ohioans are impacted by the transportation industry.
One speaker equated transportation workers and their families to a small city; contributing one-point-two million dollars `a day’ to Ohio’s economy.  But the transportation industry is in trouble, primarily because of dwindling government funding. 

Pat Sink leads the Operating Engineers Union Local 18.

Sink” “Everybody’s so against taxes, but we’ll gladly pay the taxes.... if we have a check to have them deducted from. And sometimes people lose sight of that.”

The engineers union says hours worked in 2009 were off by 1.5 million statewide.

The bill Voinovich wants passed would give local authorities much more say in how their federal transportation dollars are spent.  It would stem the expansion push - turning more toward maintenance, mass transit, and high-speed rail.

Voinovich favors raising the gas tax to pay for the measure, rather than adding to the federal deficit.  He says `that’ may be the best part of the deal.

After listing 2009 city achievements from a balanced city budget to cost reductions in municipal operations, Jackson said that no matter what other advances the region boasts, true success hinges on providing quality education, and that systemic change has to come at a `county’ level, in order to make Northeast Ohio globally competitive.

Jackson” “This can be accomplished by creating a county wide authority that will allow for a review of the way in which education is funded in this county… (applause, then fades), joint procurement for goods and services to help save money and reduce costs, joint negotiation on major cost points, such as health care benefits for our employees.. “

Jackson’s call also included developing county wide academic standards, instituting county wide magnet schools, and creating strong partnerships between elementary schools, high schools, and local colleges.

Saying that there has ‘never been a better time for change’; Mayor Jackson declared himself ready to work with those who are fashioning leadership changes at the county level - but warned that such leadership needs to ensure it is operating `outside’ the long held system of political ideologies.

Jackson:  “If we create a political agenda of power, then we’re not going to get anything done. So if, if this is about power politics, as in ‘who’s the boss’, - who ‘runs the place’, then we’re not going to get anything done.”

And, on the topic of sustainability – a favorite theme of Jackson’s since he became Mayor – Jackson called on the city to seize ‘opportunity’.

Jackson:  “There’s an opportunity for Cleveland to change how we do business - and - what our businesses do. To become sustainable not only in what we produce, but in how we operate our businesses, and how we operate our different governments.”

And he spoke of initiatives currently underway that he hopes will bring jobs to Cleveland, citing ongoing negotiations with a Chinese LED maker which plans to open an American operation here; and a new trash-to-energy gasification technology that could potentially create hundreds of jobs.

Jackson frequently mentioned the Cleveland City Council, praising the ease with which his office generally works with the 19 members, He did not speak of those groups in the city with which he has butted heads, such as the Police Union.  But he reported improved crime statistics in 2009 in most categories. Homicides was the exception – they were up slightly, but 11 of those deaths were tied to accused serial killer Anthony Sowell.

Cleveland made progress in demolishing foreclosed and abandoned properties, tearing down about 15 percent out of about 8,000 – more, numerically, than Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo. 

Toward the end of his speech, Jackson returned to his theme of a more county-wide approach to education, summing up the challenge to the area with strong, near-threatening language.

Jackson:  “If we fail to act, then we will be squandering the greatest opportunity this community has had in decades to reinvest and reinvent in itself as a thriving city and county for generations to come.”

Rick Jackson
90.3.

The discounts date back to the 1970s, and many have claimed the company promised they would be permanent.  Kucinich chairs the House Domestic policy Subcommittee.  The investigation follows vigorous protests by owners of all-electric homes over skyrocketing electric bills this winter. 

Meanwhile, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio ordered First Energy to restore the discounts.  But who will pay for it is a big question.  Commissioner Alan Schreiber has directed the PUCO staff to come up with options for restructuring rates. 

Schreiber:  “There was an agreement set in ‘09 among all the parties that the company was entitled to a certain level of revenues.  To the extent that we pull back with these discounts there’s going to be a shortfall in those revenues.  Whether the stockholders pay for it, or whether this shortfall is spread across all others has yet to be determined.”

First Energy says, and Schreiber concurs, that the discounts have been subsidized by other ratepayers.  Spokeswoman Ellen Raines says First Energy shouldn’t be expected to serve a portion of its customers at a loss, but that it’s willing to work with the PUCO and others to find a satisfactory solution. 

Chief of Staff Ken Silliman told city council members that with Cleveland’s income tax bases far smaller than even one year ago - some hoped-for projects are delayed to 2011 - or beyond.

Silliman says the city’s bond capacity accounted for $43 million in improvements a year ago, but will allow just $25 million this year.  And - nearly $10 million of ‘that’s already being set aside for an enhanced radio system for city safety forces and communications.

So city council was told - we’re doing the best we can.

KEN SILLIMAN:
“And we have tried to be faithful to the projections that we were showing on when we would invest in a key capital projects in one of your wards. So for those key recreation projects that were coming up in 2010, we tried to keep them in the plans.”

Deciding which to keep was sometimes determined by what projects are ‘shovel ready’, or which improvements will bring a neighborhood economic opportunities.

City council will weigh the planned budget and make adjustments, and hopes to accept a package before its Spring recess.
Rick Jackson, 90.3

Some city departments even went before council having so drastically slashed their budget requests, that they were given more money, as the committees recognized how reduced staff and added responsibilities could strain certain units.

Council President Martin Sweeney.

MARTIN SWEENEY:
“They have such a discipline with director Dumas, the director of finance, we’re asking them what ‘they’ need, (laughs) cause its’ so tight.”

Sweeney says about the only difference the council and the city administration found on where to spend budget dollars… is a difference you’d notice while driving on the city’s roads.

MARTIN SWEENEY:
“Elimination of the local resurfacing. The administration is saying no resurfacing this year; the council is gonna, probably during reconciliation, talk about intensified crack-sealing maintenance program - to try and get some longevity to our streets.”

Some talks continue today, but Sweeney says there is no rush to talk about the budget during tonight’s council meeting.
Council will see the final budget ‘next’ Monday, then possibly make minor adjustments throughout the month.

The full budget must be approved by the council no later than April 1.

Eislestein:  “First and foremost, provide rate relief to these customers and restore the discounts, and then give them time to appropriately and thoroughly focus on possible alternatives that will get them to the best long term solution when it comes to this issue.”

Governor Strickland has been exerting perhaps the most pressure to restore the discounts.  Here’s his spokesperson, Amanda Wurst.

Wurst:  “The Governor believes that it’s the dead of winter, we’re in the middle of a recession, and rate payers shouldn’t be paying these outragious amounts for electricity.”

But just how outrageous the undiscounted rates are depends on who you ask.  First Energy maintains that all-electric homeowners were paying disproportionately low heating bills compared to those hammered by big spikes in natural gas prices several years ago. 

Two weeks ago, to assuage angry customers, First Energy filed a proposal that would restore 80 percent of the discount, but then gradually eliminate it over the next several years.  That proposal is still in play.  Today, the company said it would work with the PUCO to resolve the issue, but any workable solution has to “reflect the cost incurred to serve those customers.”

Paul Bellamy, Director of Cuyahoga County’s Foreclosure Prevention Program, says those states were chosen because they had the highest percentage of mortgages with negative or near-negative equity, where people owe more than the property is worth.  Michigan was ranked fourth by that measure, while Ohio ranked only twelfth.  But if you look at the actual numbers, rather than percentages, Bellamy says the picture is very different. 

Bellamy:  “What we found is, because Ohio has more Mortgages than Michigan does, the actual number of families that who are in trouble as a result of negative equity, or being underwater on their mortgages, is very comperable.  We’re right up their with Michigan.”

Yesterday, Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis took those calculations to Washington, and included them in testimony before a subcommittee chaired by Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich.  Kucinich, along with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, Lake County Congressman Steve LaTourette and others, hope to convince the Obama administration to rethink its strategy for distributing recovered TARP funding for mortgage relief. 

DCB: The most recent estimate for Cuyahoga County is 12,000 children and 15,000 adults --- and that dates back to 2006.

EW: How do they come up with those numbers?

DCB: Some researchers from the National Alliance to End Homelessness pulled those stats out of census data.  As you know, the U.S. Census Bureau does a national headcount every ten years, but they still do some surveys in the years in between, but these are estimates…samples… not a complete count.  So, the last time they did a sample was 2006 --- before the mortgage meltdown…before a lot more people started losing their homes.  The numbers they get from this year’s count could be very different.

EW: But, I understand that may not be an easy thing to do.

DCB: Yes. Census officials and city planners have told me they’re concerned that people may not own up to the fact that they’re “doubled up”.  Bob Brown, who heads the Cleveland Planning Commission, puts it this way:

ROBERT BROWN: There are a lot of households that are in temporary situations where they are doubling up with other family members.  They and their host may not understand that they need to be counted at that location, and they may be easily missed because the Census worker doesn’t necessarily know that there’s another household here because it seems like a single house --- that’s going to be a real challenge, this time. 

EW: I know in past years the Census Bureau has had problems counting the homeless population, but in this case, these are “homeless” people who are… living in homes --- other people’s homes.

DCB: Yeah, and the irony is that, in some cases, a person who lives out on the streets and sleeps in a homeless shelter at night has some advantages over the “doubled-up” person. 

EW: How so?

DCB: Cyleste Collins, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University did a study on this.  She says if you’re in a shelter, there are a lot of services and resources at your disposal. 

CYLESTE COLLINS: You’ll have regular meals, they’ll probably make sure that you get to school, they might have job-training, they might have parent classes --- things like that.  But, if you’re living on someone’s couch or sleeping on the floor of your friend or some relative, you might be totally invisible to the system. 

DCB: For instance, the system doesn’t know about Bryan, a guy who’s living in a doubled-up situation on the west side of Cleveland --- lost his job...got divorced....he and his ex-wife had to sell their house for a lot less than it was originally worth. He’s still trying to adjust to this new reality of living in someone else’s living room.  He told me he’s really starting to missing his medical insurance.

BRYAN: Everything costs so much money.  I need to go to the dentist, actually.  That’s a big one. 

DCB: He’s heard that there are probably free or low-cost medical services that he’s eligible for.  But, that idea rubs him the wrong way…says it’s a little embarrassing.

BRYAN: I don’t… (sighs)…I don’t like things for free.  I don’t know.  If it comes down to it, I guess I will. 

EW: What’s it like for him to live doubled-up with someone else?  Does that get awkward or embarrassing for him? 

DCB: He’s not comfortable with the situation.

BRYAN: It’s kind of hard living here --- trust me.

DCB: You see, he’s living with… his ex-wife, Jennifer.  It may not be the typical doubled-up situation, but it’s still awkward.  But, Jennifer says there have been some benefits.

JENNIFER: It’s…we get along so much better.  We’re friends now.  I think we lost that in our marriage, and…I think we’re friends --- we’re good friends. 

BRYAN: I stay in the front room, she’s upstairs. We don’t ever…I just…try not to think about it.  As soon as I can get out, I will.  But, I do owe her, I owe her a lot for helping me, because I don’t even know where I would have went.

JENNIFER: Until he gets a job and gets on his feet.  I am not going to kick anybody out who doesn’t have a job. 

DCB: Bryan’s moving day may be coming soon --- he had a job interview, last week.

BRYAN: I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  I’m not counting my chickens before they’re hatched.

DCB: If things go smoothly, they’ll only have one more major hurdle --- the kids.

EW: They have children?

DCB: Well, they’re really a couple of dogs, named Dozer and Giggles.  Jennifer doesn’t want to think about who gets custody.

JENNIFER: We don’t talk about that.  (laughs weakly) It probably all depends on where he goes.  I’m sure, starting out, he’s going to have to get an apartment.  And then, go from there.

BRYAN: I don’t honestly know --- when I leave --- what we’re going to do.

LMN has long sought the opportunity, initially submitting convention center designs more than a decade ago - long before the medical mart component entered the mix. 

MedMart operator MMPI’s Mark Falanga said LMN was not the company he initially thought would be chosen, but that it’s efforts won him over.

MARK FALANGA:
“LMN distinguished themselves amongst the best of the best, and we felt they were a clear winner in this project because there are such strengths that the brought to the particulars of our project here in Cleveland.”

Falanga noted LMN’s experience in designing underground facilities, and its expertise in sustainability.  He pointed to LMN’s completion last year of parts of the Vancounver Convention Center, which is drawing rave reviews at the Olympics this month.

Anticipating backlash because LMN is not local, Jeffrey Appelbaum, the attorney hired by Cuyahoga County to guide the project, defended the company as being one of the nation’s elite architects, and stressed that the firms’ cost projections were also the best deal the county was offered - at about 2.5 million dollars.

Applebaum all but promised that while the architect may not be a Cleveland company - it will draw heavily from Cleveland to fill its support needs. 

JEFFREY APPLEBAUM:
“There are going to be substantial opportunities to have some if not all of those roles filled by local businesses and local design professionals.”

The medical mart and convention center is still set for a 2013 opening. 

“Companies that make glass for truck windshields, they can make glass for solar panels,” Brown said.  “If they make gears for trucks they can make gearboxes for wind turbines.  But they need help in the transistion, especially because of credit issues right now.”

Brown cites a new study released by the advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio that claims the bill could create up to 52 thousand jobs in Ohio over 10 years.  The report was prepared by the The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. 

(Click on the audio above to hear and excerpt of Brown’s conference call with reporters.)

Plusquellic:  “Because each city can develop their own plan and then the people can hold them accountable for what way, how they’re spending their money and I think that’s one of the emphasis I would like to place that we beef up those programs that have the most amount of help, the quickest and most effective way because it’s done locally.”

The Senate just passed a smaller jobs bill and money from the first stimulus package is still trickling into Ohio. But it has to pass through federal and then state agencies. Mayor Plusquellic says city officials can spend money faster than Washington or Columbus.

For 90.3, I’m Matt Laslo, Capitol News Connection in Washington.

Fisher:  “Washington creates incentives for companies to send jobs from Ohio to china, not to create incentives to keep jobs in Cleveland and in Ohio.  Washington gives banks billions in bailouts but shortchanges small business owners and entrpreneurs.  And Washington busts budgets and borrows from abroad while families struggle to stay in their homes and food on their table.”

Fisher accused Washington insiders of forgetting where they came from and who they work for.  Fisher made creating jobs his front-and-center issue.  He proposed a tax credit of twice the payroll tax for all new hires over the next two years, and that all unspent federal stimulus money be redirected to projects that immediately create jobs. 

Fisher:  “Any stimulus money that doesn’t create a job, save a job or help someone find a job shouldn’t be spent, period.”

Fisher also called for a 30 billion dollar small business loan fund, and doubling the tax deduction for small business start-up costs. 

Fisher is running for the senate seat being vacated by republican George Voinovich.  He faces current Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in the democratic primary in may.  The winner of that race will run against Republican Rob Portman in November. 

Bill Rice, 90.3. 

Sparks: As a gay student, how can I be expected to uphold a standard of abstinence-until-marriage when I live in a state where I cannot marry?

Sparks says for the past 18 months he’s e-mail, called, and sent letters to members of the Parma school board and administration hoping to get a meeting about broadening the schools sex ed policy. Last week he wore a t-shirt that read “condoms save lives,” but that too didn’t win him an audience with school administrators. So this week he showed up at a meeting of the school board to protest what he says is the school’s education about morals but not about sex. 

Sparks: I don’t have sex but I think safe sex is pretty awesome. So it’s like if you want to do that, if you want to have sex, do it safely.

House Bill 316 would require all Ohio Public Schools that teach sex-ed to teach a comprehensive model, including information about contraceptives. Peggy Pecchio of Operation Keepsake, a group that teaches abstinence-centered sex-ed in 170 Ohio schools, opposes the bill.

Pecchio: What it’s doing is it’s really taking away parental choice.

Actually, the proposed law would allow parents to keep their kids out of sex-ed classes altogether if they objected to the content. But statehouse observers say the odds of its passage aren’t much better this year than last.

For more information on the County Transition Advisory Group or for future meetings dates and times please visit charter.cuyahogacounty.us.

But by putting all these ideas together, backed by data, the researchers from the Brookings Institution and Greater Ohio, an organization that supports smart growth, hope that lawmakers will make these ideas a reality.

Bruce Katz heads the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, and he told reporters in a conference call last week that he wants lawmakers to make tough decisions, like creating a commission to reduce the number of school districts.

KATZ: These are the kinds of tough choices we think Ohio needs to make on governance so you can begin to invest in what really matters as you begin to move toward this new economy.

Among those attending the unveiling will be Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher.  With 2010 a crucial election year, including a race for governor, this report is clearly timed to try and influence the debate.

Shaenig:  First Energy had a very strong marketing program to encourage all-electric homes.  We were promised the rate was permanent.  First Energy paid this marketing staff.  First Energy paid builders like Bob Schmidt th ousands and thousands of dollars to sell all electric homes.  We believe that First Energy is guilty of fraud.  thousands and thousands aggressive We believe that First Energy is guilty of fraud.

Shaenig says his electric bill has doubled this winter over last - to about 900 dollars a month. 

Rich Jordan tells a similar story, and isn’t just upset about monthly bills. 

Jordan:  “You try to sell a house that has an 800 dollar electric bill on it, you’ll never sell that house.”

Many at the hearing blamed the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and the Ohio Consumers’ Council, a utility watchdog agency, for not looking out for their interests. 

First Energy, under pressure from the OCC, the governor’s office, and some state legislators, has put forth a compromise proposal that would initially restore as much as 80 percent of the discount.  But that would be phased out over time, and all-electric rate-payers will see their bills rise substantially each year.  That’s fair, says First Energy spokesman Mark Durbin.  He says other rate pate payers - those that heat with natural gas and pay a far higher rate per kwh for the electricity they do use - are subsidizing the discount. 

Durbin:  “And when we’re trying to move all the customers toward more of a standard rate, there are going to be some people who will be affect6ed differently.  And again, the filing we made with the Public Utilities Commission is trying to mitigate the somewhat.”

Durbin would not say that eliminating the discount for all electric homeowners would have much positive affect for everyone else. 

State Senator Timothy Grendell of Chesterton - acting as a private attorney - has filed a class action lawsuit against First Energy, and is also considering introducing legislation that would restore the old rates.  He’s holding another hearing on the matter tonight in Strongsville. 

Bill Rice, 90.3

ROBERT REIDY: I’ve got about 280 here.  The people who signed these are in favor of immigration reform and they’re calling for these Senators and Congressmen should do everything in their power to make this happen.

Piles of similar postcards are being delivered to all of Northeast Ohio’s Congressional delegation.  It’s part of a nationwide ecumenical effort that backs legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to remain in this country and have a legal route to citizenship. 

A recent federal report estimates that there are as many as 11 million undocumented immigrants across the U.S. --- about 95,000 in Ohio.  Opponents of liberalized immigration say legalizing those already here is a disservice to the millions waiting in in line who’re following immigration rules.  Rev. Tracey Lind of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral says she realizes that Congress is currently pre-occupied with a troubled economy and healthcare reform, but…

TRACEY LIND:  ...I rank this as just important as economic issues and healthcare and education, because I think it’s part of the fabric of our nation.  And it is a part of the economy, and I think we need to not to be the underground economy.

Attempts at immigration reform in 2006 and 2007 failed to gain traction in Congress, and the Obama administration isn’t expected to bring the issue up again until later this year.

GINGRICH: Neither side should be afraid. Obama should have the courage to give up the 4500 pages of legislation. Say, I got it, the country doesn’t want it, what can we do together? And, the Republicans should go in the room with the Reagan model of trust but verify. And, they should say, look, here are the 9 or 12 positive things we believe in and we will help pass any of these that you’re willing to do.

Gingrich said he’d prefer to reform health care through a number of smaller, incremental bills, instead of doing it all at once in congress. The former speaker was invited to Akron by the Northeast Ohio Health Underwriters Association, a health insurance lobbying group.

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CLARIFICATION: After this story aired, the Northeast Ohio Health Underwriters Association took issue with our characterization of the group as a “lobbying” organization. NEOHUA Trustee Joe Blasko Jr. says the Northeast Ohio Health Underwriters Association is an education and advocacy group made up of insurance professionals working to support its members and their clients. They are not paid lobbyists, but do occasionally engage in lobbying activities.

Many other unions did accept pay cuts, and non-unionized employees really had no choice but accept them.  Jackson combined those with a newly imposed trash fee to partially erase a projected 23 million dollar shortfall.  The rest was made up mostly through the sale of a Chagrin Highlands property to Eaton Corporation for its new headquarters, nearly draining the city’s rainy day fund, and 4 million in federal stimulus dollars originally slated to hire new police officers. 

Council President Martin Sweeney says those funding sources are one time infusions of money that won’t be repeated. 

Sweeney:  “So our cushion is not there.  So this is going to be the year that we have to focus and really try to do our jobs in making transformational change to position the city of Cleveland for prosperity over he next ten years.”

The 2010 budget stands at roughly 510 million dollars.  Budget hearings continue through February 26th.

Bill Rice, 90.3. 

Ida: We are standing near the largest stimulus project in the Great Lakes region to make the point that stimulus money – to the tune of 121 million dollars – is on the way right here. It’ll finance a huge makeover, and it will create hundreds of jobs. It’s just that the money isn’t here yet, and neither are the jobs. 

Eric: Yeah they’re clearly not working on it yet. Do we know when work will start?

Ida: Well the project is still in the design phase, and they plan to start swinging hammers at the end of this year and that’s pretty typical of Stimulus money…less than half of it has been spent so far, and projects that are funded are just getting started.

Eric: Well, some people are clearly better off….those who actually can point to stimulus spending and say…that’s the reason I got my job.  You went looking for examples of that…

Ida: Yeah I looked around on internet tracking sites and on foot…well, by car anyway…around North East Ohio to get a good sense of what some of the $1.7 billion dollars that Ohio has been spent has gone to so far. I talked to close to 30 people, including folks at NEON Health Services on Hough Road. They provide healthcare regardless of how much the patient can pay, even if they’re uninsured.//

NEON Health Services’ Hough Road facility in Cleveland got about 2.5 million dollars from the Stimulus Bill. They used part of that to extend their hours; in fact they doubled them. And to do that, they hired about 6 people.

Hairston: I was unemployed for 4 or 5 months.

That’s John Hairston. He’s one of the more than 24,000 Ohioans reported on the government website recovery.gov, to have a job created or saved by the Stimulus Bill He was hired at NEON last fall as a physician’s assistant, and he says he loves his job.

Hairston: I’m grateful I’m truly grateful, I’m not unemployed anymore so…

The rest of that $ 2.5 million is going to some renovations and construction at NEON Health Services, but that money hasn’t been spent yet.

The story is the same elsewhere though; The Cleveland Clinic is using most of its 20 million dollars of stimulus money to fund research projects. Dr. Paul DiCorleto is the chair of the Lerner Research Institute at the Clinic; he estimates this will create between 50 and 100 jobs when all the money is spent.

DiCorleto: 38 different projects are being funded through this mechanism, which vary from projects on vaccines for breast cancer all the way to Parkinson’s disease, so it’s really a broad spectrum of projects.

Case Western Reserve University has more than 150 different projects that are being paid for …at least in part…with stimulus money. At a lab in the school of nursing, the focus is on figuring out how to accommodate people with disabilities so they can participate in research trials.

Some of it’s going to graduate student Brian Wodlinger.

Durand: A little bit.
Woodlinger: Some, yeah.

Something like 200 people at Case are being paid with the help of the Stimulus Bill. Wodlinger is working with lead researcher Dominique Durand. They’re trying to figure out get the nervous system to control and move artificial limbs. Sounds a lot like science fiction, but Durand hopes that his work will be used in practice in the next decade. Durand got about $150,000 dollars for his project, which helps pay for part of the equipment and salaries in his lab.

Durand: This supplemental money from the economic recovery package is incredibly helpful but it’s a small amount and it’s limited in time.

Since the Stimulus grants often come as a bundle, mixed in with other funding sources, it’s not always that easy to tell where the money came from, or what it’s going to. Ron Cole is a spokesperson for Youngstown State University, which has received over 7.7 million stimulus dollars.

Cole: It’s really hard to say exactly what we would have done if we had been faced with that sort of situation but I think it’s fair to say that reductions in personnel could have been one of the items on the table at one point.

One of the most puzzling and frustrating aspects of stimulus funding is how little it has helped the construction trades.  Ohio will be getting $774 million dollars for infrastructure improvements but again not a lot of that’s been spent yet. Instead of working, many construction workers find themselves idle or killing time doing things like taking safety classes at their union offices.

Tim Sternisa is one of the students at the laborers’ union safety training. He’s been a construction worker for 23 years, and he says his story is pretty typical of most construction workers.

Sternisa: Past year’s been really slow with the economy being down. There hasn’t been much work coming through with the contractor I’m currently with now, so it’s been a lot of unemployment.

Things have been rough at the executive level too. Kurt Knapp is VP of Heavy Industrials at Great Lakes Construction based in Hinckley, Ohio. Knapp says although they’ve worked on several Stimulus funded projects, the last year has meant layoffs.

Knapp: Upwards of 25% of our industry find themselves unemployed.

Like the Federal building downtown, which won’t see any shovels in the ground for another year, the Ohio Department of Transportation says many of their Stimulus funded projects are just now getting under way. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration and Congress are considering a new jobs bill.  Whether the accomplishments of the last one will help passage…. or hurt….is hard to tell…but it is clear that the overall jobs picture isn’t better this year than last.

He and County Administrator Jim McCafferty met with the reform group’s Public Engagement Committee to discuss the logistics of opening all meetings to the public.

MARTIN ZANOTTI:  After meeting with the group it was clear that, if we’re going to err, we’re going to err on the side of openness, so we’ve instructed all the co-chairs that any full committee meetings that they have should be scheduled in advance and open to the public.

Zanotti says the legal threats didn’t factor into the decision.

MARTIN ZANOTTI: This just got rushed, we’re still trying to get organized.  There’s no playbook for how to do all these things.

The backtrack comes one day after the ACLU blasted a plan by Zanotti and county Administrator James McCafferty to hold many transition meetings behind closed doors. The committees will suggest cost-savings and other measures to a new county executive and 11-member council that will take office next year in a new, voter-approved charter government.

But Zanotti said it was not ACLU’s saber-rattling that changed his or McCafferty’s minds. He blamed a lack of organization for the delayed acceptance of full transparency.

“This process is in its infancy, and we’re just getting organized,” Zanotti said.

“Honestly, I don’t think it did” make a difference, he said of the ACLU’s threat of a lawsuit if officials did not open all meetings to the public. “They may have jumped the gun a bit.

McCafferty and Zanotti previously expressed concern that allowing reporters and citizens at all meetings would distract volunteer transition advisers from speaking freely. They also worried about having media around when discussing sensitive issues such as layoffs and consolidation.

But feedback from the transition group’s public engagement committee, which has been meeting in private, ultimately convinced leaders to open the meetings, Zanotti said.

“Their feedback was that we’re better off running the risk of people being reluctant to say something than we are raising conerns that we’re making recommendations behind closed doors,” he said.

A schedule of meetings will be released this afternoon, Zanotti added. The first public meeting is expected to be a public engagement meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 17.

The two officials fielded listener questions on The Sound of Ideas, yesterday, and one point of contention arose over the extent to which the public will be involved in the planning process.  While emphasizing the importance of public input, Zanotti said that some meetings would have to be private due to sheer logistics.

MARTIN ZANOTTI:It’s not practical to expect every single meeting can be open to media questions and those things.  Reports will be made, the information will be made public, but there are going to be times times where people actually need to sit in a room of five or six people and just be able to do some work.

When it was suggested that perhaps an unobtrusive web camera could be set-up to broadcast such proceedings on the internet, Zanotti didn’t totally dismiss the idea, but noted that some of those meetings will involve sensitive issues, such as the elimination of some county jobs and that it would be important to maintain some level of privacy for those affected.  Former county commissioner and state lawmaker Tim McCormack has a different take.

TIM McCORMACK: If you’re conducting the public’s business, then the meeting should be open.

McCormack was on the Judiciary committee that wrote Ohio’s Sunshine law for public meetings, and while acknowledging that there may be some exceptions when it comes to people’s privacy, he says there’s a larger issue of regaining the public’s trust in government, across the board.

TIM McCORMACK: The roughest days may be ahead of us, in terms of federal government action, and the erosion of confidence is ahead of us in even a more significant way.  So, now is the time to draw just the opposite by restoring some confidence.

Dolan...who calls himself a moderate republican...spoke to supporters Tuesday of healing wounds, changing the county’s mission, and eliminating inefficiencies.

After his speech, asked whether voters are ready to hand the county reins to GOP leadership after 15 years of near-total democratic management, Dolan pointed to passage last November of the plan to totally revamp county government. 

MATT DOLAN:
“Issue 6 clearly demonstrates that the voters are ready for people who remember what it’s like to be a public servant - that they can trust in their government - that they know that ....Matt Dolan as county executive is going to go to work every day, working in their best interests.”

Dolan is an attorney and involved in a family real estate business and formerly served as a county and state prosecutor.

If elected he says he promises to bring greater efficiency to county government and pledged that his appointees would provide higher level of service.  He said he would be looking for visionaries, regardless their party affiliation.

MATT DOLAN:
“I will hire well trained, well qualified folks to deliver those services. But they are going to be empowered to be agents of change.”

To ensure an end to a climate of corruption, Dolan would institute mandatory employee ethics training and a strict no-gifts policy. 

Dolan recently moved from Geauga County to chagrin falls in order to qualify to run for office in Cuyahoga County.  He is the well-connected son of Cleveland baseball team owner Larry Dolan and may be one of the most well known candidates in the race.  He hasn’t had trouble raising money in the past either, including a million dollars for a statehouse campaign. 

His only declared competitors at the moment are Democratic Lakewood Mayor Ed Fitzgerald, and independent businessman Ken Lanci. The top Republican and top Democrat in the partisan Sept. 7 nominating contests will face off in the November 2nd general election along with any independents in the race. 

Dan Moulthrop, host of “The Sound of Ideas” (follow the link to listen to an archived recording of the show) on WCPN-FM/90.3, pressed the two—with help from his skeptical listeners—on a wide range of issues surrounding the changeover. The most interesting discussions centered on transparency and openness of the transition process.

When announcing a roster of committee co-chairs last month, McCafferty and Zanotti said news reporters and the general public would not be welcome at all committee meetings.

It was an eyebrow-raising statement, given that the form of government being replaced by the charter drew complaints for its secretive, backroom dealings. These committees, which will convene and operate with the support of the lame-duck county commissioners, will make a host of recommendations to the new county executive, who is not bound to accept them.

On the radio, Zanotti gave several reasons why he believes the committees must be able to conduct business behind closed doors. For starters, he thinks reporters could be a distraction.

“It’s not that the public is not welcome, it’s the practicality of getting work done,” he said. “It’s not practical to expect every single meeting to be open to media questions. There are going to be times that people are going to need to sit in groups of five or six and just get work done.”

Another reason offered: Giving the public proper notice of all meetings is not feasible.

“Technically speaking,” Zanotti said in response to a question from Moulthrop, “we don’t believe the Sunshine Laws [state guidelines for open meetings] apply to us.”

McCafferty has pledged to make minutes—a general rundown of what is discussed at each committee gathering—available on the county’s Web site after every meeting.

Several callers worried about a lack of transparency and a lack of diversity among transition leaders. McCafferty and Zanotti are both white, but they cited black leaders such as State Sen. Nina Turner and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, both of whom will be committee co-chairs.

Boiled down to two words, the gist of McCafferty and Zanotti’s message today: Trust us.