You have to wonder why the County Commissioners have any staff, never mind a former stripper on the payroll.
Having privatized the construction and management of the proposed Medical Mart and Convention Center, the Plain Dealer reports that it will hand MMPI (Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc.) the task of also dealing with Forest City Enterprises on the proposed site for the center.
Is there anything that Commissioners - Tim “Tax ‘em” Hagan, Jimmy Dimora and Peter Lawson Jones – can do with the staff we pay to operate the county? Apparently not.
MMPI will be paid $103 million to operate the Convention Center, if it is ever built.
Now the County Commissioners have hired them to deal with Sam Miller and the Ratner gang. The Miller-Ratners want $40 million for the land that some refer to as “a cliff.”
The PD story doesn’t say whether MMPI will be paid to do this dealing but I suspect MMPI isn’t so generous as to work free. Also, the PD quotes former state senator and former member of the dismantled Convention Center Authority Pat Sweeney to tell us that the Commissioners made a good choice.
“They are in the business of doing this all the time,” Sweeney told the PD of MMPI.
If you have to go to Pat Sweeney to get certification of MMPI’s qualifications, you might want to check with someone who knows something.
That might be too difficult for our Commissioners, however.
The Greater Cleveland Partnership decided for the County that the Ratner land would be just the thing for the County to build its $1-billion convention center. Cliff or no cliff.
You’ll remember that the County Commissioners do have some skills.
They voted (Hagan and Dimora) 2-1 to increase the sales tax for 20 years (that’s so far) to raise $40 million a year or $800 million over the 20-year period. Actually, they already know that the tax is bringing in $90 million more than expected.
The Commissioners seem adept at two things – raising your taxes and giving business to private interests.
Links:
[1] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/blog/roldo/clevelands-sporting-news
[2] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/content/roldo-bartimole-0
[3] http://li326-157.members.linode.com/content/corporate-shill-eckart-backs-monopoly-casino