If the next meeting were held on or before Sep. 6, the letter said, council would have an opportunity to vote to have the Q Deal referendum on the November ballot (provided, of course, that the petition signatures had been certified by the Board of Elections). This would eliminate the need for a costly special election in 2018.
“By doing so,” read the letter, “the Democratic process is respected, and the citizens’ right to vote is upheld. In addition, it will save the city of Cleveland over $700,000 for the cost of a special election, which would only anger the citizens even more than they are already over this matter.”
But the issues addressed in the letter did not come up at the council meeting. Council passed a series of other pieces of legislation — including a big spending package targeted at neighborhood development — but if Mike Polensek and Jeff Johnson hadn’t made comments during the meeting’s “miscellaneous” portion, the Q Deal referendum would’ve gone ignored.
“I asked them if they were Democrats,” Polensek told Scene in a phone call after the meeting. “Do you believe in democratic principles? Because I’m looking at this body and I don’t recognize it anymore. What’s the point of City Council if you’re just going to do what the rich and powerful want done in this city?”
Polensek objected to what he viewed as deliberate stalling tactics by city leadership, and said that council meeting dates have been changed in the past.
“Who are they kidding?” Polensek said. “They might be fooling the newbies, but I was Council President. We’ve changed dates before, if there was a death in the family or another emergency. As long as everyone gets advance notice, you can set the date whenever you want with the concurrence of council.”
Kelley, who did not respond to the councilman’s comments at the time, had reportedly opened the meeting with remarks about Donald Trump and leadership. He’d issued a statement earlier in the week denouncing white supremacy in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville. Polensek said Kelley and council should use this opportunity to distance themselves from Donald Trump.
“Show real leadership,” Polensek said, growing agitated on the phone. “Send a message that we stand with the people. How many ridiculous arguments are you going to make? How many roadblocks are going to throw in front of the citizens? It’s embarrassing.”
Kevin Kelley, when reached by Scene, said that even though Mike Polensek might no longer recognize the body, he recognized a council that “appropriated millions of dollars to invest in neighborhoods that have been largely abandoned by the private sector in an effort to leverage additional private sector investment; a Council that appropriated over $2 million to the Cleveland/Cuyahoga Office of Homeless Services; and a Council that passed legislation to further our efforts to attack the opiate crisis.”
Regarding the Q Deal, Kelley said there was nothing to comment on until the submitted petitions have been certified, “other than that we will follow the directive of the court and the provisions of the Charter.”
Polensek held that the directive of the Ohio Supreme Court was already clear — the citizens have a right to vote, and council should facilitate that vote in the most efficient, fiscally responsible way. But he said he’s expecting leadership to ignore the issue.
“They’re going to put [the Q Deal] on the ballot in the dead of friggin’ winter,” he said. “They’re hoping the snow is three feet deep and you’ll have to ride a friggin’ dog sled to get to the polls. This is a wonderful bunch.”
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2017.
Kevin Kelley may believe that he will be the prohibitive mayoral front-runner when Frank Jackson rides away on a dirt bike and into retirement, but he better do some heavy analysis of George Forbes….as George Voinovich was preparing to pave a path southbound to take his talents to the governor’s office.
second verse…same as the first
This issue is the absurdity of absurdities. Let me get this straight: the
purpose of the Sin Tax is to gouge those who purchase alcohol and cigarettes
not because anyone is trying to discourage consumption but rather so the
County can use that money to pay for sports stadiums that do not produce
anything but a fleeting moment witnessing the passing of a football, the
dribbling of a basketball and the throwing of a baseball so that such a minute
tidbit of diversion can be enjoyed by all. The stupidity of this proposition is
enough to make your head spin even though the spin doctors advocating
passage of this nonsense are already doing a pretty good job of hypnotizing
the voters to actually consider supporting it. At least the Robber Barons
of the previous centuries provided something tangible such as oil, steel,
railroads etcetera. These team owners do not even provide one tangible thing
that could ever be considered with the term value added. Almost everyone
discusses this enterprise as though it is the same thing as industry {which
it is not}. The price of admission is essentially a voluntary tax paid by those
who can afford it to pay those who dont need it. If this isnt a transfer of
wealth I dont know what is.
The real outrage here is the fact that taxes on alcohol and cigarettes will
not be used to aid in the reduction of addiction {hence the reference to sin}
but rather to stuff the pockets of all three teams who could easily afford to
pay for the repairs themselves. The vote was rammed through the last time
{under somewhat suspicious circumstances} and hear we go again. But this
time…not so fast!!! We the voters of Cuyahoga County are going to fight the
proponents on this one and we don’t care if the teams up and go somewhere
else {please see my views on entertainment below} because quite frankly there
are simply more important things than sports and the unearned money that
comes with it. Those in public office who are too stupid and lazy to find other
ways to grow a major American city need to resign and leave their self-seeking
political ambitions on the scrapheap of history. Dont ever let it be said that
this was time when the tide ran out on Cuyahoga County but rather was the
time when the voters rose up to welcome the rising tide of change and rebuked
this pathetic paradigm our previous elected leaders embraced.
Let the battle be joined.
And now to the real underlying issue at hand:
One of the most disturbing facts about our capitalist nation is the
misappropriation of funds directed to the salaries of entertainers.
Everyone should agree that the value an athlete, movie star, talk-show host,
team-owner, etcetera brings to the average citizen is very small. Granted,
they do offer a minuscule of diversion from our daily trials and
tribulations as did the jesters in the king’s court during the middle ages.
But to allow these entertainers to horde such great amounts of wealth at the
expense of more benevolent societal programs is unacceptable.
They do not provide a product or a service so why are they rewarded as such?
Our society is also subjected to the “profound wisdom” of these people
because it equates wealth with influence. Perhaps a solution to this
problem and a alternative to defeated school levies, crumbling
infrastructures, as well as all the programs established to help feed,
clothe and shelter those who cannot help themselves would be to tax this
undeserved wealth. Entertainers could keep 1% of the gross earnings reaped
from their endeavor and 99% could be deposited into the public coffers.
The old ideas of the redistribution of wealth have failed, and it is time to
adapt to modern-day preferences. People put their money into entertainment
above everything else; isn’t it time to tap that wealth? Does anyone think
this will reduce the quality of entertainment? It seems to me that when
entertainers received less income, the quality was much higher.
The Men Behind The Curtain will most assuredly be willing to come up with the funds for a special election in the dead of winter…After all, the cost represents less than one percent of the $80 million they wish to siphon off the local tax base (in addition, of course, to sin tax receipts) for Mr. Gilbert’s Personal Xanadu…an amount that can easily be recovered through the inevitable cost overruns for the project…
And they NEED a special election…The way they plan to get Frank Jackson re-elected is to pump up voter turnout in the African-American community for the November election…These are precisely the same folks who are currently most likely to oppose the Q deal…Placing the issue on the November ballot thus presents them with a problem: an open election might not yield the results they want…A special election in February or March would make it MUCH easier to suppress turnout and manipulate the process…
(I must admit, though…to read of Council members’ sudden interest in the cost to taxpayers, given their utter capitulation to the oligarchs, seems as quaint as it is unintentionally ironic…to me, anyway)…