Guilty or not guilty the public and private leaders, who claim ownership of decision making on any level, that hold this region back with bad decision making are a cancer that continues to grow on the region.

Where is the BOLD leader who will step forward and present a clear vision for a turnaround? Have they moved out of the County too?

You know, the one with the direct benefit to a close personal friend of Tim Hagan. (Who is, in fact, a registered Democrat, thank you Jonathan.)

Which projects are most suspect in your view?

Buy it or shut up, it’s not enough to just own and maintain your home, take care of your kids, pay taxes and oh yeah, take an interest in civic life to the point of weighing in on such a project.

Can we start a thread on the need for civility and better listening skills in Cuyahoga County, or is this perhaps that thread? Good news.

Map the Mess is an opportunity for anyone in the County to become involved in mapping the covert connections among business, government and the press that has led to the sad state of affairs in Cuyahoga County.

We are not concerned with legal standards of guilt or innocence. (Leave that to the prosecutors).

We are instead focused on promoting a civic standard of transparency and engagement that has been lost in Cuyahoga County.

Anyone can join us to Map the Mess. Grab a bucket and a mop and head over to http://mapthemess.net

Submit your name, and gain access to the archives. You can then help us uncover the patterns of covert connections in the county.

Mark touches on an interesting point on how he believes that Hagan believes that if you aren’t running for something or holding an office, you are not involved.

Tell that to the 1.4 million people that have to live with the decisions. More involvement is what’s needed. Hagan’s just going to have to deal and the latest incident is only more evidence that supports more civic contribution and oversight.

I keep thinking of a time when Hagan was a guest on WCPN around… oh… it must have been like 1992 or so. One caller criticized some development deal Hagan was involved in, might have been Gateway, and Hagan got seriously ticked off.

Hagan didn’t dispute the caller’s point, he actually questioned the caller’s right to an opinion, saying something very nearly like, “If you want to have an opinion, you need to GET INVOLVED, not just complain.” (Fair enough, so far, I guess.)

But then Hagan made it clear that to “get involved” meant to run for office. In Tim Hagan’s world, if you’re not in public office, or seeking one, you’re not “involved” and you’re supposed to keep quiet.

If it was one isolated outburst, yeah, whatever. But I think Hagan’s been pretty consistent on not wanting to explain himself to the public. This is just one more example.