Ed Morrison · The warning signs: Trouble brewing

February 28th, 2010

The citizen’s group has issued an analysis that raises serious questions about the financial consequences of the Med Mart. The report underscores what we’ve been saying in the BFD for some time: The Commissioners committed the citizens of this county to a major project without a business plan.

(Try going to JumpStart or a bank to get start-up financing for a business without a business plan. Your meeting will be short.)

The report highlights the slipshod process the Commissioners designed for making this major decision. (Which raises another interesting idea. Naming rights. Why don’t the citizens of Cuyahoga County simply award naming rights to the three Commissioners. Call it the Hagan Dimora Jones Med Mart. With a big bronze plaque, of course.)

Some excerpts from the report:

  • Except for public relations platitudes and optimistic, informal estimates provided by the Commissioners and their private sector partner, MMPI, the county has not revealed its long-term plan to generate adequate revenue from the Med Mart/ Convention Center project to finance the required $40 million annual debt service and $6 million in operational subsidies.
  • No professional documentation of realistic visitor projections based on industry standards or historic industry data has been provided.
  • Even if the MM/CC facility is relatively successful in attracting shows, meetings and visitors, it is not clear that the Medical Mart facility can generate sufficient revenue from operations and visitor income to cover $40 million or more in annual debt service and operational costs.
  • [T]here is no known plan or professional study explaining how the Med Mart will spark the development of ANY new jobs or business in the local health care sector, apart from undocumented public relations claims.

    • Citizens group raises concerns about medical mart funding, Cuyahoga County finances


    Cleveland Med Mart Analysis 2-25-2010

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    3 Responses to “The warning signs: Trouble brewing”

    1. JS Says:
      February 28th, 2010 at 9:45 am

      Why does this happen, and not just with this singular instance?

      Nobody cares about outputs. Slight-of-hand political maneuvering is all about doing “something,” not the right thing. With government, everybody goes in early and stays to work late simply because it pads the inputs.

      Med Mart is a spreadsheet gimmick to insert into a next act resume for a political actor. That’s why it matters little when or if it breaks ground.

      And the more purposeless, the better accounting of political clout. Bridges to nowhere get built in the public sector *because* they would never be built in the private sector.

      You simply can’t fathom this from a business standpoint, because those rules are not the ones being played by. But rules are being played by, and this project follows those rules meticulously.

    2. TimFerris Says:
      February 28th, 2010 at 10:03 am

      This is precisely why we should have had this discussion and study a long time ago and then PUT IT ON THE BALLOT.

      At this point, what is our chance of cost recovery against Tim Hagan and others? Can we begin to talk about taking our money back when we have these instances of engineered payouts by wannabees?

    3. Ed Morrison Says:
      February 28th, 2010 at 10:37 am

      JS: You’re very right about this project. The internal, corrupted logic of Cuyahoga politics has led to a predictable (costly and sad) result.

      Tim: No chance of cost recovery, but we might consider a big marble carving (instead of a bronze plaque) to memorialize Hagan’s legacy.

      With his buddy Dimora, Hagan managed to strap cement shoes on the County budget as he walked out the door. (Meanwhile, Sam and Albert — the other half of this dynamic — have gotten their revenge.)

      This decade old soap opera (Med Mart, Convention Center, Tower City) is nearly an end, but the County will take decades to recover from the madness.