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Thursday, June 04, 2009
City Council Privatized Fountain Square - Next Cincinnati WaterWorks
Posted by Media Release
City Council Privatized Fountain Square and the Fountain Square garage revenue by turning over control but not ownership to a group called 3CDC. 3CDC promised it did not want control of the permitting process for Fountain Square as they lobbied City Council for control of the square and garage revenue. Members of Council stressed at the time the legislative action was not privatization. Councilmember Berding and a majority of council turned over the permitting process the following year to 3CDC. It is clear that City Leadership lied to the public. This means if a citizen wants to have a function on the people’s square all contact is now with a private group called 3CDC. 3CDC does not have to respond to Public Information Requests. “Does Councilman Berding think Fountain Square was not privatized?” Smitherman says.
The transfer of Cincinnati Waterworks to a private board is privatization. City workers understand that City Council and City Leadership are trying to privatize Cincinnati Waterworks. After the transfer of Waterworks occurs like 3CDC the Waterworks board will act in a nontransparent way and will not respond to basic public information requests from citizens because the entity is now private. Presently the Cincinnati Waterworks must respond to a citizen’s basic public information request(s). The Cincinnati NAACP does not trust City Leadership based on a long history of misrepresentations and broken promises. Smitherman says, ” If it walks and talks like a duck it is a duck.” All Cincinnati residents are requested to sign the Waterworks petition to protect “our” water for the next 100 years. The office address is 4439 Reading Road. The telephone number to the Cincinnati NAACP is 513-281-1900. The Cincinnati NAACP does not want to see the privatization of Cincinnati water.
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04 Jun 2009 at 02:01 pm | #
“If it walks and talks like a duck it is a duck.”
Your waterworks deal fabrications aside, Smitherman, you even got this wrong. Ducks don’t talk and the expression is “quacks like a duck,” you numbskull.
04 Jun 2009 at 03:33 pm | #
Is that all you’ve got on the substance of this post?
04 Jun 2009 at 04:26 pm | #
Yes.
Except for the word “yes” and this sentence.
04 Jun 2009 at 04:59 pm | #
The 3CDC deal with Fountain Square is not privatization. He is over-simplifying.
Second, under the Ohio Sunshine Laws, Water District are considered “Special Purpose Districts” and are subject to open records requests. The entire premise of this release - that district “will not respond to basic public information requests from citizens because the entity is now private” - is patently false. Because the district, as a public utility (as currently proposed) or a private utility (as exists elsewhere in the state), serves the public good, it is subject to requests for public information. Smitherman loses again.
04 Jun 2009 at 05:32 pm | #
Ask 3CDC what the projected garage revenue is over the 40 year term of the lease and get back to us with their answer.
04 Jun 2009 at 05:53 pm | #
An email has been sent and I will post whatever, if any, response I get.
But what about the second part of my comment??
04 Jun 2009 at 08:01 pm | #
Neville
If the first part of your statement is true then 3CDC is subject to public information requests as it too purports to serve the public good. Keep us posted but we have been through this before and that makes you a liar. Prove me wrong.
04 Jun 2009 at 08:35 pm | #
We’ve also been through everyone pointing fingers and calling each other liars. Fucking worthless.
I’m getting tired of this same old rhetoric, how would it be any different than it is now?? Is it not an everyday occurrence that the city fails to act in a transparent way or fails to respond to public inquiries? I can’t imagine a water board being any less account than city council already is!
04 Jun 2009 at 10:01 pm | #
Jason: as there’s nothing substantive in the post itself how do you quarrel with assumed lack of substance in the comments thereon?
In what form or format do these “Media Releases” come to your attention? Are these emails from Smitherman or NAACP Cincinnati Media Releases?
If the former I think you should post in toto as you often do your own and emails received from “public” figures.
If the latter then ditto; if in fact the post is reproduced in toto then Smitherman soon will be writing in Pidgin English. http://www.icanhassmitherman.com
04 Jun 2009 at 11:18 pm | #
Look at Drake Hospital. First the management was criticized publicly then the County Commission manipulated the Chris Finney Board of review. Next the Christian Phil Heimlich manuvered a deal with Health Alliance and magically the asset vanished with much hocus pocus and cover from the main stream media.
Look at 3CDC. The Fountain Square Garage leaked from the Fountain which had been repaired five years earlier so the corporate whores decided something must be done and hired a lizard from Pittsburg to be front man on the snatch and grab of any future revenue for their use and benefit. At the time the garage was producing 1.2 Million annually. The slick bastards then conferred with their politicians at City Hall and with more hocus pocus and cover by Buchanan (3CDC Board member) the city agreed to grant 4 Million to 3CDC for the big fix. The arrangement described was that 3CDC would buy the lease for 40 years for 7.5 Million. This meant that 3.5 Million was generated by the city in exchange for the 1.2 Million annual revenue lost from the garage and the city agreed to pay an additional $500,000 annually for Square maintenance. The citizens of Cincinnati lost an estimated 100+ Million in future revenue for a song and some campaign contributions and the spineless weasels that represent us get reelected because the media shuts out anyone with an original thought. Dialing for dollars should be a new reality TV show.
The Water Board is an interim step to privatization and once the City no longer has control it will sorta be like…Sorta.
05 Jun 2009 at 07:40 am | #
Is 3CDC a “Special Purpose District”?
05 Jun 2009 at 09:46 am | #
Neither the state legislature not the city legislature are smart enough or flexible enough to outwit schemes that are initiated by the private sector. That is an inherent quality of our so-called democratic system. This is true as far back as the management of the city-owner railroad. City council just wants to rule and feed their egos and they are not competent nor comfortable in dealing with matters that require a business sense. If they were, they would be running businesses or I should limit that to businesses that aren’t serving government or receiving support from government.
You all ought to go to a good business school and learn that forms of ownership are varied and that one does not have to have one’s name on the title to have the rewards of ownership. There may be similarities between the water works and fountain square, but the skill is in recognizing the differences. It is sort of like the sport of getting into your girlfriend’s pants; the goal is the same but the paths getting there are varied and often depend on ingenuity. (Caveat: Your girlfriend may not require a high skill)
05 Jun 2009 at 01:02 pm | #
3CDC is a Community Development Corporation - a private business to whom the administration functions of Fountain Square have been delegated. I never said 3CDC was a “special purpose district.” I was referring to the proposed Water District, which is what this article was about.
06 Jun 2009 at 05:53 pm | #
Haap and Jeffres,
You guys are either liars or stupid. 3CDC leased the garage. The garage is seperate from the plaza (Fountain Square). The Square has not been privatized. It is a public space regulated by the U.S. and State constitution. Period. End of story. Get over it.
06 Jun 2009 at 07:25 pm | #
3CDC controls the permit process and the scheduling for Fountain Square (the plaza). 3CDC also controls the garage. 3CDC is a private entity and when they took control of our public space, it was “privatized”.
06 Jun 2009 at 08:39 pm | #
Anonymous #14
You are absolutely correct the public still owns the Square and the Garage. City Council only gave away the revenue stream for 40 years. We get to continue to pay for maintenance annually. So we take the loss and they get the profit. Ah, you got to love those that are representing us. What benefit do we get for that? Ask 3CDC or City Council. By pointing that out to people the Beacon staff get nothing but comments like yours.
07 Jun 2009 at 03:07 am | #
Sorry Anon 16, but you’re lying. 3CDC pays for all of the garage maintenance and operating costs.
“The City is released of financial burden related to deferred maintenance of the Garage and Plaza”
http://city-egov.cincinnati-oh.gov/Webtop/ws/council/public/child/Blob/13152.pdf;jsessionid=6EB15FD8DFB768AF439EA9A92030EE38?rpp=-10&m=2&w=doc_no=‘200510108’
How much profit is left over when you subtract the operating and maintenance costs from the garage revenue?
07 Jun 2009 at 11:29 am | #
Another Anon,
I may be mistaken but the spirit of the agreement appears to grant the revenue from the garage and surface improvements including the restaurant to 3CDC while the people get left with the expense of FS maintenance including the elevators leading to the Westin Hotel. This is a very common practice taught in business schools called cost shifting. Business geniuses aka Bean Counters, like yourself, learn to increase profit by having others pick up expenses. WalMart does this with health care and shifts the cost onto others. The same could be said of TIF districts only in reverse.
How much profit is left over when you subtract the operating and maintenance costs from the garage revenue?
Go look in your file cabinet for this answer for that information is not available to the people, it is private and hidden behind the corporate veil.
The stooges at City Hall allowed the development corporation to cherry pick revenue and leave what they didn’t want. Great representation, glad they are looking out for us.
07 Jun 2009 at 02:36 pm | #
NICE TO SEE THAT CENSORSHIP IS ALIVE AND WELL ON THE BEACON!!!!
07 Jun 2009 at 02:50 pm | #
We have some simple rules. Just click on them at the top and follow them.
07 Jun 2009 at 07:51 pm | #
Which elevators lead to the Westin Hotel? They must be pretty neat elevators, since the Westin is located across the street from Fountain Square. As you can plainly see in the City Document, all maintenance and operating costs are now born by 3CDC and not the City, so you were not being truthful in your tirade, were you?
07 Jun 2009 at 08:20 pm | #
What’s even more neat is how underground parking garages go, well, underground—and as such the FSQ garage goes under 5th Street. This means that, in the experience of normal people (as opposed to politicians and high paid corporate types) the elevators to the Westin—which connect to the garage and have signs leading to it—exist in accordance with the comment you blast.
07 Jun 2009 at 09:13 pm | #
The Fountain Square elevators most certainly DO NOT go to the Westin Hotel.
07 Jun 2009 at 09:21 pm | #
Oh… I forgot. But they ALMOST do!
07 Jun 2009 at 09:47 pm | #
Anon #18 is talking about the elevators that lead to a flight of stairs in the Westin lobby.
07 Jun 2009 at 10:51 pm | #
Just to be absolutely correct, that stairwell does not lead to the Westin’s lobby. It leads to the common foyer of the Westin Hotel/Star Bank Building. The Westin’s lobby is on the 2nd floor of it’s building (where the Front Desk is located), and is all the way over on the Vine Street side of the building. Incidentally, that staircase has been there since the whole complex was built in the mid 1970’s. The Westin has it’s own garage located directly under it’s own building.
07 Jun 2009 at 11:44 pm | #
Sempe,
There are two sets of elevators in the FSG and 3CDC leases one as part of the agreement. The other set is maintained by the citizens of Cincinnati thanks to our representatives. this elevator doesn’t do anything for the public as it only goes to a dedicated garage. This is cost shifting onto the taxpayer while revenue vanishes in 3CDC corporate mist.
08 Jun 2009 at 08:26 am | #
Yea, that may be true, but seeing as how every one of your rants speaks to city hall’s incompetence,
what makes you think they would manage FS as profitably as 3CDC? I imagine if city hall hall was
calling the shots down there we’d be spending more, not less.
08 Jun 2009 at 09:44 am | #
Well kids, now you can see why Churchill and Hitler recognized how stupid the public is in a democracy. Just give them enough information scraps and they will fight and distract everyone from the main abuses. Picking on the least worrisome item, the elevators, while ignoring the flight of the big bucks out the back door.
Why not just take the total cost of the investment and cap rate it and then compare the results to the revenue and value that the city is receiving in current dollars. Then ask those in charge to justify their actions. Then hold them accountable in any way that will deter future similar acts against the interests of the public according to law or otherwise.
I think that if someone would get credible facts together and present them in a credible and understandable manner, we could have enough with these two issues alone to rid council of all those that acquiesced or partook of the decision. If these people are reelected after making the public aware of these misdeeds, we obviously need another form of government.
08 Jun 2009 at 10:59 am | #
UC Student,
Point well taken about the profit. The profit from a public space that goes to someone else is precisely my objection. Incompetence is not the problem, payola and political corruption is the problem. Campaign contributions funneled to politicians from the directors of 3CDC are huge and that is what keeps Cincinnati locked in this downward spiral. We can’t fix the streets or fund the retirement plan but we can piss away millions of public funds for stadiums, or convention center, or art for the purple bridge, or freedom center, or fountain square. The choo choo train is just the latest in a parade of big fixes that increase our debt burden while the financial benefit goes to the rulers. Just a coincinence that 3CDC et. al. owns the majority of property on the streetcar line and Bortz appears on city council and on the directors list of 3CDC. Or the contributions to current council members by this same board of directors.
dieterschmied,
The elevator is just a thorn and a good example of the public screwing at the hands of the corporate masters.
That suggestion about the cap rate is a good one and should be undertaken. Let me know how it goes when you finish. Also look at the pile of subsidiary corporations that were created to make that process more difficult. Shell game for anyone?
09 Jun 2009 at 05:54 pm | #
The people that work for city hall don’t even come down to the garage. They rarely make appearances on the square. They wouldn’t know the first thing about running a parking garage or how to operate anything in the garage.
09 Jun 2009 at 06:41 pm | #
Anon 1973/3CDC Mike, what are you talking about? The city ran the garage for decades and I never heard as many complaints as I have ever since 3CDC took over. It was not only the cheapest garage downtown, but also quite profitable. The most profitable city owned garage in fact.
The garage needed better lighting and to be cleaned, but we didn’t need to give away 40 years of garage revenue for $3.5 million. The notion that governments can’t do anything right is rubbish. Water Works provides service. The problem is corporate owned politicians give away our tax dollars to their campaign contributors.
3CDC opened the garage behind schedule and they failed to make it safe for handicapped citizens. 3CDC’s shills on council never set up an oversight committee so we along with Channel 5 had to act as one or it would still be a danger to the public.