Talks may be on tap as civic leaders regroup in wake of referendum petition filing
CLEVELAND — The Real Deal has learned
that civic and business leaders have made overtures to the Greater Cleveland
Congregations that may result in negotiations that could allow the expansion of
Quicken Loans Arena to go forward.
At this point no one will speak
authoritatively for fear of jeopardizing the possibility that a negotiated
settlement might be found to end the current impasse. No dates have been set,
no negotiators identified, no pre-conditions established. But movement is
afoot.
Although both the County and the City
of Cleveland have approved the deal, serious questions remain whether the
project can go forward. GCC formed a coalition with political and labor
organizations that also oppose the deal on multiple grounds. The coalition
gathered more than 20,600 petition signatures of Cleveland voters calling for a
referendum on the deal.
The city technically refused to accept the
petitions when they were presented on Monday, but when GCC leaders adopted a
resolute stance that was evocative of 1960s southern civil rights
demonstrations, city officials agreed to receive the petitions for
“safekeeping”.
Whether or not the petitions are ever
officially accepted and forwarded to the Board of Elections for certification, and
the issues put before the voters, the coalition that gathered them has made its
strength known.
The coalition had 30 days to submit
about 6,000 valid signatures from registered Cleveland voters to force a
referendum on whether the Quicken Loans deal passed last month by Cleveland
City Council should remain in force. By submitting more than three times the
number required by the city’s Charter, the coalition demonstrated the immense unhappiness
on the part of ordinary Clevelanders over financing the proposed expansion of
the Q and cast doubt on the project’s survival.
Deal proponents want the County to
issue bonds on June 1 to finance the project and to commence work as soon as
the NBA playoffs end for the Cavaliers, which would be June 18 at the latest.
It is unknown exactly who has reached
out to GCC leaders or who might have seats at the table. That may become clear
over the next several days as talks likely have to begin soon if the Cavaliers’
June 19 project start date is to remain intact.
GCC has maintained all along that it is
not opposed to the Q’s expansion but that any deal involving public financing
should be fairly negotiated and include well-defined community benefits. These
benefits would include the establishment of a Community Equity Fund to
underwrite effective jobs programs, create east and west side mental health
centers, and invest in neighborhood development. The size of the fund, and how
it would be administered are yet to be determined. GCC leaders have disavowed
any interest in controlling the fund.
Until now, there has been no
willingness on the part of the Cavaliers, city or county public officials, or
the business and philanthropic community to give even token credence to the GCC
position.
Off the record conversations with civic
leaders suggested that some civic and business leaders saw negotiations as the
prudent path to finding some sort of middle ground that would allow the deal to
go forward and avoid the contentiousness of a referendum campaign. The momentum
for such talk likely accelerated after Monday’s confrontation, including the
flimsiness of the city’s response.
The talks will likely have an
undercurrent of urgency, given the desired construction timetable, and the
likelihood that legal questions regarding the city’s obligation to process the
petitions will remain unresolved and potentially court-bound.
But for Cleveland residents who feel
their neighborhoods have been neglected in favor of downtown and select other
interests, news that a community equity fund may lead to some much neighborhood
transformation has to be cause for at least guarded optimism.
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