CLEVELAND, Ohio — State regulators are considering rules that would slash fees for medical marijuana patients and caregivers and pave the way to license recreational marijuana dispensaries as soon as September.
We’re talking about a new package of rules meant to ready Ohio for recreational marijuana on Today in Ohio.
Listen online here.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.
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More Today in Ohio
Here’s what else we’re asking about today:
For anyone wondering what the legalization of marijuana would do to Ohio’s medical marijuana program, state regulators have one possible solution for keeping medical marijuana patients visiting doctors. What is it?
Despite the Ohio Senate and Gov. Mike DeWine wanting to get marijuana sales rolling, in accordance with voter wishes, House Speaker Jason Stephens stands in the way. So what it the apparent path to marijuana sales in the state?
One more marijuana conversation, kind of. We saw big tobacco buy off the Ohio legislature in a big way to block cities from regulating things like flavored cigarettes, even though that will measurably lead to more addiction and death. Now, we have those same kinds of stores selling THC-laden products, often to children, and the governor wants to stop it. Will the legislators get bought off again, or will they go for the health of children?
Ohio Congressman Mike Turner put a shock into the news last week when he asked the Biden administration to declassify a serious threat from Russia. He took some criticism for it. What is he saying a week later?
The Ohio House got behind Cleveland’s waterfront plans with a $20 million proposed grant for the land bridge connecting downtown to the lakefront. It also had money for a women’s soccer stadium. Is Matt Huffman’s distaste for cities likely to derail those allotments?
A whole lot of money was committed to feeding Ohio students last summer, but a whole lot of it has not been spent. Why not, and what is likely to happen to it?
We are officially one month from the first day of spring. Where do we stand for snowfall historically?
What’s likely to be one of the hottest topics for Cleveland City Council as it considers Mayor Justin Bibb’s budget proposal for 2024
What are some of the more interesting issues on the municipal ballots for the March 19 primary election?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris (00:01.167)
We took the bankers holiday, but we are back. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here to have a conversation with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston, and Leila Tasi about news over the last three days. There’s a good bit of chunky topics to dive into and Lisa, you’re first. For anyone wondering about
what the legalization of marijuana would do to Ohio’s medical marijuana program, something we’ve talked about quite a bit. State regulators have one possible solution for keeping medical marijuana patients visiting their doctors. What is it?
Lisa (00:39.782)
Yeah, this is interesting. The Division of Cannabis Control submitted a package of rules for recreational marijuana to the Ohio Common Sense Initiative. This is a group led by Lieutenant Governor John Husted that looks at state regulations impacts on business. It’s like the second step in a three-step process. So one of the big ones that they are proposing is removing the fee for medical patients and caregivers, which is $50 a year for patients and 25 years.
dollars a year for caregivers to get that medical marijuana card. They want to encourage patients to stay in the program instead of going to recreational sales.
because in other states, they’ve seen declines in medical marijuana patients that have legalized recreational. And, you know, there are fewer hoops to jump through, quite frankly, if you’re just getting recreational. You don’t need a doctor visit, you don’t need the marijuana card, and you’re not restricted to daily doses that are set by your doctor. So that’s kind of an interesting change. There’s also a September 7th deadline proposed to grant provisional adult use licenses.
This depends, of course, on what lawmakers do to the marijuana bill. But build out of these facilities cannot begin until the license is granted. So this could take several months. So September 7th, the doors probably won’t open for recreational marijuana. But they’re also talking about dual use licenses. So they would give a recreational license to an existing medical marijuana purveyor. There would be no application fee. And some are saying that they’re worried.
in their rush to get recreational marijuana available, that it would hurt the market. So people getting in just for recreational would be hurt because they would have several months to catch up to the dual use licensees.
Chris (02:31.527)
I think the medical marijuana part of this is enlightened, especially for a backward state like Ohio. If you take on faith that medical marijuana is truly a medicinal use, and it wasn’t just a cheesy excuse to make marijuana legal in Ohio, then it’s important that people continue to get medical advice about the best strains. I mean, there’s so many factors that go into which marijuana product people use that having the doctor
coach people is great. And, but that fee I think was going to get in the way. The other, the other benefit of medical marijuana, I think, is you don’t pay a tax. So this would be an inducement to keep people talking to a medical professional about the best way to proceed. I was stunned, frankly, to see this. I don’t think of Ohio as enlightened when it comes to marijuana usage. What’d you think?
Lisa (03:26.322)
Yeah, I think it’s pretty forward thinking. And I think there is a real risk of people saying, hey, I don’t need to pay this annual fee. I can just go to the dispensary and get whatever I want at whatever strength I want. And for some medical patients, a bigger strength probably isn’t the answer. It might have some negative impacts. So, you know, hopefully the people that are in the program, hopefully their doctors are encouraging them and saying, look, at least you’re being monitored. Your usage is being monitored and dosed.
Chris (03:54.095)
Yeah, I after Ohio passed this, we had the harump thing about we’re going to change the law, we’re going to change the law. But Mike DeWine and the Ohio Senate came up with some very common sense approaches. And now the regulators are being common sense. And it’s good to see that was a nice story to see roll across the screen on Friday. A enlightened Ohio. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Despite the Ohio Senate and DeWine wanting to get marijuana sales rolling in accordance with the voters wishes, House Speaker Jason Stevens continues to stand in the way. Lela, what is the apparent path to marijuana sales in this state?
Leila (04:30.804)
Well, it’s looking like the changes that officials want to see here will have to come about on account of administrative rules rather than legislation. Republican state rep Jamie Callender is the House’s lead negotiator on marijuana reform. He said Monday that proposed administrative rules are under consideration by the Ohio Department of Commerce and they’ll likely be put into effect by September. Those rules would not only set up a licensing system for recreational marijuana retailers, but they can also address concerns.
that Governor Mike Dwine has and Senate President Matt Huffman have, among others, such as prohibiting sales to minors and banning marijuana-related advertising. The Lieutenant Governor’s office is currently soliciting public feedback through February 27th on this package of proposed marijuana rules. Also includes slashing fees for medical marijuana users and caregivers and setting a September deadline for licensing dispensaries and other recreational marijuana facilities.
though it wouldn’t necessarily mean sales would start right away. And they’re taking this approach because it appears that the lawmakers won’t take this up in legislation before this target date in September when the new rules are supposed to take effect. To do that, they would have to pass something by June. And the calendar says that’s probably not going to happen. And that’s mainly because behind the scenes, Huffman and Stevens are grappling over who will be House Speaker next year, and that means they just can’t get on the same page about marijuana.
And, but still lawmakers can come back later and pass legislation after that September target date. There are still issues that would be ripe for them to weigh in on, you know, how tax revenue from the sale of marijuana is collected and distributed. And also, you know, the governor of course still wants to see that prohibition on the sale of Delta 8 THC gummies and products outside of dispensaries. So there’s still a way for them to get a foot in.
Chris (06:22.103)
Well, and the thing we don’t know is whether they’re going to get bought off like they did with other things. I mean, you don’t know if they’re going to do anything in good faith. On the one hand, though, I love that Jason Stevens is messing with Matt Hoffman. Matt Hoffman has been a terrible Senate president, just kind of a power mad guy. We’re going to be talking about him in a little while about some Cleveland projects he stands in the way of. And he wants to be the speaker of the House. And I love to see Stevens maneuvering to block that.
Leila (06:35.533)
Hehehe
Chris (06:52.799)
But these guys are elected to do the business of the state. And voters approved marijuana sales. DeWine and the Senate have said, OK, they approved it. Let’s get it going. Let’s move to that. And Stevens stands in the way. And you would think that he could figure out some way to mess with Huffman while still doing what the voters wish.
Leila (07:13.1)
Yeah, but doesn’t this seem like the simpler path forward? Can’t we more often avoid involving them in our business?
Chris (07:16.811)
At this point, yeah…
Chris (07:22.327)
Well, the other thing that threw me is calendar said, well, it’s an election year. It’s like, OK, it’s February of an election year and we have an election year for the House every two years. So does that mean you only get 14 months of business done and then everything’s up? It’s an election year. We better stop. Yeah. It’s like, come on, you’re elected to a two year term. Do the business of the state. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Leila (07:36.326)
Everything else is posturing, right?
Chris (07:46.787)
One more marijuana conversation, kind of. We saw big tobacco buy off the Ohio legislature in a big way to block cities from regulating things like flavored cigarettes. Even though that will measurably lead to more addiction and death, now we have those same kinds of stores selling THC-laden products, often to children. And the governor wants to stop it. Will the legislators get bought off again, or will they go for the health of the children, Laura?
laura (08:13.966)
That’s a good question and it remains to be seen because as we know, the legislature overrode Dewine’s veto so that cities cannot ban flavored tobacco on a local level. But as for these Delta 8 products, which are packaged to look like candy, like nerds and on the shelves, that would appeal to kids, there is a bill in the legislature. It hasn’t gone anywhere, I believe, in the House right now. But Dewine’s really pushing for that. And what could be the question?
is whether they’ve got the same kind of lobbying power that the tobacco industry does. Because we’ve talked on this podcast about the hemp products, it’s called marijuana light, basically, because you can get high and kids can buy this. The governor had one of his staffer’s nephews buy this and show it to him. So the question is, how savvy are these THC hemp manufacturers?
Tobacco actually, it’s been tried to be banned multiple times at the federal level. What they keep doing is changing their packaging and product enough so that the law no longer applies. If you’ve wondered, hey, the federal government, I thought banned flavored tobacco and banned flavored vaping. They did, but they banned things with cartridges or whatever. The industry is savvy enough to change their products so the law no longer applies. That’s why these cities.
wanted to do something on their own.
Chris (09:45.631)
But the legislature, even though it was tobacco that bought them all off, they claimed they were doing it for the little shopkeeper because the shopkeeper being unable to sell flavored cigarettes to children and addict more people to nicotine would lose money. This would hurt the small shopkeeper. Well, I mean, that was completely bogus argument, but that’s what they said. The same argument would apply here. So either…
laura (09:49.856)
Mm-hmm.
laura (09:53.579)
Right.
laura (10:10.232)
Mm-hmm.
Chris (10:14.303)
Either they’re going to be hypocrites to what they did with tobacco and ban it here, or they’re going to have to approve it here, which would endanger children. But there’s, there’s no easy path here because of what they did with tobacco.
laura (10:28.142)
I don’t think the legislature really thinks much about being hypocritical because there’s a whole lot of things that you could blame that for. I agree with you because remember the quote was so outlandish. It was right before Christmas and they said, in this holiday season, I can think of no better holiday gift than to allow tobacco to be sold everywhere in Ohio, which is crazy. But I agree. In the convenience store.
Chris (10:31.952)
Ha ha
Chris (10:48.75)
Ha ha
laura (10:53.93)
lobby, I guess, could really get on this. They’ve told Laura Hancock, who’s written extensively about it, that they would lose millions of dollars if these products went to a dispensary to be sold where you have to go make a special effort and they’re going to make sure that you’re 21 and that you have the right to buy these rather than a 15-year-old kid in a basketball uniform buying it at a gas station. So we just haven’t seen that lobbying step up yet publicly.
That doesn’t mean they’re not donating. That doesn’t mean they’re not having conversations.
Chris (11:26.627)
There will be a revenue motive for the state once marijuana starts getting sold the way it’s supposed to because voters approving it to get this fixed because that has extra taxes that go to the state. And this stuff just has the sales tax right. So if they can block this it forces people who want their THC to go and buy it through the method that provides a lot more revenue to the state.
laura (11:52.982)
Yeah, it’s just a weird loophole that this is even legal.
Chris (11:56.487)
All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Ohio Congressman Mike Turner put a shock into the news last week when he asked the Biden administration to declassify what he deemed a serious threat from Russia. He took some criticism for doing what he did. Lisa, what’s he saying a week later?
Lisa (11:57.855)
Thanks for today in Ohio.
Lisa (12:14.526)
Yeah, Mike Turner is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. He’s the Republican from Dayton. And he told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that he’s worried that the Biden administration will not heed his warning about a potential Russian anti-satellite weapon. He said, quote, we’re concerned that we were sleepwalking into an international crisis. But then he said, now it looks like the Biden administration will take action.
So last week, Turner did ask Biden to declassify the threat information so that Congress, the White House and their allies can openly discuss actions to take. He did, as you said, take some heat from some of his Republican colleagues. Some Republican organizations demanded that Turner resign for scaring colleagues into undermining reform on warrantless surveillance. Others say he did it to drum up support for Ukraine.
But as Turner pointed out, the Intelligence Committee voted 23 to 1 to make this information available to their colleagues. And he says it’s extremely important for the United States to stand strong and stand with Ukraine.
Chris (13:17.263)
Like we, since he made that shocking statement, we’ve seen Navalny get die, probably at Putin’s orders in Russia and really put a focus on what a madman Vladimir Putin is. So when Turner stands up to say, I’m worried about this, it has a whole lot more credibility than JD Vance, who basically supports Putin and wants to abandon Ukraine. I kind of salute Turner for trying to make people aware.
of just what a serious threat Russia is with a crazy person running the country.
Lisa (13:51.682)
I would agree. And I think this is, you know, I’m always glad when a Republican stands strong against the more extreme wing of the party, unfortunately is taking heat, but I think he’s going to stand strong. But on the other hand, though, he says he won’t vote to halt the Biden impeachment proceedings. He says even with the former FBI informant admitting to lying about Hunter Biden’s connections with Ukraine, he still has to see how the story unfolds.
Chris (14:17.067)
Yeah, well, I just appreciated it. You would hope that there’s enough going on now with the death of Navalny and with this weapon that the people resisting aid to Ukraine finally step up and drop their isolationist policies that are straight out of the 1930s. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The Ohio House got behind Cleveland’s waterfront plans with a 20 million dollar proposed grant for the land bridge connecting downtown to the lakefront.
It also had some money for a women’s soccer stadium. Lately, as Matt Huffman’s distaste for cities are likely to derail those allotments.
Leila (14:55.676)
You might be able to read that into this. I’m not sure. But yeah, those grants from the state were part of a $2 billion spending bill that the House recently passed. It includes $350 million for one-time projects around the state using money from higher than expected state revenue, state tax revenues. The legislation would also authorize $1.6 billion in state bonds to pay for K-12, college and state construction and renovation projects, as well as county jail improvements.
the bill is in the Senate. And it appears, you know, it appears that this is where it’s going to cool its heels for a while. Huffman said that the Senate is going to shelve the bill until late May or early June when they’ll fold it into the main capital bill that the legislature is preparing. Huffman also suggested that the bill might not pass with all the stuff in it that the House approved. So we’ll see what happens. If Northeast Ohio does get that money, it sounds like the delay wouldn’t hurt project plans too much. The land bridge is still in the really early phase.
planning stages and the folks behind the soccer stadium say they can’t, they can wait out the legislative process. But some of the money is for renovations at CSU and Tri-C and the hope was to get that money out the door in time for the summer construction season. So hopefully slow walking this thing doesn’t disrupt that plan too much.
Chris (16:11.371)
Originally, there was going to be a good bit more. I think the number was 50 million. And if I recall correctly, the Senate killed that. So I would expect he’ll kill this. He is not a fan of urban areas.
Leila (16:18.081)
Mm-hmm.
Leila (16:22.088)
You think it? Okay. Yeah, yeah, we’ll see. I mean, yeah, that would be disappointing. They whittled down that ask for the land bridge quite considerably to try to sneak this one, you know, get this one passed. And yeah, it would be disappointing if it tanks again.
Chris (16:39.319)
Well, the only thing that might get it through is his Republican pals, Dee and Jimmy Haslam, were the ones that got this whole waterfront thing moving. They proposed doing a huge development around the stadium, and the Land Bridge was part of that, and they’re loyal Republican fundraisers, and so maybe Huffman throws them a bone if they do indeed sign a lease to stay at that stadium. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Leila (16:48.609)
Very true.
Leila (17:04.664)
Very good point.
Chris (17:08.855)
A whole lot of money was committed to feeding Ohio students last summer, but a whole lot of that money has not been spent. Laura, why not? And what is likely to happen to it?
laura (17:18.925)
Well, this is $120 pandemic benefit that was set out to help feed Ohio students last summer when they weren’t in school and weren’t getting their free lunches. But it has not been spent by about 131,000 recipients. And if they don’t spend at least a dollar of it soon, that’s gonna go away. And that adds up to about $16 million that would go unused because it would expire in March. So if they…
If they do make a purchase with it, they’d have another nine months to use all these food benefits. This is part of a pandemic program that started in 2020. And what happens is if families already had a snap card for food stamps, basically, the money would just be loaded onto it. So they’ve probably used it. If they didn’t, they got sent one in the mail, and maybe you thought it was like a credit card solicitation or you just didn’t open it or got lost in the mail, you never started using those benefits. So,
If you got that card, you ever wondered what it was, you could start using it. If you didn’t get it, you can actually go figure out how to get it. But I don’t know how you know that you were supposed to get it.
Chris (18:27.611)
Does the lack of use of it mean there might not have been a need for it that this might have been provided without real demand?
laura (18:36.458)
Well, it’s possible, but I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be able to use $120 on food, anyone with kids, because that’s what it’s being sent to, is families with children. My guess is that maybe some of them didn’t speak English or it’s not their first language or it just got sorted as junk mail or it’s coming from the government and seems scary. I don’t know. We can’t know. But good for the people to figure this out. There was a…
guy in New York and see how many New Yorkers hadn’t got it. So he started looking at other places. I mean, that’s a lot of money that’s been allotted and not used.
Chris (19:13.579)
Is there any way to reach out to them individually to say, hey, you have a bunch of money you could use for food so that they don’t let the opportunity go past or is it basically just spreading it in the news media?
laura (19:26.518)
I think they’re spreading it this way, but you’re right. They have everybody’s address so they could send them another letter and say, hey, remember that? We send it to you. If you don’t have it, contact us. However, we have so many stories over the past years about how inefficient these government systems can be when you’re trying to get help. Remember all of the unemployment and when these families with SNAP benefits have to check in with the county every so often and they’re placed on hold and half their phone calls don’t get answered? I mean, it’s no wonder.
that these benefits are going unused. I doubt it’s because there’s no need. I’m betting it’s because of problems with bureaucracy.
Chris (20:03.219)
Yeah, we’ll talk about that story tomorrow. That was another eye opener for the weekend, but we couldn’t fit everything in today. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We are officially one month from the first day of spring. I’m actually hearing the spring birds singing outside today. I don’t get it. Lisa, where do we stand for snowfall historically?
Lisa (20:22.102)
Well, I’ll tell you what, my snow shovel is feeling very neglected and my snowplow guy is making out like a bandit. But the National Weather Service said that 3.2 inches that fell on Friday and Saturday put our total for the season to 19.8 inches, and that’s since October 1st, and measured officially at Hopkins Airport. This is the third lowest snowfall in the last 50 years.
Chris (20:25.775)
Ha ha
Lisa (20:48.182)
For this time of year, the median snowfall is about 44 inches. So we’re just under half of that. Back in 1977, 78, I remember that blizzard very well. We had 84.8 inches at this time of year. That was two times the median amount.
But of course we’re in El Nino, although that might be changing this year. And El Nino means that there are warmer Pacific waters around the equator. That usually means drier and warmer winters for Northeast Ohio and the Great Lakes region. This current winter, this current El Nino winter is on track to be the least amount of snow in any El Nino winter. Back in 2015, 2016, the last El Nino, we got 20.6 inches of snow.
There’s no snow in the forecast this week. Well, there’s a slight chance on Thursday. We might get snow for at least four days in March, after March 11th, but of course, forecasts that far out aren’t accurate. So yeah, it’s not looking like we’re gonna make up any inches.
Chris (21:45.615)
I love El Nino. It just makes for a much more pleasant winter. Although, at least we’re seeing the sun this month. We’ve had a number of days where the sun came out that makes you much more cheerful. But yeah, I mean, we’re a month away from spring. We’re gonna get through this one without much bruising. And Laura, you’ve been able to ski, right? You’ve had plenty of ski time.
laura (22:04.534)
Yeah, because every time it’s cold enough, they blow snow for as long as they can. And I have to say, Friday was my birthday and it snowed. I felt like the universe gave me a gift. I had fresh powder on the weekend. We went out to like a gondola dinner and the snow was falling and I felt like I was like out West or something. So thank you, Mother Nature for my birthday snow. And remember when you made, we assigned a story about like whether Il Nino winters were really, you know, warmer without snow.
Lisa (22:13.771)
Hehehehe
Chris (22:14.342)
Ha ha
Lisa (22:26.038)
Hehehe
laura (22:34.646)
Zach Smith came through and he’s totally right about this winter.
Chris (22:39.915)
And I was surprised to see the 3.2 inches cause I didn’t get that much. Lisa, did you get that much? Huh, I don’t think I had.
Lisa (22:45.753)
Oh, I absolutely did, yeah.
laura (22:49.238)
put it between two and three. We had enough. And then it kept falling on Saturday. And I still have some in my backyard. It’s nice.
Chris (22:57.115)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. What’s likely to be one of the hottest topics for Cleveland City Council as it considers Mayor Justin Bibb’s budget proposal for 2024, Lela?
Leila (23:09.805)
Well, it’s not a super sexy topic of conversation, but it’s one of the most important budgetary considerations for the city. It’s staffing. It’s going to come up in a big way as they begin their budget hearings this week. It starts today with a presentation from the mayor. First of all, there’s police staffing, which we’ve written about. It’s been a hot topic all year. For the police, the strategy is to eliminate the vacant positions from the budget and use that money to pay for the raises he gave police last year.
we’re also talking about staffing throughout city departments. Instead of budgeting for money for each department to fill vacancies, Bibb wants to create what he’s calling a vacancy pool. This is a city-wide pool of money to pay for up to about 125 flexible positions. If a department leader needs to fill a position, they would tap the budget for that vacancy pool. This wouldn’t include police, fire, EMS, or
what’s known as the enterprise funds, the airport utilities, but all other large departments, building and housing is one of the big ones. They’d be relying on this new staffing system.
Chris (24:15.719)
When the city budgets positions, the positions aren’t what’s locked in the budget. It’s the dollar amounts, right? When city council approves a budget, it improves departmental spending, and they have to have the number of positions in there because you can’t add up the total dollars one way or the other. So if suddenly the city needed 10 more housing inspectors and it had underspent in that department’s
They could just hire them, right? You’re not locked into a certain number of positions. You’re locked into the dollars.
Leila (24:49.)
I’m not exactly sure the mechanics of that, but I assume that if they have vacancies within building housing, for example, they have to carve out money to support that, assuming that one day that year they’re going to fill those positions. This I think leaves open the possibility that they don’t.
Chris (25:04.377)
Every.
Chris (25:07.807)
Every fall, they come back with a budget adjustment proposal where they move money around. They have surpluses in some areas, they’re spending too much in others and they adjust it all. I just, when we talk about the police where he’s no longer going to like to budget for the positions that he can’t fill, if suddenly they got a hundred qualified officers that wanted to work for the city and they were still within their public safety budget, I think they could just hire him.
Leila (25:14.2)
true. Right.
Chris (25:37.307)
I remember back when Frank Jackson reorganized the mayor’s office and he changed all the positions around. He didn’t need an ordinance to do that. He just did it within his budget, right?
Leila (25:47.968)
Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. I think one of the benefits of doing this vacancy pool approach is that it streamlines the unfilled position so that you know exactly how many citywide you have available, right? I mean, otherwise they’re kind of scattered throughout. It’s hard to get a grasp on how many. Courtney Astolfi had a great chart in her story that showed how, you know, sort of the budgeted to actual across the city.
And it’s kind of startling to see how many unfilled positions there are in every city department. So, I think this kind of helps them get a grasp on that.
Chris (26:26.507)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Laura, what are some of the more interesting issues on the municipal side of the ballot for the March 19th primary election?
laura (26:36.97)
Well, there are three judge races with people named O’Malley running in it, which struck me. Only one of those is contested. But really, people get interested in who’s asking for money. And there are three school districts that are asking for money. Brooklyn wants a $20 million bond issue, wants to build and renovate buildings. Richmond Heights wants to build a new track and football field for community and school use. It’s also got three tax issues.
for general improvements and operating expenses. I sent it over to Rich Exner, who’s our tax and numbers guru, and I was like, I just wanna make sure I’m reading this right. And he’s like, yes. So that’s expensive. That’s $517 for each $100,000 of home value in Richmond Heights. And then Cuyahoga Heights is also asking for operating expenses and general improvement improvements, 280 for every $100,000. Probably the most interesting aspect of the issues though
in Orange, which pinecrests I still think of as brand new, but a group wants to build a community for active adults, 55 and older, across the street from that on Harvard Road, so just south of Harvard Road. It would be 100 single-family homes, shops, restaurants, and a public park. They get to vote on the rezoning in Orange.
Chris (27:57.083)
So when you turn off of 271 and head east on Harvard Road, there’s a couple of restaurants there. So this would be further down than those restaurants?
laura (28:01.142)
Mm-hmm.
laura (28:07.686)
Yeah, I believe so. There’s a hotel and there’s a big restaurant. They might incorporate that into the design. I haven’t seen it, but it kind of makes sense when we talk about walkable communities. If you’ve already got Pinecrest there, which has restaurants and shops across the street and grocery store has a Whole Foods, then you could have people that live right there and they could go walk every day. When you think of orange, it’s pretty spread out, but this would be a compact development within orange.
Chris (28:32.486)
Is that?
Chris (28:37.351)
I don’t know, is that really how you’d want to spend your senior years living next to a shopping center?
laura (28:42.038)
I want to live next to a pool or a beach, but hey, there’s also a county council. The even districts are on the ballot. I actually asked my husband last night when I was prepping, I was like, do you know what district we’re in? Do you know who our county council person is? No, no.
Chris (28:58.935)
And we’re not getting highly qualified people to run for these. It’s another sign of the failure of this government. We had much higher caliber candidates for county commissioner than we get for county council. We’ve caught a lot of flak because of our endorsement of Pernell Jones for county council. He’s the council president right now. And there have been a lot of things that the council has done under his presidency that have been criticized a lot by us. But you just aren’t getting great.
candidates to run against and the editorial board’s choices are best on what’s the best candidate before us and man people have been hammering away at that saying how can you do that
Lisa (29:29.674)
See.
Lisa (29:34.988)
Yeah.
Lisa (29:38.878)
Yeah, it’s a shame, but you know, if they’d sat in on the endorsement interview like I did, I mean, his challenger was a nice enough guy, but had zero experience, had no idea what was going on in county council at all, and complained that county council wasn’t reaching out to him and telling him what was going on. So he had zero experience. So yeah, and we see a lot of that.
Chris (29:55.139)
Ha ha
I know it’s sad. I know. But we didn’t see a lot of that when we had county commissioners. We generally had pretty high caliber candidates. It’s another argument for going back to the charter government or going back to the original government or some variation. I mean, nobody wants to elect an engineer again. That made no sense. Or for that matter, a coroner. I mean, why were we electing the coroner? But there’s got to be a better mix than what we have.
now. Maybe it’s countywide council people. I don’t know. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for Tuesday. We’ll be back Wednesday. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Leila. Thank you for listening.