The following editorial appeared in the October 2000 issue of Toledo Business Journal. Permission to reproduce this editorial can be obtained by contacting the Editorial Department of Toledo Business Journal at (419) 865-0972.

 

 

 

Results of Booz-Allen Port study MISREPRESENTED

 

Consultant in "Strong Disagreement"
with Blade

 

On Thursday, September 14, the Toledo Blade published a story whose headline read: "Port, Airport, Amtrak ripped by consultant." The article which accompanied this headline then discussed a number of areas of the Booz-Allen consulting study involving, in particular, the airport, seaport and Central Union Plaza.

Aware that the study was still in the process of review and revision and had not yet been released as a public document, we contacted the Port Authority on Thursday, September 14th and requested a copy. We were advised that the study was still being reviewed by the Strategic Planning Committee and was not yet a public document for release.

Then, why would the Blade obviously be in possession of a copy? We quickly learned that the Port’s Strategic Planning committee, according to Jim White its chairman authorized the release of the draft copy of the Booz-Allen study which was requested by Joe Mahr at a committee meeting on September 13, 2000. The meeting ended late in the afternoon. At the time, it appears that the study had not been released for public review.

We again contacted the Port Authority and this time advised that the release of this draft document in an open committee meeting constituted a public dissemination of this study and that now it was an open record which should be made available to us for review. A quick examination by the Port’s staff resulted in prompt release of the Draft study.

A review of the study was begun which revealed a great deal of information about the airport, seaport and Central Union terminal. In particular, the study discussed key reasons why passenger traffic at the airport would be difficult to grow. Toledo’s proximity to Detroit Metro Airport with significantly lower fares and more convenient flight schedules has been an extremely difficult challenge to passenger traffic at Toledo Express Airport.

Decisions by shippers to switch significant amounts of cargo to rail and truck have reduced the opportunity for lake and ocean vessels at the Port of Toledo. The study put a great deal of effort into documenting factors outside the control of Port management which have had critical impact on the level of business at Port Authority facilities. The study does include areas of future opportunity many of which should require decisions by the Port board and area leaders in order to implement.

After thoroughly reviewing the study, we were unable to find any possible way to characterize that the Port management was "ripped by consultant" as stated in the Blade headline. The study is two hundred plus pages long and took us several days to properly review.

What had the Blade reporter, Joe Mahr seen in the Draft study that we were unable to find that could characterize the study as "ripping" the Port Authority management? Mahr had obtained the report late in the afternoon on Wednesday the 13th only several hours before his deadline for the article which appeared in the Thursday morning Blade on the 14th. What was Mahr able to find in a very short and rushed time frame that our staff could not find in several days of thorough review? Did Mahr have a background with education or experience that provided him unique insight in the area of strategic business planning? After investigating, we learned that Joe Mahr is approximately 25 years old and has a journalism background and is a relatively new Blade employee.

We decided to contact Booz-Allen directly to get a better understanding. Booz-Allen is a high level strategic planning firm that has conducted thousands of planning studies for organizations around the world. While Joe Mahr of the Blade had access to the Draft report for several hours obviously rushing to make a deadline, Booz-Allen has spent many months and thousands of man hours intimately involved in the preparation of this Draft report. The consultants at Booz-Allen tend to be seasoned veterans with far more business knowledge and work experience than the young Blade reporter, Joe Mahr. We contacted Tina Mazington, one of the senior Booz-Allen consultants who had helped to lead this study.

We shared the Blade article which appeared on Thursday, September 14th with Mazington and asked for her comments.

"I would say we disagree strongly with the word choice - 'ripped,'" stated Mazington in a stern manner. "What our study really tried to do was to put in perspective and to try to understand how the Port is positioned strategically. For example, to try and understand some of the difficulties the seaport is facing given the changes in transportation and economics. So with that in mind, our conclusion was, yeah, in the last 20 years Toledo has lost a lot of volume. From an historic perspective in the last several years Toledo volume has held rather steady and they have been losing business in some other areas for reasons that are beyond their control."

Mazington continued, "I disagree with the Blade’s use of the word "ripped" - the headline struck me as simply one-sided."

The Blade’s headline attempted to represent that Booz-Allen made recommendations in its study which "ripped" the management of the Port Authority. Mazington explained further, "The opportunities identified in Section seven of the study are not our recommendations. We approached this project as something the Port Authority would need to "own." We conducted workshops during the study to help community leaders involved to reach a consensus concerning strategic options. So this study is not a set of recommendations from Booz-Allen, but rather strategic options developed through a consensus process involving community leaders."

After talking in detail to Mazington of Booz-Allen and then again reviewing the Draft study, it became clear that the Blade headline which appeared on Thursday, September 14th was a misrepresentation of the results of the Booz-Allen study. Did the Blade reporter Joe Mahr intentionally attempt to misrepresent the results of the Booz-Allen study? Was Mahr’s story and headline edited by someone in Blade management who did not have time to review the Draft report because of the tight deadline on September 13th? Did this extremely tight deadline cause Blade editors to erroneously state that management of the Port Authority had been "ripped by consultant" and has the newspaper followed with publication of the correct information? Or did Blade management edit Mahr’s headline and story to misrepresent the results of this consulting study in order to mislead the public and harm the Port and its management team?

In the September issue of the Toledo Business Journal, an editorial appeared which documented the "Personal Vendetta" which John Robinson Block, co-publisher of the Toledo Blade, launched against the Port Authority as a result of rejection by the board when he was a member. It further raises issues regarding a number of individuals conspiring with the Blade including current Port board member Jerry Chabler and also Robert Feldstein. A copy of this editorial is available on the Toledo Business Journal website at www.toledobiz.com.

The September 14th article in the Toledo Blade misrepresenting the Booz-Allen study results appears to be another action involving this "Personal Vendetta."

We believe strongly that when stories appearing in a daily newspaper are motivated by revenge and power, trust by the community and truth are the victims.