The following editorial appeared in the April 2002 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.

 

 

 

Why is the Blade attempting to tarnish the reputation of the Regional Growth Partnership?

As we went to press with our last issue, the Blade launched two attacks on the Regional Growth Partnership. On February 24th, an article appeared in the Blade’s business section titled, "Growth Partnership history is one of controversy." The article was bylined by Blade business writer Homer Brickey.

It was instantly obvious that Brickey had a mission to accomplish. The article was full of unfounded negative statements about the Regional Growth Partnership.

Brickey states early in the article, "From the beginning, the agency has generated its share of controversy and criticism." We were very much surprised by this statement which simply has no relationship to reality. He did not even include one example of some sort of problem or controversy in which the Regional Growth Partnership was involved as it was launched in 1994. The opposite is the case as the RGP has done the work of economic development with a complete lack of controversy prior to the recent Bladeattacks. As we read further into the article, it became obvious that Brickey’s mission, or "assignment," with this article was not one of objective journalism, but rather to tarnish the image and reputation of the Regional Growth Partnership and its president, Donald Jakeway. We have decided to examine this attack by the Blade on the region’s leading economic development agency and its president and also the possible reasons behind this effort by the Blade.

Brickey states in the article, "But some critics say much of the development would have happened even if the agency weren’t here…" Brickey does not give the name of any of these "critics," and he does not provide any analysis to support this statement.

In response to these alleged "critics," we have taken time to examine economic activity in the region both before the RGP and since its creation. We were able to obtain data for the six year period (1994-1999) after the RGP was established and also for a six year period (1984-1989) prior to the existence of the RGP. For the eleven counties in northwest Ohio served by the RGP for the period 1984-1989, payroll dollars for these six years totaled $42.95 billion. Payroll dollars for a similar six year period 1994-1999, after the RGP was established, increased to a total of $66.21 billion.

This analysis shows that payroll dollars increased 54 percent for the six years after the RGP formation as compared to a similar six year period prior to its existence.

Part of this increase in payroll dollars in the eleven county region of northwest Ohio was the result of inflation. After adjusting these figures conservatively to remove inflation, the results showed that economic activity as measured by payroll dollars for the first six years after the RGP was created was 10.2 percent higher than during a similar six year period prior to the existence of the Regional Growth Partnership.

In his article, Homer Brickey cites alleged "critics" who believe that the over $9 billion of investment capital that has been placed in our region since the inception of the Regional Growth Partnership would have happened anyway. The data does not exist to examine each of the companies that have invested capital funds and added jobs in our region and determine whether they would have located here anyway. It is simply a fact that companies do not share the results of their decision process when they select a site in our region. However, until the alleged "critics" of the RGP surface and prove otherwise, business leaders in the area will remain with the belief that an organized economic development effort is critical for the region and we can not simply trust that development will happen on its own.

Brickey also raises an issue that the Regional Growth Partnership was surprised by plant closing announcements at General Mills and Faurecia Exhaust Sytems, Inc. We believe that in order to have any impact on such decisions, the RGP would have to be involved with corporate management much prior to a closure decision being made. The agency’s Retention and Expansion program where RGP personnel call on area businesses can provide some help in selected instances. Much greater resources will need to be employed to expand this effort. However, it will remain a fact of life that such closure decisions will be made at corporate headquarters in cities around the world and local plant management will be among the last to know.

Brickey does not mention that a team of area officials was assembled to try to contact and convince the corporate parents of these two area plants to change their decisions. He also does not mention that area officials undertook an extensive effort to keep these plants open, but that these corporate decisions were complex in nature and were not subject to change by the pleas of community leaders in Toledo, Ohio. Brickey’s failure to disclose this key information is surprising. He raises the issue of these two plant closings in a fashion aimed at tarnishing the image of the Regional Growth Partnership and its president, Donald Jakeway. Brickey offers no insight as to how area officials can change complex business decisions made at corporate headquarters in Beaulieu, France (Faurecia) or Minneapolis, Minnesota (General Mills).

Brickey then changes the subject and states, "Former Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, during his term of office, blasted both the port authority and the growth partnership for what he termed ‘lack of teamwork’ with the city on development projects." He does not provide readers with any details that support this alleged "lack of teamwork" by development officials with the city of Toledo. Brickey also does not tell readers that there has been widespread speculation among community leaders that Finkbeiner wanted James Hartung’s job as president of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority or Donald Jakeway’s position as president of the Regional Growth Partnership when he made these comments. He also does not mention in his article that leaders in the region have cited Finkbeiner for his "lack of teamwork" and for damage done to efforts at regional cooperation. And Brickey does not tell readers in his article that the Blade and its co-publisher, John Block, have used the newspaper’s editorial pages to attack James Hartung and Donald Jakeway and at the same time to promote Finkbeiner. John Block has made it no secret that he wants James Hartung replaced with someone more to his liking. Is he using the editorial pages of the Blade to position Finkbeiner for his selection at the Port Authority or RGP?

The lack of credible substance and supporting facts in Brickey’s article, up to this point, had made it very clear that Brickey was performing a mission or "assignment" aimed at tarnishing the Regional Growth Partnership.

Lacking substance and lacking facts that would be damaging to the RGP, Brickey next chose to obtain comments from an interview with Robert Feldstein. Brickey characterizes Feldstein as a former Port Authority executive. Brickey then states, "Mr. Feldstein, who led a group that successfully lobbied against the port authority levy in 1998… said the growth partnership has been slow in getting results." Brickey then quotes Feldstein: "Of Mr. Jakeway’s performance, Mr. Feldstein remarked, ‘I can’t give him any better than a C, based on his salary of $160,000. He’s an administrator and maybe a leader with a lower-case ‘l’.’"

Homer Brickey does not disclose that it has been approximately 34 years since Feldstein was hired by the Port Authority in a low level administrative position. Feldstein was not an executive at the agency as the Blade has tried to make readers believe. Through our request for public records we have learned that Feldstein was hired at the Port Authority in June, 1968 at a salary of $13,000. His relatively brief employment at the Port Authority over three decades ago in a low level administrative position is a set of facts in sharp contrast to information published in the Blade.

As our readers know, we published a series of editorials titled, "Personal Vendetta Exposed" which chronicled a major effort undertaken by the Toledo Blade and its co-publisher, John Robinson Block aimed at the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and its president, James Hartung. This series can be found on our web site at www.toledobiz.com.

In this series, we addressed the role that the Blade and Robert Feldstein played together. In one of our editorials published in September, 2000, we discussed the Blade’s coverage of the Port Authority levy renewal campaign and Feldstein’s involvement.

In our editorial we stated, "Accounts have surfaced that Blade reporters were directed to run stories that were not truthful and stories that were slanted, biased, and misleading. The Blade repeatedly ran articles about a ‘large organization of citizens’ against the levy led by Robert Feldstein. After the levy was defeated in 1998, voters began to learn that this ‘large group of citizens’ was in fact a ‘one-man show’ run by a retired publicity seeker in close coordination with the Blade. Community leaders raised serious concerns about the credibility and integrity of Feldstein and the Blade’s sham ‘citizens group.’"

For lack of other facts or information, Brickey had resorted to using negative comments from Robert Feldstein in his article attacking the RGP. At this point in his article, Brickey appeared to be desperate in his attempt to put a negative light on the Regional Growth Partnership. We will let our comments from the September, 2000 editorial in regard to the credibility and integrity of Feldstein convey all that is necessary concerning opinions expressed by this individual about the RGP.

There was certainly no doubt that Brickey’s mission or "assignment" was a "hatchet job" aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the RGP. To absolutely no one’s surprise, the Blade followed Homer Brickey’s article with an editorial attacking the RGP and Jakeway. The Blade’s editorial stated, "It is already past time to recognize that we should be concentrating our economic development efforts in the high-tech fields."

The Blade is well aware that the RGP has made it a strategic mission to establish and manage the Regional Technology Alliance (RTA). The Blade is also well aware that the Regional Growth Partnership has been involved in working with city and county leaders and others for funding sources, in attempting to launch a Venture Capital Fund, in hiring a new director of the RTA, etc.

We do believe that our region is "playing catch up" in the economic development area of technology development and commercialization. We watched with great sadness in 1998 and 1999 as our community leaders and economic development officials spent incredible energies and funds over a two plus year period focused on passing the Port Authority renewal levy. Block and the Blade were successful in their vendetta against members of the Port Authority’s board of directors in terms of diverting their efforts away from economic development (see www.toledobiz.com "Personal Vendetta Exposed"). However, while our community leaders were dealing with the vendetta launched by the Blade against the levy renewal which supports economic development in the area, other communities around the state of Ohio and around the country were using their energies and funds to establish and expand technology initiatives. The Blade bears responsibility for diverting and wasting these precious economic development resources. In an editorial in September, 2000 we stated, "The Blade is solely responsible for this waste of precious community resources. The damage continuing to be done to the limited economic development resources in our area is causing long-term harm to our community." Instead of using our limited resources to fight a two year levy renewal battle, we should have been using these energies and funds for economic development and technology commercialization.

The Blade is well aware that, at this point in time, the leadership at the Regional Growth Partnership has made a strategic mission of technology commercialization. So why did the Blade decide recently to undertake an effort to "smear" the Regional Growth Partnership and Jakeway and to publish an editorial that implied that the RGP was not aware of the need for technology commercialization?

We talked to a number of community leaders to obtain their insight. We have learned that Block was involved in organizing the recent trip to Pittsburgh where officials from Toledo were invited to travel. The trip was set up to meet with Pittsburgh economic development officials and view the results of their efforts involving technology development and commercialization. While there was a significant attendance by members of the Regional Growth Partnership board of directors, and while the results have been shared with the RGP’s leadership and staff, Donald Jakeway did not make this trip to Pittsburgh. We have learned that Jakeway was invited on this trip at the last minute and had already made plans and paid for a family vacation. Community leaders have speculated to us that the attacks on Jakeway and the RGP are partially the result of Jakeway not being present on this trip to Pittsburgh organized by Block. The recent attacks, it has been speculated, are Jakeway’s punishment for missing Block’s trip. There is also a strong belief among community leaders that Block is continuing to attempt to get Carty Finkbeiner a job as either the head of the Port Authority or head of the Regional Growth Partnership.

The recent attacks by the Blade against the RGP and Jakeway are not about objective journalism; it appears that these attacks are more about power and control. Damage will result to the Regional Growth Partnership and the community will suffer long-term harm unless area citizens learn the truth.

We continue to believe that a newspaper has a responsibility to the trust of its readers. We also believe that truthful and objective journalism is the foundation of this trust. We are certainly convinced that the attacks launched in both Homer Brickey’s article and the Blade editorial against the Regional Growth Partnership violate this fundamental responsibility.