March 28, 2010… I have the perfect place for the new Cuyahoga County Council to meet. It shouldn’t cost a penny. County taxpayers already paid for construction. And even to furnish it!

It’s a building the County constructed in Jacobs Field.

It’s not far from the present County Administration building.

The building wasn’t even in the lease. It was a gift.

I was told at the time that there was an unsightly ramp. Such a problem. So we – thank you Michael White and Tim Hagan especially – built a 57,500 square foot administration building “to hide the ramp that would have been visible to the public from Ontario Street,” Gateway boss Tom Chema told me. I guess they didn’t think of some far less costly solution. Shrubbery perhaps?

The truth is that Dick Jacobs wanted an office building for his Cleveland Indians staff. And what Dick Jacobs wanted our County Commissioners and Chema gave him.

So why doesn’t the County ask the Dolan family to vacate one floor of the five-story office building we built for them? (Come to think of it, maybe Matt Dolan, candidate for County Executive, could expedite this process with Larry Dolan, team owner and his dad.)

Back in 1990 I reported on this give-away. Neither The Plain Dealer nor any of the hot shot TV news stations touched it. Is that unusual?

Here are some of the facts:

The building, not called for in original plans or lease, cost us $7 million. That included furnishings. Yes, we even furnished it for Jacobs. It cost $900,000. Telephones, desks, computers, etc. All free.

Jacobs, of course, certainly knew the value of such real estate.

Here’s what I wrote in the Free Times at the time:

“Downtown real estate developer Dick Jacobs, of course, knows the value of that Gateway gift. Indeed, Jacobs, owner of the new Society (now Key) Center a few blocks away, asks tenants to pay $38 a square foot in his building. (His Society Center was property tax free, as was – and is – the stadium and the free building. You see rich people are not expected to pay taxes as the rest of us are made to do.)

“If Gateway did the same, instead of charging no rent, the space given Jacobs in the administration building would be worth $2,185,000 a year. With no increase over the 25-year lease that would be more than $54 million in free rent.”

Since 1990, that would have meant more than $30 million to the County. Didn’t happen.

And there’s a perfect table for the new commissioners to meet around.

At Jacobs’ request the County provided an 18-foot by 5-foot boat shaped table for a conference room. That should fit for the 11-member Council. If not, I’m sure it could be expanded.

The table had an ash veneer, according to the plans. I don’t think some of the special treatment asked by Jacobs will interfere with government business. The table called for inlaid wood shaped to replicate the stitching of a baseball.

There might be one problem. The table also called for a metal etching of the racist symbol of Chief Wahoo to be inlaid at each end.

I checked at the time with some firms that make custom tables. One said that with the inlays the cost would be about $10,000 for the table.

Good enough for our certainly new tax-conscious commissioners, don’t you think?

I asked Chema at the time whether he reported this magnificent gift to the Internal Revenue Service. “Absolutely not,” Chema said.

So there’s plenty of room for the commission at no cost in a building we taxpayers built.

The inattentive Plain Dealer offered today (Sunday) three possible meeting places. The cost estimates for the three range from some $687,000 to $1.2 million. The PD story is here:

http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga-county/index.ssf/2010/03/cuyahoga_county_officials_offer_three_options_for_council_chambers.html

Time to save some public money. Time for a billionaire family to give back to the community. Time, indeed, for us to assert our public will.

C’mon Matt, you can help. Have a talk with dad.