Prepared Comments Made to
NORTH CANTON CITY COUNCIL
April 8, 2013
The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a story on
January 28, 2008, titled, “Developer Stuart Lichter closes purchase of Hoover
property.” The first paragraph of the news article states, “California
developer Stuart Lichter swept up the vacant Hoover Co. campus at a bargain
price Monday – paying $5 million for a property that, when occupied, might have
fetched four times that. And the value’s likely to rise. Lichter and his
business partners plan to turn the aging 1.4 million-square-foot property into
a complex of homes, offices, manufacturers, neighborhood shops and restaurants
and - possibly – a small hotel.”
Stuart Lichter
laid out this vision of redevelopment for the Hoover property, and for a
community such as ours that lost its identity and thousands of jobs, it
certainly sounded like all of our prayers had been answered.
In spite of the fact that Mr.
Lichter is a multi-millionaire who surely has the resources to make his vision
for the Hoover property a reality, he has asked our struggling community and the
State of Ohio for millions of dollars in financial assistance.
A recap of that financial
assistance includes $440,000 for gantry cranes to bring Meyers Controlled Power
from Massillon to North Canton and approximately $65,000 made available to outfit
and relocate space for Stark State to the Hoover District.
Totaling
$505,000, this is money that came directly from city coffers to Mr. Lichter and
local partners, Chris Semarjian and Bob DeHoff, collectively known as Maple
Street Commerce.
In 2009, the City
of North Canton secured a $5.0 million grant from the State of Ohio. Three
million dollars of the grant was to be made available to Maple Street Commerce to
allow for the conversion of industrial space to office space for the
Shroer Group. The remaining $2.0 million was to be spent on city streets and
utilities in the surrounding Hoover District.
Two weeks ago I
learned that the Held Administration had applied to the State of Ohio to divert
half of the remaining grant funds away from the planned expenditures for city
streets and utilities and provide an additional $1.0 million to the developer.
In discussions with three city council members that night, I learned that none
of them had any knowledge of the actions of the administration to divert
additional grant funds. At last week’s council meeting it was clear that city
council had been left totally in the dark as to the Held administration’s
efforts to reallocate grant funds.
A records request
has revealed that the Held administration had asked state officials in a letter
dated September 26, 2012, to reallocate the balance of the grant funds. On
October 25, 2012, Mayor Held executed an amendment to the Grant Agreement which
was finalized in a November 6, 2012, letter from the Ohio Development Services
Agency to Development Director Bowles.
Mayor Held, when
City Council authorized Economic Development Director Eric Bowles to fill the
role of Project Manager in Ordinance No. 56-09 on June 22, 2009, I do not
believe that they expected to be left uniformed as to the expenditure of those
funds. Why the secrecy, Mayor?
Was it your idea
of an April Fool’s joke at to reveal at last week’s council meeting, what you
have known for five months, that your Economic Development Director had applied
to State officials and been approved to reallocate grant funds that council
thought were going to be used for city streets and utility work?
And further, to tell this council
that these remaining funds must be spent by the end of September of this year,
a mere five months away?
Mayor Held, your actions to
withhold information regarding your efforts to reallocate distribution of the
grant funds and then revealing at the eleventh hour to council that the funds must
be spent with undue haste are entirely underhanded and raise alarm for me and I
suspect others.
Why have you not kept city council
informed? Why have you let the clock nearly run out to tell city council that
the remaining grant funds must be spent in the next five months?
The actions of the Held
Administration bring about urgency on another issue that I have been raising
privately ever since the Hoover property was purchased by Stuart Lichter.
The urgency is that the North
Canton YMCA needs more room for future growth and further financial assistance
to the developers of the Hoover District should be contingent on cooperation on
this issue.
The YMCA needs the two parking lots
that front on East Maple Street and lie east and west of McKinley Avenue.
Furthermore, if the remaining portions of McKinley Avenue that dead end at East
Maple are vacated, the value of these two parking lots to the YMCA will be
greatly enhanced.
Mayor Held, I am asking that you
provide no further financial assistance to Stuart Lichter and Maple Street
Commerce, including the reallocated $1.0 million in grant funds yet to be spent,
until Stuart Lichter and Maple Street Commerce deeds over both parking lots in
their entirety to the YMCA.
The City of North Canton has
already provided the developers $3,505,000 in financial assistance. This is far
more than the value of the two parking lots. The additional $1.0 million that
you now propose to divert to the developers will raise the level of public
monies given to Stuart Lichter to nearly equal the purchase price Mr. Lichter
paid for the entire 78 acre Hoover property.
Mayor, the recent ceremony in city
council chambers in February when you proclaimed February 19, 2013, as North
Canton YMCA Day in honor of the Y’s 90th anniversary isn’t worth the
paper it is printed on if you don’t take meaningful action to ensure its future
growth.
The North Canton YMCA needs more
than “lip service” to be successful for another ninety years. This added
acreage is very critical to the future success of the North Canton YMCA.
City Council, I ask that you take
action to block any further distribution of grant funds should Mayor Held not
have the wherewithal to do what is best for the North Canton YMCA and the
citizens he has sworn to serve.
Thank you,
Chuck Osborne
City of North Canton
