Jon Husted

CLEVELAND, Ohio - For years, U.S. Sen. Jon Husted was the face of data centers in Ohio. Now, he has introduced legislation that would require data centers to cover the cost of the power infrastructure they need.

We’re talking about too little too late as he faces former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in a race for the Senate.

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.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

Here’s what we’re asking about today:

Jon Husted, the face of data centers in Ohio because of how hard he worked to bring them here and give them huge amounts of our tax dollars in the process, suddenly is holding himself out as a data center regulator? Is it coincidence that he’s up for election in November against a candidate who has zeroed in on Husted’s data center record? What is Husted’s proposal, and why did he wait until now to put it forward, rather than before he helped bring 200 data centers here?

Black children make up a hugely disproportionate percentage of missing children in Ohio. What is the state doing about that?

Does no ever mean no anymore? What are some school districts who were just denied tax increases doing to wring money out of the voters again?

Two districts, on the other hand, found ways to cut their spending when voters rejected taxes. Who are they, and how did they cut?

The men’s world cup is over, with a thrilling victory for Spain in extra time Sunday. Is it possible that Cleveland could soon see some soccer just as thrilling?

Contractors have been working away on the Cuyahoga County jail site preparation. Why wasn’t the county paying them, and is that changing?

Let’s talk about the Cleveland City Hall red tape a women-owned boutique encountered after an anonymous complaint closed the place down?

How is one Northeast Ohio man responding to news that Taco Bell is the cause of cyclosporiasis illness that has ravaged parts of Michigan and Ohio?

Why did a federal judge throw out an Ohio case seeking to stop ICE from making warrantless arrests?

More Today in Ohio

The grassroots Ohio steamroller taking on data centers while lawmakers refuse to: Today in Ohio

Ohio’s data center rebellion should send a frightening message to Republican lawmakers

‘Out of sight, out of mind’ was always a fantasy: Ohio’s fracking waste crisis is here

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chris (00:01.016)

John Houston has blinked, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough in his election race against Sherrod Brown over data centers. First up on this episode of Today in Ohio, the news discussion podcast from Cleveland.com and the Plane Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Laura Johnston, Lisa Garvin, and Layla Tossi. Laura, John Houston is the face of data centers in Ohio because of how hard he worked to bring them here.

And give them huge amounts of our tax dollars in the process. Now he’s suddenly holding himself out as a data center regulator? Is it coincidence that he’s up for reelection? What’s the deal here?

Laura (00:41.86)

Yeah, this is not coincidence at all. This is Sherid or well, yeah, Sherrod Brown, who’s running against him, has been hammering him, even using words from our own podcast, pointing out all of the support he’s given data centers. And it wasn’t very long ago. So now Hewsted has to do something about it. And I wrote about this in our the wake up newsletter this morning, said re election. And Reader emailed me and pointed it out that this is his election. He has been appointed and

chris (01:07.212)

Yeah. Right.

Laura (01:08.898)

And he’s never been elected by the people to the Senate. So this is they get to decide. And

chris (01:13.304)

We have to be very careful about using reelection. People come out of the woodwork to say, No, no, no, no.

Laura (01:18.628)

Well well, it’s a good point, right? He has never been popularly elected to the position that he’s holding. And so he’s gotta prove to people that he should represent them. And this ratepayer protection act would direct state re utility regulators across the country to consider standards that load large load customers like data centers pay the full cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade of electricity needed to serve them. And they’ve also got to provide utilities with financial assurances.

that if they make the upgrades to serve them but they back out, that everybody else isn’t on the hook for the costs. So yes, it’s it’s not a huge deal, but it is something.

chris (01:58.188)

Well, let’s buckle into the Wayback Machine here because John Houston and Mike DeWine could not do enough to get data centers into Ohio. And they never cared about what it would do to the grid and to our bills. Mike DeWine and John Housted have been friends with First Energy and the electric utilities since the beginning of time. Data centers were a great deal for the utilities.

Laura (02:00.898)

Yeah. I got a good quote for you if you want it.

chris (02:27.682)

Big power guzzling new customers in a state that has a stagnant population and it raises the prices for everybody. What a wonderful thing. And they gave them billions of dollars to come here so that we could get just jammed with electric bills. John Houston put out so many press releases. Every time they’d get another one, we’re we’re leaders in tech. We’re leaders in tech. Well, now it’s come back to haunt him. If he actually cared about us, he would have insisted on this.

All the way back at the beginning. He’s only doing it now because he could lose this election. A Republican in Ohio could lose the election because people are fed up with what he did to us with data centers. This is way too little, way too late, and it’s sheer hypocrisy for him to be standing up now saying, I represent the little guy. I think that we got to get their electric bills down. My electric bill is high because of John Houston.

Laura (03:25.742)

Right, because for years he was saying this was economic development. This was gonna save our state. So in twenty twenty four, and I’m sure this happened multiple times, but this is the one instance I totally nailed down yesterday. He stood with Google executives and a number of Congress members from Ohio to champion this two point three billion dollar investment in data centers in the middle of the state. And he said data centers are essential to our digital lives and Google’s additional multi billion dollar investment.

Lisa (03:42.426)

Championed a $2.3 billion investment in data centers in the middle of the state. And he said, data centers are essential to our digital lives, and Google’s additional multi-billion dollar investment further established Central Ohio as an important tech comp in America, as if we’re the new Silicon Valley or something. What he didn’t say out loud at the time is that the state had granted people, as well as Amazon and Meta, a hundred percent sales tax exemption for up to 40 years. For Google, that breaks down to 30%.

Laura (03:53.275)

Further establish Central Ohio as an important tech hub in America, as if we’re the new Silicon Valley or something. What he didn’t say out loud at the time is that the state had granted Google as well as Amazon and Meta a hundred percent sales tax exemptions for up to 40 years. For Google, that breaks down to $30 million in tax breaks per job.

Lisa (04:12.46)

million dollars in tax breaks per job.

chris (04:16.184)

Look, we know First Energy corrupted the state house to take our money to to help legislators see their way clear to just abuse the taxpayer. The data centers were a more insidious way of visiting that abuse on us. They brought we have 200 of them. We’re one of the leaders in the country for them. They’re all sucking up power from the utilities, and the utilities are fat dumb and happy with the money they make on it.

Laura (04:36.026)

Mm-hmm.

chris (04:44.726)

And the grid is so stressed that we all have high electric bills. That’s John Houston. To turn around now and say, I’ve got to champion the people. He’s the one that put us in this situation. He c it’s just too little, too late. And I think it’s just a desperation election move. He’s blinking. He realizes Sherrod Brown has got him on this issue and he is flailing trying to dig his way out. No way. He is the cause of this problem.

And there’s no way he could say now he’s going to be the solution.

Lisa (05:17.774)

Honestly, I don’t think that bill goes far enough. I think he should say that they should commit to a certain amount of renewable energy to f you know, to fire up these those data centers.

Laura (05:20.272)

Yeah.

chris (05:28.44)

Great point.

Laura (05:28.464)

A hundred percent. And how about giving back to the community that’s that are housing him them? Because we all know we need data centers. That’s the awful part. Like we can’t move forward as a nation if we don’t have them. And the Ohio business roundtable says energy needs could jump another fifty percent over the next decade because of them. So it’s sort of a necessary evil. Like we’re not gonna shut them out of the state, even though some of us wish they could be. But you have to do something to pay back the communities that are putting up with them.

chris (05:58.124)

Look, he paid them to come here. He paid them to come here. It’s preposterous that we would give them money to come and profiteer in our borders without really giving anything back. What he should be doing, going back to all these people he made these deals with, saying, Look, we need to renegotiate that tax exemption you got for 40 years, you got to give that back. Good luck, but that’s what he should be doing. Yeah, but you want to be a champ be a champion of the people? Go undo the evil deals.

Lisa (05:58.573)

Yep.

Laura (06:00.186)

Yeah.

Laura (06:20.176)

You’re right. I agree.

chris (06:26.786)

that you helped create instead of saying, well, I want to pass a bill now. It’s too late. These these tech companies get these deals for everything they build here for 40 years.

Laura (06:38.17)

Yeah, it’s really unconscionable. And this does have bipartisan support, which is interesting. I’m surprised the Democrats aren’t holding out for something better. But there’s a similar bill in the House that Bob Latta, you know, another U US Congressman from Ohio, that was approved last month. So he’s singing the same song because even the Republicans have realized this is incredibly unpopular. And if they want to get elected or re-elected, they have to start paying attention to it.

chris (07:05.314)

Well, I d I just don’t think Houston can recover from what he did with data centers. He’s the reason we have them and to try and say, I’ll fix it now, it’s just too late. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Black children make up a hugely disproportionate percentage of missing children in Ohio, and yet we don’t really see the amber alerts for them. Lisa, what is the state doing about this?

Lisa (07:15.598)

Listening to today in Ohio. Black children make up H you T before they send it to

Lisa (07:29.048)

Yeah, there’s a bill that’s being introduced, Senate Bill 178. It would establish a task force on missing women and girls who are black, indigenous, or people of color to study disparities in the government response to missing persons. They hope to improve data collection, improve policies, get out some prevention education.

Department of Jobs and Family Services Director, the Office of Criminal Justice Services Executive Director, the Ohio Highway Patrol Superintendent, and six legislative appointments based on firsthand knowledge of affected communities. So the sponsor of this bill is Senator Paula Hicks Hudson, a Democrat from Toledo. She says that cases with kids of color are often dismissed as runaways or delinquents, and that does not meet the criteria for an Amber Alert.

Ellisandra Di Romano testified and she said she was abducted as a preteen and held for a year inside a human trafficking house. And she said when police finally kicked the door in, my first question to them was, Was anyone looking for me? How can nobody look for an eleven year old child? And as you said, Amber alerts are disproportionately not issued to kids of color.

chris (08:47.458)

Yeah, if the you think about it, what critics are saying is white kid goes missing, there’s an immediate alarm that goes out. Amber alerts, they pop up on phones, everybody’s looking. But with many black kids, they just say, they’re runaways or there’s some family dysfunction. But but the numbers of black children who go missing dwarf those of of white children, even though they’re a much smaller percentage of the population. Something is clearly wrong with this picture.

Lisa (09:02.658)

Mm.

chris (09:17.056)

It’s a good thing they’re looking at it, but I hope they come up with a solution that makes this much more fair.

Lisa (09:24.144)

‘Cause as you know, you know, the longer a person remains missing, the colder the trail becomes. So once you get out an amber alert, and as you said, talking about those figures, so according to the Department of Justice, of the two hundred and seventy thousand women and girls that went missing, thirty six percent were black, despite the fact that they only make up fourteen percent of the US female population.

chris (09:48.216)

Can you imagine being a parent? You call the police and say, My kid is missing and you get the blow off, like, yeah, yeah, they’re run away. Call us when they’re gone for twenty four hours or something. I mean that that eleven year old that said, Was anybody looking for me? And the answer was no. How heart wrenching is that? And that th th I’m glad they’re recognizing it, but let’s hope they’re effective in fixing it. You’re listening to today in Ohio.

Lisa (10:03.086)

Mm-hmm.

chris (10:14.102)

Layla, does no ever mean no anymore? What are some school districts who were just denied tax increases by the voters doing to wring money out of the voters anyway?

Leila (10:24.921)

Well, this bunch of Northeast Ohio school districts that were turned down in May are back, headed back for another try in November, it seems, but they’re taking a different sales pitch. Mentor, for example, got rejected twice on larger operating levies. So now they’re asking for a smaller three point five mil property tax after cutting ten million dollars from their budget and warning that another defeat could mean bigger class sizes.

staff cuts and fewer student services. Parma is thinking about scaling back its request after voters rejected a 1.75% income tax there. Other districts are changing the type of tax entirely. Willoughby, East Lake, and Riverside are asking for earned income taxes instead of relying on property taxes, hoping that voters might find those easier to swallow because they don’t tax social security pensions or retirement income.

So those voters who are less likely to support a levy because they no longer have students in the district might find that more appealing. Strongsville is still deciding which route to take, and Elyria is bringing back an operating levy after two failed attempts this year. So political scientists say that this is not unusual. If local officials are determined to get funding, they often keep coming back with a tweaked proposal until something sticks. But they also warn that voters can get.

really frustrated and fatigued by what starts to feel like this endless series of do-overs.

chris (11:57.926)

I wish we had a law that either required a one year moratorium after any tax incennity is rejected on a tax, or that only allowed tax issues on November ballots. That that’s the only time you could put on there, which means once a year taxes would be on the ballot. I think the idea that voters go to the polls and say, No, I don’t think you should have the money, and then have to go to the polls again and again and again is ridiculous. I think there should be some

sense of order here. If the voters speak, the the taxing entity should listen.

Leila (12:33.293)

What well, you know, I I I have a lot of sympathy for what school districts are going through. I completely understand why voters are exhausted. Everything costs more than it did a few years ago and nobody likes hearing that they’re being asked to pay even more in taxes. But school districts are living in that same economy. And I mean, salaries, health insurance, transportation, all of it, it all it’s all costing more. And I mean, I unlike

chris (12:57.998)

I know, but

Leila (13:02.103)

Governments that rely on income taxes for everything, schools can’t just ride inflation to higher revenues because Ohio law largely prevents property tax collections from automatically growing with rising property value. So when expenses keep climbing but revenue stays relatively flat, eventually they’re gonna hit those tough times too. I mean, I I I went to a public high school in Lorraine County in the nineties and our our district couldn’t get a levy passed to save its life. And the we got

chris (13:22.914)

Yeah.

Leila (13:31.674)

Cut to the bone. I mean, I still have like core memories from this time of losing out on so many things. And finally, a group of us students joined the Levy campaign ourselves. We were knocking on doors. I remember begging people to vote for the levy. I even spoke before city council as like a sophomore in high school, asking adults to invest in us. And eventually we got one passed, but that was just to stop the bleeding. I mean, so anyway, I I I just

chris (13:50.456)

But it

chris (13:59.832)

But the voters are the ones. Okay, but the the voters are the ones that make the decision, right? They’re the ones that decide if they want to spend money. In the one hand, you’re talking about how voters are hurting because their income isn’t are is not rising with inflation. They’re having to make difficult choices. They don’t have the ability to go and say, Hey, I want some more income to meet my my challenges. They have to make the tough decisions.

Leila (14:01.111)

I will never vote no for a school levy. Ever, ever, ever. Thank you.

Lisa (14:04.697)

Same here.

chris (14:29.568)

And I think they want the schools in economies like this make the tough decisions. When things are but when things are better, come back and then we’ll go there. But right now, because of what Donald Trump has done to this country, our economy for most people is in shambles. They’re not able to balance their books. And look, that my property tax bill for Cuyoga County, I saw in my mail email today, is coming today.

Lisa (14:35.098)

But are they ready?

chris (14:56.138)

It is way higher than it used to be. And I’m not alone in looking at that and just having my eyes roll. So I do think if voters say to the schools, I get it, you need more money, but I need more money. And right now I’d prefer you cut. They should cut.

Lisa (15:12.816)

But those cuts will be painful. I mean, so many school districts are cut to the bone already. So they have to prepare for Johnny not to have physical education or art class or extracurricular activities, whatever they have to cut, or closing school campuses. So it’s it’s a it’s a no win situation.

chris (15:30.392)

But I talked to seniors, Lisa, who are deciding what bills they don’t pay so that they can buy food. I mean, it’s the same situation. Everybody is cutting. Everybody makes a sacrifice in a tough economy. And these voters have gone to the polls and said, No, we’re not willing to give you the money and they keep being asked for more.

Leila (15:49.966)

I but I I think that doesn’t take into account how much districts are already cutting. I personally I think if you want to grab the pitchforks, bring them out for the billionaire sports owners who are asking for subsidized stadium. That’s that’s where you do it. But public schools are one of the few things our tax dollars buy that direct directly shape everyone’s future. And if we’re gonna invest, that’s the place.

Lisa (15:55.096)

Mm-hmm, exactly.

Laura (16:13.744)

And I think they should direct it to the state house that you know, with the billion dollars in vouchers. Like point the finger where the cuts are coming from, really.

Leila (16:19.531)

Right.

Yeah, why is it so painful to be a public school district right now? Look at the state house. Look at what the state is doing to you, not the fact that because it’s so painful your your poor school district is asking for more. I mean, they’re it’s just, you know, they’re the ones who bear the brunt of it, but they shouldn’t be.

Lisa (16:33.388)

One school district is asking for more. I mean, they’re it’s just, you know, they’re the ones who bear the brunt of it, but they shouldn’t be here. Two districts on the other hand, one names are custom.

chris (16:42.158)

You’re listening to today in Ohio. Two districts, on the other hand, found ways to cut their spending when voters rejected taxes. Laura, who are they and how did they cut?

Laura (16:51.152)

We’re talking about Twinsburg and Elyria, so different areas of our coverage area. Twinsburg cut about two million dollars. They ended the fiscal year with a stronger than expected cash balance, although they are still deficit spending. They’re spending more money than they’re taking in. But that sixty-two percent of the voters reject a one point two five percent earned income tax levy in May. That’s a pretty big ask. And that would have an

Generated about $12 million annually for operating expenses. So not even the capital, but just staffing, classroom instruction, daily operations. So they’ve eliminated a curriculum supervisor position. They’re thinking about what not to fill. So if you’re not hiring staff, is that support staff? Is that teachers? Are you gonna have bigger class sizes? And they ended up making good investments. They earn more than a million dollars in interest income in the fiscal year. So that’s good.

Elyria, they eliminated busing for kids who live within two miles. The state does not require you to do that. And before they did it for 1.25 miles from the school. So they’ve got a nine million dollar reduction plan that they passed in February. They didn’t do everything though. They the pay to play for sports, I believe they decided that is not going to happen because so many people were upset about that. But they are still asking for more money in November.

chris (18:11.138)

So for the kids that live two miles away, I’m presuming they’re not walking. Their parents must be dropping them off.

Laura (18:18.67)

Yeah, likely. Rocky River doesn’t bus at all for their high school. So there’s a lot of drop off and pickup. There’s a lot of kids who drive to school. I mean, you can bike for two miles if the street is safe, right? If there’s a safe route. But it in the winter it gets really tough when they don’t shovel sidewalks.

chris (18:29.964)

Yeah.

chris (18:35.638)

Yeah, but I’m getting at something. I I read this as a tactic. Let’s annoy the parents so much that they vote for the next tax increase. So that w we’ll go back to bussing their kids.

Laura (18:41.742)

Ha ha ha.

You know what? We’re gonna go back to my childhood too, just like Layla did. And Layla, I commend you. I never went to a school board meeting to ask for for tax money. But I remember when I was like first or second grade and they they had they didn’t pass a levy, so they bust everybody at the same time. So they had kindergartners getting on the bus with seniors from high school s smashing onto a bus that

chris (18:56.798)

Yeah.

Laura (19:11.63)

was like six fifteen in the morning or something crazy early like that. And parents were so annoyed they passed the next levy.

chris (19:18.722)

Just an aside, does it really surprise anybody on this podcast or listening that Layla would show up at a school board meeting to get in the faces of the members there and demand

Laura (19:24.633)

Ha ha

Leila (19:25.593)

It it was it was actually a city council meeting because we were looking for we just wanted to get the message out. We were and it was such a I’m sure it was a stupid speech because I I was very flowery in my writing back then.

Laura (19:28.472)

I love that. It’s like the origin story.

Lisa (19:37.39)

And it was such a I’m sure it was a stupid speech ‘cause I I was very flowery in my writing back then. But a rabble rouser nonetheless.

chris (19:45.87)

You’re l Yeah, that’s yeah, I just doesn’t surprise me at all. You’re listening to today in Ohio. The men’s world cup is over with a thrilling victory for Spain an extra time on Sunday. Lisa, is it possible that Cleveland could soon seem see some of the same kind of thrilling soccer?

Leila (19:48.319)

Yes, I was.

Lisa (20:06.958)

Well, Cleveland is a possible site for the 2031 Women’s World Cup tournament. This bid combines Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States, and Jamaica. There are 35 cities and 50 stadiums to be considered in this bid, and then they’ll whittle that down to about 12 venues. So Cleveland and Columbus are paired together. They’re offering the new Brown Stadium with its 67,500 seats under a roof, and the Columbus Cruise Stadium, which is an open-air 21,000 seat.

venue. They’re also offering up the training facilities for both of these venues. So the chief financial officer for the Haslam Sports Group, Greg Rush, says the Cleveland area actually meets FIFA requirements for the number of hotel rooms, although we didn’t make the cut for the Super Bowl, apparently. And then Columbus, apparently, they’re already kind of in the mix with other things. They’re going to be hosting the early round soccer games for the 2028 Olympics.

Rush says we want to make sure that the Brown Stadium is not e excluding any events worldwide. We want to be able to hold them here. And they also are kind of horning in on the basketball field and they say they want to submit a bid to host the NCAA basketball final for twenty thirty two through twenty thirty six.

chris (21:23.286)

Wow, that would be interesting if we got that. Look, I I was in a in Orlando for the ninety-four men’s World Cup, and it just changes the city for the whole time it’s there. If we got the women’s World Cup here, it would be so much fun for this region to see it. The people who come from other countries just kind of take over and have a blast. There was a bar in Orlando where the Irish fans were so upset with how slowly they were pouring the beer.

Lisa (21:38.756)

Mm-hmm.

chris (21:52.13)

They picked the bartenders up, they put them outside the door, they locked them out and served it while collecting all the money just to keep the beer flowing. It was hilarious. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Contractors have been working away on the Cuyahoga County Jail site preparation. Layla, why wasn’t the county paying them and is that changing?

Leila (22:12.813)

This fight over the jail has entered an interesting phase. For months, these crews have been out in Garfield Heights doing the early work on the billion-dollar jail project. They’ve been hiring consultants and fencing off the site and preparing the property. But the county hasn’t been paying many of those bills because of this legal dispute over whether the work was properly authorized. And the issue is that prosecutor Mike O’Malley says Ohio law required a specific

four member panel to approve any jail construction contracts over $75,000 before that work began. Chris Ronane says the law doesn’t apply to Cuyoga County because it’s a charter county with home rule powers. And besides, the project was already underway before this objection came into play. And the state auditor is now investigating who’s right in that dispute. The problem is that while everyone has been arguing over the law,

More than $7 million in payments to the design builder and the subcontractors have been frozen. Those companies finally said, you know, enough. They warned that the county, if they didn’t get paid, they’d start pulling workers off the project and sending them to other jobs. And once those skilled crews leave, it’s it’s not like you can just snap your fingers and get them back. The county warned that delays could add tens of millions of dollars to the cost and throw the entire construction schedule into jeopardy. So

That’s why this meeting happened now. The justice officials were being asked to ratify the work that had already been completed so the county could finally cut those checks and keep the contractors on the job and prevent the project from grinding to a halt while this larger legal fight continues. And they went ahead and did that and took care of it. It’s it’s essentially an attempt to keep construction moving without waiting for the state auditor to settle who’s right about the law.

chris (24:03.01)

What’s bizarre to me about this is no matter how they got there, they they contracted with people to do the work. They did the work and then they weren’t paying them. They had to pay them. One way or the other, these people were going to get paid. And the fact that it took a ultimatum from the contractors to to get the payment is kind of ridiculous.

Leila (24:25.165)

Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. It’s this is such a such a messy situation. What I can’t quite reconcile is, you know, Mike O’Malley, if he really believes that the county illegally bypassed a mandatory approval process, why why would he then bless that same work before the state auditor finishes determining whether it was illegal? I mean, either the approval process matters enough to halt the project or it doesn’t. I d I don’t know. Ratifying the work now because the contractors need to be paid

feels like you’re you’re kind of saying, This may have been done improperly, but let’s approve it anyway because we’re in too deep, right? I mean it’s hard to square that with the hard line that he has taken up until now.

chris (25:03.799)

Well

chris (25:08.056)

But I thought they had resolved this. He he was arguing they never got this committee together to do this. So they got the committee together what what two months ago? And I thought, okay, we’re moving forward and the auditor will figure out what to do about it later. But the the fact that they had to get together again, that O’Malley had to sign off, I thought this was all taken care of. I thought they had retroactively approved it two months ago. So I was thrown that they had to go through this process and

It is ridiculous that you’re not paying people that you contracted with. It’s not their fault that you screwed up, but you’ve got to pay them for the work that’s done.

Leila (25:46.169)

True. Right. Good point.

chris (25:48.738)

You’re listening to today in Ohio. Let’s talk about the Cleveland Hall Cleveland City Hall red tape, a woman owned boutique encountered after an anonymous complaint closed the place down. What a nightmare this is, Laura.

Laura (26:03.276)

Yeah, absolutely. This is called Girls Joint. And it took five months to reopen after this complaint that the boutique was selling too much smoke shop related merchandise. And there wasn’t even a finding that was factual of counting everything and and adding it up. So this was formed and founded in November of 2025. It’s a shop that focuses on cannabis culture, education, and community. And it quickly built this following for this design forward.

approach very different from a lot of traditional ideas of a smoke shop. In February, it was stopped. And then when they found out that they had this 20% issue, which should have been pretty easy to resolve, they found out they didn’t even have the right permit, even though there’d been a retail store in the space before. So they had to go through all the rigmarole of City Hall. And it took five months at one point, it took 81 days for one step to be done.

chris (27:00.76)

Th that that’s this is the problem we hear about City Hall all the time, forever, going back decades and decades, that the red tape is ridiculous. In here’s here’s a local business. They they were thriving and then they’re completely shut down. You would think that the city, the city council person for this area would move heaven and earth to get them back in business as quickly as possible. Cleveland can’t afford to lose small business. And yet, no. The instead

Laura (27:27.364)

Mm-hmm.

chris (27:30.324)

months of not being open, thousands of dollars lost. It it’s just evidence yet again of how moribund this city is.

Laura (27:40.944)

Yeah, absolutely. It you know, we hear right, like you said, all the time. And I think they’ve tried in multiple occasions to make it friendly or to get businesses going. But when you have one department that takes 81 days to do its part of the process, like 81 days, that is an insane amount. And luckily they had a lot of support from the community. They did some pop ups, but they still lost ten or twelve thousand dollars in business.

And imagine the not knowing. That’s gotta be so difficult. Just like wanting to pull your hair out, being like, Don’t know if the inspector’s gonna do their job. Don’t know if you’re gonna this is gonna come through.

chris (28:17.182)

The look, I mentioned this in the in the Sherwin Williams series. People ask me, What why do you want to set up a nonprofit agency to clean out lead? Why wouldn’t you make it a city program? This is why. The city can’t get anything done effectively or inexpensively. It’s just a quagmire of red tape. I don’t know that it’s fixable. I thought Justin Bibb would be the guy who could go in and fix it. He’d modernize it and he’s made steps, but then you read a story like this and just think it it’s hopeless.

Laura (28:24.688)

Mm.

chris (28:46.284)

This form of government just seems hopeless.

Laura (28:49.284)

I wonder if the fact that they sell some cannabis accessories and and goods is what the reason this ended up taking so long, because there’s a a bias against it. I mean that’s what started the entire complaint.

chris (29:04.546)

But it’s a legitimate business. They’re selling legal products. They have a right to do it. They have a right for the city to do right by them. And they didn’t. These people were victims of terrible red tape. It’s a great story by Alex and Paris, but I just I sit back and I think it will never change that ever what everybody thinks about City Hall, just a quagmire, a swamp of red tape, never gonna change.

Laura (29:06.222)

Yeah.

chris (29:33.228)

You’re listening to today in Ohio. We’re gonna leave some stories on the table for tomorrow. Another day where we only get to seven. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Layla. Thank you for being with us. We’ll return Wednesday to talk about the news.