Baby boomers and film buffs will recall Cotton Comes to Harlem, a 1970 Blaxploitation film, directed by Ossie Davis. It tells the story of a fast-talking preacher man turned slick who shows up in Harlem selling a pie-in-the-sky, back-to-Africa scheme. For $100 the unsuspecting Harlem residents saw a chance to escape the rat race of urban life and go to a land of milk and honey in a mythical kingdom in Africa. The plot thickens when the ill-gotten gains of the preacher’s scheme are stolen and hidden in a bale of cotton. The movie ends when both the preacher and the cops are slicked by a junk dealer played by Redd Foxx — in a precursor to his role as Fred Sandford — who absconds with the cash and is last seen living a life of luxury in Ghana.
Selling dreams to the poor and impoverished is not new. It’s as old as time. Look how many people drank the Kool-Aid served up by Reverend Jim Jones in the late 1970s. More recent stories of online con games have seen millions of dollars lost each day by unsuspecting victims who believe in the pot of gold at the end of the internet. So it is not surprising when residents of Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood became enamored last fall by a multi-million-dollar plan that proposed to refurbish an abandoned factory to manufacture Hempcrete, a cost-efficient construction product that is bio-degradable and recyclable.
In addition to revitalizing a blighted area of the city, the plan touted the creation of 650 entry level jobs paying $17 an hour with fringe benefits that included free childcare and transportation to and from work.
The question of whether hemp could be legally obtained was swept under the rug. The natural fiber, which is a cousin of the marijuana plant, has a checkered history. Although it was a major crop in America during colonial times, it was ruled illegal by the federal government for many years. It is now making a comeback, even though there are still some issues open to dispute as to its legality in Ohio.
The hopes and dreams of Glenville focused on the premise that a Washington D.C.-based company known as Level 5 Global Corporation, through its Ohio subsidiary North Coast Natural Solutions, had $46 million dollars in startup funds, with promises of millions more from where that came from. The project was the brainchild of Cleveland native Ty Williams, who bills himself as a corporate consultant and financier with a website that claims offices in virtually every large city in America and the world.
The proposal immediately drew the attention of the local media and the support of Cleveland civic leaders. Greater Abyssinia Pastor E. Theophilus Caviness and Reverend Aaron Phillips of the Cleveland Clergy Coalition were in the forefront. They were so supportive that they sponsored a job fair at the Abyssinia Church where hundreds showed up to apply for the promised jobs.
Phillips, a former lawyer and county prosecutor, was permanently disbarred by the Ohio Supreme Court in 2006 after a 2003 conviction for a variety of theft-related offenses going back to the time when he served as a county prosecutor. Sentenced to 30 months in jail, he was released after six. Like many other formerly incarcerated people, upon release he turned his collar around and became a man of the cloth. His current side hustle is providing political consulting to political candidates — mostly white — to help them garner votes in the black community.
Early on, those who secured the golden ticket of employment became leery. IRS forms they completed were lost and had to be re-submitted. The golden ticket really started to tarnish when employees went unpaid after weeks of work. For those who quit other jobs, it was a stab in a dream and their pocketbooks. At one point, when the eagle didn’t fly on Friday, unpaid workers were told that the delay was caused by the lack of paper at the bank to print the checks. When checks finally arrived, employees were told not to cash them for several days.
In a nineteen-page lawsuit filed in federal court last week against North Coast Natural Solutions, plaintiffs cite multiple violations of state and federal labor laws, multiple breaches of contract and instances of fraud. While the suit was initially filed by the former director of human resources for the company and one employee, now other former employees and local vendors have joined in. The vendors, who ponied up to help the project get off the ground, are joining hoping to recover what is owed to them.
When I drive through the city that I love, I am depressed at what I see. Growing up in Cleveland I remember now-abandoned buildings as thriving businesses that created jobs and supported a working middle class. So when the idea of making one of them hum again was announced, I, like others, had great hopes.
My enthusiasm is now greatly diminished. I only hope that Ty Williams is for real. I hope that the picture he paints on his website is for real. I also hope that the reverends Caviness and Phillip did due diligence before leading their flock into what looked like green pastures but may turn out to be a legal quagmire and a valley of lost dreams. They will still have their fancy cars and fur coats if this all goes belly up. Workers who labored for free for weeks will still have to pay their rent, feed their children and hope to find another job.
It seems to me that certain members of the clergy should stick to preaching and selling chicken dinners and leave economic development to those who have the expertise when it comes to separating the wheat from the chaff. If this project goes up in a puff of smoke, shame on the pastors and shame on Ty Williams. Cleveland and the struggling people who were promised good paying jobs don’t deserve hemp flavored Kool-Aid served on a bale of cotton — even if it is ecofriendly.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and treasurer of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
One Response to “COMMENTARY: Hemp Comes to Glenville”
Lydia Alphabet
What I gather from your article is that Level 5 Global Corporation whose parent company is North Coast Natural Soultions broat to Cleveland and Clevelanders a promise of a business that would produce hempcrete and help Cleveland become more productive. They are presently being sued.
In the beginning, to get their company started, they contacted Pastor E. Theophilus, Rev. Caviness and Mr. Ty Williams, who are African Americans, to assist them in finding employees for this project because they are prominent and active with the residents of Cleveland.
I have little doubt that North Coast is a very successful and powerful organization and as your article points out they are being sued by some residents of Cleveland because their hempcrete business never got off of the ground…at all!!
Daily, there are organizations, businesses and people who sue others because of fraud. Your article infers that the three gentlemen that I mentioned did something fraudulent against the citizens of Cleveland when in fact it is, if it is fraud, the North Coast Natural Solutions perpatrated it.
Please follow up on this and let us know how things turn out for our hometown, Cleveland. It seems that it definitely has peaked your interest.
Thanks Much.