Last fall’s media accounts of the proposed hemp manufacturing company planned for Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood described a project that would rejuvenate an aging section of the city’s eastside. Eco-friendly — 850 jobs well-paying jobs — great benefits — were all laudatory terms used to describe the project proposed by Cleveland native Tierney “Ty” Williams and his company, North Coast Natural Solutions.
By May of this year the picture was not so rosy. Descriptions began to included words like scam and con game as investigative reporters began punching holes the size of cannon balls into the project. As the story of nearly 200 people who had their dreams dashed when jobs did not materialize and paychecks bounced unfolded, the man at the center of the project went from a would-be savior to P. T. Barnum. And as I wrote in an earlier column, the seamy details smacked of the 1970s blaxploitation film, Cotton Comes to Harlem.
This past Sunday, columnist Phillip Morris finally got up from his seat by the door at the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com to comment on the issue. The problem is, Morris focused his article on a white councilman who got a little egg on his face when he, though well intentioned, supported the project that now appears to be failed. Nowhere in his coverage did Morris consider the damage done to those who were really hurt — people at the bottom of the economic ladder who could least afford to suffer a financial loss.
Consider the plight of 43-year-old Glenville resident. “I quit my job paying $13 an hour believing I could make $17 an hour. With the free childcare offered as a fringe benefit, my wife could get a job and we could double our income,” said Larry Gardner. Gardner is now left unemployed — he hasn’t worked for over a month — and $75 in the hole for overdraft fees he incurred when the check he received from North Coast Solutions was returned NSF. He’s hoping to get re-hired at his former job.
Morris may be the sole voice of the black community at the city’s only daily newspaper, but he is hardly the soul voice. He seldom if ever sees issues from the black perspective. For several years Morris made a career out of writing about the late Judge Jean Murrell Capers, a story that was interesting the first time around but rambled on ad nauseum when he repeated it in varying forms time after time. Leave it to Phillip to make the white community feel warm and fuzzy. Controversial stands in support of minority issues are not in his playbook.
His premise that the Councilman Mike Polensek took some unnecessary licks as a result of support of the hemp factory is basically sound. As the crowds and other elected officials gathered in his ward to cut the ribbon for the opening of the new plant, Polensek was between a rock and a hard place. What was he going to say : “Hold your horses – something isn’t right here.”
Morris, in his usual vanilla language, fails to assess any blame to folks higher up the food chain that bear a great deal more responsibility for what seems to be an economic boondoggle. When Polensek got into the picture, the project had already drawn the support of County Executive Armond Budish, Cuyahoga Community College, the State of Ohio, the Land Bank – that supplied the land – and most importantly, the imprimatur of the Rev. E. T. Caviness of the Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church. The 91-year-old Caviness has become the self-proclaimed voice of what’s good or bad for the black community. His inside track with Budish and other elected officials opened doors for Williams that would have otherwise been hard to pass thru.
Morris describes Caviness as feeling bruised by the whole affair. Maybe he should dust off one of the suits in his high fashion wardrobe and man up. What about the victims of this scam who are not just feeling screwed but are screwed? That’s a lot more painful. Especially when they heard about the jobs from Caviness, completed their job applications at his church and visited Williams’ temporary office in the church basement.
Many of the victims of Williams’ scam have chosen to take part in a lawsuit filed in federal court to recover the money owed them and damages they may be entitled to for violations of federal labor laws. They also have the option of taking those bounced checks to the county prosecutor, but that won’t get their money back anytime soon. The problem is, even if successful in court, it is unlikely that there will be assets to pay any damages, since the $46 million-dollar financial package touted by Williams at the beginning of the project has yet to surface.
Morris spends only a few words discussing the support given to the ill-fated project by County Executive Armond Budish. Budish and his highly paid staff should have been more cautious before affixing the county’s name to a project that was iffy at best — especially since hemp, the cousin of marijuana is still not technically legal in Ohio, and Williams — even with his long-term relationship with Rev. Caviness — was an unknown quantity.
What I like to call Hempgate is black-on-black crime, aided and abetted by white politicians who listened to the wrong people and failed to ask the right questions. A few calls to established businesspeople — be they black or white — and a quick internet search could have saved a lot of poor people from becoming victims of what looks like a scam. Morris didn’t consider that angle. The poor people who suffered much more than Mike Polensek are not on Morris’ radar screen. Just another reason to spend less time reading Cleveland’s only daily newspaper.
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: Who Does Phillip Morris Really Speak For?”
Deb James
He bounced 183 checks for almost $150,000. He has ruined peoples lives, yet he walks around a free man. Don’t those bounced checks amount to a felony?