Citizens are asking questions about the proposed Ridge Road incinerator.  The questions are focused on whether or not the incinerator can be operated environmentally safely.

 

Though relevant, questions about the environment are not the proper questions to ask first.

 

The first questions that need to be asked concern whether the City of Cleveland has the necessary (A) Objectiveness; (B)  Competence to 1. analyze the proposition, 2. build and 3. staff  such a facility .

 

Questions about objectiveness and competence are not intended to insult anyone in the city.  In fact I raise the questions about objectiveness and competence in sympathy with many involved with this project who work for Mayor Jackson and may not support the idea as private citizens.

 

OBJECTIVENESS: If you work for Mayor Jackson, you can not question this project (your mortgage and car payment  tell you the Mayor is right!)

 

So what we have here is an application to build and operate a waste incinerator by a municipal corporation - the City of Cleveland - which application has the unanimous approval and support of every department head - from the health department to the electrical department to the public utilities; OR THEY MAY SOON BE OUT OF A JOB.

 

For a city employee, it is totally impractical to take a public position contrary to the Mayor’s.

 

Keep in mind that a city corporation operates much like a private for profit corporation - having a maverick (or ethical or moral) opinion at work usually will not get you to the top.   Public employees’ ethics and morality - though taxpayers are paying the employees’ salaries with the hope and expectation that the public employees will exercise their ethics and morality - must be set aside in a corporation.

 

COMPETENCE: the City of Cleveland does not have the competence to successfully tackle this project.

 

Let’s take a quick look at another project Cleveland Public Power recently supported: the AMP-OHIO 50 year coal fired electrical generation project.   The City of Cleveland did not have the necessary competence to adequately analyze that sophisticated project. The City was not competent to analyze the fact that Lehman Brothers, who was providing financing for the project, was about to go bankrupt-thank god-because the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy scuttled the AMP-OHIO project saving the City of Cleveland taxpayers from a fifty year nightmare.

 

The Scam Developers (who know there is no sane private financier who would take the crazy deal) look for municipal financing and come to the City of Cleveland precisely because they recognize that the City of Cleveland is vulnerable – just as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was vulnerable. Harrisburg built an incinerator, and $300,000,000 later Harrisburg is bankrupt.

 

Cleveland is smarter than Harrisburg?

 

Or take a look at the Browns Stadium-the DAWG - is another taxpayer’s money losing scam the City of Cleveland was sucked into.

 

So let’s get real at the EPA hearing and tell it like it really is: WAY OVER OUR HEADS.

 

The question of whether or not the incinerator, if built, would poison us, is very premature.