The Observation Deck

Since it appears that City Hall will end up getting their way by having this thread derailed, I may as well take some time to clear up some mountains made from anthills in this thread.

First, my lawyer reads and checks every post I write. I have double-checked with my lawyer about all posts made in this thread, and they agreed that I have done nothing wrong. In fact, they are unsure of why this thread is suddenly of such major legal concern.

I feel that the definition of “funnel” needs to be cleared up here. The use of this verb was not intended to imply any criminal or otherwise dubious activity. Rather, it was simply used as a synonym for “gave”. One example of the word “funneled” used in a sentence is “$12.8 billion was funneled through the Marshall Plan.” The Marshall Plan was a Post-World War II aid plan for Western Europe. That does not sound criminal to me. I stated that City Hall giving the money was questionable as it was a relatively large sum of money and I was unable to conclude the use or intended use of those funds. Again, this does not imply any criminal or dubious activity.

I will reiterate the fact that my lawyer and I are highly puzzled as to why this is suddenly worthy of “legal review”. This is all very confusing indeed.
Regardless, mentions of “legal review” or similar actions will not intimidate me into the end my pursuit of the truth, and discovering the usage of city funds. Unpopular speech is still free speech. The day that free speech without threats of “legal review” ends on the Lakewood Observation Deck, tyranny in Lakewood will begin.

Hi everybody — Mike Belsito here.

I haven’t been onto the Observer Deck in a long time, but somebody brought it to my attention that my name was brought up here, so I came to find this post — and honestly, was a bit surprised by the inferences that were being made. Nevertheless, I’m all for the right to know how our City’s money is being used, so I wanted to respond with some facts about some of what was brought up… at least regarding me and Startup Lakewood. To be clear, I’m speaking for myself and not the City, as I’m not a City employee. And pardon the length, but there’s a lot to cover!

First, Startup Lakewood (http://startuplakewood.com) was created out of a public Call for Proposals that the City of Lakewood, Chamber of Commerce, Pillars of Lakewood, and Lakewood Alive all put out in collaboration back in 2010. A PDF of the RFP is still online, which you can find out about here: http://www.onelakewood.com/pdf/Entrepre ... ce_RFP.pdf. As somebody who had 5 years (at the time… 12 now) of startup experience and a passion for Lakewood, I applied. Several others had applied, too, but ultimately — the committee formed by those organizations chose me to lead this initiative.

In early 2011, we kicked off Startup Lakewood with the goal of helping people with new business or product ideas take the next step. Essentially, we hoped that Startup Lakewood could be a place that people in Lakewood could turn to if they weren’t sure how to start a business — as well as provide support to those that have businesses but are experiencing specific problems.

We’re now in our 7th year of the program — and we’ve helped a lot of people along the way. Some businesses you might frequent now (Ice Cream Joy, Little Lakewood Pasta Company, etc) had participated in our program well before they ever even had storefronts. Of course, Startup Lakewood can’t take credit for their success at all — but I’m proud that we helped and played a small role in their progress.

Startup Lakewood is a public program and any of you are welcome to participate. We typically meet on the fourth Tuesday of every month — although, if you’re coming in April… we’re meeting on the 18th instead! Each time we meet, the sessions are either:
- Startup U: Speakers come to speak about topics relevant to entrepreneurs
- Ideation Sessions: Focused brainstorms where business owners with challenges get feedback/ideas from others who want to help.
- Office Hours: 1:1 sessions where we meet, discuss specific challenges, and identify ways we can help. If anybody reaches out to the City and asks for advice on starting a business, they sometimes get referred to me, too, and I’ll meet those individuals and find ways to help
- Also, each summer we put on the Lakewood Ideation Challenge — a business concept/pitch competition.
- Through all of the above, we’ve helped hundreds of people, at least in some small way.

Lori, you noted that the City of Lakewood “funneled” $14,615 over a 4.5 year period. I think most people would agree that the term “funneled” typically has a negative connotation. While what I do for Startup Lakewood isn’t a volunteer effort — I am paid for it — the rate I charge the City is a fraction of what I charge when I take on an engagement with a private company. In that span, I logged nearly 500 hours of individual meetings with entrepreneurs, Startup Lakewood events, etc. As for whether the $3,427/year or so is a good investment for the City — I suppose that’s up for debate. But the entrepreneurs we work with seem to really appreciate having a service like this in their City.

You noted that my wife sat on Lakewood’s Planning Commission. This is true. It was a 6 year volunteer commitment for her — and believe me, there was nothing glamorous about that. Nevertheless, she was proud to serve Lakewood through it.

It was also noted that we’ve contributed to political campaigns that support the Mayor, Council, and/or their causes. Just like many others, we have certainly made small contributions to people and causes we believed in. And yes, Mayor Summers is one of those people. But if I had to estimate, since we’ve moved to Lakewood in 2009… I’d say our local political contributions were probably around $300 or so. Over an 8 year span, I’m positive that nobody views us as big-time political contributors. I should also note that Mayor Summers wasn’t even Mayor — and I had never even contributed anything to campaigns of his — when I was named Entrepreneur-in-Residence. He was, however, President of City Council and was certainly one of the folks who thought recruiting an EIR would be good for the city.

Finally, you referenced my wife and I as “alleged friends” of Mayor Summers and went on to say that he’s “funneling money to us with no explanation.” I happen to like Mayor Summers, and I do support him because I think he’s helped our City. I know that you don’t, and that’s totally OK — I don’t want to debate that. But, to be clear — my wife and I aren’t personal friends with the Mayor. It’s not like we’re hanging out at Angelo’s with him (although, hey — I’d grab a pizza with him if he invited me!) I haven’t even met or had a call with him in at least 2-3 years. Most of the folks I work with directly at the City are in the Planning and Development department.

As far as having no idea about Startup Lakewood or that this service exists… I’m glad this came up here so now that you do! We don’t spend money on marketing, so that’s always a challenge. But groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Lakewood Alive, Pillars of Lakewood and others help us get the word out … and I always want to do a better job here. That said, Startup Lakewood has been written about quite a bit in cleveland.com, Freshwater Cleveland, and even several times in the Lakewood Observer. In fact, I’ve written a few articles for the Observer in the past and this is a reminder that I should get back on track with that!

If you have any other questions, just ask. Hopefully, we’ll see some of you at a future Startup Lakewood event. But I hope this clears up some confusion.

MikeBelsito wrote:Hi everybody — Mike Belsito here.

I haven’t been onto the Observer Deck in a long time, but somebody brought it to my attention that my name was brought up here, so I came to find this post — and honestly, was a bit surprised by the inferences that were being made. Nevertheless, I’m all for the right to know how our City’s money is being used, so I wanted to respond with some facts about some of what was brought up… at least regarding me and Startup Lakewood. To be clear, I’m speaking for myself and not the City, as I’m not a City employee. And pardon the length, but there’s a lot to cover!

First, Startup Lakewood (http://startuplakewood.com) was created out of a public Call for Proposals that the City of Lakewood, Chamber of Commerce, Pillars of Lakewood, and Lakewood Alive all put out in collaboration back in 2010. A PDF of the RFP is still online, which you can find out about here: http://www.onelakewood.com/pdf/Entrepre ... ce_RFP.pdf. As somebody who had 5 years (at the time… 12 now) of startup experience and a passion for Lakewood, I applied. Several others had applied, too, but ultimately — the committee formed by those organizations chose me to lead this initiative.

In early 2011, we kicked off Startup Lakewood with the goal of helping people with new business or product ideas take the next step. Essentially, we hoped that Startup Lakewood could be a place that people in Lakewood could turn to if they weren’t sure how to start a business — as well as provide support to those that have businesses but are experiencing specific problems.

We’re now in our 7th year of the program — and we’ve helped a lot of people along the way. Some businesses you might frequent now (Ice Cream Joy, Little Lakewood Pasta Company, etc) had participated in our program well before they ever even had storefronts. Of course, Startup Lakewood can’t take credit for their success at all — but I’m proud that we helped and played a small role in their progress.

Startup Lakewood is a public program and any of you are welcome to participate. We typically meet on the fourth Tuesday of every month — although, if you’re coming in April… we’re meeting on the 18th instead! Each time we meet, the sessions are either:
- Startup U: Speakers come to speak about topics relevant to entrepreneurs
- Ideation Sessions: Focused brainstorms where business owners with challenges get feedback/ideas from others who want to help.
- Office Hours: 1:1 sessions where we meet, discuss specific challenges, and identify ways we can help. If anybody reaches out to the City and asks for advice on starting a business, they sometimes get referred to me, too, and I’ll meet those individuals and find ways to help
- Also, each summer we put on the Lakewood Ideation Challenge — a business concept/pitch competition.
- Through all of the above, we’ve helped hundreds of people, at least in some small way.

Lori, you noted that the City of Lakewood “funneled” $14,615 over a 4.5 year period. I think most people would agree that the term “funneled” typically has a negative connotation. While what I do for Startup Lakewood isn’t a volunteer effort — I am paid for it — the rate I charge the City is a fraction of what I charge when I take on an engagement with a private company. In that span, I logged nearly 500 hours of individual meetings with entrepreneurs, Startup Lakewood events, etc. As for whether the $3,427/year or so is a good investment for the City — I suppose that’s up for debate. But the entrepreneurs we work with seem to really appreciate having a service like this in their City.

You noted that my wife sat on Lakewood’s Planning Commission. This is true. It was a 6 year volunteer commitment for her — and believe me, there was nothing glamorous about that. Nevertheless, she was proud to serve Lakewood through it.

It was also noted that we’ve contributed to political campaigns that support the Mayor, Council, and/or their causes. Just like many others, we have certainly made small contributions to people and causes we believed in. And yes, Mayor Summers is one of those people. But if I had to estimate, since we’ve moved to Lakewood in 2009… I’d say our local political contributions were probably around $300 or so. Over an 8 year span, I’m positive that nobody views us as big-time political contributors. I should also note that Mayor Summers wasn’t even Mayor — and I had never even contributed anything to campaigns of his — when I was named Entrepreneur-in-Residence. He was, however, President of City Council and was certainly one of the folks who thought recruiting an EIR would be good for the city.

Finally, you referenced my wife and I as “alleged friends” of Mayor Summers and went on to say that he’s “funneling money to us with no explanation.” I happen to like Mayor Summers, and I do support him because I think he’s helped our City. I know that you don’t, and that’s totally OK — I don’t want to debate that. But, to be clear — my wife and I aren’t personal friends with the Mayor. It’s not like we’re hanging out at Angelo’s with him (although, hey — I’d grab a pizza with him if he invited me!) I haven’t even met or had a call with him in at least 2-3 years. Most of the folks I work with directly at the City are in the Planning and Development department.

As far as having no idea about Startup Lakewood or that this service exists… I’m glad this came up here so now that you do! We don’t spend money on marketing, so that’s always a challenge. But groups like the Chamber of Commerce, Lakewood Alive, Pillars of Lakewood and others help us get the word out … and I always want to do a better job here. That said, Startup Lakewood has been written about quite a bit in cleveland.com, Freshwater Cleveland, and even several times in the Lakewood Observer. In fact, I’ve written a few articles for the Observer in the past and this is a reminder that I should get back on track with that!

If you have any other questions, just ask. Hopefully, we’ll see some of you at a future Startup Lakewood event. But I hope this clears up some confusion.

Bravo! This is civic engagement! Civil and straight forward!

Mr. Belsito,

Thank you for jumping in.

The purpose of this thread was to show spending by City Hall that seems interesting or noteworthy. The words "interesting", "odd", and "noteworthy" are not synonymous with "criminal" or "dubious". Additionally, I never associated the word "funnel" with dubious activity, but that is personal perception.

The main issue with the spending documented in this thread falls on the back of City Hall. If City Hall had an ethics policy that they actually obeyed, this thread may very well have never even surfaced. However, when just about every project in Lakewood is given to a Cleveland Clinic associate or Mike Summers campaign donor, what are we to expect?

It is great that City Hall is posting the checkbook, but you cannot write down "other" or simply "Planning & Development" in a real checkbook. That would not pass an audit. If City Hall would post documentation backing up the spending in the checkbook and what it is for, this would have never surfaced.

I am still not 100% sold on Startup Lakewood, but I will leave that be.

To shift gears, this seems to have gotten lost in this thread. Who would like to be the person to explain this?
I will sit back and await this explanation.

Hopefully, City Hall will not turn this into a game of offense/defense. If they do, that is more telling than anything.

Mike

Thanks for jumping in.

Lori

I spent hours with lawyers and scholars yesterday, debating the word funnel. One of the interesting side note is that is seems universally a bad term with people under 30. Using terms like "getting something for nothing" "laziness" with it. Over 50, and legal scholars saw it as directional as one would use a funnel to direct water. In the end like many things in the word its meanings are vague, and open to debate ind interpretation.

I believe "Start Up Lakewood" has an OK track record for this kind of program. Look at Jump Start, with a lot more funding, and a lo more years, percentage wise I think Start Up Lakewood did better. The LO was a part of Jump Start family in full disclosure, though we never received funding through them.

I would seem, that we all need to work on the presentation of our facts, and our opinions. And that maybe, facts should be presented cleanly, with opinions kept separate. Though not sure how this would work in practice.

.

It's encouraging to hear from this "new" voice and always good to get clarification of facts and terminology.
Let's hope a few more with this kind of local expertise will join in.

I, too, think that the broadening of the discussion is helpful.

Witnessing this recent exchange is evidence that forums like this are indispensable aids for the health of a community. I applaud Ms. Allen and especially Mr. Belsito for calmly and rationally engaging in this exchange. Situations like this all too often devolve into emotional firestorms.

With that said, outstanding questions still remain. How can the Chamber of Commerce, City Hall, Lakewood Alive, and the Pillars of Lakewood unilaterally decide that taxpayer money be used to create a startup office, or a Wellness Foundation, or any other pet project them and their small group think is worthwhile? Cleveland State University has an excellent Small Business Development Center although I understand that in today's tough economy municipalities are competing with one another to attract businesses as a way to increase the tax base. But the cost of making concessions to attract business winds up being borne by taxpayers. Businesses pay zero taxes. They are simply tacked onto the price of goods and services. When almost $100,000 in CDBG goes to Liberty Development to erect luxury condos shortly after Dru Siley bails to become a VP, there is prima facie evidence that some in City Hall have a skewed moral compass.

Jared, well said.

Something about the funding going to Liberty does not seem on the up and up to me.

I recommend an independent investigation for the sake of the Lakewood taxpayers.