Smear tactics; Unable to get what it wants from non-union agencies, the SEIU is taking the low road to bring down a vital levy

By Editorial
Cleveland Plain Dealer
April 13, 2003

During discussions with non-union social service agencies, leaders of the Service Employees International Union hinted that if they did not get their way, things could get ugly.

They didn't get their way. And now, true to its word, the union is even attacking old friends as it recklessly targets a levy that would aid the most fragile members of our community.

Cuyahoga County voters will be asked on May 6 to approve Issue 15, a human services levy to raise roughly $137 million a year. That's $58 million more than is being produced by the current levy, which expires in December. Annual tax payments for the owner of $100,000 home will jump from $84 to $150. That would be a hard sell even in a good economy.

But the SEIU has chosen these tough times for a callous power play. Initially, it went to the Cuyahoga County commissioners and promised to support the levy with a cash contribution of $500,000 in return for easier access to non-union employees at several nonprofit service providers and at MetroHealth Medical System. The commissioners refused, though they did arrange for the SEIU and the providers to meet.

Those meetings were fruitless. Union threats to oppose the levy left some providers feeling bullied, even blackmailed.

Last week, Columbus-based SEIU Local 1199 mailed fliers to Cuyahoga County residents, urging a "no" vote. If future mailings, phone calls and an expected barrage of broadcast ads follow the same script, the campaign will be down and dirty.

For starters, the brochure suggests that if Issue 15 passes, property taxes will rise more than 60 percent. True, the health and human services tab would go up sharply, but that's a small share of tax bills. The flier also suggests that human service agencies are rife with waste. It is true that some organizations have made indefensible spending decisions. It is a smear to suggest that these practices are widespread or are ignored by county officials.

Take one of the SEIU's examples: Last year, Jim Petro, then Ohio's state auditor, reported that a Toledo-based foster-care agency had purchased a $70,000 sports car for its founder. The agency had handled numerous placements for the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services. When Petro's report came out, the department immediately suspended new placements. Only last month, after the agency restructured and hired a new CEO, did the county resume contact.

The flier also charges that one agency director, "a former politician," makes more than $250,000 in salary and benefits. The reference is to Lee Fisher, the former Ohio attorney general who now runs the Center for Families and Children in Cleveland. The center's board chairman concedes that Fisher earns in that neighborhood, though he points out that the center has an $18 million annual budget and that an outside compensation consultant ranked Fisher's pay package in the mid-range among comparable organizations.

Dale Butland, a union political strategist helping orchestrate these ugly attacks, says it's nothing personal. Butland said Fisher merely represents many nonprofit executives who have salaries that voters might find excessive. Maybe they would, but two points aren't debatable: Fisher's is a unionized agency, organized by the very SEIU that now seeks to embarrass him. And he has always been a friend of labor - one who has tried to mediate the current dispute. What a nice "thank you."

The SEIU seeks to advance its agenda on the backs of foster children and vulnerable elderly people. Open opposition to this levy was more than even John Ryan, the head of the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, could stomach. He sat with the SEIU at the table, but now says he'll sit out the levy vote. Ryan owes it to himself and the labor movement - much of which is solidly behind Issue 15 - to denounce this smear campaign and urge the SEIU to reconsider its course.