Probably the most delicious quote in The Plain Dealer in years came at the end of a front-page story about the Nate Gray trial.

PD reporter Mike Tobin quoted from FBI tapes of Gray's Shaker Square telephone conversation with attorney Ricardo Teamor. Gray recited Sam Miller's advice on how to treat Cleveland council members.

"And Sam taught me this - the more you treat them like a trick, or exactly what they are, the more better results you'll get.  Sam said treat them like a straight prostitute," Gray told Teamor.

Yes, indeed, Sam (pictured) has lots of experience with these "prostitute" Council members.

He and Dick Jacobs have worked over the politicians in town in the past two decades or more. We've picked up the bills.

The Cuyahoga County Commissioners just bought a few white elephants, asbestos-filled buildings from Jacobs along East 9th at Euclid Ave. Thank you, Jimmy Dimora, Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones. The three stooges plan is to knock down the environmentally deficient buildings (except for the historic Cleveland Trust gem) and build new county offices. So we will see you later, taxpayers - some $100 million or more later.

The purchase by the County Commissioners pleased Jacobs very much. Who else would buy these downtown buildings that one has to knock down?

However, it DISpleased Sam Miller's and Al Ratner's Forest City family. Seriously DISpleased them.

Sam and Al wanted the County to bless them with some easy cash by moving County offices to the old Higbee's department store building at Forest City's money-losing Tower City shopping area.

Thus, Sam and Al took their marbles and went home by telling the Convention Facilities Commission it no longer wanted Forest City's previously offered new Convention Center site to be considered. If you don't buy our building, we won't let you construct a convention center next door on our land.

What is interesting about all this is the history of the Jacobs vs. Miller-Ratner economic battles here and how it has helped keep Cleveland in a beggar position as the two political-pulling giants rip-off what they can of the dying
carcass of a city.

So I'm going to quote from an old article I wrote in the Free Times back in February 2001, or before the convention center issue ripened and before the new county offices became a carcass issue for them to fight over again. It gives some flavor to how these two development giants have treated Cleveland and been treated by Cleveland.  Here it is with minor changes:

The underground battle between two of the city's top business moguls over political access, favors and deals from City Hall has surfaced again.

Like a low-grade fever, Sam Miller of Forest City Enterprises and Dick Jacobs of the Jacobs Group, have infected city politics for more than a decade, two rivals currying favor with politicians.

Nate Gray, let me say presently, is peanuts in this gimme game.

In the last two weeks, legislative moves by Council President Michael Polensek, fronting for Jacobs interests; and Mayor Michael White, fronting for Miller interests, showed that the temperature has risen a degree or two. (Not to discount the continued interests of former Council President George Forbes, long allied with Jacobs.)

First, Polensek introduced legislation to change the deal made between the city and Jacobs in order to ease limitations on the uses of land at the Figgie project called Chagrin Highlands. That could help Jacobs make some quick
moves to profit from the deal.

Second, White proposed that a $9.2-milllion loan to Miller's Forest City be settled early, for $4.6 million. The deal would be similar to the one Miller made on the Halle building loan from the city, in which he paid off a $9.2 million loan for $3.9 million.

A little background history... When Council approved the original Figgie project in 1989, under former Mayor George Voinovich and Council President George Forbes, Dick Jacobs' name never enter the public discussions. However, Jacobs secretly, thanks to George Forbes, became the prime developer of this city land, labeled one of the richest commercial sites between New York City and Chicago. White called Jacobs's involvement with Figgie a "sordid little deal." Who would know better?

White precipitated a lawsuit to force Jacobs out of the Figgie deal. White complained Jacobs wanted to use the prime site for quick development. This wouldn't satisfy the city's desire for office buildings and thus higher income tax revenue from employees. The city would share the income tax revenue. The legal settlement limited Jacobs from developing the city-owned land for most retail uses, the fastest route to the profits Jacobs sought. (In a deposition in the case, Jacobs summed up his greedy outlook: "I believe in the quantum theory of profit to the nth power.")

Some believed White was serving Miller's interests with the attempt to oust Jacobs from Chagrin Highlands. Why? Because Jacobs wanted to develop a luxury shopping center at the same time Beachwood Place, with Miller interests involved, wanted to expand its luxury shopping mall. The Jacobs move could have jeopardized the Beachwood expansion.

Beachwood Place did expand and Jacobs was prevented from offering competition. And the out-of-court settlement between White and Jacobs took place at a time, one might speculate, that helped the mayor keep Jacobs (and thus Forbes) off balance when they might have opposed him politically for re-election. (White eventually didn't run and the Gray case may reveal why.)

Jacobs and Miller interests also fought to provide a site for the new federal court building. Indeed, in 1995, Jacobs went to Washington to former Congressman Louis Stokes, when he was the ranking Democrat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. Jacobs took along Forbes and former Council President and Congressman-turned-lobbyist Jim Stanton, who still keeps his hand in Cleveland politics and money maneuvering. It didn't work. The site chosen was Miller's - and we know that Stokes, upon retirement from Congress - joined Miller's Forest City Enterprises as a board member. Jacobs didn't make the money but Miller-Ratner did.

When you have the mayor you want - as Miller and Ratner did at this time - there are many possibilities for making money.

Miller and Jacobs also locked horns in the area generally called the Bluffs, east of Jacobs's slumping Galleria (since sold). Jacobs during the Voinovich-Forbes era, got hold of two well-sited city properties at E. 12th and St. Clair Avenue, and has held them speculatively for more than 10 years. (Now the PD is reporting Zaremba interests will build housing on this urban renewal land used by developer/speculators since the 1960s and still absent any form of building.) Miller, with White's help, moved to get the city approval for development of the Bluffs, but was blocked because Jim Kassouf owned critical pieces of property. Eventually, neither Jacobs nor Miller was able to develop in this area, much of its old Erieview urban renewal land from the 1950s and '60s, saying much about downtown's economic history.

So, as said in the above 2001 material, access to politicians can pay off handsomely. Here are some of the goodies achieved by Jacobs and the Miller-Ratner contingents as they curry favor from our pols:

     Dick Jacobs...

     - $3.5 million for the Galleria.*
     - $10 million for Key Center.*
     - $10 million for Marriott Hotel.*
     - $2.5 motel for the Mall parking lot adjacent Marriott
     - Tax abatement for the latter three at 100% for 20 years.
     - Managing partnership, Chagrin Highlands, a $530 million project, helped
        by a $138 million in road improvements at I-271.
     - $181 million for Jacobs Field.
     - Corner properties at E. 12th and St. Clair, eventually sold back.

     To the City of Cleveland...
     - Purchase of dead property at E. 9th and Euclid for $22 million by our
        generous County Commissioners.

     Sam Miller & Ratner Families...
     - $10 Million Tower City retail.*
     - $2.7 million Tower City III.*
     - $2.04 million Tower City IIIa.*
     - $7.9 million Ritz Hotel.*
     - Tax abatement 20 years, 100% Ritz Hotel.
     - $9.2 million Tower City-Old Post Office Building.*
     - $9.2 million Halle Office Building.*
     - $69 million RTA Waterfront Line from Tower City to lakefront.
  

*UDAGs (Urban Development Action Grants), typically loans at zero interest and for 20 years. Jacobs and Miller-Ratner used these loans to subsidize projects downtown.
  

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