Maybe The Plain Dealer should stick to reporting news and issuing editorial opinions and stop looking foolish by trying to be a state legislature instead of a newspaper.

The PD's ill-advised attempt to get Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan to lead the charge on "reform" of county government stumbled clumsily with a rebuke from the elected Ohio legislature.

The PD tried to ride a broken-down horse (Hagan) to streamline county government with little apparent thought, less common sense, and arrogance that the newspaper often chastises others for exhibiting.

The newspaper -- with Hagan in the lead and a tag-along Republican Party -- tried to get state legislation to change Cuyahoga County government.  The Ohio Senate, however, felt differently and dumped a "reform" amendment that was hastily attached to other legislation

The PD yowled...

"The Ohio Senate is about to prove that it couldn't care less about the democratic rights of Cuyahoga County residents."

Please.

No, the Ohio Senate saw a poorly thought-out grab to make changes in government that required better judgment and a clearer examination of what was being done.

Hagan, of course, was ready to lead the PD's wagon because he wasn't going to be much effected.  Indeed, his power would have been broadly expanded.  Others might lose their positions but the three County Commissioners -- a big, big part of the problem of patronage, corruption and serious bungling -- would enjoy expanded powers and more patronage sway.

The main objective of the PD's "reform" was to be rid of a number of elected county offices... auditor, treasurer, engineer, sheriff and recorder.

Personally, I have no objection to an elected treasurer who also would be in charge of the recorder and auditor functions also.  That would make sense.

Kathleen Barber, a former political scientist as John Carroll University and author of a previous county reform plan, was right when she said that the proper restructuring requires a single county executive who would have responsibility and accountability to voters.  The voters would have veto power over that executive, too.

Barber led a $241,196 study of County reform in the 1990s.  At the time, she said that the study group had to hire staff to properly examine county government "because the county is so complicated that seven volunteers could not do the research that needs to be done."

The PD, however, believes that sound bites by Hagan offer adequate study and determination of a proper revamping of county government.

More recently, Barber said that she handed her original report to a county commissioner and he turned and put it "on a shelf."  She meant he dismissed it.

Who was that commissioner?  Would it surprise you if I said, Tim Hagan?  Is there any irony that the PD can see here?  Could the editors be that out of touch?

The guidance given to the paper by the PD's editorial boss Brent Larkin has taken the paper in the wrong direction.  Again.

Hasn't PD Editor Susan Goldberg detected the problem with her own staff as related to Hagan... the cozy symbiosis between Hagan and her chief editorial director, Larkin?  This is the kind of relationship that cries out for an end.

This has been part of the problem of poor local government here for years.  Protection has taken place within the news media with the PD in the lead.

Larkin should have been fired by former editor Doug Clifton when it was revealed -- by anonymous letter -- that the PD editorial boss and political pawnbroker was on Dick Jacobs' private plane with the town's elite on a fun trip to Boston in 1999.

Was Larkin to be punished, I asked Clifton at that time...

"None given, none contemplated," was his answer.

Clifton also determined where the expose on his own editor would be played -- certainly not prominently -- and shorter than first contemplated by others.

What made that freebie trip more disgusting was the revelation that Jacobs donned a Ku Klux Klan-style white cloth and pranced around the plane to the delight of his guests.  The KKK exhibition had a certain emotional and political taint to it at that time, since the KKK had demonstrated here and Cleveland Mayor Michael White overreacted in controlling the demonstration.

Jacobs' political servant George Forbes, a foe of White's and fomer Council President, was on the trip and found Jacobs' racial antics amusing.  Forbes said...

"There was no offense meant.  There was no offense taken.  It was not offensive."

Larkin said...

"As far a I know, everybody got a kick out of it."

Some sense of humor, guys.  Not unexpected from the boys in control, however.  I wrote at the time...

"Now you have to remember that these are very sophisticated people.  People whose community of interests calls for some flexibility by us of their righteousness."

The PD was forced to write about Larkin and the trip since the "anonymous" source was thought to be Mayor White himself.  Clifton had recently met with White and urged more openness and responsiveness on the mayor's part to the paper's quests for public information.  It put the PD in a queasy position.  If the PD hadn't used the information about Larkin, there were outlets that could have been more embarrassing to the PD.  I wrote...

"Larkin's closeness to political and business figures -- substantiated by his presence among the elite on the jet headed to Boston for the All-Star game -- surely is subject to skepticism about his editorial judgment along with his ethical behavior."

Now the PD has a choice.  It can make this a newspaper promotion or it can be serious about a serious community problem.  I'd say, dust off the old reform report by Barber and have a new look at it.

If the PD really wants reform -- and I believe it actually does -- then it should go about educating the public with a serious process of its own, rather than writing "tough" but silly editorials aimed at embarrassing certain politicians.

We need honesty on both sides of this street by the newspaper and county reform interests.

As a letter-writer to the PD said...

"It was predictable that the Plain Dealer would go into the tank for the latest hare-brained idea of Commissioner Tim Hagan."

What needs to be understood is that power hunger isn't limited to politicians.  Editors catch the disease, too.  Publishers are susceptible, too.

The PD was on a power trip with County reform.  That doesn't mean it isn't necessary.  It does mean it should be done with some intelligence.

The PD seemed to catch the political illness that substitutes the ability to make something happen for the good judgment necessary to make the right thing happen.

Let's all have another try at County reform.