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Should County Commissioner Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

I think if he were honest, he would have.

Tim Hagan, it is well known, is a friend of the Kennedy family.

He basks in the Kennedy connection. In his home, there are photographs of him with the Kennedys along with numerous photos of his family, according to an article by Tom Diemer of The Plain Dealer.

Hagan’s sales tax hike will help directly the business of Christopher Kennedy, president of Merchandize Mart Properties and an officer of its controlling corporation, Vornado Realty Trust, a publicly traded real estate investment trust. He is the son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy.

The medical mart is the lure to catch a convention center and key to the spending of hundreds of millions of public dollars for what will be a great tax drain.

Christopher, it is said, is the Kennedy who is most like granddaddy Joe.

Jake Tapper in 1999 wrote in Salon...

“The clear heir to the Joseph P. Kennedy type-A businessman’s trophy, Christopher, last year sold the world’s largest wholesale design center, the Merchandize Mart, which Joseph P. Kennedy bought for $12.5 million in 1945 sold for $625 million.”

Christopher seems well heeled, doesn’t he? Guess he can afford the sale taxes.

Should Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

Hagan seems to gravitate to such wealth. He rose in Cuyahoga County primarily because of his association with the powerful Carney family, having married the daughter of John Carney, brother of Jim Carney.

He became a co-dependent of the Kennedys after he helped Ted Kennedy screw up the re-election for Jimmy Carter against Ronald Reagan.

Hagan quickly blessed the hurried primary attempt by fellow Democrat Kennedy to push President Carter aside. Hagan, as Democratic Party chairman of Cuyahoga County, did this by providing Kennedy with an early endorsement of this important county in Democratic primary races. It was symbolic of the same first-in-the-nation endorsement of John Kennedy by the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party that some credit with propelling JFK to the Democratic primary victory and the Presidency in 1960.

Hagan was making the same bold move despite the fact that this time the President was already a Democrat. It helped elect Ronald Reagan.

However, this move didn’t work, except for Hagan. He became a darling of the Kennedy clan.

Hagan is close enough to the family to be the godfather of Caroline Kennedy Townsend’s daughter, Kate.

Should Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

Yes, he should have.  It makes it a bit unseemly for Hagan to push through -- without a vote -- a $40 million tax for 20 years, or an $800 million tax on us for a family friend.

Hagan, however, has become accustomed to the casual use of public money for private gain.  He did the exact same thing with Gateway.  Rushed ahead with a project before he knew what WE were paying for it.  Thus, the Gund brothers and Dick Jacobs took US for a very expensive ride, thanks to Tim.  He had no other choice but to meet their needs after passage of the sin tax, as the County will have no choices with the medical mart and convention center after already assessing the tax. We will have to add new taxes to pay the bills.

It’s a game Hagan has played before.

Should Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

That would have been the honorable thing to do. However, that quality long ago left Tim Hagan.

Hagan’s return to politics was unexpected. He retired as County Commissioner in 1998...

“I’m in the twilight of a mediocre career,” he told the PD self-deprecatingly but truthfully, “But I’m looking forward to going to the grocery store without someone asking me for a job.”

Poor harassed Tim.

He moved, as the PD noticed, as far from the city of Cleveland one could and still be in Cuyahoga County to a “$200,000, 2,400-square foot house he designed in Olmsted Township.” It had 18 acres but he sold 12 behind the house.

Hagan bragged that a new job – that would take only three or four days a month in work – would pay more than the $65,000 he earned as Commissioner, according to the PD story.

He was an advisor to the very wealthy Mandel brothers and their Mandel Foundations. He also lined up, as only these compliant politicians can, other work, as a consultant to MetroHealth Medical Center and work as a creator of a “civic forum” at Cleveland State University on urban sprawl and race relations, again according to the PD.

“The job makes him eligible for a $40,000 annual state pension,” said the story. Hagan, according to his 2007 Ohio Ethics Committee report, collects that pension along with his double-dipping salary as Commissioner. However, the report notes he now holds none of the aforementioned jobs.

“I have relief in my heart,” Hagan is quoted saying of his “retirement” in conclusion to a PD Sunday Magazine piece.

However, though a long-time Democrat was running for re-election, the retired Hagan decided he had to have his job back. He ran against Tim McCormack and won.

McCormack had alienated some of Cleveland’s movers and shakers by tilting and balking against a convention center.  His recalcitrance reflected his similarly correct position on Gateway.  McCormack did not officially oppose either but he had not been politically supple enough to go along, as Hagan did.

Was this the reason Hagan (shown here, sucking up to disgraced ex-Gov. Bob Taft) ran against McCormack?  Was he carrying water again for the Downtown Gang?

It certainly appears so.

He added, apparently, a friend to the party.  A Kennedy.

Should Tim Hagan have recused himself from voting for the sales tax increase that will benefit his friend Christopher Kennedy?

I think he did a double-dealing double deal against McCormack and for Kennedy and the Cleveland Downtown Gang.

Hagan engineered the sales tax increase passage at the end of July, giving minor opponents the difficult task of raising 45,000 valid signatures in the middle of a hot summer. It is political engineering by a contemptible public figure, who poses as a respectable liberal.

The question is... Can he get away with it with the voters of Cuyahoga County?