Coal in their stockings for 2014: Editorial Board Roundtable

A worker holds coal.

FILE -- A worker holds coal at the Petrocom Energy Limited coal facility at Lianyungang port in northern China, June 15, 2010. A dispute spurred by rising coal prices indicates that ChinaOs unique marriage of market competition and government oversight may be starting to fray. (Du Bin/The New York Times)

(Du Bin, The New York Times, AP Photo, File, 2010)

Which individuals or organizations get a lump of coal in their stockings for disappointing Americans, or just the folks in Greater Cleveland -- and our editorial board -- in 2014?

Is it Ed FitzGerald, whose spectacular political meltdown deprived Ohioans of a vigorous gubernatorial campaign? Or Congress, for failing to pass critical tax reform and spending reductions? Or state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann of Napoleon, in northwest Ohio, for stepping up to the plate when it came time to legislate reform to reduce algal blooms near his home in the western basin of Lake Erie -- an area where nearly half a million people lost drinking water for three days in August -- but then proposed withdrawing water from the lake instead

Coal needs a new, nonpolluting market. With that in mind, we issue our inaugural coal awards via our Editorial Board Roundtable, where members of the editorial board weigh in with their personal favorites.

Please nominate your coal awardees in the comments below.

Sharon Broussard, editorial writer, Northeast Ohio Media Group:

So many people; so little time: Let's begin with Mayor Frank Jackson, Safety Director Michael McGrath and former Safety Director Martin Flask, now an executive assistant to the mayor, who refuse to accept that the Cleveland police department needs a massive overhaul from top to bottom, much like the Cleveland public schools is undergoing. Another Cleveland kid should not have to die before that happens.

Also a lump of coal to members of the Ohio General Assembly who want to either micromanage traditional public schools -- intelligent design lessons, anyone? -- or give more money to substandard charter schools but won't spend a second of their time to make sure that Ohio's traditional public schools are equitably funded. Make that a double.

Finally, a lump of coal to those pandering politicians who sneer at regional collaboration and want to hold onto all of their marbles -- police and fire dispatch -- instead of sharing. Every Northeast Ohioan loses when that happens.

Peter Krouse, editorial writer, Northeast Ohio Media Group:

Gov. John Kasich was delivered a gift-wrapped election victory as an early Christmas present, but despite his largely positive performance this year, I give him one lump of coal for allowing anti-renewable energy legislation to become law and for acting immaturely during his joint appearance before the editorial board with gubernatorial opponent Ed FitzGerald.

I also give Mentor-based Steris Corp. one lump of coal for becoming the latest local company to orchestrate a tax inversion, which will shift its headquarters to England and reduce the amount of U.S. taxes it must pay.

I give five lumps of coal to United Airlines for pulling its hub from Cleveland despite all the corporate support it received over the years.

Thomas Suddes, editorial writer:

A scuttle of coal to state Sen. Dave Burke, a Marysville Republican, for sponsoring and getting through the Senate a bill to legalize certain types of fireworks, Senate Bill 386. The bill faltered in the House because, ironically, of a procedural error by one of its backers, Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, a Napoleon Republican.

A CSX coal train for Judges Jeffrey Sutton and Deborah Cook of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for their ruling upholding gay marriage bans in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. The intellectually evasive opinion, written by Sutton, passed the buck to the U.S. Supreme Court rather than offer justice to same-sex couples and their children in Ohio and the other three states.

Christopher Evans, editorial writer, Northeast Ohio Media Group:

Coal is too good for term-limited state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, a Republican from northwest Ohio and the president of a water bottling company, who fearlessly puts his profit margins ahead of the public good. Wachtmann deserves to pull a slimy, neon green Microcystis aeruginosabiomass out of his stocking.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that rogue government agency that has partnered with the bighead and silver carp to destroy the Great Lakes, is also too naughty for coal. No, the Corps has earned a nice big bowl of dredged Cuyahoga River slime flavored with PCBs and other toxics -- the very crud it wants to open-lake-dump in Cleveland harbor.

No coal for Ohio Sen. John Eklund, the Chardon Republican, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and rape culture enabler. No, Eklund needs to volunteer in a rape crisis center and develop empathy for survivors rather contempt. Eklund opposes legislation that would extend the 20-year statute of limitations on the prosecution of sexual assaults. Why? "The crime of rape is not just a perpetrator and victim (who) . . . engaged in an act," Eklund was quoted in The Columbus Dispatch last month. "There has to be force involved, and there's proof required — all of which is more effectively prosecuted the closer to the event that it is." Oh, and FYI, Eklund: Physical force does not always have to be involved.

Elizabeth Sullivan, opinion director, Northeast Ohio Media Group:

Great scuttles-full of coal to all those politicians on both sides of the aisle who'd rather lob partisan bombs (and accept lobbyists' largesse) than work together to find solutions that help average citizens. The toxic algal-blooms fiasco is one example -- even after nearly half a million Ohioans lost drinking water last summer, state lawmakers proved incapable of agreeing on acceptable compromise legislation. Ohio's shameful failure to enact adequate oversight laws for dysfunctional for-profit charter schools is another.

Instead of coal, let's send the giant bill coming due for excess carbon emissions to state Sen. Bill Seitz, of Greater Cincinnati, whose irrational animus against renewable and wind energy helped propel misguided Senate Bill 310 freezing the state's renewable and efficiency mandates -- and costing Ohio investments and jobs, while leaving it less able to comply with possible federal carbon standards.

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