Sunday, March 26, 2000
Does florist's guarantee pass the smell test?
BY LAURA PULFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
We got a whiff of something last week. Was it the scent of roses? Or fertilizer?
It appeared that the city of Cincinnati might hand over $2.5 million to keep a florist from packing up its tea roses and leaving town. Jones the Florist, a 135-year-old company, does deliver a good posy, but it's not as if there aren't 185 other florists poised and ready to take our order.
So what's going on here?
I started pawing through my Rolodex, trying to decide whom to call first. Maybe a bureaucrat. Perhaps someone with the Shamelessly Squandering Taxpayer Dollars Department. I accidentally dialed the Throwing Money Down the Wrong Pothole Division and got a recording. They must be in conference with the FBI, which is sleuthing around in search of nearly $15 million in missing road repairs.
Batsakes and Kathman's
I have an unlisted number for the Bureau of Screwups and Red Tape, which often rings directly into the office of the Agency for Sending Business Across the River. I collected this number when I was working on a story about the produce vendors displaced by the stadium construction.
Maybe I could get an answer from the Department of Making It Nearly Impossible to Do Business with the City of Cincinnati. I dealt with these people during the days of Fountain Square West. I considered telephoning my contact in the Department Dedicated to the Eradication of Family Firms and Homogenizing Downtown. That name is tucked in my Batsakes Hat Shop and Kathman's Shoe Repair files.
The direct approach
On the other hand, maybe I could just call JoLynn Gustin, who owns Jones the Florist. She answered on the first ring.
I asked about all the public money making its way to her store. Millions. Right? There was an unusual sound on the other end of the phone. I think it was a cross between a laugh and a sigh.
“In my dreams,” she said politely.
The resolution approved by Cincinnati's City Council last Wednesday was simply insurance. Or maybe — given the city's modern history — reassurance. “I have not cost the city a dime,” she says. “And I don't expect that we will.”
Ms. Gustin says her company, which has four locations and will open a fifth in April, has outgrown its Walnut Hills headquarters. In January, she secured an option for the IGA building in Oakley and started jumping though the municipal hoops.
(These are my words, not hers.)
She says carefully that “we did what we were told to do and were given some erroneous information.” She wouldn't have the necessary permit from the Oakley Environmental Quality District before she had to buy the building. City representatives promised she'd get the permit, but they just couldn't get the paperwork done in time.
Bottom line, Ms. Gustin?
“I just didn't dare risk $2.5 million on another uh-oh.”
So, the city agreed to put its promise in writing.
That's all?
“That's all,” says Cincinnati City Councilman Todd Portune. “This is one example where the city worked very hard to keep a successful business.” The resolution passed Wednesday agrees to buy the IGA building from Jones the Florist if the promised permit doesn't materialize.
City Manager John Shirey says it is unlikely this will happen. Considering that the permit will be issued by somebody who works for him, he speaks with some authority.
So, if the bureaucrats, led by Deputy City Manager Richard Mendes, hadn't stepped forward to shuffle a few papers, we might be waving goodbye to another — excuse the expression — home-grown company. Losing money. Losing character. Losing face.
Instead, Oakley will get a new tenant for its IGA building. One without smokestacks. Somebody who has a history of being a good neighbor.
After sifting through the fertilizer, it appears that there might be some good news buried here.
Laura Pulfer's column appears in the Enquirer on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. E-mail her at laurapulfer@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8393 or fax 768-8340. She can be heard Monday mornings on WVXU radio (91.7 FM), and as a regular commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.