Realm Fall 2020 - The Journal for Queen City CEOs

CIN L NA EC EAD TI R ON ER EG OM S F ION IC OC BU RE US S CO ON INE VE SS RY

CIN

FALL 2020

YOUR PARTNER TODAY AND TOMORROW

YOUR PARTNER TODAY AND TOMORROW

The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber® is your partner today and tomorrow. Throughout its history, the Chamber has been steadfast through good and bad times, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the businesses thatpartner sustaintoday the Cincinnati region’s economy.its The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber® is your and tomorrow.

Throughout history, the Chamber has been steadfast through good and bad times, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with theofbusinesses that sustain the Cincinnati region’s economy.

Serving as a bold voice for the interests our nearly 4,000-member businesses, the Cincinnati Regional Chamber: Δ Advances the adoption of inclusive practices in workplaces. Δ Develops culturally competent leaders and more equitable Δ Advances region. the adoption of inclusive practices in workplaces. Δ Develops culturally competent leaders and more equitable Δ Expands the region’s talent base with innovative solutions. region. Δ Facilitates connections to industry leaders. Δ Expands the region’s talent base with innovative solutions.

Offers best-in-class leadership development ΔΔ Facilitates connections to industry leaders. programs to cultivate civic-minded, change agent leaders.programs to Δ Offers best-in-class leadership development leaders. Δ cultivate Provides civic-minded, access to Costchange Savingagent Programs.

Δ Produces favorite community events, like Asian Food Fest, Bud Light Tailgate Zone, BLINK™, Oktoberfest Zinzinnati®, Δ Produces community events, like Asian Food Fest, and Taste favorite of Cincinnati®.

Light Tailgate Zone, BLINK™, Oktoberfest Zinzinnati®, Δ Bud Serves as your advocate for policies that make our region and Taste of Cincinnati®. more economically competitive. Δ Serves as your advocate for policies that make our region Δ more Supports minority business owners build wealth and economically competitive. uncover opportunities for growth. Δ Supports minority business owners build wealth and

Serving as a bold voice for the interests of our nearly 4,000-member businesses, the Cincinnati Regional Chamber:

Δ

uncover opportunities for growth.

Provides access to Cost Saving Programs.

cincinnatichamber.com/yourpartner cincinnatichamber.com/yourpartner

We We saved saved aa seat for you Andthere's there'snever neverbeen beenaabetter bettertime timeto toride ride--new new buses, buses, free free Wi-Fi Wi-Fi and Transit with And EZFarefor forcontactless contactlessfare farepayment, payment,trip tripplanning planning and and real-time real-time information information right on EZFare yoursmartphone. smartphone.Coming ComingininSeptember: September:the thenew new Northside Northside Transit Transit Center. your

Tolearn learnmore moreabout abouthow howMetro Metrocan candrive driveyour yourbusiness, business, To contactRidership RidershipDevelopment DevelopmentManager Manager contact KarlynWade-Richardson Wade-Richardsonat at513-632-7568.

513-632-7568.

Karlyn

ReinventingMetro.com ReinventingMetro.com

Helping Business Leaders Make Confident Decisions in an Uncertain World The scope, scale and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global marketplace is unlike anything corporate America has witnessed.

Corporate leaders must ensure worker safety while protecting profits, driving operational resiliency and preserving investment liquidity.

As a global leader in risk management, human capital consulting and retirement and investment, Aon can help your firm navigate the challenges and complexities of COVID-19.

While we are global in scope, Aon has offices in Ohio to drive distinct – and local – solutions for Ohio businesses.

Visit aon.com/coronavirus to access our COVID-19 Response and Return to Workplace Tool Kits and to learn more about our COVID-19 Readiness Assessment approach.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

C I N C I N N AT I USA REGIONAL CHAMBER 04 LETTER FROM JILL MEYER

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Brendon Cull

08 BY THE NUMBERS

How Black economic activity measures up

THE JUMP 12 FOOD &

BEVERAGE

PANDEMIC PIVOT

How Brain Brew Custom Whiskey switched to the hand sanitizer business.

14 PHILANTHROPY A UNITED RESPONSE

Moira Weir jumped in to lead United Way’s impressive community aid efforts.

16 TALENT INCLUSIVE BOOST

The Workforce Innovation Center helps businesses build inclusivity into their rebuilds.

PG. 07

PRESIDENT AND CEO Jill P. Meyer

10 MEET EDDIE KOEN

CEO of the Urban League of Greater Southwest Ohio

18 TECHNOLOGY REACHING OUT

VICE PRESIDENT, STRATEGIC MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Danielle Wilson TRAFFIC MANAGER Tracey Brachle BOARD CHAIR Molly North, President and CEO, Al. Neyer CHAMBER OFFICE 3 E. Fourth St. Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 579-3100 All contents © 2020 Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. The contents cannot be reproduced in any manner, whole or in part, without written permission from the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

Hillman Accelerator focuses on unique startups.

20 HEALTHCARE FINDING A CURE St. Elizabeth joins a national COVID clinical drug trial.

22 BRANDING COIN OF THE REALM BS LLC builds brands through relationships.

DEEP DIVES

24

MANUFACTURING

SWEET SUCCESS

Perfetti Van Melle expands its Northern Kentucky footprint.

PG. 58

PG. 27

28

PREPARING FOR THE NEXT NORMAL Cincinnati’s economy has radically shifted in the past months. How are large corporations and small businesses alike responding?

37

HELPING MINORITY-OWNED BUSINESSES THRIVE The Minority Business Accelerator’s supportive ecosystem has become a national model.

58 PHOTO ESSAY: WATERFIELDS An indoor farm takes root and grows.

62 ASK ME ABOUT

Burning questions with Joe Lanni of Thunderdome Restaurant Group, Archie Brown of First Financial Bank, and Barbara Smith of Journey Steel.

64 BACK PAGE

A reawakening on Fountain Square.

ON THE COVER

Photograph by Aaron M. Conway, Hair/ Makeup Megan Hines, Model Courtesy Heyman Talent Artists Agency

45

RECONNECTING THE REGION An oral history from those who led the five-year journey to pass Issue 7 and improve Cincinnati’s public transit system.

52

CROWD SOURCE Looking at how regional government consolidation has worked in Louisville, Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Nashville.

P H O T O G R A P H S BY ( T O P ) C O U R T E SY P E R F E T T I VA N M E L L E , ( M I D D L E ) RYA N B A C K , ( B O T T O M ) L A N C E A D K I N S

PUBLISHER Ivy Bayer EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Fox DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Amanda Boyd Walters ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lauren Fisher EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Amy Brownlee, Leanne Stahulak DESIGN DIRECTOR Brittany Dexter ART DIRECTORS Carlie Burton, Zachary Ghaderi, Jen Kawanari, Paisley Stone, Emi Villavicencio, Stephanie Youngquist ART INTERN Emma Theis ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES Laura Bowling, Paige Bucheit, Julie Poyer SENIOR MANAGER, SPONSORSHIP SALES Chris Ohmer PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Vu Luong EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING Email cmletters@cincinnatimagazine.com Website cincinnatimagazine.com Phone (513) 421-4300 Subscriptions (800) 846-4333

P H O T O 2020 G R A P H BYREALM TKTKTK 3 FALL

WELCOME

elcome to Realm.

The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, in partnership with Cincinnati Magazine, created this publication exclusively for you: Cincinnati region CEOs who want in-depth, irreplaceable knowledge and insights about the critical issues that most impact our community now and moving forward.

We live in a time with no shortage of news and commentary. Yet, if you’re like me, you crave a deeper analysis of important issues impacting our economy and your business. You want details, facts, context, and an understanding of potential impacts to help inform the decisions you make every day.

With so much happening in the Cincinnati region right now, you have more to sort through and less time to do it. You need a resource providing a trusted, objective, and complete perspective on what’s most important.

Our first issue was scheduled to publish in April; alas, the world turned upside down. Now, the timing is right. While we aren’t out of the woods in battling our collective health and economic challenges, we at the Chamber are laser-focused on supporting your businesses through this difficult era. As all of us work through the effects of a global pandemic and the imperative to drive greater racial equity, our region is poised to grow and thrive in this stillyoung century.

Realm will arrive in your office quarterly, free.

After you read this issue, drop me a line to let me know what you think and what we should tell you about next.

Thanks for your investment in the Cincinnati region and the people who call it home. With your leadership, our brightest days are ahead.

JILL P. MEYER jill.meyer@cincinnatichamber.com

4 REALM FALL 2020

P H O T O G R A P H BY A A R O N M . C O N WAY / H A I R A N D M A K E U P BY M E G A N H I N E S

Dividends… the freedom to

Silence the Uncertainty.

For more than 30 years, our mission has been to grow income through dividends, protect hard-earned wealth, and help clients achieve their most important goals.

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INDIVIDUALS | INSTITUTIONS | FINANCIAL ADVISORS

TOGETHER, WE CAN POWER THROUGH THIS CRISIS. Our communities are working hard to rebuild business as usual, and while much progress has been made, many uncertainties remain. Here are some of the ways we’re here to help your business power through this next phase.

■

Flexible extended payment arrangements: Offering businesses behind on their bills more time to catch up.

Go to: duke-energy.com/Extension.

■

Business Energy Advisors: Analysis of your energy use and recommendations to lower your bill from our energy professionals. Get started at duke-energy.com/business/products/energy-advisor.

■

Grants for minority- and women-owned businesses: Working with the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce to award grants that support our vital small business community.

WHAT WE’RE DOING:

We are committed to helping your business get through this safely and with the lights on.

THE JUMP

BRAIN BREW PIVOTS TO BOTTLING HAND SANITIZER DURING THE PANDEMIC. P H O T O G R A P H BY D E V Y N G L I S TA

Get a jump on news about Hillman Accelerator, Perfetti Van Melle, and St. Elizabeth. Learn how to restart your business inclusively and why this publication is named Realm. Meet new CEOs Eddie Koen (Urban League) and Moira Weir (United Way).

FALL 2020 REALM 7

THE JUMP

ANNUAL INCOME

U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 1-Year Estimates

AFRICAN AMERICAN AGGREGATE INCOME PER YEAR = $6 BILLION 8%

REGION’S TOTAL 79% AGGREGATE INCOME PER YEAR = $75 BILLION

There are slightly more than 250,000 Black residents of the 16-county Cincinnati region, or 12.1% of the total population. Here is a statistical snapshot of how their economic well-being compares to other ethnic groups and the region as a whole.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE (DURING COVID-19 SHUTDOWN) Bureau of Labor Statistics

Statistics provided by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s Center for Research & Data.

= 10,000

14.6%

U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates

12.9%

80% OF THE REGION’S BLACK RESIDENTS LIVE IN HAMILTON COUNTY

12.0%

9.2%

24.5%

11.8%

AFRICAN AMERICANS

BLACK

U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 1-Year Estimates

OVERALL REGION

EDUCATION (BACHELOR’S DEGREE OR HIGHER)

0%

JULY 2020

HOUSING

U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 1-Year Estimates

ASIAN

POVERTY RATE

HISPANIC OR LATINO

10%

WHITE

POPULATION

20%

U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 1-Year Estimates

RENTER-OCCUPIED

OWNER-OCCUPIED

34%

ADULTS IN OVERALL REGION BLACK ADULTS

35%

22%

34%

16.9%

65%

2013

8 REALM FALL 2020

2018

2018

BLACK RESIDENTS

66%

OVERALL REGION

ECONOMIC GROWTH STARTS HERE. • For every dollar spent on training employees at Cincinnati State’s WDC, businesses receive a $33 ROI. • 85% of Cincinnati State’s alumni remain in the regional economy.

• Cincinnati State and its students support one out of every 134 jobs in the area.

Cincinnati State has been a part of every economic recovery in our region for over 50 years and will continue to lead workforce development through exceptional real-world, hands-on learning, quality transfer education and technical training.

Start by accelerating the potential of your employees through our Workforce Development Center (WDC): Amy Waldbillig, Vice President, Workforce Development (513)569-1643 or amy.waldbillig@ cincinnatistate.edu

$75 million

Operations Spending Impact

$10.3 million

Student Spending Impact

$571.9 million Alumni Impact

$657.2 million TOTAL IMPACT

10,303

JOBS SUPPORTED data was derived independently by EMSI

CINCINNATISTATE.EDU (513) 861-7700

THE JUMP

TALENT

A CRITICAL JUNCTURE

WITH A BACKGROUND IN CIVIL RIGHTS AS WELL AS FINANCE, EDDIE KOEN IS A BEACON OF HOPE AT THE URBAN LEAGUE. — B I L L T H O M P S O N

E

Eddie Koen arrived in Cincinnati last fall, thrilled for professional and personal reasons to be the new president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Southwest Ohio. Almost a year later, the position hasn’t been close to what he imagined, but he remains excited instead of deterred.

When Koen was named to succeed Donna Jones Baker, who stepped down for health reasons after 15 years, his to-do list didn’t include navigating the intersection of a global pandemic and far-reaching protests of systemic racism.

“Think about this,” he says. “Since March, the only thing Black people have heard is 1) you’re sick and you’re dying; 2) you’re getting killed by the police; and 3) you have no jobs in your community. When that is amplified through social media and through the media, it’s imperative to create a counter-narrative, because in many ways the data doesn’t lie.”

Leading the organization that represents Cincinnati, Dayton, and Northern Kentucky, Koen says he’s found the region’s African American community to be resilient, with incredible talent and energy. “We know the truth of what’s really happening in our community,” he says. “They made masks if they couldn’t find them. They created hand sanitizer when none were available.”

Koen, 40, was born in Chicago and graduated from the University of Alabama, followed by a master’s in public administration at Alabama-Birmingham and a law degree from Samford University. He worked for Bryan Stevenson (author of the book Just Mercy, which became a major studio film) at the Equal Justice Initiative. Koen was later managing partner of SeedIM Ventures, a private equity firm that helps vulnerable populations, then chief of staff for Denver Public Schools and chief impact officer for Mile High United Way of Denver.

He was also active in the Urban League in 10 REALM FALL 2020

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Alabama and Colorado, and knew he would like to work for the organization if the right job became available. “I was intimately familiar with the Urban League,” he says. “It’s a civil rights organization but centers on financial and economic opportunity, so for me and my background it’s a perfect marriage.” Koen’s wife, Andria, is from Alabama, so relocating to the Midwest seemed ideal.

Koen says he’s inherently optimistic. He is directing the Urban League’s resources to help the most vulnerable citizens in the face of the current crises, and is encouraged by words he’s heard and actions he’s seen. “To see the mantle of I’m going to walk alongside you and use my social capital to do it is a powerful accelerant,” Koen says of companies and individuals publicly supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. “This is the first time we’ve had almost 70 percent of Americans actually agree with or like the phrase. We are at such a critical juncture.

We’ll all look back at 2020 years from now and ask, Where were you, and what were you doing?”

“It’s imperative to create a counternarrative about these crises, because in many ways the data doesn’t lie.”

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY U R B A N L E A G U E O F G R E AT E R S O U T H W E S T O H I O

8/27/20 3:03 PM

HEALTHY BY DESIGN

THE HEALTH COLLABORATIVE IS A MEMBERSHIP COMMUNITY WORKING TOGETHER TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND HEALTHCARE AND RESILIENCY IN OUR REGION. TOGETHER, WE ADDRESS HEALTHCARE CHALLENGES THAT NO ONE ORGANIZATION CAN SOLVE ALONE THROUGH CONVENING AND NETWORKING, OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS, MARKET INTELLIGENCE, REAL TIME DATA, AND INVESTING IN THE FUTURE.

COVID-19 Pandemic REGIONAL RESPONSE

Ì From PPE allocation, regional communication streams, to establishing over 20 workgroups, data analysis and connecting healthcare, public health, and government entities, The Health Collaborative has operated as a backbone organization for the Greater Cincinnati COVID-19 response.

Ì Our data and informatics division has 3.5 million patients in its Master Patient Index and transmits more than 15 million clinical messages each month to more than 9,000 providers, connecting providers, payers and health systems to the right information at the right time.

Ì Gen-H, or the Health Generation, makes health and healthcare a value we all share. Gen-H seeks to thoughtfully design an equitable and accessible health and healthcare system that reflects the exceptional healthcare resources of our region.

Ì TAP Health programs allow high school students to “tap” into the potential in pursuing careers in medicine and healthcare.

Join us in improving health and healthcare healthcollab.org/membership

THE JUMP

FOOD & BEVERAGE

BRAIN BREW CLEANS UP When concern about COVID-19 started to escalate in February, Brain Brew Custom Whiskey owner Doug Hall got ahead of the game.

“My daughter is an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” he says. “[She said] this was coming and would be a big issue.” Brain Brew kept daily operations going at its Newtown distillery, but employees also masked up to bottle hand sanitizer for local organizations, first responders, and area hospitals.

—SARAH M. MULLINS

P&G PARTNERSHIP

Brain Brew converted bottling and packaging equipment to create and donate 375,000 8-oz. bottles of hand sanitizer, or more than 3 million ounces total. Procter & Gamble made and delivered the product in 55-gallon drums.

BLOWING UP

“If you’re handling a high-alcohol product like this, you have to have an explosion-proof facility,” says Hall. “As a distillery, we do.” He says their first run of hand sanitizer was scooped up in an hour.

ONGOING NEED

Donations paid employees, provided supplies, and allowed the operation to keep going. Originally slated to phase out in May, production continued through the summer.

TASTE OF SUCCESS

When Brain Brew’s retail liquor store reopened in June, sales were triple their best month last year. “A lot of people were just there to say thank you,” says Hall.

12 REALM FALL 2020

P H O T O G R A P H BY D E V Y N G L I S TA

FALL 2020 REALM 13

THE JUMP

PHILANTHROPY

A UNITED APPROACH With vulnerable populations struggling due to the pandemic, United Way CEO Moira Weir was ready to take action on her first day on the job.

–SARAH M. MULLINS

Leadership roles matter most during a crisis, and Moira Weir jumped in right away to steer United Way of Greater Cincinnati after being named CEO. From a partnership with the Greater Cincinnati Foundation that raised $7 million for community organizations to focusing on the 211 hotline helping individuals in need, United Way helped lead Cincinnati’s response to COVID-19. “We had to start and do it quickly,” she says. “We wanted

to make sure we were nimble in responses.”

Weir isn’t new to tackling social and economic challenges. Her 27 years with the Hamilton County Jobs and Family Services division prepared her for a new chapter with United Way, and with the pandemic crisis at hand she clocked in at United Way a week early in March. “I became Jobs and Family Services director just before the recession hit, and our caseloads doubled, from

14 REALM FALL 2020

one in 12 to one in six,” says Weir.

“I can guarantee you those same families are being hit hard because of COVID.” More than 16,000 layoffs and furloughs were reported in the Cincinnati area in April, and the unemployment rate rose from 4.4 percent to 14.1 percent between March and April.

First-time benefit applicants faced a 45-day waiting period that left uncertainty surrounding food, shelter, and other

necessities. To address immediate needs, United Way deployed $160,000 in gift cards and more than a million masks and hand sanitizer from Procter & Gamble. United Way partnered with Meals on Wheels to ensure seniors facing isolation due to stay-athome restrictions received food and a donation of iPads to allow virtual connections with their families.

The pandemic also exacerbated existing disparities in minority populations, who faced increased risk of contacting COVID-19. Essential workers often had to decide between risking exposure at work to earn a paycheck or sheltering in place to follow social distancing protocols. “People who have jobs like mine, I can work from home, but not everyone has that luxury,” says Weir. “Childcare is always a huge is-

sue, and of course with education and the digital divide, how many families didn’t have technology and internet service?”

United Way allocated $600,000 in Black Empowerment Works grants to fund 29 local entrepreneurs and organizations to launch or strengthen anti-poverty initiatives. Weir says United Way’s work with minority groups is more important than ever.

“I don’t consider

myself an expert on equity and race, but I am willing to show up and seek to understand and do better,” she says.

“Now is the time to challenge yourself and think through what we’re doing as a community.”

United Way launched its annual workplace fundraising campaign three months early in May with double the goal: $50 million by the end of 2020. P&G agreed to match the first $1 million raised.

HANDS ON United Way CEO Moira Weir led efforts to (above) connect personally with isolated seniors and (below) donate gift cards.

P H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E SY U N I T E D WAY

You take care of business, we’ll help take care of you.

Wealth management is a demanding job, and you already have one of those.

We’ll help grow your personal wealth, so you can focus on growing your business and enjoying life.

Let’s talk about your future today.

THE JUMP

WORKFORCE TOOLKIT USE INTERNAL SURVEYS AND DATA TO PLOT A MORE PRODUCTIVE RESTART.

TALENT

INCLUSIVE BOOST FOR THE ECONOMY Embracing inclusive practices can improve the region’s talent base and overall economy.

—SARAH M. MULLINS

incinnati struggled with a high child poverty rate before COVID-19 and an increased focus on racial disparities highlighted how fragile many people’s lives are.

Recognizing that companies have an opportunity to improve lives through quality jobs with supportive policies, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber launched the Workforce Innovation Center in 2019 to help them create opportunity for employees, reduce poverty, and benefit their business. “Companies and businesses can be a catalyst for economic mobility to help employees grow and advance, which will help families move out of poverty,” says Julia Poston, Chair of the Workforce Innovation Center Advisory Board.

The business-centered angle to increase economic mobility garnered national attention and helped the City of Cincinnati and the Workforce Innovation Center get selected as one of 10 cities in the What Works Cities Economic Mobility Initiative. Sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Ballmer Group, the program has provided resources and support for the Center to build a consultative approach in helping companies adopt more inclusive practices, including racial equity. Area businesses can better examine their current practices and find opportunities to improve them, ultimately helping companies to attract, retain, and develop a premier workforce that supports employees and the bottom line alike. “At the end of the day, this is a community-focused effort to both move the needle on poverty and help the economy,” says Poston. “If business leaders embrace more inclusive practices as they restart activity coming out of the pandemic, we’re going to boost the Cincinnati economy as a whole.”

C

16 REALM FALL 2020

The Workforce Innovation Center offers three diagnostic tools for businesses to assess their current state of inclusivity, as well as 120-plus recommendations for driving a more inclusive workplace. “You think you know what you know, until someone comes in with an objective eye,” says Liza Smitherman, Vice President of Professional Development at Jostin Construction, about the self-evaluation tools. “You can see your strengths and analyze the gaps and why you have them.”

THE ASSESSMENT TOOLS INCLUDE: Internal Survey: Companies can capture employee needs and desires and deeper insights around hiring and onboarding, benefits, promotions, and advances. “You’re taking the company’s pulse from an employee point of view,” says Poston.

Data Analysis: Dig into human resource details like gender, ethnicity, and wage information that’s often

already on file in order to benchmark against other companies in the same industry and set goals to improve.

Review Current Policies: Take a fresh look at internal procedures to ensure inclusive practices are incorporated in all aspects of a business. For example, if a company finds in its survey and data analysis a low retention rate due to transportation hurdles, a database of potential new internal policies can be accessed to help combat the problem.

“The employee metrics and survey results will inform what business policies are and what makes them better,” says Smitherman, Vice Chair of the Workforce Innovation Advisory Board. “It’s not that we haven’t put policies in place or done surveys, but this Inclusive Restart support will offer specific recommendations to get these problems turned around.”

—S.M.M. Learn more at Cincinnati Chamber.com/Workforce InnovationCenter.

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY E M M A T H E I S

Talent Talent Trends Trends 2020 2020 The The historically historically low low The historically low unemployment rates The historically low unemployment rates unemployment rates that kicked off 2020 unemployment rates that kicked off 2020 that kicked off 2020 have swung that kicked have swungoff 2020 have swung upward dramatically have swung upward dramatically dramatically upward since the coronavirus dramatically upward since the coronavirus since the coronavirus hit.

Here are since the coronavirus hit. Here are some some hit.

Here are some of the trends we’re hit.

Here are some of the trends we’re of the trends we’re seeing as organizations of the trends we’re seeing as organizations seeing as organizations return to a more seeing as organizations return to a more usual usual return to a more usual operating environment. return to a more usual operating environment. operating environment.

Want to learn more? operating environment.

Want to learn more?

Want to learn more?

Let’s talk.

Want to learn Let’s talk. more?

Let’s talk.

Let’s talk.

ORGANIZATIONS STRUGGLE ORGANIZATIONS TO FIND TALENT STRUGGLE ORGANIZATIONS TO FIND TALENT STRUGGLE ORGANIZATIONS TO FIND TALENT STRUGGLE Despite higher unemployment, organizations TO FIND TALENT are having a hard time filling open positions.

Nervousness about returning to the workplace and the responsibility of being a caregiver are keeping some eligible workers on the sidelines.

EMPLOYER BRAND EMPLOYER BRAND REMAINS CRITICAL EMPLOYER BRAND REMAINS CRITICAL EMPLOYER BRAND The way your organization has treated REMAINS CRITICAL The way your organization has treated employees during these past few months REMAINS CRITICAL The way your organization has treated

employees during these past few months may say more to prospective job candidates The way your organization has treated employees during these past few months may say more to prospective job candidates than benefits and perks. employees during these past few months may say more to prospective job candidates than benefits and perks. may say moreand to prospective job candidates than benefits perks. than benefits and perks.

CULTURE GETS CULTURE GETS A REFRESH CULTURE GETS A REFRESH CULTURE GETS As REFRESH more organizations extend remote work A As more organizations extend remote work options they’ll need to seriously consider A REFRESH As more organizations extend remote work

options they’lland need to seriously how to adapt translate their consider culture into As more organizations extend remote work options they’ll need to seriously consider how to adapt and translate their culture into this new environment. options they’ll need to seriously consider how to adapt and translate their culture into this new environment. how to adapt and translate their culture into this new environment. this new environment.

EMPLOYEES LOOK EMPLOYEES LOOK FOR PURPOSE EMPLOYEES LOOK FOR PURPOSE EMPLOYEES LOOK The pandemic has shifted priorities and FOR PURPOSE The pandemic has shifted priorities FOR PURPOSE more candidates are telling us they and want

The pandemic hasare shifted priorities and more candidates telling us they to make a difference.

For some this want means The pandemic hasare shifted priorities and more candidates telling us they want to make a difference.

For some this working for a nonprofit, but even means more candidates are telling us they to make a difference.

Forbut some this want means working for a nonprofit, even for-profits can attract them by identifying to make a difference.

For some this means working forcan a nonprofit, but by even for-profits attract them identifying a strong value proposition. working a nonprofit, but by even for-profits can attract them identifying a strong for value proposition. for-profits can proposition. attract them by identifying a strong value a strong value proposition.

BABY BOOMERS BABY BOOMERS STEP ASIDE BABY BOOMERS STEP ASIDE BABY BOOMERS With uncertainty around the coronavirus, STEP ASIDE With around coronavirus, someuncertainty senior leaders may the decide now is the STEP ASIDE With uncertainty around the coronavirus,

some senior leaders may decide now is the time to retire.

Organizations need to ensure With uncertainty around coronavirus, some senior leaders may the decide now is the time to retire.

Organizations need to ensure next-level leaders are prepared to step up. some senior leaders may decide now is up. the time to retire.

Organizations need to ensure next-level leaders are prepared to step time to retire.

Organizations need ensure next-level leaders are prepared to to step up. next-level leaders are prepared to step up.

THE JUMP

TECHNOLOGY

STARTING UP, REACHING OUT Hillman Accelerator finds success focusing on equity for startups run by underrepresented groups.

–AIESHA D. LITTLE

If you’re in the business of startups in the Midwest, you’ve probably come across Candice Matthews Brackeen. As cofounder and executive director of Hillman Accelerator, the University of Cincinnati graduate has spent the last three and a half years making sure her investment company provides underrepresented tech-enabled startups with the mentorship, curriculum, investment, opportunities, and resources they need to scale, grow, and thrive.

The nationally recognized accelerator takes its name from the fictional college that served as the sitcom setting for A Different World, a television beacon of Black excellence in late 1980s and early ’90s. Brackeen cofounded Hillman with Dhani Jones and Ebow Vroom 18 REALM FALL 2020

in 2017 after seeing little to no diversity among the founders of companies accepted into other local accelerators, and she focuses on startups whose founders “identify as part of a minority group which has traditionally been outside of access to funding.”

“In my own experiences starting businesses, I’ve celebrated successes, faced failures, and felt all of the everything that comes with being an entrepreneur—in addition to the extra everything that comes with being a female founder of color,” Brackeen wrote on Found, the blog of venture capital firm Lightship Capital, which she and her husband Brian (pictured above) founded in 2018 as the investment arm of Hillman. “It didn’t take very long for me to

realize that finding the funding and support necessary to simply exist—leave alone scale— was like Hunger Games–level hard.”

The numbers back her up. According to Morgan Stanley’s 2019 Beyond the Funding Gap study, only 29 percent of 200 U.S.-based venture capital firms surveyed had at least one female partner. Only 2 percent of investment professionals were Black and only 1 percent Latinx. In addition, the report found that only 13 percent of the white male venture capitalists surveyed said they prioritized investments in companies with multicultural founders. Stats like these are what make the knowledge, expertise, and exposure that Hillman offers so crucial to companies run by women and people of color.

From peer-to-peer lending platform Solo Funds to labor-tech startup The Home Team to non-electric warming technology company Warmilu, Hillman’s graduates are making moves. In 2018, the three companies that participated in first Hillman cohort raised $3 million in capital and generated $3 million in revenue. In June, Lightship Capital announced plans to partner with the “impact and innovation company” SecondMuse to create a $50 million fund to back Midwestern minority-led startups in the healthcare, consumer package goods, sustainability, artificial intelligence, and e-commerce sectors, purportedly making it the largest fund of its kind.

“The venture capital market has failed BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] and ultimately itself,” Brackeen said in announcing the new fund. “Venture capitalists who aren’t intentionally diversifying their portfolio, who are skipping out on exploring deals in every community, are simply not going to see outsized returns.”

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THE JUMP

HEALTHCARE

ON TRIAL

St. Elizabeth is selected to participate in a national clinical study for a potential COVID-19 drug treatment.

–AIESHA D. LITTLE

As COVID-19 cases spiked across the country, research facilities and pharmaceutical companies ramped up efforts to create a vaccine that will stop the virus’s spread. In the spring, St. Elizabeth Healthcare became the first U.S. site to participate in a Food and Drug Administration-approved Phase-2 clinical trial of the drug PUL-042, which boosts natural immunity in the lungs.

In conjunction with Covington-based research institute CTI and bio-pharmaceutical company Pulmotect, Inc., the hospital system’s Edgewood campus is one of 10 clinical sites now studying the drug, which is meant to prevent COVID-19 cases from worsening when administered in early stages of the disease before lung capacity is impaired to the point where patients require additional oxygen via a ventilator.

St. Elizabeth pulmonologist Chaitaya Mandapakala, M.D., the lead physician on the clinical trial, says that the selection speaks volumes about the hospital’s commitment to improving health outcomes. “St. Elizabeth got involved in this clinical trial on account of its strong interest in research and desire to help the community,” he says.

To confirm whether a “nebulized” medication (a drug delivered in the form of a mist inhaled into the lungs) is safe and effective way to treat COVID-19 in its early stages, the study is a randomized controlled double-blinded trial. That means that half of the patients get PUL-042 and the other half receive a placebo. Not even those administering the medication know whether they’re 20 REALM FALL 2020

delivering the placebo or the experimental drug. available to them.”

“At this point there is no other medication Patients who tested positive for COVID-19 in the market available for patients in this but had no known prior lung disease or early stage of disease, so we aren’t taking any heart disease are being enrolled in the trial. options away [for those receiving the placebo],” After it’s complete, the drug will enter Phase-3 Mandapakala says. “If the patient worsens, trials, making it available to a wider testing every possible treatment option will be still population.

If the trial is ultimately successful, doctors and hospitals will have a treatment option for COVID-19 that can be used easily, safely, and without the need for hospitalization. This will decrease the amount of hospital resources being used to fight the disease as well as improve care while reducing the cost of care.

By building a strong strategic relationship with CTI, St. Elizabeth is taking steps to assist the community it serves in the areas where it needs it the most. “This [drug trial] confirms our reputation in the medical community that we’re a trustworthy organization leading not only in Northern Kentucky but also the nation in answering some important questions in this pandemic crisis,” Mandapakala says.

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REDI Cincinnati 3 East Fourth Street, Suite 301, Cincinnati, OH 45202-3728 REDICincinnati.com

THE JUMP

BRANDING

BUILDING A REALM

Creating a new brand identity is all about relationships.

—LEYLA SHOKOOHE

The word play of BS LLC is hard to miss. True, founders Ben Greenberg and Sebastien Hue have first names that share those initials, but the value in a punchy name—and the lasting recall power—is something their business thrives on. The name’s official definition is “brand strategy,” according to Greenberg.

“Whenever we think about naming, we’re always thinking about three things,” he says.

“First, how it sounds rolling off the tongue. We’re thinking about how it looks, how the letters look stacked up next to each other.

And the third, of course, is, What’s it mean? Does it connect with the ideas we’re trying to communicate,

the goals of the project, the voice of the owners or founders, and the needs of the audience? We’re always trying to balance out those goals.”

The pair’s process—which they used to help the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber create a name and brand identity for this very publication—starts with an ideation session with client stakeholders, where they ask big-picture questions. From there, they undertake in-depth research, getting more granular as they go along.

“We always try to understand what we call ‘causal relationships,’ why people make decisions,” says Hue. From there, the pair starts creating experiences around those

findings and building brands around those experiences. For Realm, they built themes around the publication—audience, voice, city connection—before further ideating words and associations that could open doors to the right name. They presented 10 concepts to the Chamber and Cincinnati Magazine, and Realm emerged.

“There are two big things with Realm that we liked,” says Greenberg. “Realm is a kingdom, which references the Queen City really nicely, which we knew the Chamber and its constituents would be leaning into. The other meaning, which is more an idiom, is that realm is an area of expertise or interest.”

ACCOMPLISHING STRATEGIC GOALS BS LLC clients include MORTAR, Sixteen Bricks, Empower Manufacturing, Rhinegeist Brewery, Goose and Elder, and Ripple Wine Bar, among others.

It’s an impressive list for founders with no formal prior experience. “Neither of us had been in branding as a full-time job, no agency background,” says co-founder Sebastien Hue. He formerly was marketing director for The Boca Group and Ben Greenberg had a stint in law school before the Cincinnati natives met in 2014. “We were moonlighting doing copywriting projects for companies together and fell in love with the branding process we found,” Hue says.

He and Greenberg (Hue on the left) 22 REALM FALL 2020

operate out of a coworking space in the newly designated Historic West Fourth area downtown. They were recently enlisted to create a brand identity for the corridor, which real estate firm The Loring Group envisioned as “a livable destination where historic architecture houses unique characters and unforgettable experiences,” according to the BS case study.

“We’re also perfectionists when it comes to the visual output,” says Greenberg. “We try not to do things in a vacuum, where we just make artistic decisions. We try to create effective parameters for our creatives to make beautiful things that accomplish strategic goals.”

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THE JUMP

MANUFACTURING

SWEET SUCCESS

After years of steady growth, Perfetti Van Melle expands into a state-of-the-art distribution center.

There’s a reason why Perfetti Van Melle employees and executives refer to the company’s 10-month-old warehouse and distribution center as “The Showcase.” It’s the former location of Erlanger Showcase Cinemas. Quite apropos for the makers of Airheads, Chupa Chups, Mentos, and other fine movie-appropriate candies.

Perfetti is one of the world’s largest confectionery groups, manufacturing and distributing sugar confectionery and chewing gum products in more than 150 countries. With business booming, the company needed a facility to match its growth trajectory. The new 385,000-square-foot facility (with 46,000 pallet positions and 40 dock doors) replaced and consolidated four older warehouses into one centralized, state-of-the-art facility. The expansion created 96 full-time and temporary jobs, bringing the company’s employee count in Northern Kentucky up to 400.

“After exploring several options, the Erlanger Commerce Center was chosen for its proximity to our North America office and 24 REALM FALL 2020

• VNA (Very Narrow Aisle) racking and turrets to reduce overall building space, —AIESHA D. LITTLE which reduces the facility’s environmental footprint; • InfoLink Technology for safer operation of the company’s powered industrial vehicles; manufacturing site as well as its convenient lo• A semi-automatic order-picking module cation at the intersection of I-71/75 and I-275,” to reduce energy requirements and provide says Sylvia Buxton, president and CEO of Persafer operation for employees; and fetti Van Melle North America. “Since it was • Enhanced surveillance and monitoring capabilities as part of the company’s food a greenfield site, we were able to work with [real estate developer] Al. Neyer and ensure safety and food defense plans. the layout and facilities met the The end result is better customer service as well as enhanced growing needs of our business.” order-picking and shipping opPerfetti’s U.S. business has “Better erations. In addition, Perfetti Van consistently grown in market service Melle also invested in its existing share every year in the candy, and better gum, and mints category. Not Erlanger manufacturing facility as bad for the company’s only facil- margins are part of the distribution center projity in North America. “The new key to fuel ect, improving the truck access road distribution center investment expanding its shipping/receivour growth and was prompted by the growth ing docks. (In 2017, the company of our Perfetti Van Melle U.S. plans.” spent $11 million to increase probusiness and the commitment of duction, adding 50 jobs at its manour global owners to support continued future ufacturing plant.) growth,” Buxton notes.

“This new centralized distribution center The distribution center can now ship out allows us to improve our efficiency with lower 13 million cases of product to more than 1,100 inventories and lower cost to serve,” Buxton locations. It’s made possible with a more effec- says. “And better service and better margins tive layout and enhanced technology, including: are key to fuel our growth plans.”

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY P E R F E T T I VA N M E L L E

© 2020 Ernst & Young LLP. All Rights Reserved. US SCORE no. 10082-201US 2008-3560226. ED None

“

I am proud of what the EY organization is doing across the US and the world to promote equality and inclusiveness, while at the same time navigating and helping our clients navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with the entire EY office here in Cincinnati, I am committed to supporting the local community during these times.”

Jeremy Vaughan Ernst & Young LLP Cincinnati Office Managing Partner

DEEP DIVE

VINCENT WILLIAMS SAYS THE MINORITY BUSINESS ACCELERATOR PUSHED HIS COMPANY “TO THE NEXT LEVEL.” P H O T O G R A P H BY RYA N B A C K

28

Preparing for the Next Normal

37

Helping Minority Businesses Thrive

45

Reconnecting the Region

52

Crowd-Sourcing Government FALL 2020 REALM 27

DEEP DIVE

Preparing for the Next Normal

T

he nation’s economy has been shocked before and survived, recovered, and thrived. Recessions, wars, a Great Depression, and terrorism all delivered blows to the nation’s business owners, workers, and investors, and each time the economy retrenched and adapted to new realities.

In February, the nation’s unemployment rate stood at 3.5 percent, even better than the traditional measure of full employment. That same month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 29,551, a record high in its 135-year history of measuring the country’s investment performance.

Just a few weeks later, everything changed. In mid-March, the governors of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and many other states ordered non-essential businesses to shut down and schools to close. Layoffs and furloughs were widespread, and the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 14.7 percent nationally in April.

The stock market plummeted more than 30 percent from its peak. Americans quarantined themselves in their homes, telecommuted, and tried to wait it out.

Businesses are now reopening, but the virus that disrupted the smooth-sailing economy remains with us, presenting a threat to life and livelihoods the likes of which has not been seen in our lifetimes. “We’ve been through the recession in the early 1980s and through 9/11, which seem like a long time ago even though they were really just yesterday,” says Paul Verst, CEO of Walton-based Verst Logistics. “They were shorter lived, and you could almost calculate how they were going to end. With COVID-19, it’s a whole new reality.”

28 REALM FALL 2020

THE REGION’S BUSINESS LEADERS REBUILD OPERATIONAL MODELS PIECE BY PIECE TO ADAPT TO A RADICALLY CHANGED PANDEMIC ECONOMY.

BY DAVID HOLTHAUS ILLUSTRATION BY MARK WATKINSON

P H O T O G R A P H BY T K T K T K

FALL 2020 REALM 29

DEEP DIVE

A NEW WAY OF LIFE

Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen says the company succeeded because store management adapted quickly to the pandemic.

Layering a global pandemic on top of all the other issues business leaders face presents perhaps the steepest challenge yet, but companies and their employees are adapting. The challenges, in fact, could also present opportunities.

When or whether we can return to a pre-COVID economy is unclear, as the virus continues circulating and a vaccine is still to come. While “the new normal” has become an overworked phrase, it’s likely that we are in the midst of creating The Next Normal, to borrow a phrase from noted business consulting firm McKinsey & Co. For businesses, the next normal is an environment where customers will have new expectations, operating challenges will continue to grow, and recovery will take time, McKinsey notes in a July report.

Pete Blackshaw, CEO of Cincinnati startup hub Cintrifuse, emphasized those points when he spoke to a small business subcommittee on Capitol Hill in the summer. “We are living in an age of unending disruption, in which economic, social, and health-related shocks are going to become more common,” he said.

Borrowing an acronym from his for-

30 REALM FALL 2020

mer employer, Procter & Gamble, he said, “Some people call this a VUCA world: volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.” Such a world demands “a startup mindset” that prizes speed, rapid adaptation, and the willingness to fail fast.

ADJUSTING TO THE PANDEMIC’S RIPPLE EFFECT

W

HILE CERTAINLY no startup, Kroger, the region’s largest private employer, demonstrated entrepreneurial qualities as it assessed and addressed the new realities starting in March.

Kroger, which employs about 15,000 here, didn’t close any stores, and its response is a case study of sorts in doing business in the COVID-19 era.

“We’ve had to adapt quickly to a new way of life,” CEO Rodney McMullen said in a June earnings call with Wall Street analysts, media, and investors.

When the virus emerged, Kroger’s top priority, he said, was creating a store environment where shoppers and employees could feel safe. Employees donned face masks, and plexiglass shields went up at ev-

ery checkout station to provide barriers between clerks and customers.

Markings were placed on the floor at the checkouts to direct customers to stay safely spread apart while waiting, and regular recorded announcements were made reminding customers to stay distanced from each other.

Toilet paper, meat, disinfectant wipes, and other products were in short supply, but the company boosted its supply chain and, by May, most of those products were readily available again. In July, amid the surge in infections, Kroger joined other national retailers in requiring shoppers to wear masks while in the stores.

Many customers opted to shop for groceries online and pick up their orders or have them delivered. Kroger had been building its online shopping infrastructure for years and so was able to respond to the rapid shift in shopper preferences. “Because of our existing ecosystem, we were able to respond quickly to further expand and enhance our e-commerce services,” McMullen said on the earnings call.

At first, pickup appointment times lagged several days after orders were made, but the company hired more people to support the service, added P H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E SY T H E K R O G E R C O .

more pickup slots in parking lots, and converted one store in Mt. Carmel to a pickup-only location. From March to June, the company invested more than $830 million in e-commerce capabilities, safety precautions in the stores, and supply chain improvements. The investments included $150 million in “Thank You Pay” for employees.

The investments paid off, as digital sales nearly doubled (up 92 percent) in the first quarter and grew by triple digits in April and May, the company reports. Overall, Kroger’s sales grew 19 percent during the first quarter (not including fuel sales) from the same period a year earlier.

Kroger management and workers were able to learn and adapt on the fly to such an extent that the company created a resource guide for other businesses. Sharing What We’ve Learned: A Blueprint for Businesses is available for download on Kroger’s website (thekrogerco.com/blueprint).

Toyota’s plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, its largest in North Amer-

P H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E SY T OYO TA M O T O R N O R T H A M E R I C A

ica, shut down for seven weeks without building a single car. During that time, management conducted a risk assessment, with guidance from health officials, on how to safely reopen the 9-million-square-foot plant.

“We didn’t have a playbook for this,” says Jason Reid, the plant’s vice president of administration, “so we developed one.”

Toyota re-engineered the assembly line process to ensure at least six feet of distance between workers, Reid says.

If that separation wasn’t possible, engineers installed plexiglass to separate workers. The plant reopened in midMay, and its 8,000 employees now enter on dedicated walkways through one of 14 turnstiles, where their temperatures are scanned with thermal cameras. If someone has a high temperature, he or she is directed to Toyota’s onsite medical provider for evaluation and assistance. Employees are required to wear face masks and take breaks in assigned seats, Reid says.

By late June, the plant was “knocking on the door of full production” of

the Camry, Avalon, Rav4, and Lexus brands made there, Reid says, adding, “We’re going to be working in this environment for the foreseeable future.”

The weeks-long shutdown of the auto industry caused a ripple throughout the economy. When an Alabama-based automaker closed, for instance, Verst Logistics furloughed employees serving that customer. But business from Verst’s e-commerce customers has never been better and is exceeding Black Friday and Cyber Monday volumes, says its CEO. Verst Logistics is a family-owned business started 54 years ago that’s grown to 1,900 employees in five states, operating two dozen warehouses and a fleet of 100 semi-tractors that deliver products in seven states and Canada. The company has staggered shifts at its warehouses and is buying sanitizer by the 55-gallon drum.

Drivers and forklift operators sanitize their equipment at the beginning of each shift, and the company is expanding its break rooms so employees can remain appropriately distanced.

BACK TO FULL PRODUCTION

Toyota’s Jason Reid says increased employee health monitoring at its Georgetown plant is the new normal for a while.

FALL 2020 REALM 31

DEEP DIVE

CEO Verst expects the increased volume in e-commerce business to continue for the long-term. “We have customers who are seeing a 100 percent increase in volume,” he says.

“They’re telling us to prepare for a 40 percent increase this year and next.”

KEEP IT CLEAN

Verst Logistics CEO Paul Verst says his warehouse workers are focused on sanitizing equipment and social distancing.

EMERGENCE OF E-COMMERCE

T

HE STEPPED-UP RELIance on e-commerce has helped prop up traffic at one of the region’s economic engines, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Passenger traffic has plummeted, but the airport’s cargo business, already robust pre-COVID, has grown. “Cargo has been going gangbusters, and fortunately we see that trend continuing,” says airport CEO Candace McGraw. “The pandemic has highlighted the importance of maintaining an uninterrupted supply chain and the ability to get products to market quickly.”

In the second quarter, the airport handled record levels of cargo from carriers DHL, Amazon, FedEx, and others. As of mid-year, CVG cargo operations had increased 13 percent

32 REALM FALL 2020

over 2019, which was a record year, McGraw says.

Passenger travel remains depressed overall due to surging infection levels, despite a slight uptick in summer travel. McGraw says there will “definitely” be a return to pre-COVID traffic levels, but “the question about recovery is when.” She says industry experts forecast a recovery to 2019 traffic levels some time in the 2022– 2023 timeframe.

For those who are flying, the experience has changed, with plexiglass barriers and hand sanitizing stations throughout the airport and new Transportation Security Administration screening procedures in place.

These include scanning boarding passes yourself and placing removable items like keys, phones, and belts in screened carry-on bags instead of in plastic bins. The airport has created a promotional campaign to communicate the changes, including a “Fly Healthy” section on its website.

Despite the shutdown and the unprecedented uncertainty, many business leaders say they remain optimistic. Economic development organization Northern Kentucky Tri-ED reached out to executives at mid-year to ask how the pandemic has impacted business and to gather their comments about prospects for recovery. Twenty people from a variety of sectors shared their insights. “Most were seeing recovery and a return to growth by the end of 2021,” says TriED CEO Lee Crume.

As of mid-year, 84 percent had maintained full employment, and the same percentage was looking to hire.

Florence-based manufacturer Mazak Corp. employs about 1,000 people in North America, and its long tail of orders from the pre-pandemic economy helped sustain it. “We believe there

was pent-up demand in early 2020 in the manufacturing sector,” says President Dan Janka. “I’m optimistic about the recovery.”

As big employers go about protecting the health and safety of their employees and customers, invest in new technologies, adjust their staffing, and adapt to new business models, small businesses are doing the same—just without the resources that big companies typically can rely on.

“Like Ginger Rogers, who danced the same steps as Fred Astaire only backward and wearing high heels, small businesses will need to make all these changes at greater relative cost and with less working capital,” McKinsey noted in its report.

Many are learning the new dance steps. Stephanie Webster is a former high school biology teacher who switched careers a few years ago and opened The Rhined wine and cheese shop in Over-the-Rhine, and then took over ownership of Oakley Wines a year later.

Although The Rhined is considered a grocery, because of the shop’s small size, all sales went online in March, turning the front space into a staging area for online orders. “We’ve been trying to get an online shop up for two years and were forced to do it in 48 hours to pivot,” says Webster.

There were other positives. “We’ve never had such tight control of our inventory, required because of the robust online ordering,” she says.

BeSomebody is a fast-growing Cincinnati-based startup that develops and delivers job-specific training for employers who need skilled workers. Pre-pandemic, its job trainers would instruct prospective employees in person and at the future workplace.

The second quarter of 2020 was its best ever, says CEO Kash Shaikh, and

P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY V E R S T LO G I S T I C S

then the pandemic hit. “Our model was in-person training,” he says. “We couldn’t do that anymore.”

The company has already evolved a couple of times in its short life and is doing so again. “Leadership training is needed now more than ever,” says Shaikh. “Now we’re trying to deliver it at scale virtually.”

Planning in such fluctuating conditions has become difficult for all businesses, big or small. “I’ve learned to stop trying to plan for the future or project too far in advance, because everything is changing so rapidly,” Webster says.

FOCUSING ON A RESPONSIBLE RETURN

E

VEN FORTUNE 500 GIants such as Kroger are finding it difficult to forecast sales

RIGHT NOW

Stephanie Webster says she’d been trying to set up e-commerce at The Rhined for two years, and the pandemic forced her to do it in 48 hours.

and earnings. “There are still many unknown factors related to the longterm impact of COVID-19 that could influence our financial results for the remainder of 2020,” Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip said in the

company’s June earnings call. Those include how much the company will continue to invest to safeguard customers and employees and how consumer preferences and behaviors may shift.

GETTING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC TOGETHER

Offers restart playbooks for restaurants/bars, arts/entertainment, and retail businesses based on data assembled by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

RestartCincinnati.com

Serves as as an information hub to help businesses and individuals make decisions during the pandemic, led by former TV news anchor Regina Carswell Russo.

HealthCollab.org

P H O T O G R A P H S ( T H E R H I N E D ) BY F O LC H I C R E AT I V E / ( H E A D S H O T S / LO G O S ) P R O V I D E D

Supplies weekly COVID-19 reports tracking unemployment data, layoffs and furloughs, companies that are hiring, and stock market metrics.

REDICincinnati.com

Shares federal, state, local, and corporate resources related to economic reopening, pending legislation, and helpful government agencies.

NorthernKentuckyUSA.com

FALL 2020 REALM 33

DEEP DIVE

TAKEAWAYS PIVOTING TO SUCCEED Large companies like Kroger and Toyota quickly reworked employee safety protocols before they could focus on customer needs.

E-COMMERCE IS KING CVG softened its plunging commercial travel business with increased cargo traffic thanks to an explosion in e-commerce.

A RESPONSIBLE RETURN A wide array of resources are available to help the region’s businesses adapt, plan, and grow into the next normal.

There are resources available to help businesses adapt, plan, and grow into the next normal. In March, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, working with the Cincinnati Business Committee and the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee, launched the Restart Task Force, composed of some 25 regional CEOs. Working with data and documents from local and national health care organizations and economic experts, the group released Principles of a Responsible Return, a report that lays out recommendations for policies and procedures to guide decision-making in the COVID era.

The task force also created industry-specific playbooks for restarts for restaurants and bars, arts and entertainment, and retail. They’re available for download at RestartCincinnati.com.The task force is using data assembled by a team of epidemiologists and other health care experts at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, who are studying key data elements such as the virus reproduction ratio, rates of positive COVID tests, hospital admissions, deaths, and many others to try to understand the disease’s constantly evolving state.

“This data allows us to understand over time the state of COVID-19 in our region,” says Andrew Beck, M.D., the CCHMC physician leading the team. The information is being shared with health systems, public health departments, and congregate care facilities such as nursing homes, and will also be used in public information campaigns, he says.

In June, the Chamber and the Health Collaborative launched the

Regional COVID Communications Center as a hub to share up-to-date information to help businesses and individuals make decisions during the pandemic. The effort is being led by Regina Carswell Russo, the former

“THE FUTURE IS GOING TO BE EVEN MORE DEMANDING THAN THE MOMENT WE’RE LIVING IN TODAY,” SAYS CINTRIFUSE CEO PETE BLACKSHAW.

TV news anchor and owner of a local communications firm.

REDI Cincinnati is publishing weekly COVID-19 reports that track a range of sources, including unemployment updates, layoffs and furloughs, companies that are hiring, and stock market metrics. Northern Kentucky Tri-ED created a list of federal, state, local, and corporate resources available to assist with reopening, to understand pending legislation, and to navigate government agencies.

Experts say recovery and growth in the COVID era will take time, patience, cooperation, partnerships, creativity, and ingenuity. Adapting now will not only help businesses respond to the present circumstances—it will also get them ready for whatever the future may hold. As Cintrifuse’s Blackshaw said, “We must also look beyond the present to a future that is going to be even more demanding than the moment we’re living in today.

And do so with urgency.”

WHEN IT COMES TO PARTNERING WITH THE BEST #WeSeeEqual When our Supply Network reflects the diversity of our consumers, employees, and stakeholders, our community thrives.

Thank you to our Supplier Diversity Advisory Council Members: Axium Plastics, Calvary Industries, ConnXus, Diamond Packaging, On Line Design Inc, Quigley Simpson, Ralph G. Moore & Associates, Raven Transport, RCF Group, Summit Packaging Solutions, Supreme Resources, TriVersity Construction, WEConnect International & World Pac Paper.

FORCE FOR GOOD FORCE FOR GROWTH

WE ARE STRONGER TOGETHER. Please join us.

Learn about the many ways we are committed to ensuring we all rise together to shape a new reality where everyone thrives at gcfdn.org.

DEEP DIVE

A Model for Minority Business Success

Ben Parks Jr.

THE ACCELERATOR’S PLAYBOOK FOR BUILDING DIVERSE COMPANIES OF SCALE IS IN GREATER DEMAND THAN EVER.

BY GAIL PAUL

P H O T O G R A P H BY RYA N B A C K

P

eople across the Cincinnati region are seeking insight into what they can do to help combat racism and to support minority-owned and “Main Street” local businesses.

Recent months have highlighted how these enterprises have been disproportionately impacted by the economic fallout of COVID-19.

A broad coalition of business, nonprofit, and regional chamber leaders joined together at the pandemic’s outset to provide an array of resources to entrepreneurs bracing for unprecedented challenges and business disruption. Cincinnati’s Minority Business Accelerator, for one, mounted a quick response to help its portfolio companies take full advantage of federal stimulus and PPP funding and to lend its expertise communitywide. “We have broadened our support, given the time we are in,” says Executive Director Darrin Redus Sr. “We are doing everything we can to keep businesses alive and put people to work. With those same two workstreams we have done historically for minority business, we are translating the skillset to help all small businesses in the region.”

FALL 2020 REALM 37

DEEP DIVE

The Minority Business Accelerator has supported minority businesses since 2003, and Redus credits member organizations for coordinating help to keep local small businesses informed and connected to essential resources. The African American Chamber of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky serves as a point of connection for economic recovery, with CEO Eric Kearney a reliable source of facts, guidance, and optimism. He says rapid deployment of aid has been a chief goal, but so is building coordinated effort among a multitude of partners. “There is a minority business ecosystem working together diligently even in ways that we had not been in the past, and it’s rewarding,” says Kearney.

Veteran business leader Melvin Gravely II worries about the potential loss of African American companies and generational wealth during this pandemic period. “Every company got hit,” he says. “Companies of color were hurt more because our cash reserves are different, our balance sheet is different, our longevity is different.”

Invariably, he talks about the critical nature of business scale and how the Minority Business Accelerator’s intense focus on scale has helped Cincinnati build an unmatched ecosystem, now regularly featured in national media coverage and studied by other cities hoping to replicate its results.

Gravely—author, national speaker, CEO, and avid arts fundraiser—says scale builds equity and expands opportunity on a level that makes real impact. “I need to see job creation, wealth creation, philanthropic contribution, and community engagement here in Cincinnati,” he says. “At the end of the day, those are the only drivers that make our community better.”

“Our national positioning as a ‘best 38 REALM FALL 2020

practice model’ means more now than it ever has,” Redus says. “This national model was itself birthed from civil unrest and gave Cincinnati an intentional focus on scaling.”

Gravely helped write the Minority Business Accelerator’s original business plan and serves on its board. For more than a decade, he’s been at the helm of TriVersity Construction, a $90 million company that’s grown with the addition of a specialty construction unit. Its distinctive signage is affixed to jobsite fencing everywhere, notably in places where building is most prolific: downtown, Over-the-Rhine, and Uptown.

Gravely works closely with Redus as the Accelerator launches a highly anticipated financial tool to further scale high-potential minority-owned businesses and companies that uniquely serve vulnerable populations. Both men acknowledge that the patient capital fund, which will be new to the region, is critically needed. Gravely says the fund will provide the kind of money minority businesses really need, “the friends and family money that is very patient.”

BUILDING A TRUE BUSINESS COLLABORATIVE

T

HE MINORITY BUSIness Accelerator has retooled its original mission and added programs since its founding, and now helps dozens of minority-led companies at various stages of growth. “Its spirit is the same, working with entrepreneurs to help them grow their enterprise,” says Gravely. “Now there’s an ecosystem. Back then there wasn’t.”

Gravely and Redus first got to know each other as undergraduates at the University of Mount Union.

Redus is a former commercial banker and business consultant, serving as president and CEO for MainStreet In-

MEL GRAVELY II “Now there’s an entrepreneurial ecosystem, and [20 years ago] there wasn’t.”

clusion Advisors prior to joining the Accelerator. His home base was Cleveland for most of his career, and he recalls being one of three African American bankers there in the early 1990s with lending authority, which led minority entrepreneurs to seek him out. As an alternative to using his authority to personally approve loans, Redus says he preferred to help entrepreneurs prepare to face the bank’s credit committee. “I have been ripping companies apart and putting them back together as long as I can remember,” he says. “I didn’t realize I was putting my feet on this path.”

Soon after Redus joined the Accelerator, the organization helped relaunch the Cincinnati Minority Business Collaborative (CMBC) business platform. The collaborative initiative itself isn’t a new concept, having debuted in 2010, but the Accelerator has assisted in bringing greater structure to the core minority-serving organizations working to build a pipeline of larger-scale enterprises partnering with the African American and Hispanic chambers and the Urban League of Greater Southwestern Ohio.

Orchestrate Technologies has spent the past year modernizing and moving into a historic building it purchased in Reading. Founded in 2013, the company has doubled in size while working with the Accelerator over three years.

Cofounder Vincent Williams says he’s benefited from its focus on process. “One of the things that has impressed me is being able to go over our ‘why,’ to go over the financials, talk about financial models, projections, forecasts,” he says. “You can have a viable business, but without these things it’s really difficult to get to the next level.”

Focusing on the process allows owners to be more authentic in business, Williams says. “When you first get into business, you’re so worried about just being able to grow and being able to scale.

H E A D S H O T C OPUHROTTEOSY G RMA PE HL GBYR AV T KETLYK TIKI

And then you’ve really got to take a step back at a certain point and ask, Why am I doing this?”

Orchestrate was the recipient of a CMBC initiative to recognize early success stories in minority-owned businesses. Last year, the company received a $100,000 loan from CMBC’s L. Ross Love GrowthBridge Fund.

Love, who died in 2010, was a Cincinnati business executive and philanthropist. Williams says flexible loan financing like this is important because “most banks don’t want to lend to minority businesses to aid with growth.”

The technology services provider used the funding to add staff, and then paid off the loan early in its entirety. “We have advanced to where we are ready for the next step,” Williams says.

Orchestrate is considered to be among the Accelerator’s bellwether emerging minority-owned companies that are exhibiting signs they can grow to scale and meet rigorous standards of business readiness. Williams says his company offers a fresh approach to technology support, as opposed to what he calls a traditional model, which often delivers complex, over-engineered solutions without considering the business imperative or the people who have to make it work. He says Orchestrate’s model approaches technology from the end-user standpoint, which is “flipping the script.”

Williams says he often sees companies making large capital investments in technology but using just a fraction of the capability. “We have a very flat organization on purpose, and that’s so you get competent and capable support the first time and every time, across multiple layers,” he says. He adds that 70 percent of Orchestrate employees are women, which is “pretty much unheard of in the tech industry.”

The CMBC’s primary objective is

to identify, support, and provide resources to at least 10 high-potential minority businesses annually. Companies eligible to join the program must have minority ownership of at least 51 percent. Interested entrepreneurs must submit an application and commit to working through the subsequent developmental phases, including delivering a business review to prospective capital providers.

“CMBC could honestly be a national pilot in its own right,” Redus says. “It had loosely existed as a genuine effort where minority entrepreneurs were trying to leverage one another’s resources for the benefit of minority entrepreneurs. When I came on board, the fact that there was even collaboration at all was intriguing and inspiring, because that’s not the norm.”

Redus said CMBC mirrors programs that develop early-stage tech entrepreneurs. “We wrap a series of services around that entrepreneur, dig into their value proposition, their competitive analysis, their market analysis.” He says CMBC companies need the same assistance as tech start-ups. “Their audience of capital providers is different, but they need the same information. We have our own live business presentations, but it’s not just angel investors and VCs, it’s purchase order financers, factoring companies, and banks representing a financial continuum. It also presents a unique opportunity for our stakeholders to see the process.”

CREATED FROM CRISIS, ‘CONNECTED BY DESIGN’

T

HE IMPETUS FOR THE Minority Business Accelerator’s creation was the April

2001 civil unrest that ensued after a Cincinnati police officer shot and killed an unarmed Black man. Gravely was asked by incoming Chamber President Michael Fisher to help write a business plan for a regional accelerator that could address the racial disparities in business ownership in the region and drive inclusive economic activity. The focus at the outset was to advance development of sizable minority-owned and operated businesses.

The Minority Business Accelerator has operated within the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber since its founding. “At the time, we recom-

BEN PARKS JR. ON PARTNERSHIPS: “WOULD YOU RATHER OWN 100 PERCENT OF A SMALL PIE OR 50 PERCENT OF A LARGE PIE?”

mended the Chamber of Commerce as the Accelerator’s home, which was pivotal,” Gravely says. “As an economic development business initiative, it should be in the heart of the business community.”

Redus says that the Accelerator’s location within the Chamber is “part of its secret sauce. You’re connected to the business community by design. It’s one thing to be on the outside trying to knock your way in versus being on the inside of an organization with immediate access.”

FALL 2020 REALM 39

DEEP DIVE

SCALING UP

Orchestrate Technologies used a Minority Business Accelerator loan to add staff.

Charlie Luken was Cincinnati’s mayor in 2001 and calls it a “very difficult time in the city’s history.”

Creating an accelerator was one component of widespread reform. “It helps make people feel that the city is a place of opportunity and really is a place where things got done to advance minority businesses.”

Ben Parks Jr. became part of the Accelerator in 2015 with Parks OV Electric, a partnership with Ohio Valley Electrical Services, a sizeable majority-owned firm. Parks OV Electric made a winning bid to provide elec-

trical contracting services to the first phase of The Banks project, which included more than 300 apartments and first-floor retail.

Before long, he was leading the electrical work on marquee projects, like the renovation of Washington Park. By 2019, though, Ohio Valley’s sale to company employees through an employee stock ownership plan left Parks looking for his next move.

“An ESOP didn’t work with our partnership,” he says, “and I had to decide what I was going to do.”

That’s when Parks sought help from

Vincent Williams

40 REALM FALL 2020

the Accelerator, which brought him together with CLEN LLC to form the contractor firm Parks Electrical Services. CLEN is owned by Evans Nwankwo, president and CEO of Megen Construction.

Parks says partnering with larger firms has sharpened his business skills and taught him how to “play at a higher level. If it’s done right, partnering brings advantages to both companies.

It comes down to, Would you rather own 100 percent of a small pie or 50 percent of a large pie?”

With the company’s administrative functions being handled out of Megen Construction, Parks says he can focus on workforce and business development. With eight electricians, he relies on his membership in the Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) national trade association as a key resource.

IEC member companies routinely lend electricians to each other. Parks says that in the wake of COVID-19, as projects got delayed or canceled altogether, his electricians continued to work because of the flexibility afforded through the association relationship.

He pays tuition for employees to complete IEC’s apprenticeship program.

His son, Ben Parks III, is scheduled to start the program this fall.

Parks says his will to succeed is shaped by the work ethic of his father and grandfather. Ben Parks Sr., now in his mid-70s, operates a subcontracting company specializing in stonemasonry, concrete, and asphalt.

Parks’s grandfather, Mark Hodge, confronted racism that thwarted his chosen career. He was told that as a Black man he’d never get work in Cincinnati as an electrician, even though he had graduated from an accredited trade program when he returned to Cincinnati after serving in World War II, Parks remembers.

P H O T O G R A P H BY RYA N B A C K

Hodge resorted to supporting his large family by working menial jobs.

“Smart man, but he just didn’t have the opportunity,” Parks says. “That’s what makes me push so hard. Every time I think, Oh man, am I doing the right thing? it inspires me to push forward, because they said he couldn’t.”

Both Parks’s and Gravely’s companies have enjoyed growth from being part of a prolific redevelopment engine humming along downtown and in Over-the-Rhine. Projects there often fall within development oversight of Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), also born from Cincinnati’s 2001 crisis.

In 2015, 3CDC and Cincinnati Memorial Hall Society trustees chose TriVersity Construction as general contractor to renovate and modernize Memorial Hall, the 1908 Beaux Arts building designed by Samuel Hannaford & Sons. According to Steve Leeper, 3CDC president and CEO, TriVersity instilled confidence it would excel at the renovation. “It’s a unique building, and it had to be improved to historic standards,” he says. “There was competition from other contractors, but we felt like TriVersity was the best for this project.”

TriVersity subsequently served as general contractor for 3CDC’s project at 15th & Vine Streets, where buildings and vacant lots were redeveloped into a $19.5-million mixed-use space in 2018. Leeper calls that project “very unusual” because of the way it required the integration of historic buildings with new construction.

HIGH MARKS FOR MINORITY BUSINESS SUCCESS

T

HE MINORITY BUSIn e s s Ac c e l e r a t o r h a d a breakout year in 2019. It hit

ambitious target metrics toward its five-year goal of growing aggregate annual revenues of minority businesses by $1 billion and subsequently creating 3,500 net new jobs by the end of 2022. It was also a breakout year from a national positioning perspective, securing a $450,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that has helped it create a playbook enabling it to widely share its model with other regions and put Cincinnati’s achievements on national display.

Also last year, a LendingTree. com study ranked metro areas where minority entrepreneurs have been succeeding, with Cincinnati showing up at No. 10. Within the top 10 metros, Cincinnati ranked No. 1 for percentage of minority-owned businesses that exceed $500,000 in annual revenue (43.3 percent) and for percentage of minority-owned businesses in operation for more than six years (62.3 percent).

The Kauffman Foundation grant, the LendingTree.com study, and national articles authored by Bruce Katz, a cofounder of Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University, awakened interest in what’s going on in Cincinnati. Redus now finds that more of his time is spent telling the Accelerator’s story, unpacking the strategy, and sharing outcomes to national publications, think tanks, business leaders, and policymakers. In 2017, he reported data to a U.S. Congress small-business committee in support of the accelerator model.

The Accelerator is working on a new business attraction strategy with the Regional Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Cincinnati. The two have merged their missions to recruit out-of-region minority-business enterprises to establish a Cincinnati

TAKEAWAYS PANDEMIC HELP The Minority Business Accelerator responded quickly to the COVID shutdown to help its portfolio companies take full advantage of federal stimulus and PPP funding and to offer its expertise across the community.

BUILDING UP The Accelerator is working toward a five-year goal of helping Cincinnati’s minority-owned businesses create 3,500 net new jobs by the end of 2022.

SHARE THE NEWS The Accelerator won a $450,000 national grant last year to create a playbook about its successful model to share with other U.S. cities and regions.

SPRING 2020 REALM 41

DEEP DIVE

location, targeting 200 companies to date through research and engagement and focusing on filling existing gaps in the regional minority supplier ecosystem.

Redus appears to be handling the organization’s growing demands capably, acknowledging the work’s urgency against the headwinds of economic disparities and widening wealth gaps for communities of color.

Since the onset of COVID-19, “our core work has not changed, but it has intensified,” he says. “I am always mindful that we still have so much to do here.” In July, the Cincinnati Chamber formally backed state and local efforts to declare racism a public health crisis, and President Jill Meyer reaffirmed its commitment to prioritizing the Accelerator and other Chamber-led diversity programs.

Foundations like Kauffman and policy research centers like Nowak Metro Finance Lab advocate for new economic models of building community wealth that upend the effects of systemic racism. “Over the past couple of years, as philanthropy has considered what’s the greatest impact for its resources, solving for economic disparity has elevated as a key pillar for many foundations, Kauffman being one,” Redus says. “It’s not just a minority play. It’s a financial system play. It is no longer a secret that the country will become a majority minority nation in the next number of years, which means that our corporate client’s customer is changing. And how they demonstrate commitment to a changing customer base is, in part, who they do business with. We keep bubbling up in all of these national reports.”

Parks’s advice for minority entrepreneurs is to partner, as he’s done, and surround yourself with people from whom you can learn. Earlier in

42 REALM FALL 2020

his career, when he was about to start a high-profile project, he sought out Carl Satterwhite and his partner. Satterwhite is president/owner of RCF Group, which ranks among the region’s largest minority-owned businesses, reporting 2018 revenue of $68.5 million.

“He was a great influence in forming Parks OV,” Parks says. “I pattern some of my partnership structure from RCF’s structure.” Parks says he and Satterwhite share a special affinity, as they’re both from the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, which Parks describes as a tight-knit community. Satterwhite is deeply embedded in the region’s business community, serving as a member on numerous trustee boards, including UC’s Lindner School of Business and the Ohio Minority Supplier Development Council.

Williams values the Accelerator’s ability to open new doors for Orchestrate and all local businesses. “Being able to have relationships with these larger organizations, whether it be inside or outside the Accelerator, is definitely helpful for up-and-coming businesses,” he says. “It lets us know that maybe we’re not so crazy, because there are other people who have gone through these same challenges.”

Gravely says he believes the Accelerator is among the top two or three best investments in economic development the business community has ever made. “We are growing African American and Hispanic businesses that will create wealth in our community, that will be philanthropic givers, that will sit on boards of directors so we have more diverse decisions being made, that will employ more people of color, that will allow them to rise to executive levels, that will support community organizations like ArtsWave and United Way,” he says.

“I can’t think of another econom-

DARRIN REDUS

“Cincinnati keeps bubbling up in all of these national reports about diverse business development.”

ic development initiative that is even close. And more is possible, because we are positioned for it.”

Drexel University’s Katz profiles the Accelerator often in his national newsletter, writing recently, “Cincinnati’s model and approach are adaptable and implementable in any city and metropolis willing to dedicate the resources and cultivate a similar ‘purpose-driven’ ecosystem that understands the economic potential of a local economy that values and supports its minority-owned entrepreneurial community. Cincinnati is skating to where the puck will be and will reap the benefits for decades.”

Redus expresses a bit of awe about how projects that have been in the works for months are now aligning to help at a critical time. “With a literal playbook and a substantial new fund, the timing of it all is pretty extraordinary,” he says. “I believe systemic change will happen this time. We are seeing a lot of organizations step up to provide financial support or funding to minority inclusion. There are a lot of new resources being identified.”

The African American Chamber’s Kearney calls out partners in the region taking bold steps, such as MORTAR and the Greater Cincinnati Microenterprise Initiative, which developed grants to small minority-owned businesses impacted by COVID-19. United Way of Greater Cincinnati and Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s COVID-19 Regional Response Fund provided more than $7 million in emergency aid grant funding to nonprofits providing food, shelter, health care, and other basic needs to vulnerable individuals and families.

There are many ways everyone can help, Kearney says. “If people are inclined to donate dollars, I would say contribute to those things where there are people working collaboratively.”

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DEEP DIVE

Reconnecting the Region THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW CINCINNATI’S TRANSIT FUNDING WAS OVERHAULED DESPITE A PANDEMIC AND A DELAYED ELECTION. AS TOLD TO BRENDON CULL

F

or decades, Cincinnati’s public transit system had been much maligned by regional policy-makers, business leaders, transit experts, and, most importantly, riders as being disconnected from jobs, lacking frequency and service, and focusing on the center city. About five years ago, an effort to finally alter the trajectory of Metro and its organizing body, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), began to take shape. It created one of the most diverse business and political coalitions Hamilton County has ever seen and culminated in an election decided in the middle of a global pandemic. This is the story, from many of the principal players, of how Cincinnati finally got it done. Brendon Cull is a SORTA board member and Senior Vice President at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

MAYOR JOHN CRANLEY: Cincinnati was the last major American city to make its bus system public in 1973. There was an agree-

P H O T O C O L L A G E BY E M I V I L L AV I C E N C I O

FALL 2020 REALM 45

DEEP DIVE

ment that after the city purchased the bus system the county would pass a sales tax to fund a regional system and the city earnings tax would go away [as the primary funding source].

In fact, the county did pursue this twice in the 1970s, and both times it failed. When I came back as mayor, I knew we had to accomplish this new funding.

“CITIES CANNOT REACH THEIR FULLEST POTENTIAL WITHOUT INVESTMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION,” SAYS PETE METZ, THE CHAMBER’S TRANSPORTATION POLICY MANAGER.

transportation. Businesses, politicians, social services, everyone was interested in this conversation. That’s when I realized we needed to dig deeper on transit.

CAM HARDY, PRESIDENT OF THE BETTER BUS COALITION: I was on a bus on Main Street, and it was packed. We got to Main and 13th, and it broke down.

This was the third or fourth bus that had broken down. So I fired up Facebook Live and questioned why the Metro system was this bad. The video went “Cincinnati viral.”

DUNN: George is a former Hamilton

C R A N L E Y : A meeting at the

of 25 people that included activists, business leaders, labor, Democrats, and Republicans. We met probably six times and got more than 1,500 people to come to those sessions.

Queen City Club in April 2015 was the beginning of asking how we could put the coalition together and do the education years in advance of placing any changes on the ballot. Reducing the earnings tax wasn’t the primary reason I wanted to do it, but it was an important element of tax fairness. Part of building a broad coalition is giving people more than one reason to support an effort.

DUNN: To get invited to the table JASON DUNN, SORTA BOARD CHAIR (2012– 2018): When I joined the SORTA board, I had a mission in mind solely focused on moving hourly employees back and forth to work. But it became a much bigger mission to help people get out of poverty and make our city attractive to companies seeking to grow.

JILL MEYER, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE C I N C I N N AT I U S A R E G I O N A L C H A M B E R : When I started at the Chamber, we hosted the “Connected Region” report rollout, a study that ranked how Cincinnati measured up to other cities on

46 REALM FALL 2020

S

O RTA C R E AT E D T H E Metro Futures Task Force in September 2015, cochaired

by George Vincent, Delores Hargrove-Young, and Jason Dunn, a bipartisan group that proposed a plan for the entire system.

with the proverbial city fathers, from my perspective of being an activist when I was in college, was interesting. SORTA had done a great job of changing the narrative of transit as an economic driver with data and had attracted the attention of the business community.

KREG KEESEE, SORTA BOARD CHAIR (2018– PRESENT): SORTA was in a downward spiral in a bunch of ways. I was thrilled people could take it seriously.

But I also thought it was going to be a pretty big lift given the history in our region. I think I was only then learning how the sausage was made.

County GOP Chairman from a bigtime law firm, and he rides the bus.

He had the political acumen and became our ally.

G E O R G E V I N C E N T, MANAGING PARTNER, DINSMORE, COCHAIR OF METRO FUTURES TASK FORCE: We put together a cross-section

DUNN: Many board members will tell you I wasn’t excited about broadening the conversation. But we had to be vulnerable to allow people to express interest and concern and then build consensus.

VINCENT: We presented the report to the SORTA Board. It showed that the system was not sustainable beyond 2020, there was strong support for repealing the earnings tax, there would be significant impact on economic development, and there was support for a county-wide sales tax. It was a damn good package.

DUNN: The recommendations aligned with what we knew we needed to do. If we had gone to the voters by ourselves, we may not have been as successful.

O

NCE THE METRO F U tures Task Force presented its report, the SORTA Board, business community, and grassroots efforts got better organized and

gathered steam.

made it real for a lot of us.

MEYER: Part of our plan included hav-

HARDY: We met up with other bus rid-

ing someone who woke up every single day to drive this effort and connect all the dots. It didn’t take us long at all to say there’s one person who fits the bill: Pete Metz.

ers and started the Better Bus Coalition. I used social media to my advantage. The media was paying attention, everyone was paying attention, and we used that to publicly question politicians and the SORTA Board online.

There is a way for you to push your point but to be respectful.

P E T E M E T Z , CHAMBER’S TRANSPORTATION POLICY MANAGER: I believe that cities cannot reach their fullest potential without investments in transportation, and I saw that you need unified and diverse coalitions to get things done. So we created the “Connected Region” roadmap for connecting people to jobs, health care, and everything else in our region.

MEYER: We took a bus full of people to Indianapolis and Columbus, two cities close to us that had figured out transportation just ahead of us but in starkly different ways.

METZ: The trip in July 2017 gave folks a sense that this was achievable. It

P H O T O G R A P H BY H A N N A H B O O N E

P.G. SITTENFELD, CINCINNATI CITY COUNCIL: Early on the Mayor agreed that my committee [Education, Innovation and Growth] would have jurisdiction.

We wanted the future of Metro to be an elevated issue. The core group was focused on accomplishing this knowing it wasn’t a one-month or one-year project, it was a multi-year effort if we’d have any chance of succeeding.

DARRYL HALEY, CURRENT METRO CEO: We used experts to shape the plan. It was a lot of work. It took several years, interaction with riders, nonriders, the business community, and politi-

cians, digging deep to find out what a robust transit system looked like for Cincinnati. This ended up being our Reinventing Metro plan.

METZ: The Chamber and Cincinnati Business Committee helped oversee a significant financial review of SORTA. And we realized that Reinventing Metro was a good plan.

HALEY: The best part of the Reinventing Metro plan was input from all aspects of our community. Riders and business leaders each have pieces.

The plan was so successful because it wasn’t built in a vacuum.

TAYLOR LIGGINS, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, ISSUE 22 AND ISSUE 7: I got a call from the Chamber to say, “We want to build a big, broad, diverse bipartisan coalition to invest in the transportation system.” And that became our mantra.

MARY MILLER, SORTA BOARD MEMBER AND CEO OF JANCOA: There were community groups I didn’t even know existed! I

LET’S GET GOING

The broad, diverse transit coalition launched at a public event at Taft’s Brewporium.

FALL 2020 REALM 47

D E E PD ED EI PV ED I V E

enjoyed listening topeople what people was not happy. really policy. good policy. enjoyed listening to what were were really good MEYER:MEYER: DeniseDenise was not happy. onsides. both It sides.

It felt sayingsaying on both felt like thelike en-the enE T Z :did Wea did a community-wide DRIEHAUS: Remember that Todd M E T Z : MWe community-wide DRIEHAUS: Remember that Todd Por- Porergylifting was lifting as people were learnergy was as people were learnpollfound and found a transit-only tunealways was always a champion for public poll and that athat transit-only tune was a champion for public ing we what we doing were doing andithow it ing what were and how levy would be difficult, more difficult, and the was of his top issues. levy would be more and the transit.transit.

It was It one ofone his top issues.

If the If the was going to benefit was going to benefit them. them.

PeoplePeople got got community to invest in hadatbeen atto table to begin community clearlyclearly wantedwanted to invest in countycounty had been table begin with, with, the possibility. excitedexcited about about the possibility. infrastructure.

But wetohad to clarify it would haveuseful been useful and helpful. infrastructure.

But we had clarify it would have been and helpful. a period state law.

METZ: METZ: ThereThere was a was period when when we we state law.

Commissioner Portune was exDUNN: DUNN: Commissioner Portune was exhad planned a kickoff press conference had planned a kickoff press conference tremely interested in making sure we STATEBILL REP.SEITZ: BILL SEITZ: My contribution tremely interested in making sure we STATE REP. My contribution three four times.

Wescouted had scouted a three or fourortimes.

We had a the legislative effort to on insist on a comprehensive long-term to the to legislative effort was towas insist had a had comprehensive long-term transittransit location, was canceled for one location, and itand was itcanceled for one using established infrastructure strategy.

And the things that beusing established infrastructure rating rating strategy.

And one ofone the of things that beor another.

I threw a dry erase reasonreason or another.

I threw a dry erase committees help Metro determine obvious that he wanted committees to helptoMetro determine came came obvious is thatishe wanted it big it big room than moreonce than once markermarker across across a rooma more the projects most in The need.WestThe Westhe wanted the projects most in need. and heand wanted it now.it now. of frustration.

Finally, we orgaout ofout frustration.

Finally, we orgaern Viaduct Hills Viaduct total rehaern Hills needs needs a totalarehaa public at Taft’s Denise I established nized nized a public event event at Taft’s Brew-BrewMEYER:MEYER: Denise and I and established a re- a rebilitation, for example, andplan this plan bilitation, for example, and this porium on Spring Avenue to spectful ongoing conversation porium on Spring GroveGrove Avenue to spectful ongoing conversation where where we we willget help get it completed. will help it completed. to the show the plan. weretoable a realistic conversation begin begin to show plan. were able havetoahave realistic conversation METZ: We visited with Billtrying Seitz trying why wedoing were doing what we were METZ: We visited with Bill Seitz about about why we were what we were LIGGINS: We organized a big coalition LIGGINS: We organized a big coalition to convince to do something, Cam Hardy, who“If said, “If to convince him tohim do something, and and doing.doing.

Enter Enter Cam Hardy, who said, through different constituency through different constituency groups.groups. in his classic he“No, said,this “No, this you have don’teverybody have everybody involved, in his classic fashionfashion he said, you don’t involved, I’m I’m 15 groups: faith leadI thinkI think we hadwe15had groups: faith leadPROUDPROUD PAPA PAPA not coming what I’m trying do.”

We walked not coming is whatis I’m trying to do.”toWe walked along.”along.”

Although Although ers, pastors, environmental advocates, ers, pastors, environmental advocates, outsaid, and“Yeah, said, “Yeah, that can work.”Issue Issue out and that can work.”

7 passedD R I E H DA RU ISE: HWe 7 passed business leaders, professionals, A U S :went We went through business leaders, youngyoung professionals, through manymany after County after County machinations onright the right disability advocates.

CRANLEY: The Chamber and Bill Seitz machinations on the dollardollar disability advocates.

CRANLEY: The Chamber and Bill Seitz Commissioner Commissioner deserve enormous in making amount, the the plan, the need, and more. deserve enormous creditcredit in making amount, the plan, need, and more.

Portune’s Todd Todd Portune’s The event Taft’s was event was the debuMEYER:MEYER: The Taft’s the debuthistheir partkey their key priority.

We ended at a tax sales tax increase this part priority.

We ended at a sales increase of .8 of .8 coalition death,death, coalition tanteforball the coalition.

It became tante ball thefor coalition.

It became leaders leaders say hesay hepercent percent knowing it could accomplish knowing it could accomplish loud andthat clearwethat we weren’t messing loud and clear weren’t messing inspired their inspired their HE LAST CONSTITUENthe not plan, too much of a burden HE LAST CONSTITUENthe plan, benot toobe much of a burden around.

We didn’t have thedeal full deal around.

We didn’t have the full years-long years-long cy toembrace fully embrace the Reinon taxpayers, andsomething was something cy to fully the Reinon taxpayers, and was voters voters work.work. done butwere theresowere so piecmany piecdone yet, butyet, there many support. venting plan,the and the wouldwould support. venting MetroMetro plan, and es of the what the coalition brought es of what coalition brought to it. to it. tax changes required to achieve tax changes required to achieve it, wasit, was Plus was therebeer. was beer.

CRANLEY: One themistakes big mistakes of Plus there CRANLEY: One of theofbig of Hamilton County.

Hamilton County. the Metro campaign [in 2002] the Metro MovesMoves campaign [in 2002] onstage that is stage is someHARDY:HARDY: BeingBeing on that someKEESEE: The influential brokers wasthey thathad theynohad no elected officials KEESEE: The influential powerpower brokers was that elected officials thing I’ll forget. never forget. my kids thing I’ll never I’ll tellI’ll mytell kids came together at Great American supporting we needed came together at Great American Ball Ball supporting efforts.efforts.

So weSo needed more more and grandchildren it. and grandchildren about about it. to convince the county leadership wasfirst thetime first the time the time totime convince the county leadership Park. Park.

And itAnd wasitthe showed in way. a real way. was worth supporting. was clearly countycounty showed up in aupreal it was itworth supporting.

It wasItclearly LTIMATELY, LTIMATELY, THE THE REIN-REINwise a pause tothat earnsupthat supwise to taketoatake pause to earn venting plan began to MEYER:MEYER: Welaid hadout laidthe outthreethe threeventing MetroMetro plan began to We had port. port. embrace a larger transporta- leggedlegged stool taxtransit cut, transit embrace a larger transportastool of tax of cut, invest-investtion that effortincluded that included infrastructure ment, ment, and infrastructure.

We wanted Wetwo saidthings two things from tion effort infrastructure and infrastructure.

We wanted MEYER:MEYER: We said from the getthe get reform. to elected bring elected officials together Weto have toahave plansolves that solves reform. to bring officials together with with go: Wego: have have planathat key business to present the problem, wetohave key business leadersleaders to present the bigthe big the problem, and weand have havetoahave plan a plan CRANLEY: The Mayor Los Angeles, CRANLEY: The Mayor of LosofAngeles, for we what we could that gathers a big coalition of people frame frame for what could do. do. that gathers a big coalition of people Eric Garcetti, his transit Eric Garcetti, passedpassed his transit levy inlevy in thatsupport will support and this. drive this. that will and drive November he explained it DENISEDENISE DRIEHAUS, COMMISSIONER: November 2016, 2016, and heand explained it DRIEHAUS, COUNTYCOUNTY COMMISSIONER: wouldn’t have passed without massive I was unaware I was unaware theand planwasn’t and wasn’t wouldn’t have passed without massive of the of plan HE TRANSIT HE TRANSIT LEVYLEVY CAM-CAMamounts of money for roads, bridges, really really sure Iwhat was walking amounts of money for roads, bridges, sure what was Iwalking into. into. paign officially kicked paign officially kicked off onoff on was brought to speed at that potholes, and infrastructure.

We real- I was Ibrought up to up speed at that potholes, and infrastructure.

We realSeptember 30, 2019, at the September 30, 2019, at the a brilliant ideawould that would meeting meeting and,we well, had work some work ized itized was ita was brilliant idea that and, well, hadwesome 1819 Innovation Hub. 1819 Innovation Hub. be necessary pass ourbut plan, but also to do. to do. be necessary to passtoour plan, also

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48 REALM 48 REALM FALL FALL 2020 2020

C O GUORVT E RSYN MG EO NV TE RSNT MR AT E NETGSI ET SR AT H E A D S H OHTE AC DO SUHR OT ET SY G REOGUI EPS G R O U P

TWO PARTS TO THE PLAN

D R I E H A U S : That

day was a great coming together Metro would of all the partners be overhauled with two ballot who had finally issues, Issue 22 agreed on how in the city (botto move forward. tom) and Issue I said, “Oh my 7 in Hamilton gosh, now I can County. breathe.” We all supported it: the city, the Chamber, the riders.

HARDY: I learned so much by working through this campaign. In politics you aren’t going to get everything you want.

MEYER: At the event itself, Todd Portune had sort of a proud papa look that he inspired this and breathed life into it.

But he and a number of people in that room didn’t know if he would be around to see it come to life.

LIGGINS: Commissioner Portune spoke, and his legacy and so much of his work and passion is around transportation. It was the best part of the campaign.

DUNN: Todd gave us perspective, and his thumbprints are on that plan.

B

ECAUSE THE CITY HAD to first repeal the earnings tax, there would be two campaigns, one in November 2019 (Issue 22) and, if that passed, a Hamilton County sales tax increase vote to follow.

SITTENFELD: Everyone would rather hit the “nothing but net” shot than a bank shot. But we had to do the bank shot by dividing this plan in two and give people the assurance that this would be in their own economic interest and the region’s economic interest.

JARED KAMRASS, CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: It wasn’t the kind of campaign where you could run the normal blocking and tackling. We knew it was confusing, but the P H O T O G R A P H S BY C O UHRATNENSYA HT KB TOKOTNKE

FALL 2020 REALM 49

DEEP DIVE

TAKEAWAYS WORK TOGETHER A broad coalition of business, political, and community leaders came together to devise a two-part overhaul of Metro, starting by repealing the city’s earning tax funding in 2019.

WIDER VISION Issue 7 then set out to convince Hamilton County voters to increase the sales tax to fund Metro as well as bridges, roads, and other infrastructure.

MOVING AHEAD The sales tax will now provide $100 million per year to Metro for 25 years, leading to more and better bus service across the region, plus $25 million per year for infrastructure.

messaging would have an impact on the subsequent county election.

community that we could deliver an amazing transit system.

LIGGINS: With Issue 22 in particular,

CRANLEY: Issue 7 was flawlessly exe-

it’s not that there was opposition, but it was just “I don’t get it.”

cuted through March 17, and had the election gone normally we would have won by a significant margin.

KAMRASS: My concern going into election night was not if we would win but the margin.

METZ: It was clear early that we won nearly every precinct, and that would launch us into the next campaign to pass the sales tax.

I

SSUE 22 WAS APPROVed by city voters 76–24 percent. Very quickly, campaign leaders had to make a decision on when to run the sales tax portion of the campaign in Hamilton County. Little did they know that COVID-19 didn’t care about their election.

KAMRASS: The conversations began the next morning. We essentially put together a list of things that needed to be true for us to go in March 2020. If we couldn’t meet that test, then we would go in November 2020.

METZ: We had a good poll, fund-rais-

“TO SEE A 1 PERCENT VICTORY MARGIN AFTER TWO OVERTIMES REALLY REINFORCES THAT EVERYTHING THE ISSUE 7 CAMPAIGN DID MATTERED,” SAYS CONSULTANT JARED KAMRASS.

K A M R AS S : On March 11 when the

ing, a media plan on steroids, and good ads. We worked hard to make sure there was as little opposition as possible. We built a plan that was consensus-based. We decided to go in March.

NBA shut down, I remember being a part of phone conversations and texts wondering aloud whether we would have an election. Then, the day before the election, the governor announced at his press conference that he was asking a judge to postpone it.

KAMRASS: A strong air game is neces-

LIGGINS: I was at the campaign office,

sary but not sufficient. Taylor and her team were able to pivot into executing the field campaign that you normally only see from a presidential or statewide campaign.

and I was in tears. We had spent so much time and money and didn’t know if the election was going to count.

H A L E Y : I couldn’t sleep during the campaign. Our job was as important as everyone else’s. We had to show the

KAMRASS: When you run a campaign, you work backward from election day.

The idea of the election being extended was unprecedented. I remember being panicked.

LIGGINS: Once we knew the rules, that it would be all vote-by-mail, we had partners like the Urban League and Human Services Chamber making calls and texting.

METZ: The campaign texted 25,000 people. I probably texted upwards of 7,000 people myself.

KAMRASS: Every morning we got a list of who was voting and who had requested a ballot. And we would immediately send them a mail piece so it arrived with their ballot.

L I G G I N S : On the night the results

GROUP EFFORT

Issue 22 passed in November 2019, when in-person celebrations were still permitted.

were supposed to come in, April 28, we watched results together, socially distanced, but they weren’t reported until 4 a.m. The election was then extended a few weeks because it was too close to call.

KAMRASS: When the board came back with the final results on May 14, Issue 7 had passed by 980 votes, less than a 1 percent margin. I remember leaning

back in my chair and audibly exhaling.

To see a margin like that after two overtimes just really reinforces that everything we did mattered.

HALEY: I was in the middle of a staff meeting. When we got the call it was pure elation and excitement, and everyone in the room was screaming and jumping up and down.

W

ITH ISSUE 7 PASSing, no matter how narrowly, Hamilton County sales taxes will now fund the Metro bus system with more than $100 million per year for the next 25 years.

This means expanded hours of service, new cross-town routes, 24-hour routes, better Access service, and more than $25 million a year in infrastructure investments for roads and bridges across the county.

HARDY: The results of these two campaigns changed my perspective on this city. Metro will now be part of

stabilizing our economy.

MEYER: That we could get it done in Hamilton County in a global pandemic is what should breathe energy and fire and resources into everything else we want to do.

CRANLEY: We can’t be a vibrant, growing region unless we have transportation. This funding allows us to fix bridges and roads without having to depend on Washington or Columbus.

SIT TENFELD: Some cities get it right and thrive, and others miss strategic opportunities. I think this puts Cincinnati squarely on the right side of a positive trajectory. But the real legacy is how this touches people’s personal lives.

D R I E H AU S : Whether it’s transit or Preschool Promise, we are starting to vision better as a community. This is an example of us saying we can come together and be better.

SEITZ: I hope the lasting legacy will be a much improved transit system connecting people to jobs in a 21st century manner and a further legacy of adequately boosting infrastructure to propel our community forward for decades.

METZ: We built Carew Tower during the Great Depression, Great American Tower during the great recession, and we’re building our transit system coming out of a global pandemic. It’s a rocket booster on the back of our restart.

HALEY: When we are gone, there will still be a transit agency in our region and it will be better because of some of the things we did. We were relieved, we were excited, and then we realized, “Now it’s time to go to work.”

FALL 2020 REALM 51

DEEP DIVE

Crowd Source AS HAMILTON COUNTY EXPANDS TAX FUNDING FOR THE METRO TRANSIT SYSTEM, WE LOOK TO OTHER MID-SIZED CITIES FOR MODELS OF REGIONAL GOVERNMENT COOPERATION. B Y A M Y B R O W N L E E

V

oters approved a sales tax levy in June to alter the funding structure for Metro, expanding its tax base from Cincinnati’s city limits to all of Hamilton County. The expansion will help the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority improve service to 75,000 jobs in the county’s myriad employment centers.

It’s a baby step toward government regionalism, an effort to coordinate services, administration, and tax revenue—and perhaps merge some—across multiple political jurisdictions. In many ways, the Cincinnati region is late to the consolidation movement.

52 REALM FALL 2020

In the middle of the 20th century, as post-war population centers around the country moved from cities to suburbs, tax revenue inevitably followed them.

City leaders felt the practical effects within a matter of years, as urban centers increasingly became hollowed out and suburbs expanded beyond sustainability.

Many cities and counties found themselves maintaining multiple nested government structures to support and manage these seismic population shifts, and Cincinnati was no different. According to Governing magazine, Cincinnati is in the top 10 of major

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY J A S O N S O LO

metro cities with the most government entities per capita. The City of Cincinnati coexists in Hamilton County with 19 smaller cities (and their mayors), from Loveland to Cheviot, and the county maintains 49 different jurisdictions. Once you add in school boards, townships, and other taxing districts, the layers of government begin to pile up.

But it turns out that Cincinnati is an exception in this region. In fact, since the 1960s and ’70s, one midsized U.S. city after another in the Midwest and MidSouth, from Kansas City to Nashville, has embraced government consolidation—merging services like police, fire, and waste management and eliminating infrastructural redundancies. Louisville followed suit in 2003, and now Cincinnati is nearly surrounded by a half-dozen consolidated city-county regions.

The first thing to know about these mergers is that no two are alike.

Each individual effort brought city and county administrations under one roof in ways that aligned with unique situations and civic identities. And therein lies the paradoxical secret of successful regionalism: precision.

Even though the spirit of regionalism is about broad representation, cooperation, and consolidation, the process should be surgical.

Government consolidation in these cities wasn’t always smooth. There were false starts, compromises, and do-overs. But they’ve evolved into effective governing bodies, and we can look to several to find success stories.

L

O U I SV I L L E WA S T H E most recent consolidation effort outside of Ohio. The city had tried to lure the Houston Rockets professional basketball team to town five years earlier, but the powers that P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E SY PAT M U LV I H I L L

be in surrounding Jefferson County were 100 percent opposed to the effort. “We realized that our economic development plans, what you need to lure businesses, were competing against each other,” explains Louisville Metro Councilmember Pat Mulvihill.

“And sometimes they were totally opposed to one another.”

The optics of that dysfunctional relationship—city and county being at odds—killed the deal with the Rockets. “The team didn’t have any interest in coming here,” Mulvihill says. “We couldn’t compete. You can’t lure anybody if you’re not speaking out of one hymnal, and we weren’t. I think that was really the impetus for consolidation.”

After a few stalled referendum attempts proposing sweeping consolidation plans that would have collapsed dozens of taxing districts into one main district, Louisville successfully passed its current government structure in 2003. “A true 100 percent consolidation was not palatable,” Mulvihill says, “because it dissolved everything.” The resulting system merged just the City of Louisville with Jefferson County, leaving 82 existing suburban cities intact and not changing any of the county’s 17 fire protection districts.

“This was the path of least resistance,” says Mulvihill, who was part of the merger transition team after the ballot effort passed in 2003 and led to immediate changes for the region. “There is more representation.

The old city had 12 Aldermen and the county had three Commissioners. You now have 26 on the Metro Council, so areas that were wholly underserved now have representation.” That expanded representation created distinct economic gains for the business community across the

region. “Now you’re not looking at geographic lines—where’s this going, how’s it going to impact our bottom line. It’s all the same bottom line.”

T

PAT MULVIHILL

“You can’t lure [business relocation] if you’re not speaking out of one hymnal, and we weren’t.”

HE CITY OF NASHVILLE has enjoyed its share of good press in the last decade or so, and some say it’s the result of years of consolidation. “It’s booming,” says prominent attorney and councilmember Dewey Branstetter Jr., who chairs Nashville’s Charter Revision Commission. “I don’t think it would be in this situation if it had not consolidated 60 years ago.” Branstetter has been part of Nashville’s consolidation story since his youth: His father was one of the original authors of the Metro Charter that consolidated Nashville’s city and county governments in 1963.

Branstetter heads a seven-person body appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Metropolitan Council.

If someone wants to propose a change to the charter, they have to go through the Commission first. Branstetter has spent his career navigating Nashville’s consolidated government in its current state, and remembers how it once was.

“Nashville was becoming more of a suburban town,” he says. “The city was really struggling, losing its tax base and beginning to decay.” But the county, at a whopping 535 square miles, was exploding, and there was no mechanism to provide sewer service, fire, or police.

Indeed, before consolidation, most of the surrounding Davidson County was serviced by volunteer fire departments— in some cases by paid subscription.

Something had to give, and the decision was made to do away with existing inefficiencies and expand services to the rest of the county—resulting in the current Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (Metro Nashville for short). The first FALL 2020 REALM 53

DEEP DIVE

referendum failed, as voters feared they would see a tax hike without the promised service increases. And it didn’t help that there were many in government who liked the way things were already being done.

“One problem that you run into is that every little elected official has his or her own power structure,” says Branstetter. “The hardest thing was getting the various people who may lose some power through consolidation to be willing to do that.” Once voters approved, Nashville’s funding structure altered dramatically.

“When you can spread that tax bur-

“INDIANAPOLIS WOULD NOT BE WHERE IT IS TODAY IF IT HADN’T BEEN FOR UNIGOV. IT’S ONE GROUP OF FOLKS TO NEGOTIATE WITH, ONE SET OF OFFICIALS.”

den among hundreds of thousands of people instead of tens of thousands, it makes it that much easier to provide those services,” he says.

One hiccup in consolidating Metro Nashville was personnel. “One of the most challenging aspects to consolidate was all of the employee pension systems dating back to the 1950s, and benefits like health insurance and retirement,” says Branstetter. But from an economic stand-

54 REALM FALL 2020

point, consolidation paved the way for efficiency and expansion. “You have the ability to have comprehensive planning. You spread the risk over thousands of employees instead of hundreds, and you’re not as subject to market whims. You can create a more sound fiscal plan.”

Branstetter cautions any proponent of consolidated government to have a ready “elevator pitch” to get stakeholders on the same page: “You have to have a five-minute speech that says, This is why consolidating is in the best interest of all involved. If you can’t succinctly state This is our plan, then you won’t get everyone on board.”

T

HE CONSOLIDATED Indianapolis government is so established— so much a part of the fabric of life there—that it has its own nickname: Unigov. The city of Indianapolis merged with surrounding Marion County in 1970 thanks to Indiana state legislation, and hasn’t looked back. From parks to transportation to libraries to corrections, some 46 agencies fall under the City-County Council, which adopts budgets, levies taxes, and enacts laws.

“Indianapolis would not be what it is today if it hadn’t been for Unigov,” says Brandon Herget, policy director for the Indianapolis City-County Council. “It has been beneficial for development and business attraction and retention. Any services that the local unit provides can be done more efficiently at scale.

It creates one streamlined process for city and county, for workforce, property tax abatements, expansions. It’s a one-stop shop—one group of folks to

negotiate with, one set of officials.”

Unigov works well for economic initiatives, providing a streamlined process for the both public and business community. “It’s all pre-programmed, and everyone is on the same page,” Herget says. “It’s a friendly environment for businesses without a lot of red tape.”

Even with this relatively expansive push to consolidate, Unigov isn’t 100 percent comprehensive. There are 11 “included towns” in Marion County that retain their name but still participate in consolidated government. There are also a handful of “excluded towns”—most notably Speedway, Indiana, home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and its Indy 500—that maintain their own separate governments.

Indianapolis didn’t fully absorb all of the county’s police and fire districts into single units right away.

Police finally consolidated in the 2000s, and the county still retains three separate fire districts. Unigov also didn’t touch public schools, and those multiple district funding structures—solely reliant on property taxes—continue to represent a major problem for equity of access in the state.

Despite (or perhaps because of ) its scale, Unigov does bring with it a few cautionary tales: Expanding transit to the 400-plus square miles of service areas has proven logistically difficult. “We have council districts where there are zero public transit lines,” says Herget. “You have to have a certain amount of density.”

Unigov happened thanks to a receptive ecosystem and sheer political will, allowing that consolidated government to expand services and look creatively at multiple jurisdiction projects. “We realized that we

all sink or swim together,” says Herget.

M

EANWHILE, THE Tw i n C i t i e s a r e a standout example of a region that has not consolidated governments. Through its Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities, the area still manages to realize benefits of consolidation without actually merging government entities. The Met Council, as it’s commonly known, is a coordinating body operating essential services like transit and wastewater management. It was created as a mechanism to address specific problems of the time: The region’s privately-owned bus system was failing financially in 1967, and septic systems and wastewater treatment were leeching waste water into the waterways, which were—and still are—important natural resources and major tourism assets in Minnesota.

The idea was to consolidate only those services that required a huge capital investment, and leave the rest as they were. The Met Council has broad oversight of a seven-county region for planning and investment and provides crucial coordination between disparate governing bodies in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and beyond. “At the time, the Council was created

DIFFERENT APPROACHES

Nashville (top) consolidated almost all city and county functions, while the Twin Cities (below) coordinate only essential operating services like transit and wastewater management.

P H O T O G R A P H S BY J A K E M AT T H E WS / Z I M M Y T WS / S T O C K . A D O B E . C O M

FALL 2020 REALM 55

DEEP DIVE

TAKEAWAYS SHARING IS CARING Nashville has expanded services and employee benefits by spreading the tax burden and insurance risk across the entire county, instead of just city residents.

KEEP OUT City-county consolidation in Indianapolis and Louisville allowed for a number of suburban towns in each county to retain some government independence.

DIFFERENT APPROACH The Met Council in Minnesota has broad oversight of a seven-county region for planning, investment, and coordination among governing bodies in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and their suburbs.

to address regional issues that transcended local boundaries to ensure efficient delivery of services, avoid duplication, and plan orderly development,” says Charlie Zelle, chair of the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities. “Today, the Council partners with local governments and other key stakeholders to position the region as a vibrant, livable, and thriving place to live and work.”

“It’s such an interesting model for looking at regionalism,” says Katie Eagan, vice president of government affairs at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

“Those counties are governed by the Met Council, and they have to submit their 10- and 20-year plans to that council for strategic planning and what the future looks like for them. It’s beneficial because it makes sure they’re all rowing in the same direction.”

I

N THIS REGIONALISM conversation, Ohio has just two par ticipating counties. We remain a very government-heavy state, with major cities racking up layers of local, municipal, county, and state political bodies. But notable changes have been taking place in Cuyahoga and Summit counties—some more abrupt than others.

In 2008, the FBI raided the offices of Cuyahoga County’s three-member Board of County Commissioners, unearthing an extensive list of corruption cases that led to multiple arrests and criminal trials of government officials. Voters opted to change the system the following year to replace the existing board with a County Executive and an 11-person County Council, which has legislative and taxing authority for the entire county.

The move expanded county government, thus spreading out representation and accountability and decentralizing power share—all to mitigate space for corruption to thrive.

Just one county over, Summit County had already moved away from the traditional system of three County Commissioners to spread power among an elected County Council, the first Ohio county to do so. The Summit County Charter was adopted by the voters in 1979, stating, “The

CINCINNATI RANKS IN THE TOP 10 AMONG U.S. METRO AREAS FOR MOST GOVERNMENT ENTITIES PER CAPITA.

citizens of Summit County, Ohio, believing that they can better govern themselves on the county level, avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by the Constitution of the State of Ohio to adopt this Charter.” The County Council has legislative and policy-making power as well as some taxing authority, giving it a large political footprint in the county.

Cuyahoga and Summit counties might be geographically and politically removed from Cincinnati and perhaps not as bold as Indianapolis, Louisville, and Nashville, but they represent an opening to some definition of regionalism within Ohio’s existing legal structure.

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PHOTO ESSAY

GREEN MEANS GROW If you’ve dined out in Greater Cincinnati in the last three years, you’ve probably eaten a Waterfields product. The boutique agriculture firm in Spring Grove Village grows microgreens, edible flowers, and other specialty plants, selling to more than 180 restaurants, bars, hotels, and country clubs inside the I-275 loop that have embraced the “local food” movement.

—AIESHA D. LITTLE

58 REALM FALL 2020

P H O T O G R A P H S BY L A N C E A D K I N S

FALL 2020 REALM 59

PHOTO ESSAY

MORE THAN LOCAL

Led by Sam Dunlap (on the left) and Daniel Klemens, Waterfields works with distribution partners to get its products onto the plates of diners in cities like Chicago, Nashville, Detroit, and Indianapolis.

FINISH THEM

Garnishes are the name of the game at this farming outfit. That includes chives, mint, and wacky peas (below).

LIGHT ’EM UP

Different types of lighting can influence how plants grow. Waterfields’ pink LED lights (below right) bring out more color in certain plants.

SOIL? WHAT SOIL?

Waterfields’s products are grown hydroponically by placing seeds in trays on sheets of “grow media,” a non-soil material that allows roots to take hold (opposite page). Grow media specifics vary by plant.

60 REALM FALL 2020

STATE LOVE

Waterfields has now partnered with Ohio distributor Premier ProduceOne to provide fresh produce (below) to restaurants, hospitals, schools, and universities around the state.

IN BLOOM

Waterfields sold 175,000 edible flowers (above) in 2019.

FALL 2020 REALM 61

ASK ME ABOUT

ARCHIE BROWN CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER FIRST FINANCIAL BANK ASK ME ABOUT How we’re helping to grow minority-owned businesses in this region.

JOE LANNI CO-OWNER THUNDERDOME RESTAURANT GROUP

find common ground with team members scared of the unknown, dealing with a simultaneously completely deciding where disrupted supply chain, and when to negotiating reopen, monitoring changing payment plans with our venhealth reguladors, asking tions in eight different cities, landlords for a way to remain pivoting our business model open, creating while uncertain new safety and about sales vol- sanitation proumes and labor tocols, dealing with the banks, usage, using and trying to new technolunderstand the ogy, trying to

DESCRIBE THUNDERDOME’S EXPERIENCE DURING THE COVID-19 SHUTDOWN. We were

62 REALM FALL 2020

ASK ME ABOUT How our restaurants have coped during the pandemic.

almost daily changes to various relief programs. It has been the busiest and most stressful period I’ve ever been through.

HOW DID YOU DECIDE WHICH RESTAURANTS TO KEEP OPEN AND WHICH TO CLOSE? We

initially closed everything due to fear among customers, ownership, and our teams:

Bakersfield, Currito, CityBird, The Eagle, Krueger’s, Maplewood, and Pepp & Dolores. Each location’s reopening was a gut call. We couldn’t have a misstep.

CAN THUNDERDOME EMERGE FROM THE PANDEMIC EVEN BETTER THAN BEFORE? We

have had to make hard cuts.

The silver lining

is that as an organization we’ll be moving forward with our best locations, the most dedicated team members, and the vendors who are true partners. They have inspired my co-owners and me and are literally saving this company, and we will not forget it.

—ELIZABETH MILLER WOOD

WHAT WAS MOST MEMORABLE ABOUT YOUR ROUNDTABLE MEETING WITH THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT? Being the first selected to share my story with President Trump and to have him engaged enough to make sure his administration helped remove barriers hindering Journey from obtaining government contracts.

WHAT DO YOU FEEL ARE THE BIGGEST ROADBLOCKS TO GROWTH FOR MINORITY-OWNED BUSINESSES?

There’s a myth that programs in place for minority-owned businesses even the playing field for obtaining contracts. Most minority-owned businesses are also small businesses, which means access to capital, bonding, and back-office support ser-

P H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E SY ( C LO C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T ) T H U N D E R D O M E R E S TA U R A N T G R O U P / F I R S T F I N A N C I A L B A N K / J O U R N E Y S T E E L

WHAT LED TO YOUR INVOLVEMENT WITH THE MINORITY BUSINESS ACCELERATOR?

First Financial Bank is excited to support the Minority Business Accelerator, which does outstanding work to enable minority business development. We’re donating $1 million to its J. Phillip Holloman Endowment Fund to support economic inclusion initiatives.

vices aren’t always available.

Until those who have the power to override their “minimum acceptable criteria” say, Yes, we will help you rise to our standards, the playing field will never be even.

HOW CAN MINORITY-OWNED BUSINESSES GAIN BETTER ACCESS TO FEDERAL CONTRACTS IN THE FUTURE? We need access from the inside out to develop partnerships and opportunities with those who are already doing business with the government. — E . M . W .

HOW WILL FIRST FINANCIAL’S DONATION HELP ADVANCE THE PROGRAM AND COMMUNITY IMPACT?

We want Cincinnati to be the epicenter for attracting and expanding minority business, bringing in top talent, and spurring economic growth and vitality. Our investment can help develop new businesses, mentor existing businesses, and offer investment opportunities and succession planning to continue the progress of our minority business leaders.

HOW DOES THIS SUPPORT ALIGN WITH MINORITYSUPPORTING INITIATIVES AT FIRST FINANCIAL?

We have committed $1.7 billion to increase access to banking services, drive product innovation and inclusion, increase lending to low- and moderate-income borrowers, and increase community engagement and investment.

Thirty percent of our banking centers are located in LMI communities, and we plan to build six more over the next

three years.

Our Supplier Diversity Program ensures that a minimum of 10 percent of our sourceable spending takes place with diverse vendors, including minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, and disability-owned businesses. And we partner with Central State University to educate minority students about banking principles and career paths within our industry. — E . M . W .

BARBARA SMITH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER JOURNEY STEEL ASK ME ABOUT My participation in a roundtable discussion with President Trump and Vice President Pence regarding minority business growth.

FALL 2020 REALM 63

BACK PAGE

CULTURE

REAWAKENING

The usual hallmarks of summer finally started to re-emerge as the pandemic shutdown waned. Reds and FC Cincinnati games and Bengals training camp returned without live fans. Kings Island and Coney Island reopened with precautions, as did museums. And music brightened a socially-distant and sanitized Fountain Square on the new Fifth Third Center Stage (above), part of Fifth Third’s “Project Connect” to create a new two-story welcome atrium and next-generation financial center at its Fountain Square headquarters. – J O H N F O X

64 REALM FALL 2020

P H O T O G R A P H BY L A N C E A D K I N S

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CELEBRATING

SERVING CINCINNATI FOR OVER 15 YEARS!

YEARS

INDIANA WE SLE YAN UNIVERSIT Y . NATIONAL & GLOBAL

DEVOE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ASSOCIATE >> BACHELOR’S >> MASTER’S >> DOCTORATE >> CERTIFICATES

DeVoe School of Business is a Christ-centered academic community committed to transforming the global marketplace through life-shaping preparation, helping students to ask essential questions, exploring their call to business as God’s work, and preparing for a fully integrated life of service.

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ACCOUNTING, BUSINESS, IT, CYBERSECURITY, HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT, HUMAN RESOURCES, MANAGEMENT AND MORE!

IWU TO 58052 FOR MORE INFORMATION 866.498.4968 | INDWES.EDU/DEVOE

You’ve thought about it. Talked about it. Daydreamed about it. And talked about it some more. Today’s the day to make it happen. We’ll look at your financial big picture and design a plan to help you do what’s important today, and every day after.

LiveWell Capital 513.366.3664 3805 Edwards Rd Ste 200 livewellcapital.com

Joseph B Beshear uses LiveWell Capital as a marketing name for doing business as representatives of Northwestern Mutual. LiveWell Capital is not a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, insurance agency or federal savings bank. 07-1002 © 2020 Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries in Milwaukee, WI. Joseph B Beshear provides investment brokerage services as a Registered Representative of Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS), a subsidiary of NM, broker-dealer, registered investment adviser and member FINRA and SIPC. Joseph B Beshear is a District Agent(s) of NM. Joseph B Beshear provides investment advisory services as an Advisor of Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company®, (NMWMC) Milwaukee, WI, a subsidiary of NM and a federal savings bank. There may be instances when this agent represents companies in addition to NM or its subsidiaries.