ODOT should tell humorless U.S. bureaucrats to stick it and keep the wit in highway signboards: Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Federal Highway Administration wants to limit the funny digital messages you drive under on the highway.

We’re talking about the funny warnings that stuck with us — and why we think they work — on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

Dave Yost has won over some big-time support for his lawsuit against the NCAA, where he argues the rules unreasonably limit student athlete transfers. Who has joined him?

How could business interests, including some in Ohio, help get a new bipartisan tax deal passed in Congress that would help parents, those who are housing challenges and many others?

Driving Ohio highways has been more amusing in recent years because of the wit used on the warning signs. The people writing the messages have had a keen sense of pop culture and humor. What humorless bureaucrats are trying to stop us from smiling?

Common sense seems to be prevailing in some counties when it comes to transgender candidates seeking their rightful places on the ballot. What’s the latest?

Here’s another highway story. You know how you feel when you’re driving down a snowy highway and one of those ginormous ODOT snow plows comes barreling down the road? You want to stay as far away as you can, right? Well, not everyone. How many cars have collided with snow plows just this season?

We know where it will be and how we will be forced to pay for it, but we have no idea what it will look like or how it will operate. When can we expect a plan for the new Cuyahoga County jail?

One by one, the cowboy cops of East Cleveland are facing the music in court for their abuse of power and criminal behavior that city officials didn’t even try to rein in. What’s the penalty for a cop who used a stun gun on a handcuffed suspect?

Is climate change melting away Ohio’s ski season?

One way to retain employees is to take good care of them when they have children. The City of Cleveland is getting a good taste of that, after offering a new benefit last year. What is it, and who is using it?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:01.345)

Dennis Kucinich is running for Congress as an independent in the district held by Max Miller. It came up earlier this week. We haven’t talked about it. I don’t know that there’s a whole lot to say. We’re going to wait for our reporters to come back and explain what he’s thinking in running as an independent. We’ll be talking about it next week, I suspect. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Leila Tasse and Laura Johnston.

On a somewhat snowy morning, Laura and Layla are getting snowed in. Lisa and I are having a summer like day. Ha ha ha. The snow is coming. Let’s get to the news. Dave Yost has won over some big time support for his lawsuit against the NCAA where he argues the rules unreasonably limit student athlete transfers. Lisa, this is kind of unprecedented and really striking who has joined him.

Lisa (00:56.858)

Yeah, this is a suit that Attorney General Davios filed last month with six other states. As you said, they’re challenging the NCAA limits on student-athlete transfers, but joining them now in the suit as of yesterday, the Department of Justice, which is extremely rare to get involved in state suits, also the District of Columbia, and three new states, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Virginia, have all joined as plaintiffs.

So the NCAA rule states athletes who switch Division I schools multiple times must get a medical waiver or sit out for a year. Now for college athletes, that’s 20% of their playing career. So the suit says a violation is the violation of federal antitrust laws, it’s illegal restraint on athletes’ ability to market themselves and control their education.

The judge hearing the suit upheld the enforcement of the rule through the end of the spring sports season. And there’s no trial date been set for this lawsuit yet. But Yost says this is perhaps the first time the Department of Justice has joined a state led antitrust suit. He said there’s strength in numbers. This case would not have happened had many players not been sidelined by what he calls an unfair and arbitrary rule.

Chris (02:14.173)

I wonder what Dave Yost really thinks about this. He wants to win the suit. It’s a very legitimate suit. They’re doing the right thing. The NCAA times are changing too fast for the NCAA to deal with it. But Yost wants to run for governor and now he’s on Team Biden. Joe Biden’s administration is teaming up with him to go after the NCAA. I would imagine his opponents of the Republican primary might use that.

Lisa (02:31.339)

I’m sorry.

Chris (02:41.941)

He files lawsuits that are so popular with the libs that the president’s team joined him, but they’re doing the right thing. I mean, I’m impressed that the Biden administration joined a Republican governor in doing this. A lot of these lawsuits are so polarizing that all the Republican governors joined or the attorneys general joined in the lawsuits. And when it’s a Democrat, all the Democrats do. It’s good to see that bipartisan approach.

Lisa (03:06.278)

It really is. And honestly, you know, colleges have controlled the futures and the finances of their student athletes for decades. And now student athletes are saying, hey, it’s my life, it’s my career, give me some control. I think this is good.

Chris (03:21.169)

Yeah, I mean, this is one where I think Dave Yost really is representing the interests of Ohioans and trying to fix something that’s just not fair. I with the power behind this lawsuit, if I were the NCAA, I’d be changing my rules pretty quickly. They just have to get with this quickly. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How could business interests, including some in Ohio, help get a new bipartisan tax deal passed in Congress that would help parents?

and those who have housing challenges as well as many others. Laura.

laura (03:53.504)

This looks really promising and talk about bipartisan. I think both sides are on board for this. And leaders of the Ohio Business Roundtable and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, they both used to be Republican congressmen. They say the deal itself, the fact that it is created is a good sign. And they think that business interests in Ohio around the country will urge Congress to pass this deal. And it’s called Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024.

So when we’re talking about the child tax credit, that’s going to increase the maximum refundable amount. From 1,600 per child, that was 2023, goes up to 1,800, then 1,900, and then in 2000 by the tax year of 2025. It’s gonna adjust it for inflation in 2024 and 2025 there too. So that would help something like 600,000 kids in Ohio, and you have to mention a whole lot more across the country.

Lisa (04:42.698)

So that would help something like 600,000 kids in Ohio and that’s preventing a whole lot more of that country. Obviously helps from Paris. And then the business side, there’s full of media production.

laura (04:49.512)

obviously helps their parents. And then the business side, there’s full immediate deductions for a ton of capital expenses. So there was a law in 2017 that allowed this. It was extended through 2022. This would push it even further. And you can immediately deduct domestic research costs instead of spreading out the deduction over five years as that 2017 law requires.

Lisa (04:59.202)

that allowed this, it would extend it to 2022, this would push it even further. And you can immediately deduct domestic research costs instead of spreading out the deduction over five years as that 2017 law requires. Interesting how these legislators…

Chris (05:12.605)

Interesting how these legislators want to really help mom and pop in the presidential election year. I’m sure there’s no correlation between the two.

laura (05:20.684)

supporting voters with tax deductions. I mean, at least this is not just a big business help. This would, you would think, help a whole lot of people and the people who might feel forgotten by government on a regular basis.

Chris (05:37.097)

Right. This helps people. It helps the economy. There’s no downside to this. It’s just because we’re so polarized, you always have ridiculous arguments against because one side’s trying to get up on the other. In this case, it sounds like they realize they want to be able to go to the voters and say, we did something for you.

laura (05:54.884)

Yeah, and I guess it’s one of the least productive Congresses in recent history, just like we have a very unproductive legislature in Ohio when it comes to passing bills. So the fact that they could actually get something bipartisan done is worthy of note.

Chris (06:09.657)

Bells, whistles, clapping, standing on the sidelines saying, more, more. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Driving Ohio highways has been more amusing in recent years because of the wit used on the warning signs. The people writing the messages have shown a keen sense of pop culture and humor, and I’m betting it has helped ease the anxiety of some white knuckle driving. So Leila, who are the humorless bureaucrats trying to stop us from smiling?

laura (06:11.722)

Yay!

Leila (06:37.608)

Well, it’s the Federal Highway Administration, and apparently they just decided they want people to go back to ignoring these traffic warning signs. They updated their manual for traffic officials, and it really reigns in those funny scrolling messages on the highways. The reason is that the references are sometimes too obscure or the syntax isn’t standard, or some drivers don’t get the joke if the cultural references is lost on them. So…

Lisa (06:43.122)

to ignore these traffic warning signs, they updated their manual for traffic officials and it really reigns in those funny scrolling messages on the highways. The reason is that the references are sometimes too obscure with the syntaxes and standard where some drivers don’t get the joke if the cultural references is lost on them. And so some of the signs drivers have seen on a couple of Ohio roadways include, you’re not a pumpkin, don’t drive smooth,

Chris (06:44.311)

Hahaha.

Leila (07:05.98)

Some of the signs that drivers have seen on Ohio roadways include, you’re not a pumpkin, don’t drive smashed, which refers to the smashing pumpkins, arguably the best alt rock band of the 90s, so everyone should get that reference.

Lisa (07:13.236)

which refers to the Smashing Pumpkin, arguably the best alt rock band ever. Thank you for that reference.

Chris (07:19.181)

But but wait though. I mean don’t drive smashed is not subtle. We know what it means It’s not being lost on anybody and to say that oh this goes over people’s heads. It’s like only you humorless bureaucrats and

Leila (07:23.524)

No, it’s not. None of these are.

Leila (07:30.744)

I mean, the thing is every single one of these is yes, it has baked into it a pop cultural reference, but the message is crystal clear. I mean, this one is, great Scott, watch your speed McFly. The message is clearly watch your speed. If you don’t know that that’s a nod to Back to the Future, then you’re a Martian. But still, there’s no way you can miss what the sign is telling you.

Lisa (07:32.202)

And one of these is yes, if it has been used to a cultural…

Chris (07:40.574)

Yeah.

Chris (07:47.24)

Right.

Leila (07:57.488)

So the directive says that only traffic messages that are part of an active coordinated safety campaign should show up on the changeable message signs. Whomp, whomp.

laura (08:07.904)

Can I tell you my favorite one was camping in state parks is cool, camping in the left lane is not like.

Chris (08:07.965)

You know though.

Lisa (08:07.99)

That’s a bummer. Oh my God, Laura, get out of my head. I was going to say the same thing. That was one of my favorite ones.

Leila (08:14.579)

Yeah.

Leila (08:18.864)

Laura, I saw one that’s for you. It says texting and driving. Say it. I’m the problem. It’s me. Yes, yes. Not because she texts and drive, but because she’s a Swifty.

Lisa (08:26.198)

Hehehehehehe

Chris (08:26.398)

Heh.

laura (08:27.02)

She’s saying that because it’s Taylor Swift, not because I text and drive.

Yes, that’s fun.

Chris (08:33.933)

The thing about this is how do you even begin to govern where the line is? If I were Ohio officials, I’d say stick it and keep doing what they’re doing. This is an amusement on the highways. The highways can be pretty tense. And I don’t think any of us have ever seen one of those signs and rolled our eyes and thought, oh, stop it. Get, get back to being serious and boring. I think whenever you see those messages, you smile, you might talk about it.

Leila (08:55.368)

right.

Yeah, it sticks with you actually, and that’s the point of marketing, right?

laura (08:59.872)

We remember them! Like, when was the last time you remembered a road sign?

Lisa (09:01.627)

Exactly.

Leila (09:04.844)

I know. I know. Oh, and I saw one road sign that I think makes its point clearly and resonates with every single driver, no matter where you’re coming from in your cultural references. It said, visiting in-laws, slow down, get there late.

Lisa (09:21.177)

Hehe

Chris (09:22.837)

Yeah, I saw this start bubbling up a couple days ago. It just rolled my eyes. This is such a dumb move by the federal government to interfere with what is actually a very positive kind of thing that’s going on. In the vein of humor and law enforcement and driving, North Olmsted police, I think it was North Olmsted, put out a fascinating press release about the weather overnight. Cliff Pinkard wrote it up.

Why was it funny?

Leila (09:50.98)

Oh my gosh, it was so hilarious. I mean, they were just like, you know, no matter, depending on where you get your weather, we’re either getting a dusting tonight or 962 inches of snow. I mean, and it just kept going from there and saying things like, you know, your car cannot touch another car or a ditch or a telephone pole. And this is not an exhaustive list, everything’s on it. You need to drive slowly. I mean, it was really, they were just perfect.

Chris (10:01.429)

Hahaha.

Lisa (10:02.326)

Hehehehe

Leila (10:20.38)

messaging. And that’s what you got to do. Everyone needs a little humor to get these kind of safety things out to people.

laura (10:21.388)

It was like, yes.

They said, we are not Atlanta. And it’s like, yes, we are better than this, Cleveland. We are heartier people.

Leila (10:30.476)

Yeah, they said, they said, let’s pretend we’ve all been here before.

Lisa (10:31.894)

What?

Lisa (10:35.102)

And I would argue that a boring like click it or ticket message people are like, oh, I’ve seen it. I think they probably ignore it. But if something’s funny, they pay attention to what it’s saying.

Chris (10:44.137)

And it permeates the brain, it gets through. You do notice it, unlike the millions of random bureaucratic messages. I think humor is the antidote and gives everybody a nice smile. So.

Leila (10:44.305)

Yeah.

laura (10:44.436)

And do you know-

laura (10:56.689)

and ODOT for a while.

Leila (10:56.982)

Thanks to the wet blanket at the Federal Highway Administration.

Chris (11:00.613)

Ha ha

laura (11:01.62)

But ODOT was actually soliciting ideas. I don’t know if you can still do it, but for a while you could go to their website and suggest a road sign. So I think that was cool.

Leila (11:11.216)

And it’s a trend that every state was participating in, basically. Like you can find these all over the country.

Chris (11:11.374)

I hope they ignore this.

laura (11:17.12)

They did say it was a suggestion.

Chris (11:17.317)

I just hope they ignore it. Well, they were, they had these stupid guidelines. It’s just dumb. Look, the federal government doesn’t have better things to do. I mean, this is what the Joe Biden administration, that’s what it wants to be known for. Let’s make the highways boring again.

Leila (11:30.964)

That’s true. I think though that the Ohio Department of Transportation sees a lot of wiggle room in this manual update because like Laura said, they’re saying, yeah, it’s more of a recommendation than a ban. And as long as the underlying safety message is easy to discern from the cultural reference, they’re going to keep doing the humor.

Chris (11:42.606)

I hope so.

Chris (11:49.425)

Ohio has a better sense of humor than the federal government. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Common sense seems to be prevailing in some counties when it comes to transgender candidates seeking their rightful places on the ballot. Lisa, who’s the latest?

Lisa (12:04.962)

So the bipartisan Mercer County Board of Elections unanimously tossed a Republican protest against House District 4 Democratic candidate Ariane Childrie. They ruled that protests against primary candidates’ eligibility can only come from the same party, according to Ohio law. They decided not to remove her name from the ballot after she failed to provide her dead name on campaign forums because there was no space for it.

And this was in compliance with a little known and little used law on prior names. So the protest was filed by Mercer County Republican Chair, Robert Hibner. Childress says she’s pleased with the outlook. She says, I had prepared my arguments but I thankfully didn’t have to make them. So over in Montgomery County, there is a Democratic candidate, Bobby Arnold from Preble County. She can remain on the ballot. In Stark County though, Vanessa Joy was disqualified.

She appealed, the appeal failed, this is in House District 50, and she wrote a Thursday letter to the Stark County Board of Elections asking them to reconsider in light of the Childry decision. So I think we need to see some consistency here. Both Governor Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Frank LaRose say they do want that rule mentioned in future documents, but there’s some lawmakers who say they don’t see any need for change.

Chris (13:26.101)

Well, what’s happening now is a spotlight is getting on Stark County for being intolerant. Other boards of elections are looking at this and recognizing it’s preposterous that you would kick somebody off the ballot. It’s not right. There’s no place to list your previous names. There’s nobody that tells you have to do so and to block them is completely unfair. And I think it would lose in court. But that’s what Stark County did. If they were smart in Stark County, they would reconsider this immediately and defer.

the wisdom of their fellow boards of elections and get this yoke off their back because they’re going to be anti transgender central if they don’t fix this.

Lisa (14:05.822)

Well, it’s made national news. It was a top story on the Associated Press website yesterday. So, you know, it’s getting a lot of attention.

Chris (14:13.033)

Maybe Stark County wants to be known as an anti-transgender county. I wouldn’t think that a lot of the residents want that to be on their backs. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Here’s another highway story. You know how you feel when you’re driving down a snowy highway and one of those ginormous ODOT snowplows comes barreling down on you? You want to stay as far away as you can, right, Lara? Well, not everyone. How many cars have already collided with snowplows, even though we’ve had almost no snow this season?

laura (14:41.852)

Yeah, it’s like the North Olmsted cops said, you’re not supposed to touch anything else with your car. But nine people, nine, in just basically a week, just in ODOT, so we’re talking about the big highways, cars hit snowplows. These weigh 2,500 pounds. If you hit them, you are not going to win. And that’s just a plow. It is insane to me. They have video of this. They have a truck that tried to pass a snowplow on the left, on a highway, on the shoulder.

Lisa (15:08.97)

on the shoulder.

laura (15:11.112)

And what happened? The truck hit the snow plow and went flipping upside down because the plow is wider than the truck is. Think about that. To me, I cannot believe any idiots are trying to pass a plow on the left.

Chris (15:26.709)

Yeah, I mean, those plows are frightening, right? And plus, they’re spraying huge amounts of salt. So it’s like getting sand blasted by pebbles. I cannot understand how anybody would get it in their head to get closer to them. You want to get away from them as far away as you can.

Leila (15:44.264)

No, you want to travel in their path. Everyone knows, go behind the plow. You got the cleanest path. That’s true.

Lisa (15:47.561)

Mm-hmm.

laura (15:48.352)

Well, then you stay pretty far back though, because you don’t want to get pelted by those salt pellets, right?

Chris (15:48.397)

Far behind.

Chris (15:55.037)

Yeah, but one, you’re not supposed to pass on the shoulder anyway in any situation, but you certainly don’t want to pass these behemoths. And you know, those things can’t be easy to drive. You got to feel for the people behind the wheel driving down the road in these enormous vehicles, trying to keep the roads clear. It’s mind-boggling that we’ve had that many accidents because it’s really, it’s…

Lisa (15:58.484)

Anyway…

laura (16:20.308)

lot of times they line up right kind of like the skaters at the hockey game where they’re trying to get the ice the snow off the ice they go in a row so that they plow into each other so that they can you know they’re coordinated they know what they’re doing just take away from them

Chris (16:38.465)

All right. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We know where it will be. We know how we are being forced to pay for it, but we have no idea what it will look like or how it will operate. Well, when can we expect a plan for the new Cuyahoga County jail?

Leila (16:55.176)

Soon, eventually, County Executive Chris Staytuned Ronane told reporter Lucas de Prilly that Ronane expects to have details on what the new jail campus on the 72-acre site in Garfield Heights would look like, how it’s going to function, and what amenities it’s going to include sometime in 2024. So we’re still awaiting some basic details. The number of jail beds, the size of the building.

what kind of presence the sheriff’s department would have there, how to transport people to and from this location, and the type of social and reentry services that they’re going to have on the campus. All of that has remained kind of out there in the ether. The county bought this site in Garfield with $38.7 million in ARPA money. That amount was just for the site. It doesn’t include the construction cost, which they think could be at least $750 million.

the debt service on construction costs will be paid through a 40-year, 0.25% sales tax extension that was approved back in December. Renane has really high hopes for what this new campus can achieve by way of diversion programs and social services and reentry programs. And Lucas, he pushed him also on more transparency on plans to select a site for the future courthouse downtown. And Renane…

demurred on that. He said the county’s legal counsel advises them to keep all of those plans close to the vest until there’s a signed agreement in place with all the parties. And he says he’s, he says he’d like to have that decision made by the end of the year.

Chris (18:23.721)

and I’m not buying that. That is complete. That’s just horse hockey. The law allows them to keep it secret. They don’t have to keep it secret and keeping it secret builds suspicion. That was I read that part of the story and it’s like no way no how do you get away with that? That is not true. Yeah, we’re doing what the state told us to do. No, you’re not. You are you are hiding what you’re doing. You can easily say here are the seven buildings.

Lisa (18:24.418)

Ha ha ha!

Chris (18:51.989)

that are in play for a justice center. These are the ones, we’re not gonna get into the specific dollar details because those are trade secrets or whatever they wanna call it, but they could be much more open about it. What they’re trying to do, pick their plan, sign the deal, and then bring it to the public when it’s almost too late to do anything about it. The big problem they face here is the judges won’t stand for it. This is the home of the judges. They are a branch of government.

And if they’re frozen out and don’t get a say, they’ll go to court and they’ll win because guess who decides these cases? Other judges. And everything about this stinks. I mean, it’s just, it stinks. They did an RFP, they’ve got the proposals, it’s the public’s business, and they have yet to put it before the public.

Leila (19:40.565)

Stay tuned.

Chris (19:42.505)

Wow, when? When the deal is signed? I mean, look, there’s a lot of suspicions that they’re trying to cut some deal with Gilbert, that that’s what this always was about. You hear it all over town. So if they come out, and that’s what the deal was with, everybody is not going to believe it. It’s just this is not the way to build good faith in the voters and the people have to pay for this thing. It’s wrong, wrong. And he pedaled a line of just bull to our reporter.

Leila (19:44.825)

Right.

Chris (20:11.797)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. One by one, the cowboy cops of East Cleveland are facing the music in court for their abuse of power and criminal behavior, which city officials never even tried to rein in. What’s the penalty Lisa for a cop who used a stun gun on a guy who was in handcuffs?

Lisa (20:30.314)

Yeah, 41-year-old former East Cleveland police officer Brian Parks of Broadview Heights cut a plea deal and he gets a six-month prison term. He pled guilty to misdemeanor assault and felony record tampering attempts in connection to that 2021 arrest of a suspect.

He used this taser on this handcuffed man who was on the ground. And this was captured in body cam footage from another officer who was at the scene. The guy was shot two times. He begged Parks not to do it again. He says, I don’t know why y’all tasered me so many times. So part of the plea deal, Parks will forfeit his Ohio peace officer’s training academy license. More serious charges were dropped, including felonious assault.

So Parks is one of 18 former law enforcement officers indicted in East Cleveland. Just an update on some of the others. Willie Simms and Alfonso Cole were sentenced back in November for robbing drivers during traffic stops. They got two and two and a half years in prison, respectively. Nicholas Foddy, he got 18 months of probation for stomping a man’s head as the man was being restrained. That was a plea deal as well. Demarco Johnson and Von Harris

will be sentenced on Monday after their guilty verdict for bribery. They actually went to a jury trial. And then there are 10 officers that are going on trial on Valentine’s day, February 14th. And then former East Cleveland police chief, Scott Gardner, will be going on trial March 11th.

Chris (21:58.849)

They stole from people, they beat people, they cruelly treated people, and the check on them was supposed to be the government, the mayor and the council. We did story after story about this. We did a whole series about how out of control they were, and nobody did anything. That happens for the justice system, because the only check that we ultimately had to stop what was happening in East Cleveland were the prosecutors and the investigators that have taken the painstaking time.

to bring them to trial. It was so out of control. I still cannot believe there was no way to stop them, to decertify that police department. It was one of the most abusive situations we’ve ever seen with police. Oh well, we’ll see what happens in the trial that starts on Valentine’s Day, which as Laura and I are discussing is also Ash Wednesday, which is gonna make it interesting for people who abstain from sweets for Lent. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The failure, oh wait.

What, Laura, what am I supposed to ask you about?

laura (23:00.173)

You’re supposed to ask me how that ski season.

Chris (23:02.342)

And you were supposed to remind me and you didn’t.

laura (23:04.08)

I was supposed to remind you, sorry. I’m reminding you now. We’re talking about whether we’re going to have a ski season in Northeast Ohio in the future because it’s so hard to make snow.

Chris (23:07.744)

Hehehe

Chris (23:11.273)

Alright.

Chris (23:15.189)

Reporter Pete Krause has taken a look at 10 years of opening dates for the ski slopes around Northeast Ohio to see if it tells us anything about climate change. It’s a very late opening this year. It’s what made us think of it. Laura, what does that story show?

laura (23:30.376)

I love that we’re talking about the story when we’re getting snowed on and everyone’s going to be like, there’s plenty of snow in Northeast Ohio. But if you’re a skier, you don’t think so. The only reason we can ski regularly in Northeast Ohio is because of snowmaking. You have to have temperatures of 28 degrees or lower for that to happen. We didn’t get much of those in December. Thankfully, we did get Boston Mills opened on December 22nd. They opened with three hills. They have had three hills open.

until we got to Wednesday, they finally were able to open one more. Brandywine at Sister Resort just opened. But when you look at the trend, and that’s what we’re really hoping to do, there really isn’t one. They hope to open before Christmas. That’s always the goal. It doesn’t always happen. I remember a late start as late as January 7th in recent years. But it does depend on the temperatures. And as it gets warmer and warmer, it won’t be as

is easy to make snow. And there is a national study that says, you know, in a couple of decades, we won’t be able to ski, that we’ll lose something like 81% of the snowmaking ability.

Chris (24:43.073)

Do you ever at the end of the season calculate the total cost of your season pass against it and is it still worth it?

laura (24:48.436)

Yes, every year.

I mean, to me it is because anything, I mean, is it expensive? Yes. But I try to ski 20 times a season. To me, that makes me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth on this epic pass, which now that Vale owns Boston Mills, you could go out and ski Park City or Whistler or Tahoe for the same price you’re paying for Boston Mills. But I don’t live out west, so I’ve got to do what I can do here.

Chris (25:16.237)

But what I’m asking is do you compare what would it cost you individually without the pass against the pass and it’s still it is

laura (25:19.944)

Yeah. Oh, it’s a much better deal to buy the pass. And here’s the thing about a pass, right? If you have it, you go. If you’re like, oh, I can only get in an hour, fine. I’ll still go. Like, it’s a crappy ski day, whatever. It’s free, I already paid for it, I’ll go. If you waited till you had the perfect ski day because you had to shell out 60 bucks to go buy a pass, you would never ski.

Chris (25:41.005)

All right. Well, check out Pete’s story. It’s on Cleveland.com and it’s going to run on the plane dealer this weekend. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. One way to retain employees is to take good care of them when they have children. The City of Cleveland is getting a good taste of that after offering a new benefit last year. What’s that benefit and how many people are using it?

Leila (26:03.972)

It’s paid parental leave, 12 weeks of it. City Council approved this new benefit back in May at the urging of council members, Stephanie House and Charles Slife, and it became available to workers in mid-September. And during the last three and a half months of 2023, 144 city workers took advantage of this benefit. And it’s a terrific perk of employment with the city where they’ve been really struggling to fill these positions.

And the labor market is so challenging, and especially among the ranks of the city’s safety forces. The city is hoping that a benefit like this will go a long way toward recruiting and keeping talent and strengthening their workforce. So the paid leave is available to parents who welcome a new child via birth or adoptions and guardianships, plus 20 additional hours to attend appointments related to prenatal care, adoption, or guardianship.

And employees who experience stillbirths or miscarriages also receive three weeks paid time off. Before this, city workers who wanted to start a family had to just save up all their time off, sometimes for years while they plan their families. So this is a dramatic change in the way they’re doing things. So far, police officers and firefighters have used it the most, followed by EMS workers and employees in the Department of Public Utilities.

And what I find really interesting about this is the gender breakdown of who’s using the leave. 110 men used parental leave and 34 women did. So I wonder what do you make of those numbers?

Chris (27:33.553)

I wish I could have done it when my kids were young. And really, I look at you and Laura, who have had kids and got some parental leave, but you didn’t get 12 weeks. I mean, this is a game changer.

laura (27:42.58)

No. And my husband never got anything, right? He took a couple of days off from his PTO bank. But Leila, if you said police and firefighters are the people who are using it the most, those tend to be men. I mean, overwhelmingly.

Leila (27:55.44)

Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking is that it could simply, those numbers could be a function of the fact that safety forces are such a big chunk of the payroll and most safety forces workers are men. So they naturally represent a disproportionate share of the people who are availing themselves of this benefit. But I thought that was a little surprising still that it’s so lopsided. I mean, it could indicate a really terribly lopsided workforce where women are disproportionately underrepresented. But my hunch is…

laura (28:00.048)

Just the number of men. Yeah.

laura (28:15.189)

But isn’t it?

laura (28:21.396)

Yes, but it is great news.

Leila (28:24.369)

That wouldn’t be the case at all, had the city offered at least some paid parental leave much earlier.

laura (28:29.196)

Well, that’s true. And maybe they’ll get more women into the safety forces because of this. But regardless, I think it’s great news for everyone because by equaling this with men and women, then everybody’s going to take that time. It’s better for the kids. And then for the families, it’s easier on both parents if both parents have time to split between the childcare. And then you never get this mom role where like, oh, she was the one who was home, so she’s the one that does it all.

Leila (28:56.337)

Right.

laura (28:56.5)

And then it’s equal for careers too, because you don’t have someone being like, oh, I don’t wanna hire a woman of childbearing age because she’s gonna take maternity leave. Like the guy of childbearing age, which could be any age, could be taking it too.

Leila (29:08.216)

Yeah. I think, I mean, this really does bring the city closer to the 21st century. A lot of businesses are taking this approach. And Chris, to your point, I just wanted to point out, when I had my last baby, I did get 12 weeks off because our company changed its policy to be more expansive. And since then, they’ve included fathers and the whole gamut of parental, you know.

Chris (29:23.124)

Right.

Leila (29:33.244)

people who are adopting babies and that sort of thing. So we have a very progressive policy.

Chris (29:34.857)

Yeah. But in that light, let me add a little bit from the employer’s perspective, because we know that the safety forces are depleted in Cleveland, and if you take somebody away for three months, they’re more depleted. When you took your leave, it wasn’t like I got another employee to fill in for you. We had to do your duties for 12 weeks while you’re away.

that’s a challenge. And if you have as many employees as Cleveland has taken this in a short period of time, I have to imagine that is a bit of a management challenge trying to cover all the duties that need to be covered with the long-term absences of the people.

Leila (30:15.784)

Yeah, but I think you’re kind of playing the long game with this one. You know, you know that your recruitment chances are much greater with this kind of policy in place. So you’re probably going to end up with a stronger workforce in the long run. And you’re going to retain those people when they do come back, they’re going to stay. I mean,

Chris (30:33.789)

Yeah, I hope. Look, it’s a good thing, but I tell you, as the person that’s trying to figure out how to cope with it, it’s a challenge. Lisa.

Lisa (30:34.712)

Thank you.

Lisa (30:42.286)

No, I remember that story we did last summer about the female lawyer who got 12 weeks paid leave, came back and quit like a week after she came back. Yeah, so those things happen too.

Chris (30:49.497)

Yeah.

Chris (30:54.176)

Yeah, I-

Leila (30:54.432)

say, honestly, our company’s parental leave is one of the reasons I’m still here today. Because there was a point years and years ago when I was preparing, I really wanted to have a second baby. And there was a moment when I thought about leaving this job to go do something else. And the parental leave policy was completely inadequate in that place. And it was one of the factors that brought me back and stayed. And I’m so glad I stayed,

Chris (31:23.137)

So am I. No, look, it’s an absolute good thing. I wish it had existed when I was younger and had kids. I think it’s great that employers are doing this and it makes for a stronger workforce. I don’t think most employers have figured out how to cope with the loss of the people for time. You’re going to have to invest something to do that in temporary workers or something, but.

Lisa (31:24.116)

Mm-hmm.

Leila (31:25.404)

But see how you play the long game with policies like this.

Chris (31:51.701)

But it’s like Cleveland’s clearly seeing the benefit of it. People are taking advantage of it and you’re right. They’re going to be more excited about being there. It makes Cleveland a more competitive employer.

laura (32:01.832)

And can I add that it’s good for the kids because we have this whole childcare series. You could be taking your kid to daycare at six weeks old. If you have these helpful parental policies where you can both take it, then you’re pushing that problem back by months.

Chris (32:17.373)

Yeah, it’s six months.

Leila (32:17.552)

You know, I was thinking about that, Laura, because, you know, Bibb is rolling out some vacation perks, some enhanced vacation perks for city employees too. And I really think that he should think about including childcare subsidies in the next, you know, go around of employment perks that he’s thinking about.

laura (32:34.663)

Let’s email them all the stories.

Chris (32:35.013)

Oh, wait, got to stop, got to stop. We’ve gone long. And if you mentioned childcare to Laura, we’re going to be here for 10 more minutes. That’s a subject for another day. Have a great weekend. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Leila. Thanks, Laura. Thank you for being with us for a week of discussion of news. We’ll be back Monday.

Leila (32:38.664)

laughs