Coleman takes on lobbyist job
Michael B. Coleman isn’t the Columbus mayor anymore, but he’s still working City Hall.
Coleman is now registered as a lobbyist with the city. He is representing three clients, including two with interest in development in Franklinton and the Scioto Peninsula, among his crowning achievements as the city’s longest-serving mayor.
After finishing his record fourth term as mayor and a 24-year career as an elected city official, Coleman, 62, took a job as director of business and government strategies at the Ice Miller law firm in Columbus last year. In January, he registered with the city as a lobbyist.
State law allows Coleman to do that, though it does place some restrictions on lobbying the level of government where an employee used to work.
Under the state’s “revolving door” rules, former public officials have to wait a year before lobbying on an issue they worked on in their previous job. Coleman did that, waiting until Jan. 30, 2017, to register as a lobbyist with the city.
“Essentially, it’s a coolingoff period,” said Paul Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Former public officials also are prohibited from ever disclosing confidential information gleaned in the course of that work.
Coleman said he mostly has worked directly with his
clients, though he has “on occasion” represented them in talks with city officials. He declined to say which public officials he has contacted on behalf of clients.
“My work has been largely and predominantly and significantly legal work,” he said. “To the extent it even looked like it might come within the law, I wanted to go ahead and file (disclosures) to have a conservative approach.”
Last year, the city implemented new ethics rules that require city lobbyists to disclose who they are representing three times per year. They also must notify the city about any new clients within 10 days.
Coleman and other former city officials are entitled “to conduct their professional endeavors” once the revolving-door period ends, said Tracy Retchin, the city’s chief ethics officer.
“We follow the law,” she said. “The law allows for 12-month, post-employment restriction.”
The list of 82 lobbyists who work City Hall is lined with names from the old city payroll. At least 10 of them held appointed or elected
positions in Columbus.
Frederick Ransier was appointed to fill Coleman’s seat on City Council after Coleman was elected mayor, but he resigned after a short term. John Kennedy is a former City Council president.
The list also includes two of Coleman’s former chief advisers: Christie Angel, a former deputy chief of staff and now of Calfee Strategic Solutions; and former chief of staff Michael Reese, who now works with Coleman at Ice Miller.
Former Mayor Dana G. “Buck” Rinehart, who died in 2015, also was a lobbyist after leaving office.
Coleman’s lobbying work to this point has been for clients working along the Scioto Mile and in Franklinton, a neighborhood where he championed redevelopment as mayor.
The city’s lobbyist registry shows that Coleman has three clients: the architecture firm DLZ Corp, Kaufman Development and the Columbus Downtown Development Corp.
So far, he has represented Kaufman and Downtown Development on several pieces of legislation that the City Council approved. Kaufman
hired Coleman to work on an economic-development deal at 450 W. Broad St. and 462-500 W. Broad St. in Franklinton.
Kaufman will redevelop the former Wasserstrom warehouse, now vacant; the Phillip’s Coney Island property; and an adjacent piece of land to the north into a 275,000-square-foot, mixeduse development that will cost about $70.8 million.
City Council approved a 10-year, 75 percent propertytax abatement worth about $2.6 million for that development earlier this year. The city also has a parking deal worth about $2 million with Kaufman, and it is reimbursing the developer $500,000 to relocate a sewer.
“We hired Michael Coleman because he is a smart attorney who works at a firm that we have a lot of respect for,” said Brett Kaufman of Kaufman Development. “They have an appreciation for Franklinton and what we were trying to accomplish there that we felt was important in selecting a firm to represent us.”
The Columbus Downtown Development Corp. hired Coleman to represent the organization at City Hall in the $500 million redevelopment of the Scioto Peninsula. That deal required the City Council to sign off on a 99-year lease, renewable forever, of city property south of West Broad Street.
Since leaving office at the end of 2015, Coleman has used his former campaign account to make $9,000 in campaign contributions to City Council members.
The state’s revolving door rules exist so that public employees can’t jump to the private sector and maintain an “unfair advantage,” said Catherine Turcer, policy analyst at Common Cause Ohio. But Coleman “clearly has an advantage,” she said.
“Relationships are the coin of the realm,” she said. “It’s not just the issues he’s working on; it’s that he has longstanding relationships that in some cases were fairly transactional.”
“I think I was hired for my knowledge and my knowledge of real estate and economic development,” Coleman said. “I don’t know if I have influence. I’m not trying to influence.”