Mayor: Key group needs to lead POST-COVID
CDDC important as city continues to rebound
Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation is an important tool to help Downtown rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic as the organization prepares for a change in leadership at the top.
A private, nonprofit group, the CDDC has led public-private Downtown redevelopment projects, including the Scioto Mile and the John F. Wolfe Columbus Commons.
But emails the mayor’s offices released last week to The Dispatch under an Ohio Public Records Act request indicate a rift occurred between Ginther’s office and Guy Worley, CEO and president of the CDDC, over the scheduling of the organization’s January board meeting,
where proposed policy changes were to include how developers for projects were selected and how Worley’s successor was to be chosen.
When the smoke cleared, Worley announced in March that he would step down from his position on May 31 after the Columbus City Council approved five new Ginther appointees to the nonprofit’s 13-member board of directors. .
Ginther and other public- and private-sector leaders said they wanted to more aggressively and collectively pursue some directions that Worley had resisted, The Dispatch reported then. Worley’s relationship with some had been souring because he was apparently not collaborating enough with them.
“Nothing can happen in the city or be successful in the city without a cooperative spirit,” Robin Davis, Ginther’s spokeswoman, said Thursday.
Ginther said the CDDC can play a critical role in helping both small business owners and major employers feel confident Downtown, which was roiled last year by protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
“That’s going to take time,” Ginther said of restoring confidence.
Ginther recruited five new CDDC board members, including Alex Fischer, president and CEO of The Columbus Partnership, and former Mayor Michael B. Coleman, now a partner in the law firm Icemiller. The mayor said he wanted to realign the development group as Downtown recovers from the pandemic to better attract jobs and focus on building more affordable, mixed-income housing.
To try to find out more about the CDDC changes, The Dispatch filed a public records request with Ginther’s office asking for records of emails and written communications about Worley and the development corporation going back to Jan. 1, 2020.
Included in those records were emails addressing the CDDC board’s plan to take up two changes to the corporation’s code of regulations in January.
One proposed change was to its private development policy to require that the CDDC competitively select private or nonprofit developers. It said the corporation “shall affirmatively solicit proposals from Columbus or regional developers whom the Corporation believes to be competent and financially able to take on the proposed project.”
CDDC’S president and CEO – the now outgoing Worley – would be required to submit a written report to the board outlining the corporation’s efforts to solicit proposals, a summary of responses, the evaluation and ranking of the top three proposals, the contractual and financial terms offered, and the recommendation as to a decision.
The board could waive that process “due to extraordinary circumstances, such as an exclusive opportunity to garner a significant employment opportunity in downtown Columbus.”
Another proposed code change laid out the groundwork for finding a successor to the president and CEO, including a national search.
The CDDC’S five-member executive committee signed individual approvals without holding a meeting that were to be effective on Jan.15.
In a 10:40 a.m. email on Jan. 26, Ginther’s chief of staff, Ken Paul, emailed Worley telling him of Ginther’s concern about the late notice of the Jan. 28 CDDC board meeting, and that the board packet hadn’t been shared with Ginther.
“This is in conflict with explicit and direct instruction to you by the mayor to not finalize the Board agenda until after he or I have been briefed, and is inconsistent with how you and I have worked cooperatively over the last year,” Paul wrote.
At 5:17 p.m. on Jan. 26, Paul again emailed Worley asking him to postpone the Jan. 28 board meeting “to allow for more thoughtful consideration and for the City to provide feedback.”
“No one from the City of Columbus has been engaged in the development of the proposed policies and resolutions, and it is important we understand the impact on the City, our interests and to communicate any concerns to you, and the City’s appointee who represent the residents of
Columbus,” Paul wrote.
At 6:20 p.m., Worley responded and said he shared the concerns with the then-board chairman, Michael G. Morris, who left a voicemail with Ginther.
Davis said the meeting was never rescheduled, but the two code changes were not adopted.
“Usually the mayor was briefed on the agenda,” Davis told The Dispatch. “That didn’t happen in the January meeting. We didn’t see those proposals. The mayor was not briefed. He asked for the meeting to be postponed and have discussion about it. The meeting was canceled. Guy retired.”
Worley did not respond to a voicemail message or a request by The Dispatch to talk to him made through his CDDC email.
Fischer said that he is bullish on Columbus’ future and believes Downtown remains an important part of that.
“I’m excited to build on the success of the past. We’ve done landmark projects in the past very successfully,” he said. “The history of Columbus has been the art of public-private partnerships.”
But we’re coming out of a pandemic, Fischer reminded, and no one should assume the successes of the past will also lead to successes in the future.
Meanwhile, work continues on offices, apartments and a hotel on the Scioto Peninsula. The CDDC is overseeing that project, which involves Columbus companies Daimler and hotel developer Rockbridge.
Indianapolis-based Buckingham Companies was chosen over several Columbus companies as the developer of the site in 2017, but Buckingham pulled out in 2018 after Covermymeds decided to build its corporate headquarters near Interstate 670 in Franklinton.
“I do know it was an inclusive process,” said Mike Stevens, Columbus city development director. “CDDC led that process. It was competitive. They collaborated with city leadership.” mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik