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Mike Cohen - We Won’t Let You Corrupt Our Democracy and Watchdogs

Like on his earlier projects, upscale developer Mike Cohen is trying to pull a fast one on the taxpayer dime at his $1 billion Point Ruston project. As the South Sound has learned from previous Jobs with Justice messages, Mr. Cohen’s track record is grinchy behavior. Our spotlight is needed disinfectant since Mr. Cohen can corrupt the Tacoma News Tribune to print advertisement posing as a news article.

Jobs with Justice is committed to exposing this mega-millionaire taking government handouts without giving back. Mr. Cohen is trying to influence local government and organizations that the public entrusts as his watchdogs. Unless we call him out, we risk a serious corruption of our democracy. Please take a moment to email Mr. Cohen and his targets to let them know we are watching.

Mike Cohen’s Payroll and Bankroll Smells Fishy

Details about Mike Cohen's Powerbrokers:

JJ McCament: Last Spring, Mr. Cohen put Ms. McCament, the former City of Tacoma Economic Development high official, on his payroll as his public relations powerbroker. Five years ago, the City was paying Ms. McCament about $117,000 per year when she was deepening relations with Mr. Cohen. A 2003 photo of Cohen with McCament can be viewed in the News Tribune Feb3, 2008. Tacoma Economic Development works closely with the Tacoma Public Works Building and Land Use Services Division that is currently overseeing Mr. Cohen’s compliance with the state land use standards. These standards include evaluating the impact of his project related to poverty, public services, housing, traffic, the environment, and many other factors of our every day life.

Ms. McCament was also the executive director of the City of Tacoma’s Urban Waters and used City tax-dollars to purchase land from Mr. Cohen at 5 times the value that he purchased the land a few years earlier. Mr. Cohen hired Ms. McCament at about the same time as this purchase negotiation. JwJ is currently investigating this fishy deal since the News Tribune has ignored it, enthusiastically reporting on the sale. It is unclear when Cohen payroll conversations started with Ms. McCament and how much money exchanged hands amidst the Urban Waters deal. The money must have been enticing for McCament to leave her high-paid City job.

Robert Thoms: Mr. Cohen put Mr. Thoms, a recent aide to Senator Maria Cantwell, on his payroll as his public relations powerbroker along with Ms McCament. Sen. Cantwell has been the federal official most zealously overseeing the toxic waste clean-up at Cohen’s Point Ruston site, a federal Superfund site and formerly the Asarco Ruston smelter. Thoms is another ex-Cantwell aide up to no good now that he has parlayed his senatorial relations into vice-president of Thompson & Smitch. Also fishy at the federal level, Mr. Cohen has established an office next to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which is charged with overseeing Cohen’s Point Ruston toxic clean up. Except for the fact that the Bush EPA’s top regional official was a Dow Chemical executive (remember Bhopal) and that EPA site coordinator Kevin Rochlin is very obstructive to Ruston residents’ health concerns, this might be a good thing. Given the politics, it’s a little too cozy.

Sue O'Neill: Mr. Cohen hired Ms. O’Neill, Asarco's former Environmental Manager overseeing Ruston site clean-up for 8 years, after Asarco unsuccessfully tried to stick taxpayers with the clean-up bill by declaring bankruptcy. Among Ruston residents, there is great suspicion that Asarco is financing Mr. Cohen’s Point Ruston venture. Ms. O’Neill is now the frontline link as Cohen’s Point Ruston Site Manager. Asarco and its parent Grupo Mexico have an anti-worker history, are facing scores of lawsuits, and due to a sullied reputation would probably rather be a secret investor than risk the high-end development being labeled "Point Asarco" or "Point Grupo Mexico."

Point Ruston LLC Donations: Mr. Cohen contributed at least a $2500 sponsorship for a Citizens for a Healthy Bay (CHB) fundraising event, per Executive Director Nancy Dilworth. CHB is the local non-profit organization also charged with overseeing the toxic clean-up at Cohen’s Point Ruston site as well as numerous other Asarco toxic sites in Commencement Bay. The contribution got Mr. Cohen’s “Point Ruston” logo on the CHB fundraiser brochure.

Associated General Contractor (AGC) Members: Mr. Cohen does a lucrative business with contractors who fund and run ACG. In turn, ACG pays Ruston Mayor Michael Transue quite handsomely as their lobbyist. In turn, Mayor Transue has executive powers and a vote over how Ruston will hold Mr. Cohen’s Point Ruston accountable to land use regulations. So far, Mr. Transue has not recused himself from a decision-making role on matters concerning Mr. Cohen’s Point Ruston development.

News Tribune editors: Mr. Cohen has good friends in high places at Tacoma’s daily print corporate media. The News Tribune (TNT) has made Mr. Cohen the subject of scores of pieces. Yet, an extensive search of the TNT could not find a single article investigating details Mr. Cohen would not want us to know or justify why reporters would deem Mr. Cohen "a responsible developer." TNT interviews of residents who share less than glowing factual accounts of Mr. Cohen are blacked-out. Rather, articles look like press releases from McCament and Thoms.

David Zeeck, Executive Editor, and David Seago, Editorial Page Editor, are two managers responsible for assigning investigations, scrubbing away exposés, and a pattern of Cohen-biased coverage. Why does Mr. Seago gleefully blog that "Cohen . . . finally got the Ruston Town Council out of his hair" as if developers should dominate pesky democracy, even when government is led by a pro-developer ACG lobbyist? Following Cohen’s money takes us to the best answer: The TNT hauls big profits from real estate advertising. We shall see how much Mr. Cohen pays Seago and Zeeck’s newspaper to advertise his $2 million condos and luxury homes. The alternative explanation does not make sense: JwJ could never be a better muckraker than the TNT.

Yes We Can

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