The Numbers Game

Wednesday's official announcement -- after the news broke Tuesday -- of jobs coming to Akron is welcome news from any camp. The question is: just how many, really?

There's no reason to doubt the people behind this latest announcement of good times to come (with a week before an election; nice timing!) in Akron, but AkronNewsNow's Chris Keppler asks some pointed follow-up in a video Q&A featuring PlusOne Communications Bob Madden about the number of jobs to be created in their new support center in the old Firestone Bank building.

When Mayor Plusquellic first included the project in his listings of accomplishments (2008 State of the City address) it had 300 jobs attached. The actual number was closer to 250, if the reference was directed at construction jobs renovating the building. Madden and his wife Jill Bacon Madden spent about $2 million dollars on the project, a hefty investment but not bad considering they bought the empty building for $2 (no million) from the City.

Call me a cynic for wanting a better understanding of all this, especially with less than a week to go before the election. The biggest economic activity lately seems to be the frequent news conferences, video opportunities, photo ops and media push both for and against the recall. But even as a cynic, I think it is admirable the Madden's put their hard work and money (most of it coming from themselves, according to what we can ascertain) behind their mouths in recognizing opportunity here at home.

It's easy to say "oh, again?" when any politician holds forth on the next best thing; if all of those best things really happened the way they are presented we'd at least have a perception things are getting better. At least we keep throwing it up against the wall to see what sticks.

On Tuesday, City Hall advised the media there would be a big announcement, with the promise of a thousand-job announcement. By the time it wound up in print this morning in the Akron Beacon Journal, that number was 1500. Note, though, it'll take awhile to ramp that up to the thousand or even 1500 level if hiring at 40 or 50 jobs a month.

Comment postings on the story note some of these jobs may be coming at the expense of another Akron-area telephone support company, so does that mean we get over a thousand new jobs or are we moving pieces around on a chess board? Without more information on which clients make up this new economic base for PlusOne Communications it's difficult to figure out the gross job picture from the net job picture.

But at this point in economy-starved northeast Ohio maybe it's treason to examine the fine print. After all, the headline's what matters, right?

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Speaking of timing, 1590 WAKR and the WAKRNewsNow all-news online stream from AkronNewsNow will be re-broadcasting our two-hour special on the recall election. "WAKR Primer: The 2009 Recall" airs from 7:06 p.m. through 9:00 p.m. on WAKR Saturday, and we'll repeat our continuous stream of this program online again on Sunday from noon to 10:00 p.m.

At this point I figure there aren't many voters in Akron who haven't made up their mind on the simple question of stay-or-go for Plusquellic, but just in case here's another chance to listen to each side make their case. You can also access more audio and video here on AkronNewsNow.

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Akron voters can still vote early (or late, at least until 8:00 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Monday evening) in the recall election. The Summit County Board of Election is keeping absentee voting booths open for duty at the 470 Grant Street offices from 8:00 in the morning through 8:00 at night each weekday and from 8:00 a.m. through noon on Saturday. Maybe by Tuesday everyone in Akron will have voted early so we can find out the result early on June 23 and get back to hoping the Indians bullpen figures out how to hold a lead...wouldn't it be wonderful to get back to winning instead of whining?