Production and distribution of City Club forums and ideastream public media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland, Inc.. Hey, friends, good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

Today's Friday, July 12th.

My name is Dan Moulthrop I'm the chief executive here at the City Club, and I'm very pleased to welcome our speaker today.

He's a friend of mine and he's a great friend of the city clubs.

Michael Jeans, president and CEO of Growth Opportunity Partners, was about five years ago that I first heard Michael Jean speak.

It was a City Club event, an evening forum that we hosted at Gold Horn Brewery on East 55th Street.

Michael was on a panel about a topic that's related to what we're discussing today.

It was about building wealth in minority communities.

And I remember standing at the back of the room and stopping in my tracks when Michael started talking.

It was so clear to me that he saw the world in ways both deeper and broader than most of us.

If we're all accustomed to seeing the three dimensions we see in the present, Michael, it seemed to me, was watching our community across time with a special sensitivity to the systems that have shaped the present.

So when earlier this year the US Environmental Protection Agency announced a $156 million grant to Michael's organization, Growth Opportunity Partners, to fund an effort to ensure access to solar power for low income communities.

I was thrilled that it was give us another opportunity to hear from Michael Jean's.

This EPA grant provides the seed capital needed for the Go Green Energy Fund, the nation's first African-American led Green Bank, which was created by growth ops in 2020.

The goal of the Green Bank is more than just access to solar power for residents of poorer communities.

Just how much more is what I expect Michael will share with us today?

If you have a question for Michael Jean's, you can text it to 3305415794.

The number again is 3305415794.

And our colleagues will work it into the second half of the program.

Members and friends of the City Club please join me in welcoming Michael Jean's.

Good Afternoon City Club of Cleveland.

We're off to a good start.

Thank you for that.

It is an honor to join the rich history that spans 112 years of this great institution where world leaders, presidents and civil servants and others have gathered to hold conversations of consequence.

This institution that is a guardian of free speech and also of civil and civic discourse under the leadership of Dan Moll Thrupp and the Board of Directors occupies a new home.

Thanks to you, my fellow guardians who seek to help democracy persist, evolve and thrive.

I would like to thank Dan and his team and the Board of Directors of City Club for extending the invitation to me to lead today's conversation.

If there are any elected officials in the room, I'd ask that you stand and wait and be acknowledged for all the hard work and leadership you provide to each of us.

I would also like to acknowledge my Board of Directors at Growth Ops, my chairwoman of the board and in the data.

Letson is here and I believe I saw in the data.

There she is.

Thank you for being here.

My vice chair, Sheila Wright, was working diligently to get here and I believe she ran into an unavoidable conflict.

But I have so appreciate your leadership.

If you allow me a moment to acknowledge the lady of my dreams, the mother of our children, my wife of 28 years and just 15 short days from now and still my girlfriend, I really Hernandez jeans.

And as some of you know her as Aurélie.

In the words of the late Sam Cooke, how sweet it is to be loved by you.

Our son Isaiah joins us today as well.

Willingly, just a couple and engaged, which is such a blessing.

Isaiah is a rising sophomore and Viking at Cleveland State University.

Provost accepted into the engineering program as an incoming freshman and now majoring in environmental studies.

He made the president's list his first semester and Dean's list his second.

And I appreciate all of that, but I'm even more proud of you for your intellect, your empathy, your courage, your kindness, your pursuit of excellence, your decency.

And for all the conversations that begin with, Hey, Dad, I love you both very dearly.

My mom would be here.

She raised me as a single mother at a time when there was little to no support.

She wishes she could be here with us today in person, but is wrestling with late stage cancer.

Stage four.

Mom, I know you're listening and watching.

Thank you.

And I love you.

All right.

I can't acknowledge everyone as I look out.

I see so many friends, I see family, and it means the world to me that you're here.

Dan and I have two recurring nightmares.

One is to receive that phone call asking, Where are you?

Because you're on stage in 5 minutes.

The other is an empty room when I get there.

So thank you for being here and showing up.

Lastly, I'd like to say thank you to my fellow and our fellow guardians.

I'm Michael James, founding CEO of Growth Opportunity Partners, also known as Growth UPS.

My background in accounting, securities and banking.

Along with market demand that I've led to establish growth, EPS growth EPS was founded in January of 2015 to provide high quality financial solutions and management consulting advisory services to primarily low income and disadvantaged persons.

Often located in underinvested places, we believe in growth ops at all persons regardless of address of zip code, race, color, orientation or any other divisor deserve accurate and timely guidance and data.

Growth ops provides capital in the forms of debt equity and grants, primarily to small and mid-sized businesses.

My incredible team and Marcus Glennon, our chief operating officer, is here, along with Chris Graves and my wife, who is my executive assistant, also works with municipalities to support healthy and vibrant communities and community development.

2020 We created Go Green Energy, the first African-American led Green Bank in the United States.

And we've been recently told we may be the first in the world as a green bank, we focus this aspect of our business on creating sustainable markets and market solutions and those same underinvested communities I mentioned just a moment ago to gather growth apps and go green energy have a focus that involves building and rebuilding the 22nd City set, the 22nd century cities but in the 21st century so that hopefully our children and our grandchildren can inherit a cleaner, more sustainable and affordable place to live, to learn to work and even play.

I would like to pause here and thank the board of Directors of the George Gunn Foundation.

I'd like to thank Tony Richardson, President John Miller, Holzer singer, program officer Bob McQuaid, now leader who is retired sage and friend from the foundation.

All of the George Gunn Foundation staff and team have been remarkable in their support of growth.

The foundation provided meaningful investment and support to help stand up the Green Bank.

Early capital support and thought leadership in a meaningful and thoughtful manner allowed growth, jobs to do the work necessary to achieve significant milestones, culminating in the EPA award.

Dan mentioned a few moments ago of $156 million to accelerate and advance our solar initiative, which I will tell you a bit about more in a few moments.

First, I'd like to share a few realities with you, which I hope will provide a deeper understanding of why and how we had growth jobs, do what we do.

I'm going to start with a world statement, but focusing on the U.S., we have an abundance of natural resources as well as a wealth, a few natural resources for today's discussion.

Our oceans, seas, lakes and other bodies of water, land and air.

Examples of assets include land, homes, other amenities and illustrates banking and insurance and address that in a moment as well.

When both natural resources and other assets are accessible without interruption, there's a high correlation to the attainment of wealth and freedom.

With freedom and wealth comes the following nearly unrestricted access exclusive membership, perhaps country clubs or other privileges, some earned in some unearned, healthy stress free walks and drives without certain worries, most often cleaner, fresher air, water and land.

Now we need to bifurcate the ability to access with the permissibility of access.

There are psychological implications to both.

And who is it who is so righteous to dole out access and freedom with freedom and wealth comes nearly unrestricted access.

One of the beauties of natural resources is that they're free and that they're accessible, available to all.

Perhaps akin to a God given right of access.

In 1919, Eugene Williams, a black teen calling Chicago, Illinois, his home, was stoned to death by his young wife, Pierce.

Pierce, by his age.

What on earth could have invited such an action toward this young teen?

He accidentally drifted across the color line in the water where he was swimming, a color line in the water.

I'm still not sure what that is.

This led to a riot in Chicago claiming 38 lives, all because a young black boy was swimming in water, being claimed by parties who did not own it.

Around the same time frame in California, they began a transition of beaches from casual to commodities for the wealthy.

When black Californians established their own beaches since they were somehow illegal, somehow legally prohibited from accessing the public resource there, our black beaches, which were referred to as ink wells, a derogatory term used by whites to refer to the beaches blacks could visit in Santa monica and other beach clubs near Huntington Beach.

White owners used their influence to fight against the existence of these speeches.

Contractors abandoned their projects, and often the beach homes, the affinities, the facilities and the amenities were burned to the ground for decades.

Getting closer to home on the time line, municipalities in the United States enacted restricted policies and practices explicitly prohibiting black citizens of the United States from placing so much as a toe on beaches and ignored proposals by black communities for their own beaches and to have their own beaches.

Police and the National Guard would actually beat and arrest blacks for attempting to enjoy a lake, the ocean, or their derivative the pool.

And they were declared not for them, or dare I say, not for us.

You may ask, why am I injecting race into today's conversation?

In North America, approximately 80% of the population is urban.

Studies show youth in low income neighborhoods and in low income communities, neighborhoods of color.

And please note that distinction rely more heavily on public spaces and use them more frequently than in affluent neighborhoods.

Did you know that?

I didn't.

It's not the picture I have when I think about how parks and spaces are used at the pause and give it further consideration.

Then I got it.

These spaces are accessible.

There are no fees or fee barriers to get in the way of the experience that awaits.

Even though the use of these spaces exceeds the frequency of use in other communities.

Black and brown youth are often profiled, targeted or harassed for using said spaces.

Dare I say arrested if not killed because someone else is fear of them caused the action.

See Tamir Rice, age 12, black teen killed on November 22nd, 2014.

What am I getting at?

We set out to establish this Green Bank.

There was an assumption that it would look and be governed a certain way.

Perhaps, to your surprise, the assumption was not that it would be led by an African-American, rather, among some other group.

I challenge the assumption, and I'm pleased to tell you that our funders and our supporters agreed with us.

We made adjustments and delivered a model considered to be novel.

We had growth ops at the time.

The structure we proposed was unique.

We knew it growth at that time.

The structure we proposed was unique, but not that we would be the first African-American led Green Bank in the nation, as we would work diligently behind the scenes to create a foundation for clean energy investment that would begin with communities historically left behind.

We would receive the historically consistent opposition.

Some of these things were told or intimated or conversations, among others.

Even certain leaders in this town whom will remain nameless.

But my colleagues who didn't look like me would inquire, and a couple of times who did look like me?

What is the Green Bank and why is it applying for $250 million?

That's a lot of money.

Why is Michael leading this?

He most certainly well.

Can he be successful in leading this initiative or should we lead it?

This seems like a lot of money for a low income community.

Maybe we should create our own and let Jack run it.

John Miller hosts are always appreciates my Jack slide.

We can assemble capital 20 million or so to start our own green bank.

Then we can squeeze them out.

And as we would advance closer to submitting the application to the EPA, one even one outfit even went so far as to make phone calls over the weekend to tell our would be partners that perhaps they would be harmed fiscally if they would sign on to our application.

That effort over it was over a weekend when that organization is not known to be working well.

We had and we have an amazing, tremendous team, a growth ops and a team of partners grow fast.

Became the lead applicant for an application to the EPA for $250 million.

The application would represent 31 communities located across eight states.

Those states are Ohio.

Indiana.

Kansas.

Michigan.

Missouri.

New York.

Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Our coalition would become named the Industrial Heartland Solar Coalition.

Our application was the culmination of several years of planning and work.

The Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law on August 16, 2002, and it codified the largest climate legislation in the United States.

They created the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and within that solar for all, solar for all would provide $7 billion to 60 entities across the country.

And what we understand to be the peak.

The EPA received nearly nearly $40 billion in requests and 260 applications against the aforementioned $7 billion of capital available and 60 spots.

Each state was eligible to apply and it was believed that if they applied, they would be awarded of the 60 spots.

49 states were awarded leaving 11 spots available for growth.

Jobs to compete.

Of the 11 remaining spots, six were awarded to territories and tribal nations, leaving five spots out of the initial 260 applications received.

Growth ops was successfully awarded $156,120,000 by the EPA and $400,000 in technical assistance by the Department of Energy.

Our application requested $250 million.

All recipients who were awarded received less than the requested amount.

The minimum received by any applicant was $25 million.

And as we understand it, the average award was $100 million.

So I'm not complaining about the 156.

Our application provided a unique model to provide rooftop solar to low income households across the coalition geography at no cost for the panels and the installation.

For once, the barriers of finance, cost and economics would be removed.

And we're incredibly proud of that, where some applicants seem to have created a profit center from this work.

We had growth ups.

Well, we chose to reinvest into the communities of people who are counting on us in the application form.

We committed to the following.

We would serve approximately three three and a half million residents in disadvantaged communities.

We would provide approximately $19 million in annual energy savings.

We would reduce, with our coalition partners CO2 emissions by 160,690 tons would create access to clean energy, meaningful wage jobs in disadvantaged communities and improve quality of life.

It's here where I made a note to insert.

It's important that we include communities that have been left behind.

But if there's something to inclusivity, there's a way for us to do that and include the larger body.

So we want to be examples of inclusive prosperity and inclusive development.

These dollars are restricted for low income communities, but we're raising additional funds.

And the goal the goal is to catalyze full communities.

But starting with low income communities, we've seen the exercise of starting elsewhere and we were told that it would trickle down.

It's a really slow trickle.

We receive calls daily and emails from around the world from people interested in these solar panels and our model.

Thank you for your inquiries.

The reality is we're some months away now from finalizing arrangements with the EPA and we cannot tell you enough how we appreciate the interest which is driving demand.

But we can't tell you just yet what we know.

Here's what we can tell you.

We're working very closely with high levels of government, our colleagues across the country, and gathering best practices around the world to bring high quality infrastructure and solutions to communities that have been left behind.

The U.S. economy is approximately $2,829 trillion, 2020 8.7 trillion, actually.

Among the latest data we know that United States would see if the United States would cease from practicing exclusionary behaviors, policies and laws.

We could add approximately $8 trillion to the U.S. economy, growing it to nearly $37 trillion from $28 trillion.

The cost of overlooking black, brown and underserved communities is becoming more expensive and the prices leaving communities and people behind.

And that's putting a significant weight onto our economy.

This is one of the reasons why so many people across races feel left behind.

Whether it's perception or whether it's reality, whether it's in the inner city or it's in rural communities that squeeze feels real.

And therefore it is.

And that squeeze, when it's coupled with misinformation, with lies, and with selfish leaders.

It threatens democracy.

It threatens freedom.

And it threatens opportunity.

So what must we do?

We must depoliticize climate.

We all share it.

We must do all we can across the body politic, where all that we've done will be wasted if our children and our grandchildren and children inherit the effects of selfish, restrictive policies that are born out of hate, which is the byproduct of ignorance.

We will not be a great nation.

What must we do?

We must continue to support institutions like City Club of Cleveland.

We must stop the hate and all of its forms, whether it's gender, whether it's anti-Semitism, whether it's unnecessary wars, whether it's us and them.

This isn't difficult stuff, right?

This speaks to the will of a people.

We must think globally and act as global citizens.

If we do not, we continue to.

If we do not, we will continue to see an increase in the frequency and intensity of convective storms across the globe.

Wind patterns will continue to be volatile, causing planes to rise and fall thousands of feet in seconds.

We'll think about the effects of climate change.

Temperatures will change and conditions will accelerate.

Dry forests.

They'll continue to burn enveloping homes.

We have the audacity to build in ecosystems that should be in one place.

Will be found in another.

Water levels will rise.

Entire island nations may cease to exist when these waters rise.

What am I saying?

I'm saying it's not doom and gloom.

I know it sounded like it, but this is an opportunity of a lifetime, ladies and gentlemen.

This is an opportunity for us to act on behalf of humanity.

For humanity.

I don't know.

Be human.

Be better.

See ourselves in each other.

We're beginning with solar panels at growth ops and with the Industrial Heartland Solar Coalition.

We will advance and continue with other sustainable solutions.

156 million is a great number to start with.

But that seed capital, we intend to raise a multiple of that range between eight and 12 times.

The reason is there terms and conditions on the 156 million can't save lives with solar panels.

We can improve them.

But if the home still needs remediation, then who's to step in and do that?

If the child's health is not what it could be, how do we improve that environment if it's not safe from home to school or from home to the hospital, what can we do to make healthier, happier, thriving communities?

The ocean and nature, they are not our playground.

They are home to a large number of species.

And we need to respect that and each other.

But this time around, let's begin by investing innovative solutions with those who are endowed with certain inalienable rights.

Yet they continue to be left behind.

In the words of my board chair in the data and lesson and adopted by the growth APS Board of Directors, we're in the room to make room.

It has sincerely been my honor spending these moments with each of you, and I'd like to leave you with just a couple of thoughts.

I operate a501 C3 and I love to stand here and tell you how important the vote is.

I love to tell you which side to vote for.

They say, I can't do that and I'm probably too close to the line now.

But I hope that you'll take the time to see the through line between health and well-being, between climate sustainability and all of its forms decency.

What reflects you and who reflects you?

How you will be remembered not only for what you do, but for what we didn't do in a time of criticality.

How will our grandchildren look upon us and think about us, whether they're in school?

And there are omissions to the record, or they're hearing stories retold.

Will they inherit homes that they can't afford?

Will they inherit environments where they can't breathe clearly?

I don't think they'll be too happy with us.

But if we're asked the question what we did, I sure hope we can sit back with confidence and know that we did everything we could not for ourselves, not out of greed, not for a particular moment in time, but as a dear friend of mine says many times, but that we planted trees under whose shade we may never sit.

It's been my sincere honor to join each of you in this conversation, and I'm hopeful that you have questions for me and of each other.

Thank you.

Hello again.

I'm Dan Lathrop, chief executive here.

We're about to begin the audience Q&A.

And for our live stream audience and those just joining via live stream, you can text the question in 23305415794.

The number again is 3305415794.

And our staff will will work it into the program.

We will do welcome questions from everyone, those of you joining us here in the room or those of you joining us via live stream at City Club dot org or via our radio broadcast at 89.7 WKSU Ideastream Public Media.

So I think we're ready for a first question.

It's so good to see you.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

My question for you is, how would Project 2025 affect the work that you do?

Well, apparently, we're starting at nine and we're going to work our way up.

Project 25 should never exist.

And a political campaign in the United States of America.

It's unfortunately a repeat of times past.

It's a replay of a turning back of of pages.

And frankly, it didn't work then.

And so I think when we see documents and statements like 2025, project 2025, our initial reaction is pretty harsh.

We're offended, we're angry.

And sometimes there's some fear.

My experience is that there are more of us than that madness.

How does it affect our work?

I sure hope it keeps us driving after what we should be doing.

We are absolutely stronger together.

Our American democracy is at a tipping point.

This is a true inflection point.

So you've got me dancing this line again on the.

But the reality is there are consequences to not investing in education.

There are consequences to taking civics out of the classroom.

It's unfortunately where people are voting their pocketbooks.

They're voting how many coins of dollars are in there?

That's not how this is supposed to work.

We should be thinking about the cast at the ballot so that we can do what's best for the United States.

How can the United States best represent her people?

Is there representation from the electorate and are we trending in a direction where we can compete globally?

We can't just be the best because we say we're the best and Project 25 is not our best.

So I think it has the potential.

Should there be a change in the executive office?

I think there are some real meaningful, real, meaningful consequences to every hard working American.

Michael, hi.

Thank you very much.

My name is Ashley Backstrom.

I'm with Destination Cleveland and Another Life.

I worked with the U.N. on the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda.

So I'm thrilled to have these conversations taking place in Cleveland.

You spoke about the potential impact of the work that you're looking to do with the EPA grant.

19 million and energy savings.

The CO2 reduction numbers, I wonder, are those borne out by your own research, by similar projects you've seen around the states or around the world, just how your how you're figuring out this potential impact?

And the second question is also, as we look at the the disadvantage or historically disinvested community, is that you're looking to start in what other parameters are you looking at to determine which households are eligible in the community?

Thank you.

Thank you for the questions.

So how do we arrive at these numbers?

I shared with you that we had an amazing team and we have an amazing team.

Some of those team members are here.

If you can wave, wave your hand.

Dan Gray, Scott, Hubei.

John Beta hold sir Allison don't you don't you hide back there with power clean future Ohio.

We had an amazing team and that team brought in additional talent so that we could be laser focused.

If, if any of you have worked with me, you know, when I'm building something, you'll hear the phrase It's got to be it's got to be as bulletproof as possible.

Right.

Because I because I know it's coming and people are counting on us.

And so let's kick the wheels.

Let's blow holes in it.

So those numbers came from one of my colleagues I met through Power Clean Future Ohio, John Paul.

Incredible.

He access data from across the globe.

It it it's interesting sustainability and climate remediation is not as new and novel in parts of the world as it is here in the United States.

And so there's good data out there.

So we use that and we crunched the numbers.

We also reached out to our coalition partners and we asked them for data.

Technology has assisted up with us with GIS, so we could see how many households had rooftops in low income disadvantaged communities.

So hopefully that answers your your first question.

That's that's tailored data and information and outputs from us to the second, how we define disadvantaged communities and who will be the recipients.

That's part of the renewed negotiation with EPA and so which definitions and definitions has become a big part of this negotiation.

For example, one of the qualifiers is Buy American, build America, Buy America.

Well, it turns out that government agencies have different definitions for what's made in America.

What's, you know, American.

And so we're trying to do some standardization there.

We're doing the same with how we're going to define the disadvantage.

Now, the United the department, I think it's Labor has and it could be energy has a map of disadvantaged communities so we don't have to guess at that.

It's at the household level that we want to have precision.

If you have beaten the odds and you put in the work and you've been able to go from an ultra low or low income environment and you kind of made it across the line.

We don't want to penalize you for that.

And so this should be at the end of our work, a continuum of supports so that, that, that doesn't fall off just because one has achieved the goal that they set out to achieve.

Thank you.

Yes.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Jeans.

Great speech.

Nice to hear from you.

I'm Tom Bullock, Citizens Utility Board of Ohio, executive director for Inclusive Path to a Greener Future.

Jobs and career pathways could be a big component of increase in economic power, increasing equity of outcomes and family incomes.

Could some of the funding that you are investing lead to job, especially for people who have traditionally been not a part of high paying jobs?

And in particular, how about the skilled craftsman, craftsmen and women in the building trades?

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers does work in solar, for example.

Can we connect and make two plus two equals five out of these opportunities so that it's not just a one time project, but it's the beginning of change for the entire family.

Yeah, yeah.

Great question and very appropriate.

I'd like to start with an apology for putting someone on the spot, but there's a young man here who's joining us.

He's working with a growth ops client who we have retained to do work in our home.

Carter Core is the African-American owned company and the owners of Carter Core are here, Tommie and Sandra Farmer.

They have made it a point to not only do amazing work, but this is all talk and conjecture.

If we're not doing what we could or should be doing, we can't keep driving by these young minds and not stopping and slowing down and having real, meaningful conversations and connecting them to the opportunities, the assets and the wealth that we keep talking about.

And so George is here.

George is here and he is here because he wanted to be here.

These aren't rooms where we've sent invitations.

He was a student at Max Hayes.

You graduated this year?

Next year.

Good heavens.

He's very mature.

Very mature.

And so I guess I say that to say there are a number of ways to get to the meaningful wage job here.

And this is one of them, the educational process and the camaraderie, the networking.

It has to happen across lines.

And we're pretty intentional about walking that talk.

Secondly, we did a deal with IBEW at the international level with the CEO.

I can thank Dan Gray for bringing IBEW into the room for us to have the regional conversation.

And that escalated to, I guess, the CEO and I inking an agreement to solve the labor challenge or at least put a dent in it.

And so we were able to accomplish that I think a couple of months or so ago.

Scott, he assisted us in the documentation and what did that do that gave us access to 820,000, I believe, electrification workers.

What we don't want is across the country we have 40, 60% completed projects.

And so that's the labor piece of it.

There's still a supply side that we've got to tackle and we're working on that.

The application we submitted promises a minimum of 1000 jobs that are meaningful wage jobs to be created.

That's a that's a floor.

When we say meaningful wage jobs and growth jobs, we don't typically find we don't find projects that are creating minimum wage jobs because we don't need a catalyst there.

That fire doesn't need to be lit.

There's a preponderance of meeting me minimum wage jobs.

And so this work will allow us to do just that.

But I think it's worth recognizing when there's solar development in communities.

There's a lot of work that needs to be done that has nothing to do with the panel.

Right.

So who's who's who's going to keep the grounds and who's small business is going to do that?

Who's lumber is going to be delivered?

I think I was here for a cube symposium.

Chris Nance led with his colleagues at GCP, and there was a African-American female business owner who has transportation company, right?

So who's going to transport and how many more employees might see hire to do the work?

And there are a number of examples that I can give you.

And so there are specific solar jobs and then there are the related jobs.

The last thing I'll say is I hope that those of us in this room who are privy and participants to the conversations of the work of tomorrow, the workforce of tomorrow, that we begin to actually look at the jobs and the opportunities of tomorrow, I think too often we see lists and I'm seeing some stuff on there that was there when I was in high school.

So, you know, that's old, right?

And so what might these be?

And let's work together to identify those and then educate this.

Certificates alone are not going to be enough.

We've got enough data to show us from Georgetown Policy Institute that educational certificates alone, without a degree, leave the person as vulnerable as if they had a GED or high school equivalent.

They're that vulnerable to economic downturns that out the earliest in economic downturns they're out of that market the longest and when they return, at best, they're most often paid at par for when they left.

So they're underwater.

That's not a resilient certificate.

So how do we make that certificate matched with a degree or an incremental degree that gives them economic resilience?

The panels can't be the only sustainable thing in the household.

Right.

Thank you for the question.

Good afternoon, Michael.

My question is going to focus on how the initiative that you're leading and growth ops is leading will specifically expand opportunities for communities of color on both the workforce side and on the business development side.

Now, this is a shameless plug for you and for Dan Mothra to make room on the wall here at the City Club for your photographs.

Oh.

Nobody wants that, Chris.

Nobody.

So as us.

So but I do so as the vice president of construction at the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

And whether it's Glenn or Marvin Aaron, Ginny's working with partners, the sewer district as our project owners.

This is an ecosystem.

And you talked about your initiative as being part of an ecosystem.

And what we know also you pointed out issues of equity throughout your remarks.

We know that during the decade from 2010 to 2020, we did $20 billion worth of construction.

We're only able to track about 5% minority business participation.

We know we are focused on trying to leverage these opportunities, but all too often communities of color don't get an opportunity to connect.

So could you share with us, as I take my seat, some of the specific ways that communities of color will be able to tap into the work opportunities and how businesses of color obviously, the the grant, as you said, is the beginning.

And with an eight X to 12 X goal, that means that this is an operation you expect to expand significantly over time.

Thank you, Michael, and congratulations to you, Aurélie, and the entire growth jobs team.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you.

Well, I'll start with it's clear to me when I'm getting close to something pretty special, it's just the heat turns up, the hits come and we experienced all of that.

So I think the team of growth option, our colleagues, our partners, our board, we knew there was something special here during that time.

Some of those obstacles were pretty onerous and I had to call a dear friend, perhaps the godfather of this community, and ask him, What do you recommend for me?

Because there was a younger Michael on this shoulder.

I remember doing a dum dum on one shoulder who wanted to say one thing and do one thing and then there was the other side that said, calmer, cooler heads have to prevail.

And he shared with me that the effort coming my way was an attempt to do away with what we were doing, but that it had been unsuccessful, he said.

If I chose to preoccupy myself with that further, it would succeed in being a distraction, he said.

Secure the capital.

It'll change the conversation.

We've talked about crumbs for decades.

We've talked about who has power, who has control, who has.

Those are all valuable conversations.

But at the end of the day, if people have to beg for the basic things of life that are afforded to others by birth, that doesn't work for us as works as it might work for others.

And so $156 million is real money.

But we crossed the billion dollar mark and now we're moving commerce.

When you direct the capital, you set the terms.

And so we can set terms.

We don't have a lot of imagery of that in the Midwest.

And so it becomes an example and flies in the face of those who can suggest that any one of us couldn't lead this work, that we couldn't get it done or that we needed a sponsor to get it done.

That's whether female and you've heard that you're African-American, you're Latino or Latina, you're Asian, you're Jewish, you're young, whatever those things might be, perhaps you've heard it.

And so these kinds of examples are joined with significant capital, allow us to dictate what the opportunity can be, and then to capitalize that opportunity.

And if we model this in a way that it creates ROIC, a return on investment, then there's a tomorrow for it, there's another iteration for it.

And I think what most of us in this room learned is that when the ROIC isn't defined in the beginning, it's a quiet room.

There are not a lot of people beating down the door.

But once there's an opportunity for investment that suggests a meaningful return without absorbing at risk, it's amazing how full that room becomes right.

And so I think it's our responsibility when that room begins to fill that, we fence that room so that there remains room and opportunity for others.

So how does this show up in and small businesses of color and African-American and black and brown communities?

I think we have to whether it's an ethnic discussion or otherwise, we can do better than wanting opportunity to go to a place and then turning 180 degrees a place and perhaps a people who don't resemble where it's supposed to go hoping that they're going to find it.

I don't have to introduce myself to the black community.

I don't have to introduce myself to the Latino community.

I don't have to introduce myself to the Asian community.

I don't have to juice myself to the corporate community or the civic community.

These are places of comfort for me, even when we have uncomfortable conversations.

And so if I don't have to start with, hello, my name is and we can actually start with something of substance, we can get something pretty special done.

So it's my hope that growth jobs can not only join our colleagues across the country who are doing this work and may have taller challenges than we do, but that our colleagues who don't look like us, that we build it so well, almost like a Harlem Renaissance where everybody wants to dine, everybody wants to see the show.

That's what we seek to do.

And if we can do that and not forget and not forget the diaspora who continue to remind me that they're there and who continue to ask me, what took you so long?

We can do some pretty incredible things together.

Thank you for the question, Chris.

Yes.

Hi.

Lucy Cooley.

By Lucy.

Electric, car advocate and editor for Solar Today magazine.

In many states, utilities are pushing back against solar for various reasons overload of curve and also grid problems.

How is that going, working with the utilities?

You guys are trying to get me shot today.

Yes.

Is it we have now passed the ten mark starting at nine.

So it's the perfect question.

And so we have established large utilities that typically work on utility scale, large commercial projects like large corporate that's not utility focused.

There's already a market for that and it buys sells their staff management teams who are focused on ensuring that there's fluidity and that the transactions continue.

Well, we don't typically see as that same level of commitment in less than higher income communities.

There are municipal utilities in Cuyahoga County has recently created a municipal utility.

You also have a municipal utility in Cleveland.

Public Power.

Early in our research and conversations, it was shared with us and we believe that it was the smaller municipal utilities that had the frailty, that had old equipment, the ability to upgrade it would be challenged because there's not a tax base to upgrade that equipment over time.

And that fact remains.

And our recent conversations with large utilities, they're having a similar issue, but not all of them.

One large utility told me, Michael, we would like to advance this, this in our room, this being the Solar for All initiative, and how can we negotiate and partner with our utility colleagues?

But they said, I've got an executive just a month ago who sent out a memo wondering whose car was that charging in the parking lot because it was stealing the electricity, stealing the electricity from the solar charging station.

So it's a lot of educating we missed for this one.

Right.

I got to get on my job better.

And so there's a variety of challenge and a variety of opportunity.

We know that the utility lobbyists are a strong group, as well as with oil and gas.

Some have adopted this this new digital distributed model, because they recognize that this is the transition of energy for whatever reason, some have not.

We have to find those who are not only the coalition of the willing, but the coalition of the good.

We'll start there.

I don't want to begin this conversation being on the other side of the aisle, because then I bring those whom we serve on the other side of the aisle, the other side of the table, I should say, on the other side of the table.

And so I'm not trying to create enemies here.

We want to help them see how this benefits their models.

But they also have to see the value and the every day.

Joe and Jane, in our communities and I don't know that they've all seen that economics, we need to pay close attention to our statehouses across the country.

We are not seeing a representation of the will of the people that has to change.

And so their barriers, they're not insurmountable.

And we've been pleasantly surprised by some of the larger utilities and the positions that they're willing to take.

Does that answer your question a little bit?

Yeah, I'm wondering about batteries, but that's batteries.

Batteries.

If anybody's looking for the comments that I'm making are not investment advice.

And you should consult your investment advisor and tax adviser batteries that the demand is there, the supply is not there.

It's solving for particular challenge batteries that innovation is probably worth looking into because we all need it to make this work.

Yes.

And I would have to come up and follow that.

Good afternoon, Michael.

Afternoon, Valerie McCall.

I really stand up as city Club addresses and do this, but I'm so excited about this particular program because of who you are looking to impact.

And I think I heard you talk about you're still in the rulemaking phases of this through negotiations.

And one thing that I would implore you to do is, as you're looking at this, we say low to mid income neighborhoods, a lot of times, and we go by census tracts and we break it down and we say, okay, these are the people we're going to help.

But a lot of times in the rulemaking we actually restrict the people we are actually attempting to help brothers, businesses, small businesses, African-American businesses, African-American owned businesses, but more importantly, the residents you're trying to touch.

So I'm putting on my Ward six community hat in the rulemaking phase when we say neighborhoods of low to moderate income, I think we both live in unique communities.

We touch it every single day.

We ride by it.

I live in one of those neighborhoods in a census tract.

I implore the rulemaking to not just be so restrictive as it goes by income requirements.

Generally, it's they go by certain income remembering that if people are homeowners, they're restricted a certain way, but open it up to the opportunity of others that are in that area as well that can benefit from this.

This is a phenomenal program.

Commend you again and I love the fact that you're going to have a focus on small businesses.

But also, I want to make sure that we get to the very essence of what you're trying to do, which is to serve opportunities.

There is one household in my precinct that has solar panels on their house, and I look forward to seeing more.

Thank you.

Thank you, Valerie, this is my cue over here.

So I'll be brief.

You know, the benefit of having good and smart people in the room is that they ask good questions and it allows me to provide some additional insight.

We are not looking at census tracts here.

Right.

Growth ops has never done that.

And to your point, too many places do.

And so they're unintended consequences.

But we're looking at the address.

We're pushing the envelope because we tend to push the envelope.

And so I don't know that income is enough, but the parameters of this particular program that we didn't write may have to restrict that as a requirement for those dollars, but that's where the 8 to 12 X comes in, because it's not always an income conversation.

It's an asset conversation.

What is the household balance sheet look like?

When I was a stockbroker, I worked with wealthy folks who at last, I should say, I worked with people at high incomes and they had high expenses.

But now we're talking about lower income and energy burden where 30 plus percent not that's the definition, but that we have in some of our communities, 30 plus percent of their income is going toward utility costs.

That's not sustainable.

And so I'd say to each of you, keep pushing us as we do everything we can to bubble up these unintended consequences to the EPA, to the IRS and the Treasury Department, and to the Department of Energy, because it's your voices that need to be heard.

And I appreciate each time you leave those messages for me in my ear, and I, I frankly wish your voices could be heard in other places of consequence.

Thank you very much.

Michael Jean's.

Thank you, Michael.

And thank you all for joining us today.

Forums like this are made possible thanks to generous support from individuals like all of you.

You can learn how to become a guardian of free speech at City Club dot org.

Our forum today as part of our Sustainable Northeast Ohio series, which we present in partnership with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

We'd also like to welcome guests at tables hosted by the A.K.

Team, Citizens Bank, the Cleveland Foundation, the Fund for Economic Future.

The George Gund Foundation for Growth UPS, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, and the Ohio Environmental Council next to the City Club.

We're actually at Shaker Square tonight for a film screening and a short forum following that film screening.

And then tomorrow will be with, like your neighborhood in the Shaker Square neighborhood.

That event starts at 11:00 in the morning in the park right next to Dave Supermarket, if you want to meet us there.

And then Wednesday, we're back across the street under the chandelier to continue our free outdoor summer series.

We will hear about the efforts to support diversity in the media production industry.

Also next week, Ethan Karp, as mentioned earlier, Ethan Karp, presidency CEO of Magnet or Bust the myths about manufacturing, including news of its demise.

You can learn more about all of those forums and everything else coming up at the City Club.

At City Club, dawg, your beautiful, wonderful audience.

Thank you so much for being here today.

Have a great weekend.

This form's adjourned.

For information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of the City Club, go to City Club, dawg.

Production and distribution of City Club forums and Ideastream Public Media are made possible by PNC and the United Black.

Fond of Greater Cleveland, Inc..