The research process implemented by Burges & Burges helped develop a plan for a site location, quality customer service, effective marketing, a proper management structure, along with staffing and service offerings that had support from key constituencies: business, government agencies, job seekers and residents.

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Ohioans for Growth & Good Jobs Coalition
In 2004, a regional energy company attempted to speed through a request to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio that would have eliminated what little competition exists in this state among electric energy providers and put the final nail in the coffin of deregulation. Burges & Burges was hired by the Ohioans for Growth & Good Jobs Coalition and the Ohio Manufacturers Association to fight this attempt.

Facing a very tight deadline – the PUCO was set to act within just a few short months of our hiring – Burges & Burges used a variety of tools to bring public attention and pressure to this situation. Through grassroots organizing efforts, we were able to attract numerous companies and organizations to the Coalition. We coordinated editorial board meetings at newspapers throughout the state that resulted in favorable coverage. Earned media was particularly important, as this was a complicated issue that had to be explained fully but clearly so that the public could know just what was at stake.

In the end, and despite significant odds, our efforts paid off. The PUCO heard loud and clear that the request before them was not in the best interests of the residents of Ohio – and they decided in the Coalition’s favor.

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Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission
As State budget cuts loomed in early 2005, one proposal being discussed in Columbus was a dramatic cut to the Local Government Funds. These LGFs provide significant funding for local governments, libraries and parks. As local authorities grew more and more concerned about the horrific damage such cuts would have, the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission decided to do something about it, and they asked Burges & Burges to help.

Burges & Burges coordinated a region-wide press event, attended by hundreds of local officials and citizens, that received significant state-wide media coverage. The purpose of the event was to educate citizens about this issue and call on all Ohioans to contact their local or state official to stop the harmful cuts to vital services. We also produced a powerful set of collateral materials in coordination with this event, including a poster and informational card, which were disseminated throughout the state to inform voters about this ongoing threat to local government funding.

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Cleveland Clinic Foundation: Envision Summit
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, which supports the world-renowned medicine and research done at Clinic facilities, was seeking to create and host a symposium that would bring national experts in health care together with major healthcare philanthropists. The focus of the event would be a wide-ranging discussion that touched on subjects such as the frontiers of healthcare, the challenges of effective philanthropy, the meaning of strategic philanthropy and beginning a personal foundation.

Burges & Burges was retained over a ten-month period to coordinate all aspects of the first annual Envision Summit. Working closely with Cleveland Clinic Foundation staff, we refined the focus of the event and developed individual focus sessions that would allow participants to hear from national experts in smaller groups. We identified the leaders in each relevant field and then worked to secure their participation in the event. We eventually were fortunate enough to secure Larry King as our emcee and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson as our key note speaker, along with numerous healthcare experts from around the nation. The inaugural Envision Summit was a resounding success that attracted hundreds of attendees and burnished the Cleveland Clinic’s reputation as a leader in its field.

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Euclid Recall Election
A group of citizens in Euclid, Ohio attempted to use a recall election to force Mayor Bill Cervenik from office. Mayor Cervenik made an unpopular but principled decision to settle a federal lawsuit against the city. A church wanted to build a place of worship and housing for seniors on property they owned in Euclid. This group of citizens opposed the church’s exercise of their religious and property rights and sought to block the development through zoning restrictions, causing the church to file suit. For settling this suit, and saving the city millions in damages from an assured court loss, Mayor Cervenik was targeted for recall by the same group of citizens who fought against the church.

Burges & Burges provided research, message development, grassroots, targeting, direct mail, fundraising and overall campaign consulting services to the “Yes for Euclid’s Future” campaign to keep Mayor Cervenik in office.

The message was clear: Mayor Cervenik made a difficult and unpopular decision to ensure financial survival of the city, but it was the right decision for the city’s future. The Mayor had a strong record to run on, including keeping safety forces strong, ending a budget shortfall and creating a surplus, attracting and retaining jobs and bringing development to the city. Earned media, including supportive editorials and letters to the editor, coordinated by Burges & Burges, was critical to the campaign. All major area newspapers editorialized against the recall. The toughest challenge of the campaign was to energize our targeted voters to come out on a summer day, right after a major holiday. The campaign stayed focused, identified supporters, and brought them out on Election Day to save the city of Euclid.

The Mayor’s solid record and goodwill earned him the credibility among voters to resoundingly defeat the recall campaign in July 2005.

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Dayton Metro Library
With cuts in State funding and no local tax increase in 10 years, the Dayton Metro Library faced significant challenges in its continuing effort to provide services to the public. Cuts had already been instituted, but without additional funding, library services would have been drastically cut. Burges & Burges was retained to coordinate an educational campaign to raise awareness of the need for additional funding. We crafted the message, trained speakers, produced an educational video, and created a brochure and other collateral materials to communicate the message.

Burges & Burges was also retained to provide campaign consulting services to pass a library issue on the March 2004 ballot. We provided the campaign with day-to-day consulting services, message development, fundraising, earned media, direct mail, and grassroots outreach.

The campaign was challenging, because we had to cut through the clutter of a highly competitive primary, which saturated the airwaves. There was also a number of competing local tax increases on the ballot – including several school districts. Despite the challenges, the result was a very impressive victory for Issue 20, which passed with nearly 65% voter approval.

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National Center for Tobacco Free Kids/Coalition for a Healthier Ohio
Burges & Burges served as the Ohio consultants in a nation-wide effort to organize and secure support for the “Master Settlement Agreement” with the tobacco industry and coordinated other initiatives aimed at reducing smoking. Our role also included work with the Coalition for a Healthier Ohio to ensure that Ohio legislators allocated a significant portion of the tobacco settlement dollars to tobacco education and prevention.

We built and organized a coalition of over 100 groups representing several million Ohioans. The result was the establishment of the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, which was awarded over $1 billion. In addition, we worked extensively on efforts related to tobacco use prevention, such as persuading organizations to push for FDA regulation of tobacco.

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Trust for America’s Health
In order to get U.S. Congressional members to support a nationwide health tracking system and provide significant appropriations, Burges & Burges built a statewide coalition of over 100 public health, religious and educational groups to endorse the fundamental goal of the organization - the need for a nationwide chronic disease tracking system.

Through our efforts, in coordination with federal lobbyists, we received the support of six Ohio Congressional members and appropriations were designated to start up the system. We coordinated numerous media briefings and editorial board sessions, with one result being that several major newspapers wrote strong editorials in support of this effort.

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Strongsville Rezoning
Strongsville’s North End, the ‘gateway’ to the city, was in need of quality redevelopment that would welcome visitors and reinvigorate a declining section of the city. A local developer had an innovative idea to redevelop a large section of property that would have accomplished these goals, while also bringing Strongsville a new up-scale destination for high-end retail, along with restaurants and office space. In order to commence with this development, dubbed Renaissance Park, a rezoning issue had to be approved by voters both within the effected city ward, and throughout Strongsville as a whole. Voters, however, had twice turned down other redevelopment issues at this site in recent years.

Burges & Burges was brought in to coordinate the campaign. We worked with the developer to include residents in the planning process so that they had a say in the final development. We organized numerous community forums that helped let voters know that this project was distinctly unlike those that came before and failed. This community buy-in, along with the wealth of support we elicited from public officials, helped the issue pass resoundingly.

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