CLEVELAND — In a shared commercial kitchen in Euclid, Jeff Morsfield is toasting pecans – tossing them in a sugary syrup to create just the right amount of caramelization.
“When you roast the pecan, the flavor really changes,” says Morsfield, who has the process down to a science. “It gets buttery. It sweetens up.”
Two years ago, Morsfield launched Jeff’s Candy Shop to sell handmade confections – nuts, English toffee bars and nostalgic hard candies – at farmer’s markets and online. Since October, he’s been trying to open a small store in Cleveland’s Waterloo Arts District, a scrappy commercial corridor on the city’s East Side.
But he quickly realized the formula for working with City Hall isn’t quite so scientific.
“Everyone’s super nice,” he said. “But it’s the processes. None of the departments talk to each other. I’m not sure if the departments know what the other department’s thing is that they have to get done first. So you get caught in these little traps along the way, and it makes it really difficult.”
Morsfield spent months navigating approvals, trying to figure out the next step – and attempting to get his paperwork unstuck. By April 14, he was fed up. That’s when he took to social media, where he’s built a following by posting short videos of his creations.
“This one’s gonna get me in trouble,” he said during a video filmed along Waterloo Road, where he was out for a run with a 50-pound bag of sugar slung over one shoulder.
“Now I’m a pretty reasonable guy,” he added. “I make candy for a living. I’m a veteran. And I’m a 25-year-old that believes in this city. And when you hit roadblock after roadblock, it just starts to eat at you.”
On Instagram, he asked his followers to tag Mayor Justin Bibb and the city. They did. The video quickly racked up more than 900 comments and over 18,000 likes.
The next day, the mayor reached out, getting the approval process moving again. So did longtime City Councilman Mike Polensek, who hears stories like this all the time.
“I’ve had businesses that it’s taken them virtually a year to get open,” Polensek said. “Would that happen in Lake County? Would that happen in the surrounding suburbs?”
He cited a series of mix-ups, including confusion at City Hall over whether Morsfield was trying to open a shop – or a food-production operation. The Waterloo Road location will just be retail, a roughly 500-square-foot space filled with sweets and other local products.
“He’s not trying to open up a marijuana dispensary here,” Polensek said. “It’s a candy store, for Pete’s sake. Help the guy open a candy store. What the hell!”
In 2022, members of Bibb’s mayoral transition committee highlighted the confusing nature of the city’s permitting and approval processes in an advisory report.
“The city is known for its dysfunctional and inconsistent delivery of services,” the committee wrote.
They cited feedback from small businesses who complained about long wait times, unreturned phone calls, and a lack of clarity. The transition team recommended creating a website for small businesses and upgrading both technology and in-person customer service.
Last year, the Bibb administration released a 112-page operational strategic plan for the next decade. That report describes a paper-reliant, siloed City Hall where many processes take an unnecessarily long time – and aren’t clearly explained.
Now the city is working to upgrade and streamline permitting by bringing the many departments that touch a project into a single online system. That might not speed things up right away, but it will make it simpler to keep track of projects and move them along.
That should help everyone from entrepreneurs like Morsfield to developers investing $100 million in the city, said Tom McNair, Cleveland’s economic development director.
“We know how critical small businesses are to the Cleveland economy and to our neighborhoods,” he said. “And so we have been doing a lot of work and making it easier for small businesses to invest.”
Before taking his current job in September 2023, McNair worked for a neighborhood nonprofit for almost 14 years. He helped businesses set up shop in Ohio City – and saw the hurdles they faced. In many parts of Cleveland, nonprofits called community development corporations are often the first stop for small businesses trying to sort through bureaucracy.
At City Hall, McNair recently reorganized the economic development department. He’s hired a team of neighborhood investment managers focused on specific areas of the city, with the goal of helping businesses get the answers they need.
“This is not something you have to navigate on your own,” he said. “Our department is here whether you are opening your small business as a candy store on Waterloo or you’re putting up a major project Downtown. We can help you navigate that.”
Polensek said having dedicated people – “like an ombudsman … or ombudsperson” – might help. He said it’s crucial to fix the “morass” if Cleveland wants to compete against nearby suburbs for jobs, residents and tax dollars.
“It’s total constipation down there,” he said of City Hall. “You need some political ex-lax to open that place up, to get stuff done.”
After his social media stunt, Morsfield’s paperwork is moving again. He hopes he’ll be able to open the shop within the next few weeks.
He’s been paying rent on the space for months – and getting by thanks to busy holiday sales, online orders, those farmers’ markets, and a part-time job making badges at the Cleveland Clinic.
When his recent Instagram plea went viral, another wave of orders poured in. So did a flurry of private messages from business owners going through similar things.
“Lots of people locally have messaged me,” he said. “A lot of people reaching out with their personal stories about how they feel like they can’t get through to the city.”
He’s grateful for the help he’s getting now.
But he said it shouldn’t take boiling over to get basic things done.
“People are ready to help you, but you have to find where they’re at,” he said. “You have to get in there – and you have to make a scene.”
