From a story originally aired on media outlet WFMJ. Click here for the wfmj.com web version of the story.
CLEVELAND, Ohio –
The RNC is now history but one of the people responsible for making it all happen is actually from the Mahoning Valley.
Jon Pinney grew up in Boardman and is a Cardinal Mooney graduate.
He and his Cleveland law firm, KJK, authored the bid to bring the convention to Northeast Ohio and then once they got it, spent two years working out all the details in what he called a complex logistical challenge. He says the convention was a success.
“It’s been an incredible event overall. Our transportation plan has worked seamlessly. The city looks incredible. The delegates are happy. The media are happy and the convention coverage has been terrific,” says Pinney.
As you might imagine it wasn’t easy planning such a huge event. Not only to accommodate the delegates but especially for the 15,000 credentialed media who came from all over the globe.
“It requires an enormous upgrade to the infrastructure and technology so we spent several years preparing for this and improving all of our network systems and wi-fi systems and securing a variety of different spaces to house that many media.”
Did growing up in Youngstown make him the man he is today? “I’d say the valley made me a pretty tough person at least mentally in my opinion,” says Pinney.
Now some people say they want to bring another convention to Cleveland, maybe the democrats in four years.
Is Jon up for it? “I think we’ve done an incredible job and have set the bar very high. Everything we’ve done we’ve done in first class fashion. So if the community decided they wanted to bid KJK and me, we’d be all in.”
Great work Jon!
