Regarding last night
Mark O'Brien has added two more nicknames for me. I like one of them much better than the other. "Hothead Sam" I like because I was rightly incensed by staff's performance, its members contrite performance last night notwithstanding.....because I was rightly incensed that Mayor Fogg tried to gavel me down just because he did not like what I had to say. I wish he would use the gavel just once when Council members dump on our electors by calling them liars and worse.
"Sudden Sam" seems somewhat inappropriate considering what I already knew about what had happened in this case. O"Brien suggests I jumped the gun before I had all the facts. Well Mark, this Council makes most of its decisions before it has all the facts, whether its members know that or not. That's why we need reform in our City business model from top-to-bottom.
The missing appraisals were found only after an attorney had trouble getting staff to even admit they even existed and threatened a "Public Records" suit if he did not get them (Note: I won't tell you how I know, but I know the attorney had found out the appraisals had been performed before he even asked).
If they had been found during a simple routine shakedown of the process, then why would anyone think to look for appraisals that were never done in a file that had nothing to do with this deal?
So I maintain what I said last night, "That these appraisals not being brought to light were either an act of deceit or gross negligence." I still believe either resignations or terminations are in order. It is illegal for me to go beyond making that statement.
I wish Mr. MacQueen well. He has a good deal and I hope he has much success. This argument was never about him.
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8 comments:
Just a random thought: Some of the public "outcry" might have been quieted had they known the airport is not required to have RFP's (something I just learned myself.)
That said, I still agree with you that this process was a cluster at best and reflected poorly on Council, Staff and the entire process.
Hopefully new Council will act appropriately to hold Staff accountable in these types of situations in the future.
You crossed the line. Miller works for the city manager. If you want Miller to be fired, tell the manager. If the manager doesn't do as you want, get the votes to fire him.
You give a "strong mayor" a bad name. Had you been the mayor, Miller, who has done a great job for 20 years, would be fired & we would be without an airport director. Who would want to come here if their future was reliant upon the political whims of you & yours? No one. That's why many public recruitment firms won't work with cities who have a strong mayor.
To Anonymous @ 11/23 7:02pm:
Perhaps if there was a strong mayor who could have fired him for gross negligence, Mr. Miller would have thought better than to pick the lowest appraisal and claim he didn't know anything about the others. It strains belief to think that two appraisals for multi-million dollar property and a review after that would have just gone by lower staff without Mr. Miller knowing anything about them.
Kudos to Mr. Hall for being the voice of reason on this issue.
To Anonymous @ 11/23 1:15pm:
The airport is not required to have RFPs. But the City should have tried to get the best deal. The losers are all the residents, if less rent will be paid than for fair market value, or more money would be put towards remedial work than would have been necessary.
Funny that there WAS going to be an RFP until the competitive developers wrote a letter to the city demanding that they rescind the rfp.
Maybe the next time the city and airport won't be bullied into rescinding an rfp process and they won't get left holding the "no competitive process" bag.
I don't want a mayor who would fire a valuable department director because of one oversight, particularly one who's done a great job over the past 20 years.
To the anonymous who said, "You crossed the line." You assume that had I been "the strong mayor" that I would have fired Frank Miller. First, I don't believe this would have arisen had I been strong mayor, but if it had, Miller likely is not the person who would lose his/her job.
To the anonymous who wrote, "Funny that there WAS going to be an RFP until the competitive developers wrote a letter to the city demanding that they rescind the rfp." The "feasibility study" in 2005 was for hotels on that parcel. The complaining developers had two issues. One is that "government" was going to compete with private enterprise. Second, that the feasibility study should have been for highest and best use, not just for a hotel.
To the anonymous who wrote,"I don't want a mayor who would fire a valuable department director because of one oversight, particularly one who's done a great job over the past 20 years." Mr. Miller was put in a rotten position. He should not have had the responsibility for that deal. All he should have done is advise what the FAA would and would not allow and what would have to be done to make any deal work.
"The complaining developers had two issues. One is that "government" was going to compete with private enterprise. Second, that the feasibility study should have been for highest and best use, not just for a hotel. "
What a novel idea. Highest and best use.
If that had been done, this city wouldn't still be floating the pipe dream that a ballpark playing ball 48 days a year and another empty museum is a great deal for the taxpayers at 40 million plus .
AND
City has competed with private development for years. Where was the outcry? What is different here?
City built Aragon neighborhood(subsidy? competition with private development of housing?
City built Port Royal and the CRA funded "public" promenade which was quickly gated to exclude the "public" . public private partnership?? only the funding
City just negotiated another development on 9th avenue. On that one, one could win the RFP based on the original proposal and AFTER renotiate for additional concessions.
City buys lots and gives to certain developers to build affordable housing . competition?
What's new ?
I was mortally ashamed of your behavior at the meeting with your comments. It was unprofessional to attack someone like that in public. It would have been better to have called for a complete investigation of the matter, and an immediate report of the findings to the Council.
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