Can You Hear Me Now?

Tue. Dec. 01, 12:19pm EST

[Public comments made by Jenci Spradlin on December 1, 2009 at the Jackson, TN City Council Meeting concerning a resolution to authorize the Mayor to purchase property downtown at a cost of $814,000 from John Allen. The parcels of property in question were under consideration by the council to purchase for a $5.1 million downtown parking garage that included a first floor of retail space. Following an opinion by MTAS (Municipal Technical Advisory Service), the original resolution was deemed illegal per the City’s charter and failure of the project to include competitive bids. A council committee recommended, following that ruling, that they abandon the garage proposal, and instead, buy the property from Mr. Allen at a price that included an 8% profit for Mr. Allen and an additional 6% interest on the amount until the time of closing. The audited portion of the total, $700,121.36, included the cost of the land plus all work that Mr. Allen’s firm had already put into the project. Missing from the audit was an actual appraisal of the real value of the property. The Council voted today 5-4 to authorize the Mayor to purchase these parcels of property. The City will fill in the hole that was made by Mr. Allen in the preparation of the site and gravel it until a future time when finances might allow the City to pave the lot or reconsider the option of a parking garage.]

You will have to excuse me if my voice falters today, as I have struggled over the past week with not having my voice. You may struggle to hear my words clearly, but, I do want to be very clear that while I may not have my voice, I do have a voice as a resident and business owner of this city.

Indeed, a city is nothing more than a community of individuals who determined to come together to make official their desire to collectively achieve those things that they could not achieve on their own. WE determined to pay a higher price to do so, and in making OUR desires official, WE elected men and women to ensure that OUR desires were achieved.

Without WE THE PEOPLE, there would be no need for you.

What is worrisome to me today as I have followed the issue of the parking garage project over the past few weeks and months, is that our voices are not being clearly heard. There are certainly many things that OUR tax dollars could be spent on that might be of benefit to our community, but if WE do not want it, it is your responsibility to uphold your charge to act as agents of WE THE PEOPLE, or to clearly make your case as to why those things would ultimately work to our benefit.

The problem with the latter is that in so doing, you must be mindful of the impression you give to us by committing OUR resources in private. Do I believe that in this case there was any malicious intent? No. In fact, that would be far easier to deal with if it were. But I do think it is endemic of a belief that we are not paying attention. We are NOT on a need to know basis; rather it is YOU that need to know that we demand transparency and accountability from you.

There has been a lot of passing of the buck – that somehow agreements were made by people no longer charged to govern us in the past that now have to be addressed in the present, even if in so doing, we have to give up something in the future.

Today, I ask you, what will your legacy be? What will those that come after you say about the choices you made? If today we must spend nearly $1 million dollars to fix poor choices make in the past, then can you give us assurances that this will not happen in the future under your watch? Can you commit to a new level of transparency in how decisions and deals are made, or will we continue to have the expectation that it is business-as-usual? A lack of transparency does create trust issues that linger. Today, I trust that you have heard not only me, but WE.

Comments

speachless Tue. Dec. 01, 01:12pm EST#1

JENNY, you rock.

speachless Tue. Dec. 01, 01:23pm EST#2

sorry- it's - Jenci, you, rock. New to this blog, I just caught your comments while researching the news on the downtown fiasco. The arrogance of of our city government and local power brokers hangs thick in the air of our city, like the smokey haze from a pile of smoldering leaves on damp fall day. Wait, no, like the smoke of a pile of smoldering dollar bills plucked from the taxpayers.

Transparency you ask??? Who can see thru the smokey stinging haze.

Jenci Spradlin Tue. Dec. 01, 01:27pm EST#3

HAHAHA! Seriously. I had a ton of points that I could have made regarding why the parking garage itself was a bad idea, but that was a moot point after the MTAS ruling, so I decided to take a different approach. They have forgotten that we are really in charge, and we have abdicated our responsibility to them. We must take the city back.

Chris Stearns Tue. Dec. 01, 02:58pm EST#4

bravo

speachless Tue. Dec. 01, 03:50pm EST#5

I understand there were several citizens who spoke out at the city council meeting today. I am proud of them. I pray the people are finding their voice.

The council's vote to rubberstamp the city administration’s desire to pay for the private developer's material, time, equipment, engineering and design costs, AND pay him profit for his venture - also violates the MTAS ruling by paying for private services without a public bid or prior approval. To me 800k is a major expenditure, no? Certainly for property that was purchased for 125k just a few years prior. One councilman was correct by offering to purchase the hard asset- the land itself- for 300k, although the city should have had that independently appraised to determine its market value. Adding the profit and overhead into the cost of the land- its not right.

Perhaps someone is selling herrings at the downtown farmers market because something smells fishy downtown. By the way - the garage fiasco is not the only private / public partnership that was slipped thru city hall without public knowledge or public bids but thru private meetings with the city planner and administration.

Has anyone noticed how the members appointed to the "crime task force" silently and stealthfully morphed into a quasi private/ public "downtown center city development" group funded by our tax dollars? I thought the purpose of a crime task force was to address crime, not enrich a private developer thru public funds by financing their plans to build apartments on the 17 acres downtown.

Jenci Spradlin Tue. Dec. 01, 10:38pm EST#6

You know, that reminds me, werent they supposed to build townhouses at Westwood Gardens? When we were moving here in 2005, this project was plastered all over the papers and I actually thought we might consider buying one of them.

In a perfect world it would be convenient to live downtown, particularly if you worked there or if there were unique places to visit. But just like we've seen on the downside of the housing bubble, you cannot sustain something you artificially created through simply an infusion of capital alone. Just because we build it, doesnt mean they will come.

Lynn Walters Wed. Dec. 02, 05:59pm EST#7

The "good ol' boys" network seems to have hit a roadblock temporarily.

speachless Sun. Dec. 06, 07:46pm EST#8

"You know, that reminds me, weren’t they supposed to build townhouses at Westwood Gardens? When we were moving here in 2005, this project was plastered all over the papers and I actually thought we might consider buying one of them."

I believe the "they" that proposed to build townhouses at the Westwood Garden site was a private venture, although politics is always involved.

When Westwood Gardens was constructed in the WWII era it was constructed to provide housing for a tremendous influx of workers moving here to work at the airport and the arsenal. After the war it became one of the few federal housing projects before the great society era. During the 80's and 90's they fell into great decline and were eventually torn down. The property was owned by the government thru the housing authority. Our previous Mayor, (you know -the same one who struck the garage deal) worked with a developer who is related to one of our Madison County commissioners. They all belong to the same political party, and interestingly this county commissioner is also on the hospital board of directors. The Mayor, the developer, and various silent partners came up with the plan to develop the site with townhouses. The developer had built a few hotels out west and had worked using a pre manufactured building system which he wanted to try here. The mayor was going to publicly release a formal request for proposal and the developer was to submit his already developed plan and bingo bambo thank you governor Blanco, the plan was to become official. When the public request came out other local developers submitted proposals some at a better price and more suited to the neighborhood. The Mayor publicly endorsed the Vista plan while the public sent in petitions favoring the competition. Ultimately the competitor was selected by city council and they purchased the site. However, complications arose when the new developer could not get approval to use the existing sewer taps. They were required to totally upgrade the entire infrastructure in order to build the new units. The developer found the unexpected costs to be prohibitive. I cannot confirm this but I have heard that our county hospital was discouraging employees from looking into purchasing the new condo/townhouses. So that private developer has found the project to be unprofitable. I'm not sure if they still own the property, because I have read that the maintenance of the site has been returned to the Jackson Housing Authority.

Don't be surprised if you hear the city's new master developer one day announces plans to build a housing project there.

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Jenci Spradlin

Centrist – Tennessee