I am disgusted. Over the last 6 years Mayor Rick Baker has shown ample evidence of working outside of the sunshine to further redevelopment of St Petersburg. Much of that secrecy is warranted, and fully permitted by Florida Statutes pertaining to economic development matters. I understand that.
What I don't understand and find a grave injustice to the residents, taxpayers and voters of St Petersburg, is the Mayor's decision to keep this proposal from the voters until after our recent municipal election.
Campaigns are an opportunity for candidates to explain to voters their position and decisionmaking regarding the issues of the day, and those matters which might arise in the foreseeable future.
By keeping this matter from the public until 3 days after the election, Mayor Baker has decided to forego that opportunity for public discourse regarding a $450M project. He removed from the voters the opportunity to better understand the positions of all candidates regarding the matter. - In the interest of economic development Mayor Baker has shunted aside democracy.
Who will authorize the expenditures to hire the $400,000 consultants to tell the City the project will be viable?
Who will approve the zoning and land use issues associated with a new ballpark? Who do you think will ultimately decide to approve a referendum on the issue, choose the ballot language and cause the city to incur those election expenses?
This newly chosen Council will.
The voters were deliberately stripped of the opportunity to insure that candidates on the ballot represented their intentions regarding this issue.
The above comment was sent in by a reader.
I am not criticizing the Rays for their role in this secret deal. They are playing by the rules set by City Council. This tradition of secrecy on the stadium goes back over 20 years. The public is presented with a "done deal" that is not always a good deal. Having a few insiders cook up a project of this scale deprives the community of the brainpower of thousands of fiscally conservative taxpayers who tend to reject big spending. Here are a few highlights of bad decision making:
- Original historic Al Lang Field was demolished in lieu of a roof repair, just before the decision to pursue a major league team. We are now told that the new stadium is obsolete because the Rays and spring training can not play in the same city, unless we want to come up with new subsidies for spring training teams.
- Hundreds of Gas Plant families sacrificed their homes for the stadium. Historic buildings were lost and a cities creditability thrown away when promises were made to build affordable housing and an industrial park on the site.
- HUD funds intended to help the poor were diverted to help the wealthy; millionaire team owners and athletes. A tradition that continues with the subsidy of Sweetbay.
- President Jimmy Carter required citizen participation in HUD funded projects. The Reagan administration tossed out those goals and gave the city a blank check to cut out the residents. Three churches were given new buildings despite the constitutional ban on government establishment of religion. Black united political opposition was broken and the project bulldozed its way through our neighborhood.
- St. Pete hired a well connected adviser and did the exact opposite of what we were advised; we built a stadium before a team was here. This 1960's design stadium immediately became a white elephant as baseball returned to its roots with the next new stadium in Baltimore. The bargaining power of cash on hand turned into a city begging for a team on the team's terms.
- Tampa taxpayers were denied an opportunity to share in this venture. We passed on the chance to find a central site where more fans would have access.
- Although St. Petersburg and Pinellas paid for the dome our political leaders let the team name it for Tampa. The renamed team kept this other city in its name even thought St. Pete's Mayor was secretly encouraging them to go back to our taxpayers for more subsidies.
- Voters were denied a referendum on the biggest project the city has had built. The Mayoral race became a referendum when Dr. Ed Cole was elected by angry citizens. His election should have been a wake up call to city hall.
- The $8M industrial park grew into a $65M stadium. By issuing bonds to build something in advance of the need we generated business for lawyers and bond advisers.
- Twenty years of paying for this has left us with a hundred million dollars more left to pay.
Happy Thanksgiving
Today's page one story says:
Voters support plans for a new Rays stadium - as long as tax dollars aren't involved.
From MLB web site
St Petersburg Citizens Against Tax Dollars For New Stadium
A lie of omission? More like just a lie
By HOWARD TROXLER
Published November 27, 2007No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No to the city of St. Petersburg.
No to its government. No to its mayor. No to its deputy mayors and assistant pooh-bahs.
They do not get to run the government like this. They just don't.
Please read the rest of Howard Troxler's column.
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/27/Columns/A_lie_of_omission_Mor.shtml
WMNF radio reports
2 comments:
Nice analysis of some very old news. However, I'm betting your premise is all wrong. Don't be too surprised if the current Council takes this up before going out of office in January,
I've long held that gatordem is a sycophant and village idiot.
This post confirms that view.
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