** Updated at 10:30 a.m. **
Democratic mayoral hopeful Art Ward sent this note this morning to the newly chosen chairman of the Bristol Downtown Development Corp.:
Frank, congratulations on your election as Chairperson of the Downtown Corporation.
In light of the pending considerations of the corporation for the retention of legal services and the selection of an Executive Director, I would respectfully request that the Downtown Corporation defer decision on these matters until after the November 2007 elections.
Through no fault of the members of the Corporation and with no disrespect to the members of the Corporation, progress in this process has been moving at little more than a snail's pace.
Realizing that a new administration, with potentially new ideas or, at least a review of previous thoughts on this project, will exist after the November election, I believe it to be in the best interests of the taxpayers of this community to hold any future actions in abeyance until the new administration takes office.
I voted for this corporation in the interest and hope of expediting positive progress on the mall project but it has become evident that my initial stance, consisting of utilizing our existing resources within the BDA , our Economic Development Department and the City of Bristol, might ultimately prove to be a more prudent, expeditious and fiscally responsible means of addressing these concerns.
Thank you for your consideration of this proposal and please extend my sincerest gratitude to all of the members of the Downtown Corporation for their service to the City of Bristol.
Arthur Ward
Bristol City Council Member
District 1
And Frank Johnson sent back this note:
Councilman Ward:
Thank you for your thoughtful email. I will certainly see that it is shared with all members of the corporation.
As you know, we have a properly noticed meeting today to interview candidates for the position of Executive Director. The three firms have already been scheduled. Because this is a special meeting, I do not believe that we can take up the mater of your correspondence today. However I am only the Chairman elect, I don't become Chairman until September 1. Therefore, I will defer to our current Chairman, Mayor Stortz and our legal advisors to determine when the appropriate time would be to discuss your message and your request for a deferral of all action.
As always, thank you for your thoughtful consideration and your support in creating the BDDC. Your opinions and the opinions of all elected officials are certainly given appropriate consideration and weight.
Thanks again, it was good to hear from you.
Frank J. Johnson, Chairman elect
BDDC
*******
Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
12 comments:
Bravo Art for keeping open contact and communication with the downtown corporation. The council liason should have made this request a long time ago. Glad to see Art is on the ball. It shows that the needs of the city are a priority for him even during a campaign season.
What are you talking about? Art Ward wants to eliminate the Downtown Committee in order to give authority over to his buddy and ghost writer Jonathan Rosenthal of the BDA.
$350,000 and four months and they haven't accomplished a thing. It's time they are disbanded and the BDA Board and Real Estate committee take over.
Ellen, Minor, & McCauley (trio's) all voted for the downtown corp. Ward didn't want to but voted in favor of it to try and move it along. They have done nothing but cost the city $350,000. Again poor management lead by Zoppo. As for a "ghost writer" - Minor what are you talking about?
Bill
I want to clarify that the downtown corp. has not spent $350,000 yet. It has a budget of $350,000 but that doesn't mean it has shelled out the money on anything yet. I would suspect that its bills are rather paltry so far, just lawyers and filing fees.
All the Democrats supported the debacle of purchasing the mall in the 1st place. Unfortunately the voters wrath was thrown only at the mayor (Cootch-a-mantis). The voters didn't fare much better by electing Stortz. Now we have some fresh faces. Let's go that route.
You're wrong. There was overwhelming public support at the time for buying the mall, because it was obvious that the owners were unwilling or unable to stop the decline. What the voters rejected was the scheme to build a field house, parking garage, Boys and Girls Club, community theater, etc. and taking half of the 17 acres off the tax rolls. We heard that loud and clear, which is why every elected or appointed official I talk to now supports selling the entire property to a private developer.
Craig, so what is the reason for this paper corporation which has accomplished nothing since it's inception and only promises to be a monetary boondoggle for the future?
I went to Ward's website to see what his plan is for the Centre Mall property. I think it's disturbing that he wants to offer the property to developers BEFORE asking the people of Bristol what they want to see there. This was the path that Couture and Diamantis went down, and the voters showed them what they thought of it.
There were lots of good reasons for and against going the corporation route. For me, the fact that creating a municipal development corporation would increase Bristol's chances of getting state funding for whatever we end up wanting to do there (such as a parking garage or some infrastructural improvements) made the difference.
Craig:
1:23 am...Go to Bed
I'm on vacation and as soon as I send this I'm going back to the beach.
Post a Comment