37.5 million on Inner City Augusta redevelopment

[All4Augusta]

ok so where does this "Plan" stand as of June 22 2009? isnt this the plan that is trying to be tied in with the now less optimistic TEE center?

[lilmusket]

This whole thing is essentially one big mess. Here's is what essentially happened:
back in 2005 voters approved a SPLOST that included $20 million for a trade and exhibit center (Tee Center). Proponents of the project knew full well that $20 million was no where near enough to build it, but they figured by only asking for $20 million it had a better chance of winning approval. Of course voters were never told that they actual cost was going to be around $40 million (at minimum) and that a parking deck would also likely need to be built (another $17 million)..
Well after the TEE center was approved in the 2005 SPLOST then there were discussions on where to build it and who should run it. Don Grantham, who was the man person behind it right of the bat said it should be attached to Billy Morris' hotel and that Morris' company should run it. That didn't sit too well with many black commissioners (Morris owns the Augusta Chronicle, a very conservative paper, and has at best a very contentious relationship with the black community.)
Also, there were no other bids taken or entertained.. that, naturally was met with skepticism from the black community.. and many commissioners vowed to vote against locating the TEE Center at Morris' hotel and giving his company the contract to rum it. On top of this, Morris wanted a $350,000 year subsidy from the city to run it.. well that didn't sit well at all with some commissioners.
Inorder to get the contract awarded to his friend Billy Morris, Don Grantham knew he needed six votes on the commission. He would need atleast one vote from one of the black commissioners. So he struck a deal with Betty Beard. For her vote to approve of awarding the TEE center contract to Morris, the Laney -Walker Bethlehem neighborhood would get $37.5 million over a 50 year period or about $700,000 per year for redevelopment and Morris's company would be given $350,000 per year subsidy to operate the TEE Center...This money was to come from a new $1 per night tax placed on hotel and motel rooms. This is how the Tee center and inner city redevelopment projects were tied together financially. well that was 2 years ago
Now Fast forward to 2009.
Don Grantham comes back to the commission and wants a vote on a new financing plan for the TEE center. Now he says the center is going to cost $40 million and now includes a $17 million parking deck and wants to create a new bureacracy to oversee the issuing of bonds. Many of the black commissioners claim to be taken off guard saying this was the first they had heard that the price of the TEE center has doubled and now included a parking deck, plus a new authority being created to issue bonds. Don Grantham demanded that a his new plan be adopted by a May 27th deadline or it would jeapordize the new SPLOST vote (even though this splost had nothing to do with the TEE center and inner city projects in question). The black commissioners balked and Beard voted against Granthams plan. Grantham cries foul claiming Beard broke "their" deal. She claims she is not breaking any deal.. that Grantham was essentially changing the deal by nearly tripling the cost of the TEE center project from what was presented in 2005 to voters. Then Grantham threatens to take the money away from the inner city devt if he doesn't get his way on the TEE center financing plan. And so this is where we are today. Still no agreement on the TEE center or the inner city redevelopment plan.

[All4Augusta]

WAy to go Augusta! NOt. So where does the mayor stand in this, does he not have veto powers?

[lilmusket]

Originally Posted by All4Augusta

WAy to go Augusta! NOt. So where does the mayor stand in this, does he not have veto powers?

Well under the way the Augusta government is structured, the mayor doesn't really have a whole lot of authority.. he can't even vote on the matter. BUT I am a bit dissappointed tha Mayor Copenhaver has not taken more of a vocal leadership role on this matter, atleast as a referee to ramp down some of the acrimony. This is an example how the backroom good-ole-boy nature of Augusta politics has backfired and continues to hold the city back. I did not for Don Grantham and this is an example of why.