An announcement from Asheville City Council member Cecil Bothwell:
I request that the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority rescind its grant to the Pack Square Conservancy, made for the purpose of constructing a visitor center and restroom facility, and grant the money to the City of Asheville for the same purpose.
The City of Asheville has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to complete construction projects in a timely manner and frequently under estimate.
The Pack Square Conservancy has repeatedly demonstrated an astonishing inability to complete projects on time or within anything like original estimates.
The further delay of the long promised restroom facilities, apparently in response to the requests of a small segment of special interests in our community is beyond laughable. I am completely fed up with the Conservancy's ineptitude and delays.
It is long past time for a thorough and professional audit of the Conservancy books over its entire life, with an accounting to the people of this community for all moneys spent for any purpose and it is also long past time for the City and County to reclaim the park that has been held hostage by a confederacy of dunces for far too long.
The people of Asheville and Buncombe County deserve better.
Thanks for your attention.
Cecil Bothwell
Asheville City Council
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Cecil makes valid points and offers a viable alternative. Seems to me that he's on the right track.
By Jake
05/31/2011
bra-frigging-vo. At long last. How much can we claw back from the Health Adventure?
By sharpleycladd
05/31/2011
Amen brother ... something stinks in Pack Square, and it's not the crapper!
It's the so-called Conservancy.
By LOKEL
05/31/2011
There is a serious lack of oversight on these commissions and Boards that receive public funds. Even though this Pack Conservancy was mostly funded through the TDA, and other entities, still those collected monies comes out of peoples pockets. There is some troubling intermingling of people being on these Boards then get monies for projects that fail. for example the woman in charge of Health Adventure was on the BOD of the TDA when she got a $2,000,000 from TDA.
By D. Dial
05/31/2011
add on:
http://bctda.org/?page_id=59
By D. Dial
05/31/2011
Amen.
I'm not sure whether it's that the conservancy is bleeding money through ineptitude and patronage, or whether the conservancy's original estimates have all been lowballs designed to string people along and get them to commit money, until they pull the ol' bait-and-switch and the real price tag is revealed once the money is spent and the project half-built.
Regardless. They should have been fired from this project long ago.
By orulz
06/01/2011
Publicly subsidized, privately profitable.
By mat catastrophe
06/01/2011
I suppose we should be more positive and be grateful we don't have an eight million dollar mud hole like the Health Adventure left the surrounding neighbors up on N. Broadway.
I keep asking the question, who is responsible for the oversight in these public/private partnerships? Who is minding our dollars?????
By D. Dial
06/01/2011
Probably no one is, Davyne.
Remember, the primary operating philosophy in America these days is: give public money to private contractors; allow the contractors to dawdle and waste the money; allow the public to blame government for lack of oversight; somehow convince them that it is the fault of government; and finally, allow more public money to flow into the hands of private enterprise.
It's happening in the military, it's happening in security, it's happening in the schools, it's happening in the prisons, it's happening pretty much everywhere.
The basic idea of having publicly employed workers has disappeared. In its place is an inverted funnel which takes as much money as possible from as many of the poor, the working poor, and the middle-class poor as possible and redirects it toward the upper echelon of economic, social, and political power. And it's the same system whether it is on the scale of Asheville, or North Carolina, or the United States of America.
The question isn't really who is minding the money, the question is: When are more people going to begin to *care* and go to the meetings and ask these questions? When are we going to begin demanding *more* of government instead of less? And, most importantly, will we ever have the courage or the power to insure that those at the top who have reaped the benefits of trickle-up economics for the last thirty years are soundly taxed, with interest?
By mat catastrophe
06/01/2011
Thank you for your feedback Matt. In my recent dealings and personal knowledge of a publicly funded non-profit contracted by City/County, I found an appalling lack of oversight by the issuers of the management contract. So my question was one of a rhetorical nature. Hopefully people will become more aware of the gross lack of oversight.
When researching this issue, I contacted a DA in Austin Texas who prosecuted a non profit Executive Director for embezzeling $350,000. I ask why do the officials look the other way when there are red flags all over the field? The answer was....neither officials and paid staff steps up till all the money's gone. Then the public gets lots of handwringing, "if only we'd known," etc, etc. Meanwhile the public loses. It's happening all over.
This is what Boards are SUPPOSED to prevent, but if the board gets stacked with bobble heads who know nothing about fiduciary duties and their responsibility to the public, this gross behavior will continue.
By D. Dial
06/01/2011
Great article Cecil!! You will always have my vote! From a fellow non-believer!!
By dpewen
06/02/2011