Apparently the decision to purchase the 1000 Lake Avenue property was placed on the CRA Agenda by Board attorney, David Tolces, without the CRA Board having a chance to study the details. The back-up was not provided on-line to the public as far as the Contract For Sale and Purchase, only the Lease Agreement. I can well understand and appreciate Michael Hyde when he pulled it and made a motion to discuss the acquisition in a workshop that will be coming up soon between the CRA and the City Commission. It is a major decision when spending this amount of dollars.
I wish that the CRA Board had moved it to a discussion item so that we all could have learned more about it. This is a perfect opportunity now that the CRA is going to be a recipient of a HUD grant for $23 million that addresses slum and blight that has been put on the back burner for many years now. The NSP grant opened up the possibility to focus on another area, spending CRA TIF on an important and historic building in a strategic location. We may not have this opportunity again. I would have liked to have learned all the details along with the financial feasibility study to ascertain if it was going to be affordable and make sense.
I can understand Hands-On when they said that they need to keep negotiations confidential. This was one of the few things they said that made sense last night. The negotiated price for this building that Hands-On brought to the table is out in the public and another potential buyer has stepped up to get the property.
After I had left the meeting, the CRA Board brought the item back, and now have called for a Special Meeting on February 2. Let’s not blow this one.
Hands -On: what a perfect name for these two con men ! These guys have their HANDS ON ABOUT 200,000 of our money ! What do WE have to show for almost a year of rudeness and arrogance from Hands -On? NOTHING!! The only ones who have a clue as to what has been done are the two cons, CRA director Joan Oliva, and ex(Yes Shannon and Joan,get it trough your heads,EX)board member Shannon Materio.(who by the way has worked her a## off for Hands-On)! Despite Hands -On's claims of daily meetings with Joan Oliva for almost a year,until Tues night's meeting, the CRA board members were completely in the dark.Sounds like Miss Joan is running herself a mushroom farm.
ReplyDelete