Cordish Stench Worsens With Every Revelation
Posted: August 24th, 2009 | Filed under: Politics | 4 Comments »The Courier-Journal has provided a major public service by publishing the confidentiality agreement required by Cordish, before the developer would allow Mayor Jerry’s Five Stooges to “inspect” records regarding taxpayers’ $950 large that was to have been spent on Sports & Social Club at Fourth Street Live.
You can read it here.
What is so stunning about this is that the city looks even worse than it did before the “audit” that wasn’t. That is something heretofore considered impossible. Believe it. This city administration has sold the soul of our town to Cordish. I gotta ask: Why?
Somebody got photos of somebody doing something they shouldn’t?
After some public outcry, Mayor Jerry sent his stooges to Baltimore — on the taxpayer’s tab one must assume — to audit Cordish’s records. They were to report back on what they found.
Instead, the five — Mike Norman, Bruce Traughber, David Morris, Ellis Shipley and mayoral wannabe David Tandy — signed away any power they might have had . . . to do anything whatsoever. They put their John Hancocks on an airtight confidentiality agreement that includes indemnification clauses and penalty clauses and a draft of how Mike Norman’s final report to Abramson should read.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention, they agreed that the information was not subject to the state’s Open Records Laws.
That is not a typo. Before they even got to look at the scraps of “information” that Cordish revealed as a “courtesy,” the Five Stooges had to agree on what and how they would report to our mayor. And that nobody could demand to see the results of the “audit.” Such as they are. Not even the mayor. Nor we the lenders.
This not only violates the city’s fiduciary responsibility to its citizens, it is an audacious display of dumbfounding incompetence and stupidity.
They acknowledge that Cordish was revealing whatever as “courtesy.” How could there not be any provisions for a full audit when taxpayers’ money is being handed over to a private entity?
Only Norman was allowed to take any notes about the information that was provided. And he could make no copies of any of it.
This is so aggravating that I can’t rant and rave anymore. Go read the documents yourselves and and make your own determination whether anything is being hidden? And who is the accomplice to this outrageous transgression? Take a deep breath and decide if there is the scent of chicanery in the air?
Frankly I’m stunned, even in this day and age when skulduggery is so commonplace in government that this issue doesn’t have more traction. Where is the outrage?
Here’s what a lot of us want to know now: How exactly was the money spent? Why has Cordish stonewalled? Why has the city aided and abetted that stonewalling? Why did the Five Stooges sign that confidentiality agreement? Why does the mayor keep telling us all is well, instead of simply showing us evidence of same?
There should be simple answers. Instead there has been nothing but obfuscation and political spinning of the highest order.
When are the citizens of this town going to go to their windows, fling them open and scream at the top of their lungs: “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore?”
Thank you for your outrage. This is local government at its worst. Our leaders were handled by Cordish as if they were children…which when compared to the Cordish sharpies, maybe they are.
I’ll tell you why that farce took place: Jerry Abramson was just testing his jail…uh, I mean “fail” safe procedure to avoid prosecution under state or federal statutes as a precursor to the big, Mac Daddy jackpot: the Kentucky STATE coffers! Face it–$950,000 is chump change! Wait ’til he does the belly-bumping victory dance with Beshear and see what happens…
It’s interesting how a mayor can be a cheerleader and civic booster on one hand, and on the other, not defend the city, financially and otherwise, from a corporate bully.
It’s the mayor’s two faces.
This is the same groupthink from Jefferson Street (and Main Street) that brought us a downtown arena on a site mega-millions more expensive and a “trust us we know what is best” library tax. Never thought Mayor Jer’ was out of touch but he seems to be and is taking advice from the wrong people. Who is Bruce Traughber and why is he qualified for anything?