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On today's date in The Beacon archives, we published:
•City Politics, Bad Taste, and Sean Holbrook (2007)•An Inconvenient Truth (the “better late than never” New Year reflection) (2007)
•Angela Davis Speaks Out on Prisons and Human Rights Abuses in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (2007)
•City Council CAP (Citizen Assistance Program) (2006)
•The Flavor of Mediocrity (2006)
•Northern Kentucky University: Institute for Public Leadership and Public Affairs (2006)
•Local Engineer Will Make Another Attempt to Change Politics (2006)
•Continuing Conversation on Time Warner (2006)
•Melanie Bates With Even More on Green Schools (2006)
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Sunday, November 26, 2006
Chris Bortz: Profiles on Council, Part 2
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
UPDATE! Some users had trouble with the Blip.TV embedded video. I have updated with the Google version, which should be more compatible. (Also, the introductory music is too loud. Sorry!)
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26 Nov 2006 at 07:48 pm | #
Yawn.
26 Nov 2006 at 09:16 pm | #
I forgot to turn down the intro music, so it is kind of loud compared to the interview. Sorry.
Mike, if you don’t like it, go back to soundbites. Looks like this made your brain need oxygen. Too much work, I guess.
27 Nov 2006 at 02:17 am | #
Councilman Bortz is asking us to believe he doesn’t have projections re: costs of Fountain Square and when the city will regain the revenue stream. Ask him to ask his daddy, I’m sure he has those numbers. If you think 3CDC Boardmembers don’t know exactly what it will cost you’re in denial.
I thought Ghiz was condescending until I watched this video. He addresses the city oversight without saying anything except how great a job the city does of oversight, with a few notable exceptions, of course.
Where is the Development Agreement and what have they agreed to on our behalf? What are the projected numbers? When will the rape end?
27 Nov 2006 at 06:47 am | #
I didn’t think he was condescending (and I didn’t think Ghiz was, either). I do think Bortz has long answers, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
I do have one regret—a question I didn’t ask. Just past the mid-way point of the interview, you’ll hear me say, “Didn’t you just say...”—and then I get cut off by Bortz (who I was interrupting, arguably).
He had just said that the City had gotten away from the kinds of core services that are really what the City is about, like paving streets (among other things).
Earlier, when talking about the 2.6 million contribution to 3CDC, he said that one idea for the money was to pave streets—but that street paving didn’t have a return on their money like they wanted.
I wanted to ask about that apparent irony: choosing not to pave streets, then criticizing the City for not doing good at things like paving streets.
27 Nov 2006 at 11:32 am | #
When he speaks of ROI it is “Return on Investment.” Since the city has No Return he must be wearing his 3CDC cap. Could we get some clarification? There has never been a discussion, to my knowledge, about the taxpayers being paid back. He indicates how the tax base will somehow magically increase. Bullshit is what this is. All properties are in a TIF District and will not contribute to city services until sometime in 2032. Oh well, at least they will begin to contribute before the garage revenue returns.
27 Nov 2006 at 05:59 pm | #
He had his Towne Properties hat on and was thinking about how much business he can steer his way through the majoc of corporate welfare, aka subsidies.
28 Nov 2006 at 07:34 am | #
Great work. Dean, can you convert the Ghiz video to Google video? I cannot seem to play the blip.tv source. I think it’s because I have Flash 9, and blip.tv only works with Flash 8.
28 Nov 2006 at 08:26 am | #
Gerard:
Done!
Click here.
28 Nov 2006 at 12:10 pm | #
"When he speaks of ROI it is “Return on Investment.” Since the city has No Return he must be wearing his 3CDC cap. Could we get some clarification?”
He’s had his 3CDC hat on since he took all of their big contributions. The fact that his Dad is on the board has nothing to do with it.
If they expect to recapture the annual revenue from the garage in about 25 years as he says, why was the deal a 50 year lease?
Council had a 50 year deal on the floor and were about to pass it until Christopher Smitherman politely reminded them that he had negotiated the deal down to 40 years. He’s the only one that was voted against this sham. He’s the only one that didn’t get the 3CDC contributions because he looked out for the public interest.
There isn’t any oversight. Bortz is saying that after it’s all said and done they’ll be able to oversee what happened. It will be too late to change anything at that point.
The son of a 3CDCer that has recieved massive amounts of political contributions is going to over see them, so fuget about it. Keep moving, there’s nothing to see here folks! Just another fox watching the hen house.
29 Nov 2006 at 11:15 am | #
I’ve looked at a couple of the contracts that the city has with 3CDC over Fountain Square and there is a lot of ambiguity in them. For one thing, the interest rate that Fifth Third can charge for the loan is not defined. In a normal transaction, say for a homeowner’s adjustable rate mortgage, it is given with respect to something like the one-year U.S. Treasury rate. But with these contracts, nothing. I find that odd.
As for paying the mortgage off early, the lease contract also states (par. 8C) that “all revenue generated from the operation of the Demised Premises, including without limitation, any rent received by Tenant from the operation of the Garage, shall be the sole and exclusive property of the Tenant ..."(emphasis mine). So I don’t see any obligation or incentive here to pay the mortgage off early.
Keep in mind that I’ve had to ask twice for the contracts that I do have, and I recently found out that I am missing at least two more side contracts. I think a little more oversight is called for.