Tag Archives: Local Government Corp.

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MPEV remains worth the city’s investment

MPEV

This is a bit of a non-surprise to many Amarillo residents.

The price of the proposed downtown multipurpose event venue/ballpark has come in a bit greater than originally thought.

Is it cause to toss the idea into the crapper? Not even close.

I’ll admit that I didn’t quite buy into the notion that the MPEV would cost more than the $32 million price tag attached to the non-binding referendum that voters approved in November 2015. I had some faith that the cost would hold up. It hasn’t, according to consultants who have delivered a $48.4 million price tag to the City Council to consider.

What’s the city going to do to cover the cost?

That is the $48.4 million question that the council has asked the Local Government Corp. to figure out. The LGC has received the directive and plans to deliver a report in April to the council.

The increased cost presumes that the city will hook up with a Double-A minor-league baseball team affiliated with a major league franchise.

Suppose the city does land an affiliated minor-league team for the city. Suppose as well that the city builds the MPEV for $48.4 million. Then let’s suppose what might occur if the baseball team fills up the MPEV with thousands of baseball fans every day or night.

Mayor Paul Harpole believes — and I think he’s correct — that the boost in sales tax revenue likely could more than offset any potential property tax increase that residents would have to bear.

“That regional money that comes into our city through sales tax has helped us keep property tax down,” said Harpole. “It’s important that we keep that growth as long as we can, but it has to make economic sense. It has to be something where it doesn’t put the city in too much debt. So we’ll look at that and see what it is and get an answer back and see what we’re going to do.”

Let’s not look askance at the job growth and economic impact created by the MPEV. The consultant that made the report to the City Council, Brailsford and Dunleavy, projects an estimated 341 permanent jobs associated with the MPEV and about $25 million pumped annually into the Amarillo economy.

Does the city issue certificates of obligation? Does it submit a bond issue to the voters, asking residents to approve it? Are there economic development grant funds available for the city to seek?

LGC officials and City Council members have committed to proceeding with exploring this issue thoroughly.

Count me as one Amarillo resident who maintains an abiding faith that the MPEV — even with its inflated cost — can bring a much greater economic return to the community than what it is likely to spend.

 

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Time for LGC, council to move forward

MPEV

An interesting tidbit has come from Tolk Persons, a supporter of Amarillo’s proposed multipurpose venue/ballpark.

He writes in response to another social media post: “The LGC shall provide project status reports to the City Council monthly or as requested by the Council,” citing Section 2 (D) of the resolution that the council endorsed at its regular meeting.

The Amarillo City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to proceed with development of the MPEV as dictated by the results of the Nov. 3 municipal referendum. It handed off the implementing of city downtown redevelopment policy to its appointed Local Government Corporation.

It did not abandon its oversight of the effort to revive downtown. It has made sure that the LGC keeps the city — meaning the public informed along the way as it proceeds with the $32 million (give or take) MPEV.

There will be public accountability built into this process. The LGC, which comprise some new members — some of whom had opposed the MPEV as it was designed — is now on the hook to do the City Council’s bidding.

Of course, the council — which also comprises a majority that opposed the MPEV — should be held accountable for its own actions.

If the council is going to keep faith with what the majority of voters said they want — which is to build the MPEV and keep the momentum going for downtown’s redevelopment — then it must ensure that the project keeps moving forward.

If the LGC drags its feet, the council must insist that it stop doing so.

 

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MPEV drama might just be getting started

ballpark

It had been my hope that a citywide election that decided the fate of a multipurpose event venue would draw the curtain down on the drama that preceded it.

Silly me.

I’m hearing some street talk that the “fun” is just beginning.

On Nov. 3, voters approved a non-binding referendum that called for construction of the MPEV, which includes a ballpark, at an estimated cost of $32 million.

A majority of City Council members sent the issue to the ballot hoping — I am certain — that voters would reject it. Well, they didn’t.

So, will the council march ahead and follow the will of the majority that spoke in favor of this project?

Quite possibly … not in the near future.

The Local Government Corporation — which is tasked with implementing city policy regarding downtown initiatives — has a new lineup. Most of the LGC comprises individuals who are aligned with the council majority; one of the new LGC members happens to be City Councilman Randy Burkett, who’s arguably the most vocal anti-MPEV spokesman on that body.

Complicating the issue is the absence of three critical senior city administrator who should be playing a key advisory role in counseling the council and the LGC. City Manager Jarrett Atkinson soon will be gone; the assistant city manager’s office has been vacant since the retirement of Vicky Covey; City Attorney Marcus Norris quit and now is working for a large private law firm in Amarillo.

Who’s on board to advise the council and the LGC? Who is there to prepare requests for proposals to demolish the old Coke distribution center that sits on the property that eventually — maybe — will include the MPEV?

How is the city going to draft plans? And will those plans be completed by architects who can keep the costs somewhere near the price tag that voters approved earlier this month? Suppose the price tag comes in at, say, $50 million. Do the City Council and the LGC then say, “Dadgum, we can’t build it at that price”?

The city has made a tremendous emotional commitment to rebuilding, revamping and rehabilitating its downtown district. The effort — contrary to what critics have alleged — been done in a vacuum. The public has been brought along the entire way.

The individuals who comprise the City Council majority, though, sought to put the brakes on that effort with this referendum.

It is my fervent hope that the election we’ve just completed wasn’t a waste of time, effort and — oh yes — public money.

OK, so  the election didn’t produce a smashing mandate. However, it was enough of a mandate — meaning a clear majority of those who voted — to keep the process moving forward.

 

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Downtown revival journey takes unsettling turn

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amarillo downtown

It appears the debate over how Amarillo’s downtown revival proceeds has been joined fully.

Three new members of the City Council have made their preferences fairly clear: They dislike the multipurpose event venue concept in its current form. They want to put the MPEV to an advisory vote of the residents, believing most voters will agree with them.

Now the council majority has managed to stack the Local Government Corporation board with new members who agree with them.

The LGC board majority now appears to mirror the majority of council members who endorsed their joining the volunteer citizens board that has been front and center in many of the key decisions made regarding downtown revitalization.

I know full well that the May elections have consequences and that the new council members made their intentions clear during the council election campaign.

But you may count me as one individual who believes the new majority appears headed toward making a big mistake if it torpedoes the MPEV and does anything else that forestalls the development of a planned downtown convention hotel.

Look, I’m a believer in the democratic process. However, I sense a fairly deep division in this city over the scope of the downtown plan. The differences seem to center on the ballpark element included in the MPEV.

For me, the ballpark is a plus. Others see it as a minus.

Financing will come from hotel/motel tax revenue provided by those who come to Amarillo and spend time in our many lodging establishments. That’s a bad thing? Supporters say property tax rates won’t be affected. That, too, is a bad thing?

But the LGC — with one of the three new council members among its ranks — appears to look differently on all this.

OK, change has come — as promised. I get it.

I just believe deep down — and on the surface for everyone to see — that the change we’re about to witness won’t do our city any good.

I want desperately to be wrong.