Tag Archives: Local Government Corporation

local news, Sports news

Amarillo’s baseball future might get brighter

Paul Matney pitched hard for approval of a downtown ballpark, reciting his belief that Amarillo is, indeed, a “baseball town.”

The retired Amarillo College president walked the point for approval of the multipurpose event venue in a nonbinding municipal referendum in November 2015. Amarillo voters listened and approved the MPEV by a narrow margin.

Now the real hard part might be coming to a fruitful conclusion for the city. It well might come in the form of a signed agreement to bring a AA baseball franchise to Amarillo — on the provision that the city proceed with construction of the MPEV.

Or … we might be getting ahead of ourselves.

City Councilman Randy Burkett wears another hat as a member of the Local Government Corporation that’s seeking to negotiate a deal to bring a team that currently plays ball in San Antonio. He sent out a message that suggested that a deal might be struck by Feb. 1.

Not so fast, said Jerry Hodge, chairman of the LGC board. The deal won’t be done by then and Hodge — a former Amarillo mayor — said he is “ashamed” of Burkett for speaking prematurely.

I want to embrace the Matney view of Amarillo returning to its baseball roots. Its unaffiliated baseball team has abandoned this city, which used to be home to franchises affiliated with Major League Baseball teams. The AirHogs left because of the rotten condition of Potter County Memorial Stadium, the venue known formerly as the Dilla Villa.

There appears to be a complicated set of negotiations going on. San Antonio is trying to bring a AAA team to replace the AA team that is slated to move out. The AA San Antonio Missions have indicated a desire to move to Amarillo.

Meanwhile, the LGC is seeking to nail that down, at which point the city hopes to begin construction on the MPEV that Matney and others worked so hard to win voter approval more than a year ago.

Before we can see an organization signing up to play hardball in Amarillo, it appears there needs to be some procedural work done. It might have to start with reeling in a city councilman who is getting ahead of himself and the rest of the city’s negotiating team.

I want Amarillo to have minor-league baseball. I want it to land a team that will play ball in a shiny new ballpark downtown. I want Paul Matney’s vision to become a reality.

But first, let’s all get on the same page.

local news

MPEV, no MPEV … downtown must move forward

Amarillo_Texas_Downtown

An election is coming soon to Amarillo.

How will it turn out? I’m not going to venture a guess. It’s an advisory vote on whether the city should proceed with construction of a multipurpose event venue that at this moment includes an athletic component. Yes, it’s a ballpark.

Pro-MPEV interests contend that “momentum” is on their side.  I hope they’re right.

Anti-MPEV interests, though, suggest they have the Big Mo.

If voters say “no” to the MPEV as it’s currently configured, then the rest of the downtown Amarillo project could be put in jeopardy.

I do not want that to happen.

Pro-MPEV forces say that the Embassy Suites downtown convention hotel is going to open in 2017, no matter what. City leaders say as well that the inertia on that project is such that even a “no” vote on the MPEV won’t stop the hotel.

Again, I hope they’re right.

My gut is churning a bit these days, though, as I ponder the impact of a negative vote on Nov. 3.

That vote and the reconstituted Local Government Corporation board give me pause. A new LGC majority reflects the newly elected majority on the Amarillo City Council — and both majorities seem quite reluctant to proceed with downtown’s proposed future as it is currently configured.

If the MPEV vote gets stalled at the ballot box, will city planners be able — or willing — to cobble together a Plan B that allows the complete project to go forward?

I hope that can happen, too.

If not, then we’ve just wasted a lot of time, emotional and political capital and, oh yeah … money!

 

local news

City Council journey still a bit bumpy

ama city council

Looking at Amarillo City Hall from some distance — given that I’m no longer employed as a full-time print journalist — gives me some fresh perspective.

It also doesn’t diminish my own — or anyone else’s in a similar position — ability to discern dysfunction when I see it.

That’s what I’m seeing at City Hall these days. And, no, I don’t — as some have suggested on social media — have any skin in this game.

The City Council met this week to discuss the upcoming municipal budget and also to discuss how to fill three posts on the Local Government Corporation board.

The meeting got a bit heated, based on what I read about it.

Therein may lie the dysfunction that well could upend a lot of well-laid-out plans for the city’s future.

Ron Boyd, Richard Brown and Lilia Escajeda all cycled off the LGC board. I know two of them — Boyd and Escajeda — pretty well. Finding suitable successors apparently provided some significant friction among the newly constituted City Council.

Is this what we can expect on all matters that come before our city’s elected governing board?

It’s an interesting development that one of the three new members of the LGC is Councilman Randy Burkett, who took office in May and has suggested that he wants to derail the multipurpose event venue project planned for downtown. He voted to put the issue to an advisory vote in November and although I do not know Burkett I’d be willing to bet real American money that he’s going to vote “no” on whether to proceed with the MPEV as it’s been proposed for the city.

For the record — yet again! — I believe in the project that’s been presented.

Now he’s on the LGC board, which is up to its armpits in helping shape the course and the nature of downtown’s proposed redevelopment.

Two lawyers, Bryan Poff and Richard Biggs, have joined Burkett on the board. I’m only casually acquainted with those gentlemen. The council vote was 3-2, with Mayor Paul Harpole and Councilman Brian Eades voting “no” to change the LGC board.

And isn’t it interesting that Councilman Burkett was allowed to vote in favor of his own nomination to the board? Is that how it’s always been done?

I’m fearing more head-butting along the way as the City Council’s new majority tangles with the two veteran council members who managed to win re-election in May.

The council sits divided into two camps: those who liked the way things got done and those who vowed drastic “change” in the city’s modus operandi.

If the change is going to produce more bickering and back-biting just for its own sake, I’ll endorse the view expressed by Amarillo resident Cindi Bulla, who said: “Get over it. Work together and get the job done and get it done right.”

 

 

 

local news

Convention expert says: Your downtown plan won’t work

I’ve got to hand it to those who are seeking to promote a comprehensive effort to rebuild, remake and revive downtown Amarillo.

They are unafraid to hear contrary views.

They got quite a few of them Monday night when Heywood Sanders came to Amarillo to speak to them about plans to build a convention hotel downtown. Sanders, an expert on these matters, said it’s a waste of time, money and effort.

http://www.newschannel10.com/story/29645624/convention-center-expert-claims-downtown-convention-hotel-doesnt-work

Sanders spoke to the City Council, Downtown Amarillo Inc., and the Local Government Corporation. Two of those three entities have serious designs on pressing forward; the council, with its new majority, has been thrown into the “undecided” category, at least for now.

I believe it’s fair to pose a couple of thoughts about Professor Sanders’ visit.

One deals with how deeply he looked into the specifics of what’s being proposed for Amarillo. Was he relying chiefly on his extensive research into the general notion of convention centers. He’s written a book, “Convention Center Follies,” which I understand debunks the notion that convention hotels boost communities’ economy.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this visit centers on the organization that invited Professor Sanders. It came from the TEA Party Patriots of Amarillo. Readers of this blog know that I like to capitalize “TEA” as in TEA Party, because the letters comprise an acronym that stands for “taxed enough already.”

The TEA Party branches throughout the nation tend to stand strongly opposed to government-initiated or sponsored projects.

The three-pronged downtown project — the multipurpose event venue, the downtown hotel and the parking garage — is being billed as a private-enterprise endeavor. However, the government is involved, as the Amarillo EDC is providing incentives and the city intends to use hotel-motel tax to help maintain the MPEV and the downtown Embassy Suites hotel that’s being proposed.

Did the TEA Party hosts look for someone who’d back up their anti-government agenda?

I did not attend the meeting Monday night, so I won’t critique the specifics of what Professor Sanders said.

Still, it was instructive to hear from someone with knowledge of these things. I’m glad the various pro-downtown project principals were willing to hear what he had to say.

business news, local news

David Wallace: All hat and no cattle?

David Wallace talked a good game when he came to visit us at the newspaper.

I think it was around 2011. He was a partner in this high-dollar development company. He brought his game to Amarillo and pitched it to local civic, government and business leaders. He and his partner, Costa Bajjali, would be the “lead developers” in the city’s effort to rebuild, revive, renovate and resuscitate downtown Amarillo.

He persuaded many of us that he had the goods. He could make it happen. I recall quite vividly the crux of his statement — which I cannot quote verbatim today — that Wallace Bajjali was not in the business of failure. He didn’t make all that money, Wallace implied, by putting the screws to communities that hired him and his company.

Well, guess what? Wallace Bajjali is now history. The firm’s relationship with the city has gone kaput. The Local Government Corporation has declared the firm to be in default. Wallace and Bajjali have had a serious falling out. Wallace has disappeared. So has Bajjali. The city is left holding the bag, so to speak, on a parking garage it still intends to build — despite the absence of Wallace Bajjali as the can’t-miss master developer.

I read in the paper today that Richard Brown, the current president of the LGC, said everyone — including the media should have done a better job of vetting Wallace Bajjali. I guess Brown is trying to shed some of the responsibility for this mess-up by suggesting the media deserve some of the blame for getting entangled with this company.

But the city did lay out some dough. I understand it totals about $1 million. For that kind of money, I think the public deserves an explanation on what in the world happened to this one-time supposedly fail-safe partnership.

I know we can’t force Wallace or Bajjali to spill the beans on each other. But as a taxpayer and as a one-time member of the media who was sold a bogus bill of goods, I’d like some answers to what went so terribly wrong.