The only real difference in the video is that in Chicago the elected city council acts as the Urban Renewal Authority board, while in Arvada the deals are made by an unelected, unaccountable Board of Commissioners (to which Marc Williams as mayor has appointed himself twice and has appointed all the members, including his 2015 election campaign co-chair).
Make no mistake, a sales and property tax TIF — like the 100% TIF being proposed for the $30 Land Deal Trammell Crow project — is essentially deficit spending by the city government: it gives-away/spends money it doesn’t have now (and may never get) without a vote of the people. Furthermore, in this case it is deficit spending for the purpose of benefiting a private, for-profit corporation. [See: South Metro Fire Rescue sues Parker’s urban renewal authority; and Colorado Revised Statutes § 31-25-107 (9)(a)II]
Old fashioned Chicago-style politics and government in Arvada.
Yet not one Arvada city council member
will take a stand against this outrageous fiscal irresponsibility.
City 'powers' are going to insist that you give-up because it is a done deal -- making this declaration is an old trick used by those in authority to make you dispirited and to dissuade you from bothering them.
But ...
First, an email from at-large city council member Don Allard:
"It is not a done deal until a development plan is presented to planning commission and then a recommendation from them to Council and then action by Council. But first the developer must make application--which has not been done. City web site has agendas for both Planning commission and Council each week.”
Second, neither the RTD Park-n-Ride property nor the publicly-owned city government land have been conveyed to the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA): there hasn’t been any final sale to Trammell Crow.
Third, if a majority of city council finds the political will and courage, this is still their call as our elected representatives and as the governing authority in Arvada. Or does an unelected board of the Urban Renewal Authority really have the final say?
The AURA board consists of Marc Williams, who as mayor has appointed himself twice, and who has appointed all of the other board members including his 2015 campaign co-chair.
Fourth, if the project comes before the council in its current form as a Preliminary Development Plan (PDP), there are serious questions and concerns about its compliance with city planning codes and design guidelines.
* * *
Remember, this plan comes from the same city government that asked to raise Arvada's sales tax at last November's election because fiscal irresponsibility has meant not enough revenue to adequately fix and maintain our streets.
Let the free market work! The land could be put on the market and the Millions of Dollars used to fix and maintain our streets!
Political lecture from Arvada's mayor, Marc Williams.
Summed up: Know your place ... 'We' know what is best for you.
It was Wednesday, May 3, 2017, at the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority Board of Commissioners public meeting. Williams is a member of this board because he appointed himself ... and all the other members, including his 2015 mayoral campaign co-chair.
Concerned Arvada citizens were in attendance at this AURA meeting because they were told by a 'planning department' staff member at the April 27 Trammell Crow neighborhood gathering that if there were questions about the businessl aspects of the $30 land deal and tax give-away the place to go for answers was the next Urban Renewal meeting.
After a few brief questions were responded to by AURA executive director and non-Arvada resident, Maureen Phair, here is what the attending citizens were subjected to by Commissioner Williams:
Arvada Urban Renewal Authority, Board of Commissioners Meeting Wednesday, May 3, 2017 - voice of Marc Williams, excerpted:
Know your place.
In spite of what Williams is arguing, asking questions is not debate ... questions are how we find out what our government is doing.
A 3 minute 'Public Comment' at City Council or AURA is only talking at the local government, it is not dialogue, it is not a conversation, it is not informative to the citizenry.
"... we'll get back to you" is a dodge politicians and bureaucrats use to avoiding being on the public record; answers become a kind of private communication -- this is absolutely not 'public engagement' and gives the appearance that government answers to questions are a personal response not for all citizens.
This is important: Arvada Urban Renewal Authority does not hold public hearings, conduct question-and-answer forums, or provide any avenue for public dialogue on the multimillion dollar deals and projects it puts together mostly in secret 'executive sessions'. The only place and time for citizens and taxpayers to get public answers to legitimate questions is at the regular AURA board meeting.
'We' know what is best for you.
Maybe it's being in government for years and years and years -- Williams has been on the Arvada city council for 18 years; there are AURA board members who have been in those positions for a decade or more. It sure looks like when some of these folks start making deals with other people's money, namely the taxpayer's dollars, common sense and principles of free enterprise seem to fade away.
To point ... a "successful" investment that provides no tangible return? The Trammell Crow deal gives away sales and property tax to the developer for 17 years -- no return on the government's 'investment' -- no tax dollars going to the City's general fund to pay for streets, parks, snow removal, etc.
The main 'improvement' for the Trammell Crow project is a tenants-only parking garage built into the side of the Grandview Avenue hill. Yet this is being sold as a public infrastructure improvement by Arvada Urban Renewal ... why is the board and executive director of AURA acting for the benefit of the developer? Have they forgotten about us, the taxpayers, the users of Wadsworth Bypass, the folks with the potholes and cracks in the streets in front of our houses?
Disturbing is Williams's concept of "our piece of the skin in the game" to describe government's deal with a for-profit development. If the free market, free enterprise system is allowed to work then private business doesn't need a "contribution" from taxpayers. What kind of a warped mentality has evolved at Arvada Urban Renewal that thinks they must have "skin in the game"?
Finally, the scolding of Arvada taxpayers for not voting to increase the city sales tax last November -- if these Urban Renewal projects had indeed been so "doggone successful" then maybe a unanimous City Council wouldn't have had to come the citizens asking for a sales tax hike to fund fixing and maintaining our streets.
Here is the truth: AURA and/or the city council "skin in the game" projects have not spurred revenue generating development because they have given away to the developers millions and millions of sales and property taxes for years and years into the future ...
$6 million to Walmart;
$7.2 million to Solana;
$4.1 million to Loftus - Arvada Square
$2.7 million to Park Place Olde Town;
$2.5 million to Conn's
All the lodging tax back to Hilton;
$2.5 million to King Soopers;
$500,000 to Harken Theater
$250,000 to Steuben's
$200,000 to Sherwin-Williams
Now all the sales and property tax back to Trammell Crow for 17 years
etc.
They have also virtually given away property:
$10 sale price for Park Place Olde Town land;
75% discount price to Hilton;
Now $30 sale price for property worth millions of dollars to Trammell Crow.
Arvada Urban Renewal Authority and City Hall are out of control -- politicians and bureaucrats have become so used to ladling out government gravy to select developers that now our city lacks resources to even maintain and fix the streets.
And ... with the Trammell Crow development they will further wreck what remains of the tradition, history, and special character of Olde Town.
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