A Productive Night for Boss Godfrey Cronies

Last night's council/RDA action, as reported by the Standard-Examiner

The Standard Examiner reports this morning that Boss Godfrey scored a clean sweep at last night's RDA session, wherein the RDA board unanimously approved all three agenda items announced in yesterday's Scott Schwebke article:

1) Waiver of an RDA right of first refusal for a one-acre Junction project parcel at 22nd and Grant, clearing the way for acquisition and development of the property by BDO manager Stuart Reid;
2) Commitment of another $1.1 million in tax increment to Mel Kemp's MTK Holdings, to be applied toward improvements the the 91,000 square foot building housing Adam Aircraft;
3) Authorization for issuance of up to $3.5 million in revenue bonds, to allow U.S. Foodservice to purchase about 37 acres from Councilman Safsten's employer, Autoliv Inc.

Maybe it's just us, but we wonder whether it isn't just a bit inelegant for Emerald City's BDO manager, Mr. Reid, to be involving himself personally in property development at The Junction. Whether this proposed property acquisition represents at least a potential conflict with his contractual obligations at BDO we can only speculate. However, this situation has a bad smell to it, we think.

As for the RDA Board's approval of the commitment of additional credit to Mr. Kemp, we note that this is at least the second time Emerald City has come to his rescue. Emerald City generously awarded Mel Kemp's consortium over $2 million tax increment just two and a half years ago to bail him out financially. We wonder why Mr. Kemp can't obtain his own private financing.

Regarding the $3.5 million bonding for the Autoliv property sale, we are gratified to learn that Mr. Safsten recused himself from the Autoliv/Foodservice transaction funding vote. A more direct potential conflict of interest scenario we cannot imagine, than the employee of the seller in a land transaction voting as a public official on the bonding intended to provide the actual funding . Our compliments to Mr. Safsten, for conducting himself in a manner demonstrating the highest possible ethical standards, and placing himself beyond reproach.

In another Std-Ex story, we learn that the Emerald City Council has cobbled together a $43.2 million "wish list," identifying capital improvement projects to be prioritized over the next five years. Among the projects approved in concept only during last night's council session (no actual funds were committed,) were various street, sidewalk and building repairs, together with improvements at the FrontRunner station. Noticeably absent from from the council list are improvements to the city's woefully dilapidated water and sewer systems, which bodes well for sellers of bottled water in the city's East Bench area, we suppose.

Have at it, gentle readers.

The floor is open.