I guess when the mayor wants to plaster his name all over a publicly subsidized building, he has ‘TIME’ to show up to an ethics hearing. (IMAGE: J.L. Atyeo â€@ArgusAtyeo Twitter)
As I have said in the past, just because something may be ‘legal’ it doesn’t make it ‘ethical’.
MMM is testing the waters with a possible donation to the indoor tennis facility (since his wife was unsuccessful in getting CVB BID money).
I think it is fantastic that Mike’s (tax write-off) family charitable foundation is going to possibly give money to the facility, in fact I have often said the entire facility should be privately funded, and the half-million of my tax dollars going to a place that 99.5% of us will never use is a waste.
But that ship sailed right through the rubber stamp council. Here is the tricky question, if he does give the money, and I hope he does, should he be allowed to put his name on the facility?
Ego and arrogance aside, what kind of precedent would we be setting letting a sitting elected official do something like this? If no public money was involved, I wouldn’t care (Huether already has his name on the tennis center at Augustana) but it is hardly humble making a donation, then turning around and asking your name to be plastered on the building. But hey, he learned from the best. I wonder if they will also have a bronze statue of Mike outside the tennis center?
UPDATE: I see the ass-backwards ethics commission and city attorney (appointed by the mayor) gave their rubber stamp approval to the donation, and naming rights. You can’t tell me this hasn’t been in the works for a long time. The meeting with the ethics commission was at 10:30 this morning and already at 12:30 the details of the donation and naming rights have been released.
I hope someone on the city council has the sack to have the public money revoked from the facility and make it strictly a private facility.