Puff Piece on Poops

Even though this interview was more like a grade school softball game, there were some interesting parts;

“We all thought when we got the vaccine in January that COVID was done and we were going to move on and it was going to be 2020 (that was) the year we wanted to forget, and 2021 has been more of the same,” TenHaken said.
“It’s almost like the year of deja vu.”

That’s because in order for the vaccine to work, you have to actually get it. Weird how science and medicine works. And when our fearless leader who promotes everything from gravy, dad jokes and mentorship pushes that job off on the private healthcare providers don’t be surprised when things don’t change.

“They’re not all law-abiding citizens,” TenHaken said. “So we doubled down on public safety initiatives, whether it’s the training center, opening a report-to-work location or adding staffing resources with a behavioral health community resource officer and our first six months of The Link, which indirectly is a public safety initiative because we’re trying to keep people out of jail who don’t need to be in jail but need other kinds of help.

Funny how Poops still can’t say the ‘P’ word (Precinct). He also doesn’t mention what he is doing about our homeless and panhandling issues, let me fill you in; NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he refuses to ask for the community’s help and engagement.

Downtown also is the site of what the mayor calls “one of my biggest personal disappointments of my first term.”
The unfinished multiuse parking ramp project along 10th Street east of Phillips Avenue has been tangled in a legal dispute between the city and developers since 2019.

The irony is that THIS Mayor and City Council had the power to cancel the project and the bonding (we would have had to pay a fine  . . . which is ironic;

“I want people to know we are laser-focused in trying to get to a resolution,” TenHaken said. “I wish we could talk about it more and talk about it publicly because I think people think we’re sitting on our hands waiting for something to happen, and we’re not. There’s not a week that goes by that we’re not engaged in some kind of activity trying to bring closure. In 2022, I’m confident there’s going to be significant action in that.”

It is ironic, because the rumor going around is that the DEVELOPER (not plural) has been telling people the city will be paying him off to go away, and they want to do it in complete silence without the assistance of the council. So why didn’t we just pay the fine initially on the bonds? Because the bonding companies (we only use basically one in the city and state) have complete control of our elected leaders instead of the other way around. Let’s just say they have many ‘tools in their toolbox’ to use against governments that don’t want to cooperate with the Godfather of Bonds and there was no way in Hell they were going let a $26 million dollar bond be taken off the table.

The ramp itself is cash-flowing, he added.
“We’re not losing money. It’s not costing a red cent to have it sit there like that.

We are actually losing out on property tax revenue, so in essence we are losing money and no doubt when the project gets handed over to another developer (which we all know who that will be) there will likely be tax incentives and a possible TIF, so we will again be losing more money. Besides the Railroad Redevelopment deal (which never got rid of a single train DT) the bunker ramp is a prime example of how poorly negotiated the deal was. Even though the public and other business people threw out multiple red flags over multiple years and administrations and councilors they still went full on. To this day NO elected official or city director involved has apologized for the colossal F’Up. I think they all should have resigned. When I hear certain folks tell me that government should run like a private business, I point to this mess DT and tell them, that is the result of such a foolish philosophy.