While the Glory House and the Board of Directors may be happy with the deal the city cut with them, I for one am not. It’s another example of the mayor’s bullying, not only with the Glory House but the council to get his way;
“A great team of leaders from the administration worked hard to meet the needs Glory House has for expansion but also find some common ground, which will end up as a big win for the taxpayers, too,†said Heather Hitterdal, communication specialist at City Hall.
Under the deal, Glory House will pay $50,000 and in return receive about half of the land the city owns there now. The rest will be sold at auction.
How much that will rake in for the city won’t be known until it’s sold, but market value puts it in the neighborhood about $300,000 or more.
The public ALREADY WON before the deal was struck. I would even argue that the deal is worse for taxpayers because it doesn’t leave room for expansion of the GH. It costs taxpayers $54 a day to incarcerate someone in state prison, about $20K a year. If you keep just 3 people out of prison for one year, you already made your money back, and heck, if you keep those same 3 people out of prison for 5 years, you have paid for the entire plot of land.
How many people has the tennis center kept out of prison? Or better yet, what VALUE has the tennis center gave us? Will we ever recoup the $500K we dumped into this facility? A facility I hear can barely keep it’s doors open especially after the dust up with Cindy Huether and the SFTA.
See unlike the Tennis Center that uses the funny math of ‘quality of life’ the Glory House can actually show REAL numbers of what keeping ex-cons out of prison saves taxpayers. The $50K price-tag was an amount to soothe the Mayor’s MONSTER ego more then anything.
“I think it’s a win-win-win all around. It’s a way in which we can help the Glory House and do the right thing but we can also protect the taxpayer dollar and get some revenue out of a piece of the land,†he said. “I applaud the administration for coming around in the spirit of compromise and coming up with something that everybody can live with.â€
And once again, the mayor can’t keep his nose out of where it doesn’t belong, the council’s business. This ‘deal’ was initiated by the council, and should have been finished by them.
First comment ever on here but a long time reader. Did I miss something about Cindy and the SFTA. That sounds interesting where can I learn more.
Huether is a monster. This was a chance for the city to provide a minimal social service. They do nothing for the less fortunate other than round up the homeless and jail them at county expense. Huether builds extravagant hundred million fortresses to entertain the rich and provide cushy offices for city employee managers. What’s 300k when he could have trained sorely needed workers who would become productive taxpayers.
I said it before and I’ll say it again…somebody needs to ask Mr. Johnson just how much of an ownership and/or equity stake will he have in this new project. We are supporting this project already through the taxpayer funds that are paying the contractual rates for the individuals. I very rarely agree with the Mayor, but this is one case where I think he is right and the city and as taxpayers, we should have received more for this property than the pittance that the Glory House paid.
What a horrible mayor. I totally agree that the deal should be finished by the council because they are the one initiated it.