Council wary of $2M Duke deal
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
Oct 19, 2006 : 10:19 pm ET
DURHAM -- City Council members are voicing qualms about a proposed deal with Duke University that promises the city $2 million, saying it looks like a quid pro quo that could set a bad precedent for future dealings with the school.
The complaints came during a Thursday work session from members Thomas Stith and Diane Catotti, who said they're worried about how the promised donation -- and what the city might do in return -- will be perceived by Durham residents.
Stith was bothered by the fact that Duke would hand over only $500,000 of the money up front, with the rest coming after city officials approve the university's plans for reconfiguring a stretch of Anderson Street so it looks and performs more like an on-campus road.
He and Catotti also said there's a timing problem because the donation -- the prospective capper of the financing package for a proposed $44 million downtown performing arts center -- is being offered while Duke is trying to secure a rezoning of its 128-acre Central Campus tract.
"With all due respect, maybe it passed the legal smell test, but the common-sense smell test says we're heavily leveraged with this other million and a half," Stith said.
Catotti also made it clear that she's skeptical of Mayor Bill Bell's claims that the county government will backstop the performing arts center's financing if the city has to turn down the Anderson Street plan. She warned that if things go badly, the council may have to break promises made to voters by using property tax revenue to pay for the 2,800-seat theater.
"If we didn't work it out, and the county a year and half from now is floating a bond for schools or something, wouldn't we have to go somewhere else, for the equivalent of a penny on the tax rate, and didn't we promise the taxpayers that we wouldn't put general-fund revenue in?" she said "That was a line in the sand. Right now, I don't think the money is there."
Bell, however, stood by the deal he and senior city administrators hammered out with Duke President Richard Brodhead and his staff.
"This is what we're elected for, tough decisions in tough environments," he said. "You have to vote your conscience on this, in terms of where we are and what we're trying to accomplish. I've said to Brodhead [and other Duke officials], 'These are separate issues and nobody can guarantee anything.' What they've laid out in terms of Anderson Street seems to me reasonable -- independent of anything else."
Bell and City Attorney Henry Blinder also indicated that the proposed agreement is a compromise.
Blinder said that early on in the talks, he warned Duke officials that "the council and the city cannot be contracting away consideration of issues like zoning or street configuration," and that in response Duke suggested changes to the deal to make that clear.
"We're OK with the legal defensibility of this arrangement," Blinder added, using the collective pronoun to refer to the attorneys in his office. "Having said that, it's certainly a policy issue for the council, whether the council is comfortable accepting the donation."
Bell, meanwhile, said an early draft of the deal would have required city officials to give back part of Duke's money if they couldn't agree to the school's proposal for the road.
Thursday's discussion set the stage for a series of Nov. 6 council votes that would finally green-light the theater. The financing is the major remaining obstacle, as state regulators want assurances that the city can pay for the project before they approve the necessary borrowing,
Stith and Catotti laid out their qualms even as the proposed deal was beginning to draw criticism on some of the many e-mail lists that focus on city politics.
"This arrangement smells fishy," John Schelp, an activist in the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association who's been the group's point man on the Central Campus rezoning, said in one such posting. "Taxpayers deserve a full explanation."
Schelp added that he believes city lawyers are "not very pleased" with the deal.
Another critic, Chris Sevick, said that if citizens want the theater, the county will eventually step up and help fund it.
"I find it quite interesting that the council would vote to restrain its total objectivity on any issue," he said. "Even if the council members maintain that they will be objective in the future, this sure looks like a bribe. It would be best for the council not to create an appearance of impropriety, and reject this deal."
But the proposal does have defenders.
"Partnerships are almost always a two-way street," said Reyn Bowman, president of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Duke has played a mayor role in making nearly every major adaptive reuse project feasible -- Erwin Mills/Ninth Street, Brightleaf, American Tobacco [and] West Village to name only a few. We shouldn't ever take that for granted."
Bell offered a firm defense of the swap, saying it's been clear for a while that Duke would like to control the configuration and maintenance of the portion of Anderson Street that cuts through its property. The university is taking a risk of its own by putting $500,000 into the pot without strings, he added.
Duke officials have also made it clear that "they could care less" where the city spends the money, and understand that subsequent negotiations with city administrators and the council over Anderson Street might not work out, he said.
Bell also voiced confidence that the County Commissioners would step in if necessary, though "given the other things they have on their plate, that's going to be a far stretch."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-780231.html
* Why does Duke University, the largest employer in the county and the one that pays most of this town's bills, one way or another, continue to let Mayor Bell and his cronies on the Committee, push it around?
Why is Brodhead so afraid of Mayor Bell?
City OKs firms for work 'bundles'
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
Oct 19, 2006 : 10:29 pm ET
DURHAM -- A unanimous City Council voted Thursday to authorize officials to hire three construction-management firms to oversee almost $58 million of work financed by voter-approved bonds and other sources of capital. -jump--
The mayor also complained Thursday about the apparent schedule slippage of one project, the Walltown Park Recreation Center. The project was supposed to take 18 months to design, but the most recent timetable from city administrators says it could take up to 24 months.
The design work for the center is being handled by local architect George Williams, a former Durham County manager and the brother-in-law of City Councilman Howard Clement. The council hired Williams for the job last year, going against the advice of administrators who urged giving the job to a Charlotte firm they felt had more experience.
Council members said at the time they wanted to give the job to a local firm. Williams was also the favorite of Walltown residents, and his firm had designed projects for Bell's employer, the UDI Community Development Corp. -cut-
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-780239.html
* Mayor William Bell, Durham's version of Fidel Castro. He seems awful eager for a lacrosse trial.
I recall a line from a movie I saw once, "'The Godfather'? Why, 'The Godfather' is the i-ching." So, why do I see Nifong being appointed DA by someone saying, "One day, I will ask you for a favor."?
This is strange. It's not like Duke has never given money to Durham. $2mm here (Anderson Street), $2mm there (proposed Events Theater - for which Durham wanted $8mm more). Is the recent "crackdown" on Dukies because Duke refused to continue the $300k/year contribution (see my 5/14/06 post)? Clearly, DPD has someone willing to profile Dukies (Gottlieb). So, is this all just a shakedown - but not by CGM? Durham's funds missed Duke's annual contribution? Or should I say, contributions? It does appear that the more Duke gives, the more Durham wants. Mayor Bell saw a way to get to Duke. I think I mentioned this word before: payback.