TKC EXCLUSIVE AND BREAKING NEWS!!! SHOWDOWN TODAY IN THE BIZ SESSION: MAYOR SLY VS. COUNCIL QUESTIONS ABOUT DICEY EXCLUSIVE CATERING CONTRACT FOR DOWNTOWN CONVENTION HOTEL!!!
The EXCLUSIVE catering contract proposed for the proposed Downtown Kansas City convention hotel is indefensible.
Yesterday our blog community was the FIRST to report PUSHBACK on the topic of the hotel from the city council.
Today talks get serious . . .
IT SEEMS THAT THE EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WILL ACTUALLY PRICE OUT AND CHASE MORE HOTEL BIZ AWAY FROM KANSAS CITY THAN IT WILL ATTRACT ACCORDING TO CITY HALL INSIDERS!!!
Here's EXCLUSIVE word of a the KC hotel turnabout from a KICK-ASS KANSAS CITY INSIDER:
"The vote will be CLOSE - 6 sure but need 8 for override. The argument against the petitions is flimsy and I find the signing of the contracts VERY surreptitious as to the timing of delivered petitions i.e. contracts signed right before the rest of the petition signatures turned in. Next big issue is convention hotel catering contract. Are we trying to kill small business and jobs in KC? That's what this will do. I'm opposed to a single-source caterer."
And so . . . Hundreds of millions of Kansas City taxpayer subsidy hangs in the balance as Mayor Sly's supporters argue that the public shouldn't have a say and visitors to the hotel shouldn't be able to pick their own catering service.
You decide . . .
Forget what the issues is, the council standing against the status quo is a good sign.
ReplyDeleteThe petitioners and the rest of these folks still thinking that they might have some input into this hotel deal are kidding themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe contracts have been signed, legally closing any chance the public will have any input.
And the catering contracts are part of the financial deal which won't work, except to require MORE tax money, if any part is changed.
This is the typical approach to eco devo projects that depend on screwing the taxpayers and scamming the electeds until it's too late and the reality of what they've gotten stuck with gives them that deer in the headlights look.
Why do you think the great effort was made to rush this through at the very end of the last council's tenure?
Thanks for playing.
11:30 I have not read the contract, and I am not sure that it is publicly available. But contracts are what you make them. There is very little doubt that an opt-out clause exists. See the Uber contract the city had. Now there very well could be a penalty for such an action, but if we were willing to pay this penalty, if only on principle to stop this deal. I have little doubt that we couldn't get out of the contract for the right price.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Most government contracts have a "termination for convenience" clause. There would be some penalties, but at this stage, there shouldn't be much cost to shut this down.
ReplyDeleteBurke might not know much about hotel development, but he is an eco devo attorney who certainly knows plenty about contract law associated with sticking it to the public for subsidies.
ReplyDeleteThe caterers and petitioners will never be able to bring enough pressure to bear on the council to make it overturn these decisions. The money and swells on the other side are just too well entrenched.
Elections have consequences and as long as KCMO surfaces candidates who are empty vessels uninterested in representing the public but enthused about doing the bidding of insiders and making believe their role is to use tax money to help people build things, this same routine will continue indefinitely.
Look at the mayoral and council candidates from the last three city elections. Is that the best possible from a population of 464,000?
Really?
Looking at the public officials, where does incompetence cross the line to criminality? The threshhold seems higher here than in other towns of similar size.
ReplyDeleteThis project isn't going to get done!
ReplyDeleteWord on the street is Hyatt is pulling out!
Lol ok
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