TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! BEHIND THE SCENES: KANSAS CITY COUNCIL SMACKS DOWN MAYOR SLY NO BID BURNS & MAC DEAL!!!
Last night we blogged the important delay of a corrupt no-bid airport deal that would've handed over BILLIONS worth of local revenue to an international corporation headquartered in Kansas City without any competition.
Now, let's go just a bit deeper . . .
First and foremost . . . Locals who really want to delve into the latest developments should check out the write-up from Councilman Lucas that's sure to put all but the most dedicated law student to sleep.
The most important note: Council-Led Retention of Outside Legal Counsel to Evaluate Airport Plan
A Council majority strongly prefers an open, competitive, and non-rushed process for interviewing outside counsel that would typically take weeks or months. The majority of Council also understands, however, that we must retain experienced and uniquely capable advisors immediately given the City Manager’s recommendation that we review in less than one month his proposal that binds the City and the flying public for over three decades, has a ten-figure cost, and for which the City did not conduct a competitive bidding process, despite prevailing industry practice.
Now . . .
CHECK OUR EXCLUSIVE QUICK LIST OF BEHIND THE SCENES ARGUMENTS THAT WILL INFLUENCE THE DEBATE GOING FORWARD!!!
- Prevailing Wage
Union workers supporting this idea overlooked a critical mistake in their rhetoric . . . While eager to be used as props, they forgot about a hot button Missouri issue to help ensure appropriate compensation for workers . . . Probably because most of them were from JoCo like the suits @ Burns & Mac.
- Minority Participation
Council Lady Alissia Canady raised this issue and challenged Burns & Mac on their low-ball promises for participation which took the suits by surprise. Going forward, Burns & Mac and the Mayor will have to do better than vague promise of inclusion to try and win support.
- Local Control
Council ladies Teresa Loar and Heather Hall seem to be the strongest advocates of taxpayer protection on the airport issue where privatization threatens to leave Kansas City on the losing end of a deal that sounds (and is) too good to be true.
Best of all . . .
THE EFFORT TO PUT POLSINELLI IN CHARGE OF THE LEGAL REVIEW PROCESS WAS SMACKED DOWN!!!
When this victory for a united Council came down . . . Insiders tell us that the Mayor hit the panic button and surprisingly decided to vote with the majority in order to quickly stop his losing streak.
To be fair in the aftermath of the win, proponents of the new airport have already started complaining about the cost of the legal review and the possibility of a bidding process . . . Typically, consultants aren't big on other people getting a cut of their commission.
And so . . .
COUNCIL HITTING THE BRAKES ON THIS CORRUPT PLAN IS A WIN FOR KANSAS CITY VOTERS AS MAYOR SLY'S BIG NO-BID POWER PLAY CRASHED AND BURNED!!!
Still . . . There's a long journey ahead . . .
And for the second time, the roll-out of a new airport proposal has gone down in flames with the hopeful corporate sales pitch, the charm of Council Lady Jolie Justus and Mayor Sly and even a grand pie-in-the-sky corporate no cost promise was still unable to lift the single-terminal scheme off the ground.
Developing . . .
Honestly, I think Jolie's hat stunt was a mistake. She meant it to be funny and poke fun at Trump. It did that but now with this deal it almost makes her look like part of the same kind of corruption and behind the scenes dealing. She probably didn't know it at the time but Sly has a lot more in common with the president than most people realize.
ReplyDeleteJolie is a muffduving lesbian.
DeleteYes, Jolie is a lesbian and eats pussy. So what? That doesn't mean she can't be a good council member.
DeleteThe council wont side with Sly until they get paid off too
ReplyDelete$500,000 out the window just so we can give the same contract to Burns & McDonnell next year.
ReplyDelete@6:57 - Good point about the council! Everybody has to get their piece of the pie. But why didn't Sly know that going in? Or was he being too greedy and wanting to eat the pie all by himself?
ReplyDeletePigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. Sly is a hog, wants the whole payoff for himself.
DeleteMost citizens are to busy eating, sleeping, and seeking amusement to notice all this shit going on.
ReplyDeleteKC dummocrats in the end will do what the Mayor and city council want. Look at the GO bonds and the never ending sales taxes. They are never responsible.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lot of folks commenting on this story have already given up on fighting the giveaway to B&M. Probably true, but we have to keep slugging it out and making a big stink so this type of deal doesn't become the norm for the City. Thanks to our Council members who have the guts to stand up and say, "wait a minute".
ReplyDeleteJustus just keeps losing and losing every single time, and after she stupidly makes some big public announcement about what SHE'S going to do.
ReplyDeleteThe one-year Anti-Crime Group was such a waste of time and bust that nearly half the members stopped coming to the meetings. And their "recommendations" were laughable.
Now her prominence with the airport terminal fiasco makes her look like an uninformed hack way more than willing to do whatever Sly tells her to do.
And all this from someone who supposedly had some "political experience" from serving in the Missouri legislature.
How about some independence, serious understanding of issues, and, most importantly, representing the public.
You know; like do your job.
this is wrong according to what the local newspaper article said.
ReplyDeleteit states that the law firms were hired to NEGOTIATE the BM deal. lawyers from the law firms are quoted saying they look forward to working the deal out.
hence, the whole BM deal is just of matter of putting it on paper.
leg·er·de·main
ReplyDeleteˈlejərdəˌmān/
noun
skillful use of one's hands when performing conjuring tricks.
synonyms: sleight of hand, conjuring, magic, wizardry; More
deception; trickery.
synonyms: trickery, cunning, artfulness, craftiness, chicanery, skulduggery, deceit, deception, artifice
"a piece of management legerdemain"
hadn't realized how lame the council is until they were rolled with this.
ReplyDeletejust not serious.
Burns and McDonnell screwed up the Brush Creek Project......how can we trust them to design an airport?
ReplyDeleteDoes this new airport plan include a gay bath hose and separate gender neutral bathrooms? If not the whole thing is discriminatory and the snow flakes need to protest.
ReplyDeleteWe need a new Airport for the Gayborhood!
ReplyDeleteTKC, please check the headline on this post. It seems at odds with the Star's report that the two law firms are looking forward to working out the details of the deal, meaning it's moving fast.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Star:
ReplyDeleteHe said they were deemed to have special expertise after he and his colleagues talked to many Kansas City law firms. He added that the lawyers will have an incentive to try to make the deal work for the city and not to have it fail.
“Nobody wants to be the transactional lawyer who comes in and destroys a deal largely that the city wants,” Lucas said. But he also said they’re expected to give the council objective and wise advice on crafting the best deal possible, “so we can give the public an independent voice for review.”
THIS IS A DONE DEAL, with only some points and the details to be negotiated.
Other engineering firms stupidly thought that Kansas City would follow normal, rigorous procedures on a billion-dollar project.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Star:
Afterward, [James] said any other company could have brought an innovative approach to the city, but Burns & McDonnell was the company that did so.
“We were sitting there, and they called us and said, ‘We’ve got an idea.’ Why didn’t somebody else step up with the idea?” James asked. “This is an idea in the making, and it’s an idea that has great benefits to the city.”
Uh huh, that engineering firm's eager beavers made their way to the noon newscast on Fox4 today. Mike Brown, prez of B M International, told newsie Newsome that this local firm is dedicated to the progress of KC. He assures a billion bucks is being brought by 'BigMac' to make the magic happen. A few more quips were inserted about the airport being "the front door to the city" and "KC will want to put a good welcome" to visitors and travellers. "Front door to the city" got two mentions, like KC needs to dress to impress while really big risky debt loads and risen crime rates get no mention. TooT! LooT! Freeeeee rides, y'all!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete2:02 Good point, folks get off the the plane only to see huge holes in the streets cracked and broken curbs, no painted lines, water bubbling up from broken water lines, drunken beggars lying around on the steps in the Crown Center and Plaza area (thanks to the ACLU) and their B.S. and when the debt load hits there will be a lot of empty bank owned houses, just like the empty Plaza buildings.
Only the supporters want you to think this is a done deal. That is a lie. Why should we give this company a no bid option?
ReplyDeleteSo a deal where the Airlines paid for it and guaranteed bonds wasn't good enough. Now where a private company wants to pay for it, it's still not good enough? And why is Husch any better than Polsinelli? They're both big KC firms, and will cost about the same? Some people just need something to complain about. A lot of them evidently post here.
ReplyDeleteAirlines don't pay for anything, those who use the airlines will pay. But if ticket prices rise too high and the airlines can't make money then who pays? Do you think the city would let the airport default on the bonds? Think B & M will guarantee the bonds?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that, with B&M there are no bonds. Am I wrong on that? You're right that ticket prices would have gone up a few bucks per ticket. But that gets spread around, affects largely business travelers and even a fair amount of people from out of town. KC needs a new airport. I've lived in a lot of cities. I've never lived in one that is so opposed to change and progress. KC shoots itself in the foot over and over again. No wonder it's growing so much slower than all of it's peer cities.
ReplyDelete3:21 is right.
ReplyDeletethe airport is too essential to the city for it not to be bailed out if it ever got in trouble.
for that reason, taxpayers are always on the hook.
it's similar to taxpayers bailing out too-big-too-fail banks. they did it because they had to for practical reasons, not legal reasons.
saying some deal has no risk taxpayers is disingenuous.
it's is not a possessive.
ReplyDeleteIf we don't build a new terminal, the existing terminals will require MAJOR renovations soon. Taxpayers are guaranteed to be paying for that. So take your pick. People around here just hate change. And they hate big ideas.
ReplyDelete^^^^^IDIOT^^^^^^^ Taxpayers will pay for it all. We don't need a new terminal.
ReplyDeleteCity admitted that there was risk in the previous "airlines pay for it" BS because they said this deal "removes the risk" of the last one.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the price just went up to 2.5 billion to cover said risk.
This project just keeps getting worse. These guys never learn that we are onto their game. They will NEVER let it go to a vote of the citizens because they know the proposal would go down to crashing defeat. But that really wouldn't matter anyway. They are dedicated full time to spending everybody else's money, and they are relentless.
ReplyDeleteSave KCI!
ReplyDelete(But, yes, do update it for a few tens of millions.)
A public interest law firm should file suit to force an open, rigorous bidding process.
ReplyDeleteGive me 100,000,000.00 and get out of the way. Will be done in a year. City hall doesn't want that. The crock/scam is on.
ReplyDelete