When the Joplin City Council made its first aborted attempt to fire City Manager Mark Rohr, the people of Joplin- at least those who sent their comments to the
Joplin Globe and other local media- seemed to be of almost one mind.
They wanted the council members who dared oppose Rohr to be strung up and they were not too happy with that Texas firm, Wallace-Bajjali, that the council brought in to be the master developer for the tornado-stricken area of the city.
Bringing in Wallace-Bajjali or any other master developer was the furthest thing from the City Council's mind in the days following the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado. The idea came from Rohr, who was fired this morning by the Joplin City Council following a marathon closed session. and the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team (CART).
When David Wallace of Wallace-Bajjali first came to Joplin is a matter that has not exactly been pinned down with some saying he was here even before the tornado. One thing is for certain- Wallace was in the city right after the tornado and was already working with Rohr and those involved with CART.
A profile by the investigative online magazine STRY noted the following:
There’s no clear answer as to when Wallace Bajjali formally came into the picture. Rohr says David Wallace was looking at construction projects in Joplin in the days before the storm. (CART Chairman Jane) Cage remembers Wallace showing up at meetings in the weeks after the tornado.
What is certain is that Wallace started talking about a formal partnership long before Joplin was ready to take action.
It was David Wallace, a developer, who pushed the idea that the city of Joplin should hire a developer and he had a ready partner in Rohr, who not only vouched for the Texas businessman, but also steered the City Council past Wallace-Bajjali's troubled history,which includes, as the Turner Report was the first area media outlet to note, involvement in two bankruptcies and a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation that led to Wallace and his partner, Costa Bajjali, both agreeing to pay $60,000 fines, though they insisted that other people were at fault.
The STRY article noted how Rohr steered the Joplin City Council past any concerns members might have had about Wallace-Bajjali:
Rohr says he personally investigated the matters. He says he’s spoken to multiple officials in Amarillo about Wallace. When asked by council members about the SEC fines, Rohr says: “I described David as being a very trusting person. And in some of his business dealings, he got involved with people that, in retrospect, didn’t warrant that trust.”
The article also notes that though six companies submitted proposals for developing the tornado-stricken area of Joplin, Rohr provided far more favorable information about Wallace-Bajjali than the rest of the developers combined:
In April, city councilman Benjamin Rosenberg publicly criticized Rohr for not disclosing more information about the five other applicants. At that meeting, according to a Joplin Globe report, Rohr told council members that he would stake his reputation on Wallace’s company.
It isn't an accident that this crooked firm was in Joplin. Birds of a feather flock together, as the old saying goes, and so you have Rohr and Wallace. It's been some time since the grand plan was unveiled, yet not one clod of soil has been turned yet. But is anyone watching to see if the money is all still there? I hope the city is doing a better job of monitoring its funds than the district did.
ReplyDeleteBirds of a feather.City manager and some of the council. Huff and Besendorfer and some of the board. Buzzards.
Disabuse me of the observation that none of these music men were investors. That in reality they were only percentage takers doing deals with other peoples money and skimming their percentages from every transaction everywhere they could.
ReplyDeleteThe powers that enable these schemes by either knowing assent or sycophantic ignorance are SHOCKED that something like this has been going on in Joplin.
I interviewed with this city back in 2012 and something did not seem right at the time, since then I have come to ascertain that the city manager was evidently the root of what I observed thru department heads glad I am not there
ReplyDeleteAll crooks say the same thing when they get caught, It was someone else's fault. I know nothing. I was only following orders.
ReplyDeletewhen rohr was hired in 2004 the globe quoted one of his staff from Piqua Ohio stating that rohrs management style was the same as Atilla the Hun. That comment says it all.
ReplyDeleteDraconian Dictator was another phrase used in same story.
ReplyDeleteRohr deserves everthing he gets. He has never hesitated to destroy good people if it worked to his advantage. He has a huge ego and blames everyone else for his own failures and flaws. Joplin will be better without him.
ReplyDelete