Wednesday, October 01, 2014

City, newspaper hiding fact that Wallace-Bajjali hasn't accomplished anything

I wouldn't blame anyone reading the headline for thinking I was talking about the Joplin City Council and the Joplin Globe in the headline, but Joplin is not the only place that has placed its confidence in Wallace-Bajjali, our city's master developer, and is still waiting to see results.

The Amarillo Independent, a blog written by George Schwarz, a former reporter for the Amarillo Globe-News, has been all over Wallace-Bajjali for the past four years and continued with a post today:

Look, the reality is that Wallace Bajjali has not delivered in years. The last project that they completed was a development in Sugarland; but, remember, David Wallace was mayor of that little Houston suburb, so no telling what kinds of things went on behind the scenes. The fact is that Wallace Bajjali hasn’t delivered a full project on its own in Kingswood, Joplin and Amarillo.

And, the City Commission/Council hasn’t done well, either. First, they promised the Globe-News Center would be privately funded and then taxpayers had to pony up $1.8 million. Then, as a poster on the Amarillo Globe-News website pointed out, the City Commission/Council promised no taxpayer dollars would be spent on this “public-private partnership,” but the city has spent millions, including almost $1 million in “pursuit” cost reimbursement to Wallace Bajjali. All the while, the city has cynically embarked on a disinformation campaign in alliance with the Amarillo Globe-News, which has an ongoing role as the city’s lapdog. And while not recognizing journalistic ethics if it bit the paper on the ass, the Amarillo Globe-News continues to pump out PR for the City Commission/Council while the daily rag’s publisher remains a member of the city’s Local Government Corp.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:04 PM

    Only can hope that the State Auditor uncovers the truth: that "the Music Man" has fleeced the hicks here. If we only watched the old classic movies, it would be so apparent that this is an example of life imitating art. Start singing "Right here in River City".

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  2. Anonymous5:54 AM

    Our Master Developer has indeed accomplished. He has accomplished putting 1.5 million dollars of city TIF zone money in his pocket. That sounds like a pretty good accomplishment to me. On that note, why doesn't anyone bother to mention that even with the ludicrous spending spree of Mr. Huff, the district would be in pretty good shape if all property taxes from re-building were going to the school instead of the city TIF. With what the city has paid Mr. Wallace thus far for nothing, the city could have funded the downtown alliance Third Thursday events among other things for the next 30 years. Way to go Joplin!

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