Wednesday, January 28, 2015

C. J. Huff: Wallace-Bajjali left school district in bad shape

The Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting began last night with a presentation by Superintendent C. J. Huff about the damage the departure of Wallace-Bajjali Development Partners is going to do since David Wallace did not live up to his promise to pay $13 million to the district, part of the agreement that was reached to end district opposition to the super TIF zone.

In the accompanying report by KOAM's Lisa Olliges, Huff talks about the possibility of a lawsuit, though in last night's meeting, it sounded as if the school district and the city will work together on whatever action is taken.
KOAM TV 7
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:06 AM

    I don't have sympathy for him personally because he endorsed the TIF and went along with it. It's not like anyone misled him about the potential risks of something like that, because they were there all along. He took a gamble, and he lost, and now the children of the district have to pay as a result of his consistent lack of foresight and insight.

    The second part of this is: Look how eager he was to jump on the bandwagon and draw attention to how Wallace-Bajjali has hurt the school district. Usually he tries to avoid any and all negative publicity about the school district's financial situation. This is Huff being political and trying to save face. The more public attention he can draw to Wallace-Bajjali, the more he can shift blame onto them. Again, this is Huff trying to control the message and putting himself first. This is always his motivation in everything.

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  2. Anonymous6:24 AM

    Much as I hate to possibly defend Huff, I repeat an observation made in a previous topic's comments: did he have much choice in the matter?

    As I understand this, based on the iffy Globe article, there was and is serious money in play, $4.5 million in "costs" for the bond issue, leaving $13.5 million to be doled out in what is inevitably a political process. With of course the remaining costs to be spread out over 20-25 years (borrow, spend, and elect!).

    I might ask what fool would believe a promise from Wallace-Bajjali that they'd be paid a lump sum of $13 million so early in the process (from the Globe article) ... but it occurs to me this is awfully convenient for Huff. Besides not rocking the boat when the TIF was set up, he and the school board can claim their current and no doubt soon to be much worse financial problems are due to the city and Wallace-Bajjali, not their wild spending.

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  3. Anonymous7:41 AM

    Greed, mismanagement of FEMA funds, fraudulent FEMA claims, falsifying documents inside the school district (bright futures & attendance among others), falsification of personal tax documents, being on the CART/JPAC and other community boards that he didn't belong on... Huff is going to the Federal penitentiary.

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  4. Anonymous7:59 AM

    I just see this as Huff taking the opportunity to lay the blame for anything that happens at the feet of WB. He can now leave town and say it was not him but the city's Master Developer that bankrupted the schools.

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  5. Anonymous8:09 AM

    Perhaps if Huff and Co had not spent every single dime they could have taken this setback a little better. As it is, they have nothing to fall back on. That's why we are in bad shape. Too much spending, too much borrowing, and too much wishful thinking. Idiots. And he got another year and more money for this kind of management? Unbelievable.

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