Monday, January 26, 2015

David Wallace: I quit; Joplin's master developer cuts and runs

The doubt has been removed from the status of Joplin master developer David Wallace.

Just like he has done so many times in the past- from various projects to an aborted run for former Congressman Tom DeLay's vacated seat, to his marriage of 30 years- Wallace is walking away from Wallace-Bajjali and its ongoing projects in Joplin and Amarillo, Texas.


Wallace announced  his resignation in a letter issued today. At this point, it appears Wallace did not send the letter to the city of Joplin since it is dated January 7. (Update: The city of Joplin received the letter today.)

The purpose of this letter is to inform you, that effective immediately, I hereby resign from any
and all capacity of officer, manager, director, advisor, consultant, agent, etc. for each of the
attached entities.

Furthermore, to the extent that I am presently an authorized signer on any bank account in the
name of any of the attached entities, I would hereby demand that I be removed immediately as
an authorized signer on such account.

Finally, I have removed a number of articles which represent my personal belongings from the
Sugar Land office, however, there are a number of files (electronic and paper) which are mine
and I will make arrangements to retrieve them in the near future. Until I remove them, I would
demand that they not be destroyed or altered in any way.

Thank you.

The letter listed more than 70 companies he was cutting all contact with, all of which were offshoots of his various development projects, and many of which have been the subject of lawsuits and bankruptcies that have been detailed in the Turner Report over the past couple of years.

One of those was Wallace-Bajjali Development Partners, the city of Joplin's master developer, which has yet to get one project started, though it was hired by the city nearly three years ago and went through millions of dollars.





23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quick--somebody close the border to Mexico before he runs.

Shrop said...

So who was responsible for hiring their Firm? Must have been some contractual arrangement with the City? Frank Dunaway

Anonymous said...

city council in closed session tonight. I wish I was a fly..Wake up Joplin, America

Anonymous said...

That won't necessarily get him off the hook.

Maybe he saw a light at the end of the tunnel? Coming at him fast?

Any takers on an federal indictment within a few months? Just asking- no idea why this might happen. I mean he's been sooooooooooo successful in the past.

Anonymous said...

As Gomer Scearce and Goober Rosenberg would say suprise,suprise,suprise not really when you don't turn one shovle of dirt in three years.

Anonymous said...

Looking more and more like Scearce, Rosenberg, and company were on the right track after all in getting rid of Rohr, despite all the criticism they received, because Tour was one of Wallace's biggest backers and, as I understand it, one of the main people responsible for hiring Wallace and his crooked outfit to begin with.

Jack Davis said...

I hope the city of Joplin, was smart enough to require a performance bond, and that would probably give some legal recourse, especially with the abandonment.....They require it of other contractors.

Anonymous said...

Years ago, maybe 80's Joplin hired a developer to make the city more appealing to outsiders, after paying her an unreasonable amount of money she has a few shrubs and trees planted at the I44 & Rangeline exit and came up missing with all the money. Duped again and again.

Anonymous said...

Jack Davis you make a good point. Unfortunately, W-B wasn't a contractor, and so may not have been required to post a bond. Any contractor on a public works project must post a statutory bond, but not a developer who just hires or pimps out the contractor(s) to the City. Having said that, the City should have in place its own surety to cover non-performance by those with whom it contracts. If it doesn't, we have past and present management to blame for that. It should cover at least some of the $1.7M in fees paid to W-B, together with other damages that can be established.

What contractor was it that brought W-B to Joplin, by the way? For whom did that Braswell guy once work? There are lots of questions to be answered, and no amount of shoulder-shrugging or feigned shock is acceptable from city leaders. If many of us knew from the start how this would end, they certainly knew as well.

Anonymous said...

The office lady quietly left town 3 weeks ago.
That letter was dated nearly 3 weeks ago.
They disappear in the middle of the night.
Wallace's ex is demanding money he says he doesn't have.
Multiple lawsuits against WB in Texas.
Now neither of them can be found with a search warrant.

Wallace ran off with his secretary to Mexico and who knows where Bajali went,

Pauline Porter was right, but no one would listen. She begged someone to do something about these crooks last summer, before it was too late. Now Joplin needs a buttload of ointment for the hemorrhoids WB gave them. Pardon the pun. :)

Dusty Roads said...

The Glob and all the people that tried to smear Screace Rosie and Jack can suck a big one now...just hilarious. But at least you still have Woolston.

Anonymous said...

Will Jane Cage add this to her self-congratulatory list of achievements at janecage.com?

No, really. Janecage.com. Go look.

161 deaths, but all for a good cause--the lined pockets and padded egos of our civic leaders and their sycophants.

Not one of them who supported what will likely be revealed as a criminal enterprise, or who failed to speak out when all this could easily be foreseen long ago, should ever hold office or be in a position of influence with the City again.

Anonymous said...

Well, this certainly raises even more questions. Such as....Where was he going to come up with $200K to buy out Bajjali if he couldn't even afford to pay his alimony? My guess is that someone from Joplin who had real estate/development interests was going to front him the money and then the state audit put an end to that.

Anonymous said...

That letter is not signed. I wonder if Bajjali is dessiminating a letter Wallace may not know about. DWallace needs to come forward. His signature is not on document. I find it hard to believe that he would want to ruin his life and reputation. Nothing makes sense. He needs to come and tell us what happened.

Anonymous said...

The City Council should immediately refer the matter to the Attorney General. The State Auditor can provide valuable information, but information now publicly available is sufficient cause to merit opening an investigation by the AG.

If taking a few thousand dollars from a post-tornado homeowner and skipping town merits an investigation by law enforcement, doing the same to the taxpayers of Joplin for at least $1.7M is no different.

Anonymous said...

I,too, wonder what Ms. Cage's & other CART members thoughts are now...they rushed the CART process, with little input from the actual tornado impacted citizens, as we were all too busy putting our lives back together! If there are new community meetings, I hope someone who is connected to 'real people' will be involved.

Anonymous said...

The Joplin City council is totally clueless when it comes to using their common sense (they don't have any). As Forrest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does."

Anonymous said...

Our city leaders suck so much. The few people who kinda know what they're talking about get silenced and marginalized by blowhard schmoozers with mediocre skill sets at best - like Huff, Woolston, and Stark. The Music Man is pretty much about Joplin.

Anonymous said...

wow this poster wasnt kidding janecage.com really exist. The most pathetic site I have ever seen. She hasnt updated yet to list her recent subpoena

Anonymous said...

I just want to say a big "Thank You" to Mr. Turner. The citizens of Joplin have no other credible news source but you. The newspaper of record is a sad joke. The two local TV news sources missed the story by 2 days, pathetic. I also want to thank Mr.Humphries for beginning the audit process. I think this has done more than we know to bring this debacle to a conclusion. A big "Thank You" should also go out to all those individuals and business owners who rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt without help. With all that said, I believe the library/20th street project should be put on hold until the citizens know exactly what connection Woolston, Kuehn, and Box have to WB and what, if any, unethical financial gain they did or will be receiving from the 20th street project. The City Council should have an open press conference and explain clearly where we are financially and what they are planning for our future. I also want Mayor Seibert, who still seems totally clueless, to apologize to the citizens or at least show some remorse for the council's failure to more closely monitor WB and, when problems were pointed out, failed to admit mistakes resulting in the taxpayer's being scammed. As for CART and Jane Cage, they did rush it through and, as usual for Joplin, appointed one of their sycophants to chair this committee who spent most of her time on a self-congratulatory media tour. Ms. Cage's claim to fame is living here since '78 and living in Roanoke - really! She and the committee need to make an accounting to the citizenry of how they determined that Joplin couldn't go forward without WB. It's time for the citizens to take our city (and our school district) back.

Steven Cope said...

Well there were several city employees who were forced out on trumped up charges levied by the illustrious City Manager Mark Rohr and his hired hench people, including
the new City Manager, that were quite vocal
about the Walli-Bygolly debacle maybe council should have consulted the people who are hired and paid to do the actual work of the city not just high priced mouthpieces with grand schemes. TOLD YA SO!

we

Anonymous said...

Holy moly. www.janecage.com is real. Wow. Just so much wow.

Anonymous said...

Seems the two pinheads are still missing in action. NO word from them at all, on Tuesday his lawyer had not heard from them. I wonder how long this will go on for. Some think David Wallace may want to leave for another country. I'm not so sure. He has a young wife with young kids from a previous relationship. Maybe she's decided to dump him. Maybe thats why he just decided "I've spent all the money from Joplin, I am too stupid to do make any project work, all my Houston investors are wanting their millions back, the receiver with KCM wants the 1.2 million, I don't have it anymore, so I might as well just give up and move to Mexico".