DIA CEO will look to philanthropists to close gap between project costs, profit

[Cheshire Cat]

Empowerment Zone? 

http://www.miamidade.gov/mppa/library/PDFs/businessplans/FY06/Q2/economic-dev_ez.pdf

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

While you're digging, a few more docs with other names you may want to include in your research....

The latest annual reports for his corps in FL.

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2006%5C0130%5C181004D8.tif&documentNumber=L04000022123

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2007%5C0124%5CU0594689.Tif&documentNumber=N99000001028

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2007%5C0124%5CU0594693.Tif&documentNumber=N03000000503

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2006%5C0130%5C16100349.tif&documentNumber=P01000029742

Cross-reference, connect dots and I'm sure you'll find even more interesting things.

I don't know what site you can use to search Michigan's list of corporations, but I'm willing to bet that you'll probably find more of the same. 

[Cheshire Cat]

While you're digging, a few more docs with other names you may want to include in your research....

The latest annual reports for his corps in FL.

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2006%5C0130%5C181004D8.tif&documentNumber=L04000022123

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2007%5C0124%5CU0594689.Tif&documentNumber=N99000001028

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2007%5C0124%5CU0594693.Tif&documentNumber=N03000000503

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C2006%5C0130%5C16100349.tif&documentNumber=P01000029742

Cross-reference, connect dots and I'm sure you'll find even more interesting things.

I don't know what site you can use to search Michigan's list of corporations, but I'm willing to bet that you'll probably find more of the same. 

Thanks, I am fixing to check the links. 

[Cheshire Cat]

Non-Redneck Westsider,
You know one of the biggest red flags on this for me comes back to those HUD programs and dollars again.  Same background Alvin Brown comes from.  Boy oh boy how the dot's do seem to connect.  You know I told Stephen earlier that I hadn't "bitten" anyone yet over this but I may be fixing to.   

[Cheshire Cat]

Cha Ching!  How convenient!  Mr. Wallace seems to be in the real estate management business in Detroit.

http://www.corporationwiki.com/Michigan/Detroit/the-detriot-land-bank-authority/96424985.aspx

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Cha Ching!  How convenient!  Mr. Wallace seems to be in the real estate management business in Detroit.

http://www.corporationwiki.com/Michigan/Detroit/the-detriot-land-bank-authority/96424985.aspx

Oh. My. How. Shocking.

And as you start cross-referencing the partners from his S. Fla corps I'm sure you'll find quite a few others that are also in the development side of RE. 

Just. A. Hunch.  ;-)

[Cheshire Cat]

Then we have the great divide!  I dunno but isn't communications a part of dealing with federal funds? 

Federal dollars have been pulled back. "The president is not a big supporter of empowerment zones. The administration is looking at other stimulus" for poor areas, he explains. Essentially the federal government wants to provide tax credits as incentives so businesses invest in poor areas. "They want the private sector to see it as a good investment," Finnie says. "They are looking for something tangible when it's done, a building or a job."

Tangible? This is tangible: Overtown's unemployment rate is 22 percent; Miami's median household income is just $20,000; and nearly 40 percent of people 25 years or older don't have a high school diploma.

e-Equality president Donna MacDonald is angry, and she partially blames Finnie's agency. In a June meeting, she says, Aundra Wallace, the local empowerment zone's VP, verbally promised them renewed funding -- $120,000. After two months of unreturned phone calls and e-mails, MacDonald says, they were finally informed there would be no money. Without it e-Equality faced a devastating budget shortfall. MacDonald would have appreciated knowing sooner. (Finnie and Wallace maintain they never promised repeat funding and in fact warned that after the initial grant, e-Equality shouldn't rely on empowerment-zone money.)

[Cheshire Cat]

Apparently Mr. Aundra C. Wallace was also applying for another job in Florida this year with Atlanta BeltLine Inc.  In this article he is called "Drew".  Odd as his middle initial seems to be a "C".

http://saportareport.com/blog/2013/04/atlanta-beltline-inc-releases-names-of-the-five-finalists-for-next-ceo/

Aundra "Drew" Wallace

Drew Wallace has provided leadership in a number of urban and economic development and financial roles throughout his career.  Currently, he is the executive director for the Detroit Land Bank Authority, a quasi-governmental corporate body formed to assist in the effort to return abandoned, foreclosed and vacant properties to productive use within the City of Detroit. Prior to being named to this position, Wallace was the senior vice president for real estate development and living, a senior leadership role within the North Carolina Community Development Initiative, a public private partnership.  Earlier in his career, Wallace spent nine years working in the Miami-Dade County community in a number of increasingly responsible positions including deputy director for the Office of Community and Economic Development and president and CEO for the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust. He also served as the chief financial officer for the South Florida Super Bowl XXXIII Host Committee. Wallace holds an undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University and his Masters of Public Administration from Clark Atlanta Universi
- See more at: http://saportareport.com/blog/2013/04/atlanta-beltline-inc-releases-names-of-the-five-finalists-for-next-ceo/#sthash.bptY3rvK.dpuf

[Cheshire Cat]

In case you have not been following along with the story titled "Poverty Peddlers" the seven part series by the Miami Herald that was quite "explosive", I want to point out yet another connection between that mess and the newly appointed DIA director Mr. Wallace.  You will note the organization mentioned in this piece is called "The Miami Dade Empowerment Trust".  Turns out Mr. Aundra Wallace was the head of that Trust.  Who knew? Looks like he might know P. Diddy too! Infact the non profit using tax dollars Flew P. Diddy to town.
The round-trip flight cost more than $87,000, including $1,070 for in-flight catering. Kewl huh?

Stick a fork in this kids, I am done In fact my gut is now sick.  Don't think I am willing to give Mr. Wallace that chance to prove himself anymore.  Lord have mercy Jacksonville, you sure can pick em!     

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchResultDetail/EntityName/domnp-n99000001028-009c0418-ef33-491c-b8e1-420d0194ea8d/miami%20dade%20empowerment%20trust/Page1

http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/povped/part4/index.html

On Aug. 23, 2005, a chartered Gulfstream jet landed in Miami carrying a famous passenger: music mogul Sean "Diddy'' Combs.

Diddy flew in to host MTV's Video Music Awards at the AmericanAirlines Arena, where the hip-hop impresario known for his vast fortune and extravagant tastes handed his diamond-studded wristwatch to a fan in the crowd. Another luxury plane took him back to New Jersey the following night.

The round-trip flight cost more than $87,000, including $1,070 for in-flight catering.

But Diddy didn't pay the bill. Neither did MTV.

A nonprofit poverty agency picked up the tab -- using tax dollars set aside to help Miami-Dade County's poorest residents.

That agency, the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust, was founded by county leaders in 1999 to take aim at the backbreaking poverty in nine designated "empowerment zones'' - among the most destitute neighborhoods in Florida.

As part of the largest federal poverty initiative in decades, the trust received $68 million in federal, state and local grants to pursue a broad and ambitious plan that included financing affordable housing, providing job training and improving social services

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/povped/part4/index.html#storylink=cpy

[thelakelander]

^When I attended the Vanguard Conference in Cleveland, a West Coast Vanguard member asked me if people in Jax knew what Google was.  He was with two other Vanguard members from various cities across the country.  They all were chuckling about our DIA search. He then pulled out is ipad and googled the Poverty Peddler's article.  From what I recall, those in charge of making the decision to hire him didn't view the Miami stuff as being significant enough to outweigh his positives.

[Cheshire Cat]

Ennis, you know I am fit to be tied and this cannot stand.  I hope to heaven that the DIA has some sort of probationary period in their contract with Wallace. Honest to goodness, does no one in this city get it?  Does no one check into who they are hiring other than a cursory glance?  This type of stuff just reinforces the attitude that Jacksonville is full of backwoods "Clod Hoppers" who don't know how to think and would not know a high quality candidate from a crook if their lives depended on it.  I refuse to stand by and be one of those folks.  I have already taken some action and intend to also pass on the information I uncovered today to the council and DIA. I do believe it may be time to say "no thanks" to Mr. Wallace and send him on his way.  Seriously, this gets real old real fast!

[tufsu1]

Personally, I'm going to defer to the DIA Board fro now.  There are some real giid quality people on there and trust that they made the best decision based on who was in the applicant pool

[thelakelander]

Cheshire Cat, the Miami allegations were known before the selection:

DIA pick Aundra Wallace responds to Miami scandal

The Downtown Investment Authority's choice for CEO responded Friday to the scandal surrounding one of his previous organizations.

Wallace said some of the issues in the reports weren't under his leadership. Others, like millions given to a developer with questionable credentials to build a biotechnology park that never came to fruition, were.

"I'm proud of what we accomplished," he said. "When you work in high-risk neighborhoods, you have to be more creative and take more risks, and there are more challenges.

"I don't apologize for taking the risks. We had successes and failures."

full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/blog/2013/06/dia-ceo-pick-responds-to-scandal.html

[Cheshire Cat]

I guess they (DIA) may have been aware but not to sure how deep the scandal was looked into. Clearly they didn't look to deep enough.   If no one is alarmed by the use of over $85,000 tax dollars to fly P.Diddy around and that those dollars were funneled through Mr. Wallace's own Miami Dade Empowerment Trust I honestly don't know what to say about leadership in this city I love and care so much about. That is just one questionable thing he is associated with. According to the Miami Herald there was much more.  It's a matter of record people.  I really don't think those making the decisions in Jacksonville did their due diligence, not by a long shot. I think they just needed to choose someone to move on with the DIA. 

Honestly sometimes I feel like trying to open the eyes of the folks in Jacksonville is like trying to run up sand dunes.  If we are all prepared to accept into leadership folks with scandal's attached to them to this degree then we have no right in my view to "bit@h" about Jacksonville "not" getting it and the needed informed and competent leadership we and downtown deserve.  Not to mention his background is in single homes and HUD funds, not downtown redevelopment.  Goodness gracious folks, what does it take?

[Cheshire Cat]

Personally, I'm going to defer to the DIA Board fro now.  There are some real giid quality people on there and trust that they made the best decision based on who was in the applicant pool

I don't believe they made the "best choice" and I for one am not content to defer to leaders who don't seem to care about who we put into positions that impact all of us.  The DIA failed this test in my view and needs to correct their error sooner rather than later.