Curry's Plan for the Landing Revealed

[fieldafm]

^^ So does this mean that coj gets ownership of the East lot, but has to pay Sleiman back $4.3-4.7mm?   

Correct, though technically, the city never lost ownership of the lot. Sleiman, in desperate need of parking, paid the city $4.3 million for that parcel years ago, but even after taking Sleiman's money, the city wouldn't close on the sale and officially transfer the land to Sleiman. Sleiman eventually had to sue to try to get his money back. The city was initially resistant, but now they're trying to expedite a refund as part of their effort to boot Sleiman.

Yet Sleiman's the bad guy in the situation.

100% correct. The City never transferred the deed of the parking lot to Sleiman... and instead of holding the money in escrow until the deed passed to JLI (Sleiman), the City instead shifted that money into a capital improvement account and spent it.

That would be like you selling a house to someone but never fixing the broken pipe that you were contractually obligated to fix in your purchase agreement, spending the buyer's earnest money deposit, and then during the three day right of rescission period after closing the buyer gets into the house to move their furniture in only to find that the unfixed leaking pipe has now flooded the kitchen.  The buyers want to back out of the deal... but you now have to scramble to refund them back their earnest money because you already spent it on a new Corvette (which you'll never bother to replace the tires nor change the oil on.. and one day will break down on the side of the road because you were too cheap to maintain it).

The City finally wised up as they would have lost that court case in embarrassing fashion, so in order to make Sleiman whole the City (aka we the taxpayers) will have to shift money from somewhere else to pay back the original purchase price and parking credits that were never conveyed to JLI.

Interesting to note- the City has also yet to convey parking credits to Sleiman from the Suntrust Center parking garage across the street as part of the deal to subsidize construction of that garage (in that case, the City picked a winner called Parador Partners... who then turned around and defrauded the City and their tenants in the Suntrust Tower)... which was an amendment to an earlier (politically-motivated) economic development deal with the now bankrupt Cameron Kuhn more than a decade earlier.

These frivolous lawsuits are a waste of taxpayer money and resources. Quit the politics and get something done with the Landing that doesn't involve baseless eviction lawsuits, spending tens of millions for an unnecessary 'green space' or tens of millions for massive redevelopment.  Sometimes you have to play nice with people you may not like. I learned that lesson in kindergarten after my teacher scolded me for trying to pick and choose who got to play with me in the sandbox. Perhaps some at City Hall should be read Dr Suese books on their lunch break.

[fieldafm]

Outside of all the political BS of this latest Landing episode... the parking lot issue also sheds light on the City's historically poor performance on contract performance/management.

I give Curry's administration a lot of credit for restoring a sense of competence and professionalism back at City Hall... but there is still room for improvement. The City has so many obligations and performance standards in a variety of economic development deals that aren't being upheld (by parties on both sides of these transactions).  That's an issue that may not be sexy politically... but its something that needs to be cleaned up for the good of the citizens who work hard and pay their taxes, only to occasionally see some of that money go to waste.

[Snaketoz]

Outside of all the political BS of this latest Landing episode... the parking lot issue also sheds light on the City's historically poor performance on contract performance/management.

I give Curry's administration a lot of credit for restoring a sense of competence and professionalism back at City Hall...

You're kidding, right?

[fieldafm]

Outside of all the political BS of this latest Landing episode... the parking lot issue also sheds light on the City's historically poor performance on contract performance/management.

I give Curry's administration a lot of credit for restoring a sense of competence and professionalism back at City Hall...

You're kidding, right?

It's perfectly reasonable to debate policy decisions of both the Curry and Brown administration.... but there is no denying the improvements to operations at City Hall under the Curry administration, compared to the Brown administration. That's looking at things from an operational efficiency standpoint, not necessarily policy decisions. I could give dozens of personal examples of organizational bumbling during the Brown administration... and frankly those within City Hall would privately agree.

[Steve]

Outside of all the political BS of this latest Landing episode... the parking lot issue also sheds light on the City's historically poor performance on contract performance/management.

I give Curry's administration a lot of credit for restoring a sense of competence and professionalism back at City Hall...

You're kidding, right?

It's perfectly reasonable to debate policy decisions of both the Curry and Brown administration.... but there is no denying the improvements to operations at City Hall under the Curry administration, compared to the Brown administration. That's looking at things from an operational efficiency standpoint, not necessarily policy decisions. I could give dozens of personal examples of organizational bumbling during the Brown administration... and frankly those within City Hall would privately agree.

In addition, while the lawsuit over the East Lot was incredibly stupid, Curry didn't cause this one. This one started under Peyton, and then not handled by Brown. Curry wasn't in a huge hurry to handle it either it seems (since we're now 3 years into his term), but at least he is now.

And yes Field - I do agree about the city and contracts. My 2+ years working in the city opened my eyes, but maybe not in a good way.

[Steve]

^^ So does this mean that coj gets ownership of the East lot, but has to pay Sleiman back $4.3-4.7mm?   

Correct, though technically, the city never lost ownership of the lot. Sleiman, in desperate need of parking, paid the city $4.3 million for that parcel years ago, but even after taking Sleiman's money, the city wouldn't close on the sale and officially transfer the land to Sleiman. Sleiman eventually had to sue to try to get his money back. The city was initially resistant, but now they're trying to expedite a refund as part of their effort to boot Sleiman.

Yet Sleiman's the bad guy in the situation.

100% correct. The City never transferred the deed of the parking lot to Sleiman... and instead of holding the money in escrow until the deed passed to JLI (Sleiman), the City instead shifted that money into a capital improvement account and spent it.

That would be like you selling a house to someone but never fixing the broken pipe that you were contractually obligated to fix in your purchase agreement, spending the buyer's earnest money deposit, and then during the three day right of rescission period after closing the buyer gets into the house to move their furniture in only to find that the unfixed leaking pipe has now flooded the kitchen.  The buyers want to back out of the deal... but you now have to scramble to refund them back their earnest money because you already spent it on a new Corvette (which you'll never bother to replace the tires nor change the oil on.. and one day will break down on the side of the road because you were too cheap to maintain it).

The City finally wised up as they would have lost that court case in embarrassing fashion, so in order to make Sleiman whole the City (aka we the taxpayers) will have to shift money from somewhere else to pay back the original purchase price and parking credits that were never conveyed to JLI.

Interesting to note- the City has also yet to convey parking credits to Sleiman from the Suntrust Center parking garage across the street as part of the deal to subsidize construction of that garage (in that case, the City picked a winner called Parador Partners... who then turned around and defrauded the City and their tenants in the Suntrust Tower)... which was an amendment to an earlier (politically-motivated) economic development deal with the now bankrupt Cameron Kuhn more than a decade earlier.

These frivolous lawsuits are a waste of taxpayer money and resources. Quit the politics and get something done with the Landing that doesn't involve baseless eviction lawsuits, spending tens of millions for an unnecessary 'green space' or tens of millions for massive redevelopment.  Sometimes you have to play nice with people you may not like. I learned that lesson in kindergarten after my teacher scolded me for trying to pick and choose who got to play with me in the sandbox. Perhaps some at City Hall should be read Dr Suese books on their lunch break.

Side note - isn't this why Escrow agents exist? Shouldn't the $4.3M go to an escrow agent that holds the money until closing, then if closing never happens the Escrow agent returns the money to the buyer?

How could Sleiman not have done that? What was he thinking?

How are Babies made?

[Snaketoz]

Why does one justify a person's incompetence by bringing up some vague accusations of a former mayor?  It's like saying Kim Jong un is an evil person, but what about Hitler?  Instead of blaming a one term Democrat, how about the current mayor?  He ran on Brown's record and on his promise to curb violent crime.  How is that working out?  Brown was a Dem and the council is full of R's.  What has Curry done that makes him seem operationally efficient?  The JEA fiasco?  The Landing? Friendship fountain? Memorial Park?  The only thing Curry has going for him is the "R" beside his name, and there is no one else the local plutocrats can use to get their agenda handled.  If Curry had a "D" beside his name, there would be calls for his head.

[Steve]

Why does one justify a person's incompetence by bringing up some vague accusations of a former mayor?  It's like saying Kim Jong un is an evil person, but what about Hitler?  Instead of blaming a one term Democrat, how about the current mayor?  He ran on Brown's record and on his promise to curb violent crime.  How is that working out?  Brown was a Dem and the council is full of R's.  What has Curry done that makes him seem operationally efficient?  The JEA fiasco?  The Landing? Friendship fountain? Memorial Park?  The only thing Curry has going for him is the "R" beside his name, and there is no one else the local plutocrats can use to get their agenda handled.  If Curry had a "D" beside his name, there would be calls for his head.

Not sure that's what anyone was doing. Peyton negotiated the sale of the East Lot to Sleiman, took the money, then basically didn't show up to the closing. You can't really look at this item in any other way.

[Snaketoz]

Why does one justify a person's incompetence by bringing up some vague accusations of a former mayor?  It's like saying Kim Jong un is an evil person, but what about Hitler?  Instead of blaming a one term Democrat, how about the current mayor?  He ran on Brown's record and on his promise to curb violent crime.  How is that working out?  Brown was a Dem and the council is full of R's.  What has Curry done that makes him seem operationally efficient?  The JEA fiasco?  The Landing? Friendship fountain? Memorial Park?  The only thing Curry has going for him is the "R" beside his name, and there is no one else the local plutocrats can use to get their agenda handled.  If Curry had a "D" beside his name, there would be calls for his head.

Not sure that's what anyone was doing. Peyton negotiated the sale of the East Lot to Sleiman, took the money, then basically didn't show up to the closing. You can't really look at this item in any other way.

What I'm saying is why bring Brown, Peyton, Jake Godbold, or anyone else into our current situation?  We are talking about the here and now.  A leader overcomes the mistakes of the past. Where is our leaders?  If your predecessor did wrong, lead.  My lawn wasn't taken care of by the previous owner.  I didn't sit around and complain about him, I fertilized, watered, and nurtured the damn thing.  Doesn't that seem logical?

[Kerry]

Why does one justify a person's incompetence by bringing up some vague accusations of a former mayor?  It's like saying Kim Jong un is an evil person, but what about Hitler?  Instead of blaming a one term Democrat, how about the current mayor?  He ran on Brown's record and on his promise to curb violent crime.  How is that working out?  Brown was a Dem and the council is full of R's.  What has Curry done that makes him seem operationally efficient?  The JEA fiasco?  The Landing? Friendship fountain? Memorial Park?  The only thing Curry has going for him is the "R" beside his name, and there is no one else the local plutocrats can use to get their agenda handled.  If Curry had a "D" beside his name, there would be calls for his head.

Not sure that's what anyone was doing. Peyton negotiated the sale of the East Lot to Sleiman, took the money, then basically didn't show up to the closing. You can't really look at this item in any other way.

What I'm saying is why bring Brown, Peyton, Jake Godbold, or anyone else into our current situation?  We are talking about the here and now.  A leader overcomes the mistakes of the past. Where is our leaders?  If your predecessor did wrong, lead.  My lawn wasn't taken care of by the previous owner.  I didn't sit around and complain about him, I fertilized, watered, and nurtured the damn thing.  Doesn't that seem logical?

The irony is every political challenger runs on the promise to FIX the mistakes made by the person they are trying to replace, and then uses their predecessor failure as an excuse for their own inaction and short-comings.

[Steve]

Why does one justify a person's incompetence by bringing up some vague accusations of a former mayor?  It's like saying Kim Jong un is an evil person, but what about Hitler?  Instead of blaming a one term Democrat, how about the current mayor?  He ran on Brown's record and on his promise to curb violent crime.  How is that working out?  Brown was a Dem and the council is full of R's.  What has Curry done that makes him seem operationally efficient?  The JEA fiasco?  The Landing? Friendship fountain? Memorial Park?  The only thing Curry has going for him is the "R" beside his name, and there is no one else the local plutocrats can use to get their agenda handled.  If Curry had a "D" beside his name, there would be calls for his head.

Not sure that's what anyone was doing. Peyton negotiated the sale of the East Lot to Sleiman, took the money, then basically didn't show up to the closing. You can't really look at this item in any other way.

What I'm saying is why bring Brown, Peyton, Jake Godbold, or anyone else into our current situation?  We are talking about the here and now.  A leader overcomes the mistakes of the past. Where is our leaders?  If your predecessor did wrong, lead.  My lawn wasn't taken care of by the previous owner.  I didn't sit around and complain about him, I fertilized, watered, and nurtured the damn thing.  Doesn't that seem logical?

I'm not saying we should sit around and blame the prior Admin. They're gone (and for the record - I don't know why we do it with Washington either. A CEO who blames his predecessor is not going to get much respect from his or her board.

Regardless, we need to fix the stupid.

[Tacachale]

Why does one justify a person's incompetence by bringing up some vague accusations of a former mayor?  It's like saying Kim Jong un is an evil person, but what about Hitler?  Instead of blaming a one term Democrat, how about the current mayor?  He ran on Brown's record and on his promise to curb violent crime.  How is that working out?  Brown was a Dem and the council is full of R's.  What has Curry done that makes him seem operationally efficient?  The JEA fiasco?  The Landing? Friendship fountain? Memorial Park?  The only thing Curry has going for him is the "R" beside his name, and there is no one else the local plutocrats can use to get their agenda handled.  If Curry had a "D" beside his name, there would be calls for his head.

Not sure that's what anyone was doing. Peyton negotiated the sale of the East Lot to Sleiman, took the money, then basically didn't show up to the closing. You can't really look at this item in any other way.

What I'm saying is why bring Brown, Peyton, Jake Godbold, or anyone else into our current situation?  We are talking about the here and now.  A leader overcomes the mistakes of the past. Where is our leaders?  If your predecessor did wrong, lead.  My lawn wasn't taken care of by the previous owner.  I didn't sit around and complain about him, I fertilized, watered, and nurtured the damn thing.  Doesn't that seem logical?

I'm not saying we should sit around and blame the prior Admin. They're gone (and for the record - I don't know why we do it with Washington either. A CEO who blames his predecessor is not going to get much respect from his or her board.

Regardless, we need to fix the stupid.

I think the original comment was just saying that, despite some issues like this, Curry has accomplishments as well and improvements over what he came into office with. I'd say that's fair. I'd also say, there's not enough looking back to build on what came before, and determining what worked and what didn't. That's part of the reason we keep coming into issues like the Landing - it's the kind of lesson we should have learned in the 80s and moved past, but now it feels like we're starting from scratch. Mayors don't have an incentive to build on what their predecessors did.

Why does one justify a person's incompetence by bringing up some vague accusations of a former mayor?  It's like saying Kim Jong un is an evil person, but what about Hitler?  Instead of blaming a one term Democrat, how about the current mayor?  He ran on Brown's record and on his promise to curb violent crime.  How is that working out?  Brown was a Dem and the council is full of R's.  What has Curry done that makes him seem operationally efficient?  The JEA fiasco?  The Landing? Friendship fountain? Memorial Park?  The only thing Curry has going for him is the "R" beside his name, and there is no one else the local plutocrats can use to get their agenda handled.  If Curry had a "D" beside his name, there would be calls for his head.

Not sure that's what anyone was doing. Peyton negotiated the sale of the East Lot to Sleiman, took the money, then basically didn't show up to the closing. You can't really look at this item in any other way.

What I'm saying is why bring Brown, Peyton, Jake Godbold, or anyone else into our current situation?  We are talking about the here and now.  A leader overcomes the mistakes of the past. Where is our leaders?  If your predecessor did wrong, lead.  My lawn wasn't taken care of by the previous owner.  I didn't sit around and complain about him, I fertilized, watered, and nurtured the damn thing.  Doesn't that seem logical?

The irony is every political challenger runs on the promise to FIX the mistakes made by the person they are trying to replace, and then uses their predecessor failure as an excuse for their own inaction and short-comings.

I can't think of the last time that a Jax mayoral candidate successfully ran on such a promise before this time.

[Snaketoz]

I think I can name one-Tommy Hazouri.  A good mayor who was beaten because he told the truth about garbage pickup costs and where the money was coming from.

[Tacachale]

I think I can name one-Tommy Hazouri.  A good mayor who was beaten because he told the truth about garbage pickup costs and where the money was coming from.

And that was in 1991. The only other time I can think of was Hans Tanzler beating Lou Ritter... in 1967.

[Snaketoz]

I think I can name one-Tommy Hazouri.  A good mayor who was beaten because he told the truth about garbage pickup costs and where the money was coming from.

And that was in 1991. The only other time I can think of was Hans Tanzler beating Lou Ritter... in 1967.

Forgot about that one.