If the City is going to throw any money at a project, or if the City is spearheading a City Works project like the Courthouse for example.
1) Is there a financial upside to the project?
- What is the financial upside and how have we arrived at that number? This must be tangible and if the project is controversial or very large in some way, then the financial upside (or downside) and the basic arrival of that number must be translated into plain English and made public via media and/or development agency's website. If it's a public financing entity, who's the public 3rd party auditor for the project and the financing entity?
- Does the taxpayer benefit in any tangible financial way that can be explained in English? If it's a city financing entity like a TIF District, make *everything* possible public with the exception of course of any guarantor's financials or sensitive information. Does the project meet all TIF criteria?
2) Is there an actual need for the project?
- Again, with something like the courthouse, sure we need it, now explain to the taxpayer why we need to spend what we did, demolish what we did, build it like we did, etc. Accountability needs to enter the ballgame in Jacksonville.
- Obviously this is not black and white. The Tea Party may say we don't need more parks or more spending on education or streetscaping or this that or the other, but the City needs to be able to rise to the challenge and explain its position on a project and why the City needs it. Has it been *proven* to generate economic development in other cities or scenarios? Public transit comes to mind.
3) Are there intangible positives associated with the project?
- Parador's garage plan seems to have a lot of intangible negatives associated with it, but perhaps there are some intangible positives nobody has yet seemed to be able to put a finger on? These are your aesthetics, appeal, quality of life, etc issues.
- Via educated opinion and discourse is the conclusion that the intangible rewards outweigh the intangible risks?
4) Finally, would city leaders in Denver approve or finance the project?If no to any of the above, then the project is not approved or financed by the city. Period.