A Pig In A Poke

A Pig in a Poke

The public learned two things at the April 7, 2015 Worcester City Council meeting. The first is that the City might have bought a pig in a poke.  The second is that City Councillors are easily intimidated by so called business capitalist investors; specifically Brady Sullivan.  The City Council approved Brady Sullivan’s purchase of  the Old Courthouse and project without a written contract, without a purchase and sales agreement, and without a Community Benefits Agreement.  It seemed that all of the City Councillors know this is bad business practice.

Councillor Rosen would not say whether he was happy or unhappy with the lack of transparency and the lack of documentation provided to the Council and to the public. prior to last night vote.  Regardless of his ignorance on the issue he voted on the approval of the Brady Sullivan “deal”.  He did say that he wanted a good deal. What will say if the cat comes out of the bag?

Councillor Russell also wanted a good deal: he at least gave a straight answer that he thought that the way Manager Augustus did not include the City Council in the negotiations  in a timely manner was not appropriate. He said that information should have been provided by the City Manager before the City Manager made public  the  “understandings”  with Brady Sullivan.

Kyhristian King, a candidate for City Councillor, showed the same caution as did Mr. Rosen. He wanted a good deal, but he would not say if he was unhappy with the transparency of the City Manager in the negotiations.

The head of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce and former Lieutenant Governor, Timothy Murray said that he also wanted a good deal with Brady Sullivan. He wanted Worcester residents to get at least fifty percent of the jobs. However he said that because no public money was involved that the City could not make obligatory legal demands on Brady Sullivan.

Lenny Cooper, a long time activist and a member of the NAACP and the Worcester Community Labor Coalition, said that the demands of the Coalition are fifty percent of hires by Brady Sullivan or their subcontractors be from the Worcester areas. Of that number fifteen percent should be so called minorities and seven per cent should be women.

So what is the real deal today? There is none. There is no written agreement that is legally enforceable on the issues of taxes, employment, mitigation of adverse changes to the neighborhood, or even a purchase and sale agreement. There is only the pig in the poke.

Especially disappointing is Councillor Lukes who used to pride herself as a fiscal conservative and a watch dog for the public.  She is also a lawyer who understands good business practice. In matter of Brady Sullivan Councillor Lukes endorsed the worse business practice of selling without a purchase and sale agreement. She used to slam former mayors for the lack of transparency and now she is silent on that issue.  It seems that she is running out of gas and is just a shadow of  her previous due diligence self.

For decades the City of Worcester have look for the Holy Grail of development. It has gone through several iterations of Worcester Commons Outlet. It has built a poorly designed Union Station that Amtrak did not want and that is losing money. There have been several changes to the plans for City Square and it seems that this might be a money loser as well.

No one can say for sure how the old Court House project will turn out. There are not documents to analyze. There is only the lack of transparency of City Manager Augustus and the wishful thinking of City Council.