Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Mayor Carlson's victory dance...

...or the "peanut gallery" speech, uncut.

"There have been allegations made from some quarters in the community that somehow the process was rigged or fixed. Well, lemme tell you something, people that are well heeled, that have the money got involved in this and these are very sophisticated people and if they, believe me, they go through business all across the country, they've got places they can spend their money and do things and people that know the real skinny on stuff invested in this community and hung it out and do you think that HCW, that does business all across the United States, that Opus, that is considered one of the best developers in the United States, Mr. Hammons is in 48 states across the country, would have stuck through this if they thought the outcome was predetermined? Ask yourself, do these people that manage millions of dollars would they have bought into this process and hung with it if they thought the outcome was....(Note from Jacke: he either didn't finish this sentence or the last word was unintelligible on my tape)

Now, there are apparently some people in our community that know more about it than these major United States developers? Or at least they proposed it, they purport to, but the people that were spendin' their money stuck into this because they always thought they had a shot at winnin' and because of that and because this community, this city, the city government, gave specific instructions to keep the process fair and to follow the law, the people that have the wherewithall to know and understand that believed it and stuck with it and that's why this community is now looking at getting $7 million for something that they could have gotten a heck of a lot less for. That's why this community is now in the process of getting a first class hotel on a piece of land that was just raw grass and that's why this community now is looking at a potential to have a first class United States firm having its major office downtown and opening up more office space, because the process did have integrity to it and because the people that were betting their money stuck with it and I'll bet, any day of the week I'll bet on people that have got real money at risk, time, money, and effort to spend as opposed to the people from the peanut gallery and that's why, because those people knew and because we stuck to plan the rules and play in the game in a fair way that this community is going to end up with a win, win, win situation."

~Mayor Tom Carlson, October 16, 2007 at the City Council luncheon where the term sheet for J.Q. Hammons purchase of the former arena site and Jordan Valley car park was revealed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jacke - thanks for posting the transcript.

So, what do you think? I do not take it as a slam against the average joe; just folks that sit in the back of council chambers and holler at the members....

I suppose one can read into the comments whatever he/she wants. I, personally, think the mayor has done a good job, and hate to see him go.

Jackie Melton said...

I might make a few comments about it later. I think if you will read my previous post, "Mayor Carlson: King of the peanut gallery" you'll get a bit of an idea what I thought about it but yeah, I'll likely expound a bit later. Thanks for being interested in my opinion. :)

Anonymous said...

Carlson has a lot of gall to complain about "peanut galleries". Watch him up on his throne when some Joe Average is talking. I've seen Hizzoner smirk and come just short of waving his hands and having the palace guard drag the poor bugger out to the moat.