I'd never vote for the"No" candidate.  It's so short-sighted.  

I don't disagree with Adkins in everysituation.  

However, this alone does make me loseconfidence. 

In a nutshell from what I understand:

1.)   Both Mike in hiscapacity as ED Director and Judy in her role as City Manager thought there wastoo much obsolete commercial space in the downtown area.  A rough downtownmaster plan has commercial development focused west of Clinton (I believe)and up near the train station, which was positioned become passenger rail againunder Obama’s American Reinvestment Act

2.)   City wanted a piece ofproperty up by train station owned by Finklemans

3.)   Studio Theater was consideredblight and obsolete due to lack of maintenance and care by Finkleman family

4.)   Trade was done with the Finklemans—tookproperty off hands in exchange for property near the station

5.)   City anticipated large $from Neighborhood Stabilization Funds—of which a portion would be used to demo Studio

6.)   City did not receive fundingbut was stuck with the building

7.)   Robinette acquired buildingone-level, three storefront building attached the Studio (LibertySpirits).  This building was not owned bythe city and not given to Robinette by the end.

8.)   Studio continued todeteriorate under city ownership to the point where roof and heavy rains are/weredamaging Robinette’s property

Thiswhole fiasco is embarrassing.  

The original councilpacket posted toward the end of last week did not include this piece of legislation. 

https://www.cityofmiddletown.org/AgendaCenter/PreviousVersions/_05012018-215

Not sure when it wasupdated, but I can tell you the packet wasn’t uploaded until Friday orSaturday. 

Theoriginal article in the J-N with the bid amounts ran back on March 16. Therewere THREE Council meetings betweenthe article and the last May 1 meeting. You mean to tell me staff was unable to draw up legislation for councilto consider PRIOR to May 1 but staff was able to authorize work to commence?

It’s also worth noting that the repair to the roof to stop thedamage was under $100,000.  Yet the citydecided to proceed with the demo order.

Also to note:

-         It was under Mike Robinette’s tenure that thecity acquired the Studio in a back-door deal with the Finkleman family and propertyaround the train station.

-         The city sat on the property without activelysoliciting bids until the last six to nine months

-         The city repeatedly has stated that thisbuilding does not qualify for and is not a listing on the NRHP which is a FALSEstatement.