Laubach feels Middletown is....

Cases in point:

From the minutes of the July 15 “Master Plan Steering Committee“ (included in the workbook for the 8/17/2010 council meeting, page 92 of 182):

“A concern was expressed that companies locate to a community for the economic incentives and then later relocate to another community for additional incentives. It was noted that businesses who make more substantial investments in real property and fixed assets are less likely to relocate.”

Yet, here is a council, once again repeating the mistakes of past councils and ignoring the concerns expressed by the Master Plan Steering Committee (a committee that they, themselves, appointed) and giving a building, plus $250,000 in taxpayer-paid custom renovations, plus a $200,000 interest-free, forgivable loan to a business that cannot possibly make a return-on-investment (ROI) for over 20 years, IF the business decides to stick around that long!!!

Please find below, a listing of reasons why you should vote against, and lobby your fellow council members to vote against, Ordinance No. O2010-53, the Pendleton Art Center Proposal, at tonight’s meeting:

1. NO actual business plan has been presented.
2. NO projected Return on Investment (ROI) for the taxpayers has been presented.
3. City staff claims there has been an “extensive demographics study” performed, but no statistics of any kind were able to be presented when the EDD was questioned about the results.
4. NO commitment of new employment has been made or included in the contract.
5. NO commitment of a financial investment by Verdin is included in the contract.
6. NO actual facts or statistics of any kind have been presented to council (in public).
7. Before approval, staff owes council and council owes the public information on whether or not a $700,000 building, plus $450,000 in cash and cash equivalents has been offered to any other businesses who have wanted to come to Middletown without any real plan or commitments such as described in the six items immediately above.
8. The “Master Plan Steering Committee“ (a committee that council itself has appointed!) has advised against such agreements:
9. “A concern was expressed that companies locate to a community for the economic incentives and then later relocate to another community for additional incentives. It was noted that businesses who make more substantial investments in real property and fixed assets are less likely to relocate.”
10. The “Master Plan Steering Committee“ supports that a “key economic development strategy is to support the sustainability and expansion of the existing workforce. 80% of job growth is from existing businesses.”
11. The dreams and expectations of ancillary growth and spurring of economic activity expressed for this venture are nearly the same as those expressed for Beau Verre. Those hopes and dreams have been proven to be false, even though Beau Verre itself has been quite successful. There is absolutely nothing that makes the expectations for this outcome to be any different. NO ONE has cited facts, figures, statistics, or anything excepts hopes and dreams to provide expectations of a more favorable outcome for this venture.
12. There is NO reason except for personal preference of those in and around City Hall for the City to have a strategy of recruiting new businesses from this targeted industry (the arts) when nearly every venture in that industry attempted here has either failed, or, at best has been self-sustaining without spawning ANY additional economic activity. MAC has not done so, Middletown Symphony has not done so, Beau Verre has not done so, Sorg Opera has not done so. Rising Phoenix has not done so., etc., etc., ad nauseum. Please explain the Obsessive/compulsive urge to continue to use taxpayer funds where all public and private attempts have failed and how this continues to be in the public interest!!!
13. The ONLY “new businesses” that have been targeted in years for the former downtown Middletown are the arts, antiques, up-scale bistro-type eateries with limited appeal to the immediate demographics. This “strategy” has been a proven failure over and over and over in promoting any sort of economic growth in this area. Yet the city has purposely and actively “discouraged” all other types of businesses from coming anywhere near what strangely seems to be treated as some sort of “sacred ground”. What has changed suddenly to make this different??? Is this something like the “Middletown Promise” in that it does not really exist?
14. The Mater Plan Steering Committee notes that: “the EPA restrictions on the expansion of the combined sewer system is blocking the development of areas in the northeast corner of the City.” Can these funds not be better applied towards that end? Or towards road improvements?
15. As of Friday, 8/13/2010 (the day that the workbook was posted on the city website) Exhibits B and C remain “Not available”! I doubt that any of the legal minds on Council or on City Staff would recommend signing a contract with BLANK spaces. Yet here is a contract with KEY EXHIBITS that remain BLANK!!! It boggles the mind, and should boggle council, how an agreement could have been reached TWO WEEKS AGO. Council would be well-advised to ask themselves how this agreement between the city staff and Verdin could POSSIBLY have been reached without knowing: Developer’s final floor plan for the development of the Property by the construction of improvements thereon these shall be a part of this Agreement as shown on Exhibit B, or what the City shall necessarily repair or cause to be repaired, the items described in Exhibit “C”!!! Neither party could possibly know their liabilities. Staff is either HIDING information from Council, or is incompetent and an extreme liability to the city, and should be summarily fired in either case!!! There should be no other choice!!! They are NOT honoring their oath of employment!!!
16. Mr. Robinette stated that PAC-M will not be competing with PAC-C because PAC-M will be drawing from a “30 mile radius.” The fact is that PAC-M is 31 miles (as the crow flies, if I may use such a low-brow term) from PAC-C. If I recall my geometry correctly, that means that 25% of their draw is EXACTLY the same, including the toney West Chester and Indian Hills areas. (Let’s hope that the rest of Mr. Robinette’s “extensive demographic studies aren’t similarly flawed.)
17. City staff has been more than “reticent”, shall we say, to allow anything but arts-oriented businesses (include antiques in that) downtown. Council should be questioning this, in the opinion of the people, since arts have never flourished in downtown Middletown!
18. If THIS council” repeats the mistakes of past councils it will inhibit free trade by subsidizing this one, single "packager", thereby FOREVER guaranteeing him a MONOPOLY on art studios, coffee shops, and framing stores within MILES of downtown Middletown!!! This will likely cause HIGHER prices, FEWER “artists”, LESS overall commerce downtown, and concurrently INCREASE poverty, crime, and hasten the decline of both downtown and the ENTIRE city!!
19. The Broad Street Bash shows that Middletonians will go to the former downtown area for the right reasons. When was the last time that the “fine arts” drew 3,000 or more people downtown in one weekday night? 2,000? 1,000? “The People will return to downtown for the right reasons! We can FACTUALLY prove that, we have empirical data. Council just needs to understand that what city staff is selling “ain’t the right reason!!!”
20. How was this PAC-M thing initiated? Was a Request for roposals/Qualifications for the utilization of up to $500,000 in available funds for bona fide downtown redevelopment made? Where was it advertised? Or was this just a “done deal” for ONE person??? If so, WHY??? Is that legal??
21. Can anyone provide the attendance figures for the 143^rd American Watercolor Society, Midwestern Exhibition, a three-week (plus) event recently held here in Middletown? This was a purported draw from the ENTIRE mid-west!! If attendance over THREE WEEKS for that wasn’t in 6 figures, how many serious art-lovers (those who will buy, not just those looking for free wine) do you REALLY think will show up every month here.
22. Who insists on finding individuals who must be PAID to implement variations of FAILED models of business that have no record in our city of promoting economic growth, increasing local employment, or of adding to the local income tax base, and must do so using financing from taxes confiscated from the working poor and middle class with little hope of any return on such investment??
23. If one does the math, even if this new art center achieves all that is expected, after several years, it will only be bringing between 35 to 50 visitors to town one Saturday per month. (Based on PAC-C size, numbers.) How can anyone consider this a proper use of taxpayer funds or expect it to spawn more businesses???
24. How much “art” will our new starving artists have to sell just to pay back the taxpayers for Mr. Verdin’s $200,000 loan and $250,000 in improvements? I’ll tell you: IF they are all honest, declare ALL sales at full value as income, claim NO expenses or deductions of any kind (not even the “standard“ deduction), THEN ONLY a little over $25.7 MILLION dollars worth of art will have to be produced and sold out of the proposed PAC-Middletown for the taxpayers to get their CASH investment back!!!