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Monday, May 20, 2013
Poll: Tax dollars spent on dead arena deal: Worth it?
by Brandon Darnell, published on May 3, 2012 at 5:33 PM
Storyline: Local Government
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A report on the now-defunct downtown arena deal will likely be light on future prospects for the railyards site, unless City Council members press for more talk on it, Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said Monday.
Dangberg is scheduled to give an update on the arena process, including possible next steps for getting one built in the downtown railyards, at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
The city spent approximately $690,000 on predevelopment costs, including travel expenses and consultant fees, since Sept. 27.
“This is a very large and complex project, and it is incumbent on all parties going into a project of this magnitude to do the appropriate due diligence,” Dangberg said, adding that a high-quality team of advisers and consultants was necessary to ensure that any deal wouldn’t leave the taxpayers on the hook.
According to city staff, there’s an upside to the money spent – the city was able to better understand how it could draw revenue from parking spaces downtown, and plans were drawn for the intermodal transit facility – which is scheduled to be built – that allow the arena to be in the railyards as well.
Analysis included in the agenda cites instances in both Indianapolis and Chicago where parking was either privatized or leased to fund development or fix budget gaps.
“Given that the city of Sacramento has few other assets that could produce this kind of large up-front payment through monetization,” staff said in the council agenda, “such funds should be used for a key project that will stimulate economic development and yield future returns for the city.”
Currently, the city faces a multimillion-dollar budget gap that threatens about 280 staff positions and city services.
Editor's note: This is an updated version of an article originally posted on May 3, with added information from Dangberg.
Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.
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Nevertheless, the only way to positively determine this is to study it. It did cost nearly $700,000 to study it, but what were the alternatives? They could have said no, and the team would have left last year.
I'm actually okay with this expenditure. It's the very next dollar we spend that I'll object to, because it is OVER.
I'm surprised at how little notice next Tuesday's agenda item has received. It goes back and unwinds everything. When that passes (and that won't be unanimous), it truly does put us back to square one. Just take every document the City and Think Big have written so far and shred it.
Read the resolution. It's pretty interesting. And it will take more than 30 minutes to debate. And there is a chance the Maloofs say, "Well, the bird in hand is getting away, maybe we can still work this out!".
http://sacramento.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?meta_id=383134&view=&showpdf=1
That raises an interesting question: Suppose the Maloofs, after chastisement from the NBA and after watching their dream deals implode elsewhere, decide to come back, hat in hand. What then?
Thank you for your comments.
The money spent by the city (the majority of which was originally authorized Sept. 27), was for consultants, travel and other work related to developing a plan for a downtown arena. The parking privatization/monetization was merely one aspect of that included in the staff report to highlight byproducts of the overall deal that might still be valuable.
This article is meant to serve as a preview for an issue to be discussed at the upcoming City Council meeting, outlining one of the items. Once the discussion takes place, Melissa Corker, our politics reporter, will give a more detailed article on what, exactly, the City Council discusses.
As for more information on the deal in its entirety, I recommend reviewing some of the many articles we have previously published on the arena developments.