Our sister paper, Inside Tucson Business, has an interesting story this week about the Rio Nuevo Board and their seemingly neverending quest for financial paperwork to decipher exactly how much money they have. While Jodi Bain and the rest of the board seem to keep passing the blame to everyone else, Wells Fargo and the City of Tucson contend that they’ve handed over everything. So…who’s telling the truth?
Those claims, however, directly contradict what City of Tucson and Wells Fargo officials have told Inside Tucson Business.
Wells Fargo officials did not want to speak on the record for this story, but did provide a written statement explaining what records they have given the district.
“A disk containing a copy of the monthly statements – from inception – for each of the trust accounts maintained by the trustee under the various bonds issued by the District was sent to Ms. Bain at her business address, the offices of Munger Chadwick, where she works as an attorney. The disc was delivered on or about October 5, 2011,” wrote Alan Elias, senior vice president and head of wholesale banking communications for Wells Fargo Bank.
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City of Tucson Finance Director and Assistant City Manager Kelly Gottschalk also disputes claims that Rio Nuevo doesn’t have the information.
“The city has produced every request that they’ve asked for,” Gottschalk said. “Often times, the same information over and over.”
Gottschalk said city finance officials have given computer discs with Wells Fargo and other account information to Bain and uploaded the same information using a secure file exchange on the website of an accounting firm the Rio Nuevo district hired.
“We’ve offered to sit down and explain the information to them, they’ve not taken up the offer,” Gottschalk said.
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2011.
Does anyone actually believe tha City Council? Check the facts, 230 million gone little to nothing to show for those funds, no accountability from the cowardly Mayor down to the last council member, leasing the TCC to the Rio Neuvo board, then the city leasing it back with the stipulation that the city is responsible for maintence and upkeep, documents hidden away in the TCC, now in the hands of of the FBI. So so exactly can be trusted here? Not the inept, corrupt City Council, and guess what? The same inept, corrupt council members were just reelected. Business as usual, no accountability and lots of fingerpointing.
Last week I went to a concert at the beautiful Fox theater and Sunday I visited the rebuilt Presidio at Washington and Church, nice projects done through Rio Nuevo funding. Developers screwed over the city with pie-in-the-sky scenarios, but it is false to claim there is nothing to show for it. The city could do more except the Rio Nuevo Board has become obstructionist. Like all Republicans, they want public efforts to fail, thereby covering up the corruption that ran rampant in the privately owned banks and mortgage companies. Remember Charter Funding?
The Rio Nuevo board is dysfunctional, factional, irrational, secretive, arrogant, clueless. They have no vision, no leadership, no competence. This is all about personal agendas, political posturing and naked political ambition, especially for Chair Jodi Bain. Take a look at their pathetic website and you’ll find out all you need to know about the high standards set by the “leadership” of this half-baked notion of non-elected public stewards that was cooked up in the backrooms of the Arizona Legislature. Rio Nuevo under the City of Tucson’s leadership is a bona fide debacle, sure, but these jokers make the Keystone Kops look like Rhodes scholars. Watch them implode….slowly. It’s gonna be a gas.