City Council leaning toward lease approval
Tonight I talked with Rochester City Councilman Adam McFadden, who said the City Council has already taken a straw poll regarding the proposed new Rhinos lease, and the preliminary, informal vote indicates that the majority of the councilpeople are in favor of approval and allowing the Duffy administration go forward with new Rhinos owner Rob Clark on the lease.
McFadden told me that as far as he knew, the council had not yet scheduled a special meeting to discuss the lease, meaning the council wouldn't take it up until the council's first regular April meeting.
While McFadden said that he has not yet personally seen a copy of the proposed lease, during a briefing on the Clark deal he made sure to directly ask administration officials about the possibility of the city — and its taxpayers — somehow taking over repayment of the de facto mortgage with NBT Bank.
McFadden said that the city's lead attorney, Tom Richards, responded that there is, in fact, no possibility that will happen. The city, Richards responded, will in no way end up repaying those millions of dollars in loans.
I note here that Richards won't talk to me, so I have to get his thoughts second-hand. However, I actually trust his comments more if they come through a councilman rather than from Richards' mouth directly, because a city attorney is less likely to fudge the truth with a city councilman than with some kooky blogger.
That, however, doesn't mean that I believe Richards himself specifically has been lying in this specific case. It just means that in general, the consequences for ANY city attorney are much more dire if he/she fudges the truth to a city councilman rather than to a kooky blogger, and, therefore, ANY city attorney would be less likely to lie to a city councilman like McFadden than to, say, a nut like me.
However, I will also note that it isn't impossible that some city attorney might lie about something. In my illustrious experience as a political reporter — way back when my hairline was just STARTING to recede — I witnessed city attorneys lying on several occasions, so it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility in any case.
(As this little stroll down memory lane indicates, my extreme cynicism has been bred directly from past experiences, experiences that I might share someday. But not now.)
Anyway, bottom line, is Richards telling the truth? That's entirely up to you to decide.
McFadden told me that as far as he knew, the council had not yet scheduled a special meeting to discuss the lease, meaning the council wouldn't take it up until the council's first regular April meeting.
While McFadden said that he has not yet personally seen a copy of the proposed lease, during a briefing on the Clark deal he made sure to directly ask administration officials about the possibility of the city — and its taxpayers — somehow taking over repayment of the de facto mortgage with NBT Bank.
McFadden said that the city's lead attorney, Tom Richards, responded that there is, in fact, no possibility that will happen. The city, Richards responded, will in no way end up repaying those millions of dollars in loans.
I note here that Richards won't talk to me, so I have to get his thoughts second-hand. However, I actually trust his comments more if they come through a councilman rather than from Richards' mouth directly, because a city attorney is less likely to fudge the truth with a city councilman than with some kooky blogger.
That, however, doesn't mean that I believe Richards himself specifically has been lying in this specific case. It just means that in general, the consequences for ANY city attorney are much more dire if he/she fudges the truth to a city councilman rather than to a kooky blogger, and, therefore, ANY city attorney would be less likely to lie to a city councilman like McFadden than to, say, a nut like me.
However, I will also note that it isn't impossible that some city attorney might lie about something. In my illustrious experience as a political reporter — way back when my hairline was just STARTING to recede — I witnessed city attorneys lying on several occasions, so it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility in any case.
(As this little stroll down memory lane indicates, my extreme cynicism has been bred directly from past experiences, experiences that I might share someday. But not now.)
Anyway, bottom line, is Richards telling the truth? That's entirely up to you to decide.
posted by Ryan Whirty at
9:00 PM
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