One thing that most everyone agrees on is that development is necessary for any community to grow. Development helps keep jobs going and creates new places for people to live and work. On Tuesday, the City of Albany agreed to pay U.S. Housing and Urban Development over $370,000 that had gone towards subsidizing development because the developer couldn’t wrangle additional financing. Meanwhile, a local developer is trying to build a housing development and is getting stonewalled by the City.
Tim Coley is that developer. For months, he’s battled the City of Albany regarding his development plan that is costing the City of Albany … wait for it … nothing. That’s right, nadda.
Now, maybe I’m just not understanding the City’s position on this one, but how is it better to funnel federal tax dollars to a developer who can’t get additional financing rather than making way for a private developer who’s looking to build on empty land. It’s especially worth noting that Cutliff’s development of low-income housing, while a noble effort, will not do nearly as much for the tax rolls as Coley’s will.
Don’t get me wrong folks, I’m not saying that Cutliff shouldn’t be allowed to develop. Far from it. I hope they can get the financing they want and need. If I had it, I’d invest it with them. What I’m saying is that it’s idiotic to bend over backwards to help one while throwing up roadblocks for another. Especially since the one they’ve been blocking for almost a year.
What’s worse, it seems that the City wants to turn Coley’s land into a land bank at Coley’s expense, rather than let him do with his property as he wishes. Meanwhile we, the people of Albany, are going to be paying out on someone’s business failures.
Maybe it’s just me, but on what world does that make sense?
When a crime isn’t a crime
Last Tuesday was a busy day for the Albany City Commission. It had more money and guns than a bad Hollywood movie about drug dealers or dirty cops. They had a gun found in a desk drawer, money going to the federal government, and a budget. Joy, oh joy.
Let’s start with the gun in the drawer.
While there is no official notice of who had a gun in their drawer, word has spread that it was attorney Nathan Davis. Allegedly, Davis kept a pistol in his desk drawer at the Albany Law Enforcement Center. He didn’t have a permit. And yet, he hasn’t been arrested?
You see, even if you have a permit, it’s illegal to carry into a government building like the Law Enforcement Center. Yes, Georgia law does provide for you to carry to work, but only with employer permission, something that Davis obviously didn’t have. So Nathan Davis broke the law. Plain and simple. However, it appears he won’t be punished because the city policy was written in such a way he was exempt accidentally.
And criminal charges? It doesn’t appear he will see any. You or I? Oh yeah, we’d have been hit with charges so fast our head would spin. Must be nice, eh Mr. Davis?
Moving on … The City of Albany managed to get screwed out of $374,715 because they operated as a conduit for funds going to a private entity. Cutliff Grove Family Resource Center was deemed ineligible for HUD money after it failed to get $2 million in needed additional financing for a low-income housing project. As such, HUD wants the money back.
However, instead of Cutliff Grove getting the money directly, it went through the City of Albany. Now, the federal government wanted the money back, and if they didn’t get it, they were going to cut off Albany’s ability to get HUD money.
Do you think that the City of Albany has learned their lesson regarding handling money for third parties? Yeah, I don’t either.
Commissioner Roger Marietta seemed to be the voice of reason to some extent, arguing that while repaying out of the general fund was fine, there needed to be some mechanism for collecting this money from Cutliff Grove. Apparently, church officials are “unwilling” to go along with that.
In other news…
City Manager Al Lott unveiled his 2011 budget yesterday. It’s bigger and better than this year!
Apparently, the budget increased by over $300,000 despite few signs of the recession coming to an end, or without the malaise that Albany’s been in for decades showing any signs of letting up. I can hear you all now, you’re expecting me to be up in arms about this, right?
Well, for once, I’m not. At least, not so much.
You see, the new budget actually rolls back the millage rate and couples it with some fairly strategic cuts at places like the Civic Center and other attractions. Now, he still increased the size of the general fund and beefed up the solid waste fund and transit spending.
Since the $300,000-plus comes from spending cuts, I’m somewhat happy with the results. Now, is the city spending money it shouldn’t? Absolutely. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and straightening out the budget won’t happen in a day either. I still think efforts should be made to privatize as much of the city budget as possible, and hopefully that will happen down the road, but until then cuts in the millage rate are a huge step.
You see, people look for lower taxes. It’s why people started filling up Lee County all those years ago. For Albany to recover, we need to adjust how much people are taxed for owning property. It’s just that simple. Now, this millage rollback won’t be enough to make people swarm back into the city limits, but as I said earlier, it’s a move in the right direction.
So, as you can see, the City Commission had their hands full. I’ll let you decide how well they handled it.
Written by Tom Knighton. Read his blog at 
