A particular anonymous [big surprise, eh] comment drew attention, and relates to the "thick heads" part of the headline, the commenter stating:
We wouldn't have all the empty space if stupid Strommen and her other idiots wouldn't have voted for the fancy City Hall we would have all the road repairs and improments done with money to spare right now. And you are also an idiot because you voted for her in 2012.
I posted my immediate thoughts in response, while not noting until now the non sequitur nature of saying that spending on the city hall led to the empty space; implying all would be fully built out but for spending on the city hall. That view of things is not merely unintuitive, it is plain stupid. There simply would have been more empty space, since the city hall building takes up space there which, if absent, would add more. And causation of present "empty space" had multiple dimensions apart from whether the city hall was or was not built, when proposed, when finished; e.g., reporting here. Something needing reemphasis only for the thick headed, but it's written, now, so moving on ...
Randy Baucous took offense at the initial comment and yesterday posted a proposed comment which is instead set out here:
Randy Backous
2:20 PM (20 hours ago)
to me
Randy Backous has left a new comment on your post "RAMSEY: City Hall office rental space is available...":
................................
Anonymous is probably the same guy (or one of his supporters) who voted for a Landform contract that just required us to pay Landform $163,000 and $47,000 for projects that somebody else brought to us. http://156.142.212.178:8080/agenda_publish.cfm?id=0&mt=ALL&get_month=9&get_year=2014&dsp=agm&seq=4580&rev=0&ag=964&ln=11379&nseq=4656&nrev=0&pseq=4687&prev=0#
They keep bitching about city hall, but at least that decision was made in a booming economy. Ramsey, Look, McGlone and Wise hired a guy to manipulate the free market during a severe recession and agreed to pay him $15,000 a month, plus expenses, plus exclusive rights to all engineering work within The COR - and who knows how much we overpaid for that work - plus 2% of the capitalized cost of anything built in The COR up to FIVE YEARS after the termination of the contract. We reduced that to 15 months instead of terminating his contract when it was up for renewal. (I voted to term the contract immediately, of course rather than renegotiate.) I don't blame Landform for this of course. They were doing what they should – looking out for their business. But the four council members who voted for this were either in over their heads or were not being fiscally responsible. Here is the actual contract. Read it and weep. http://156.142.212.178:8080/docs/2014/HRAReg/20140811_953/4580_Development%20Service%20Agreement.pdf
People don't realize that this contract requires us to pay 2% on the value of the land, building and all of the infrastructure and other improvements. That means that if a $15,000,000 building is put up, Landform gets 2% of that, or $300,000 in addition to everything else. Of course, all we ever got from the supporters of this contract was, "that's a better deal than hiring somebody." Not even close.
All we ever got from Landform was, "it's a bad economy," or "Ramsey has a bad reputation." I asked, "if there are hurdles you can't overcome, why are you here?" In the end, Landform brought us nothing other than his own business partner and even that deal had to be heavily subsidized in order to work. Our Economic Development Manager made way more incentive compensation for Landform than Landform made for Landform. I'm losing track because he's bringing in so much but I can get the numbers for you.
Not once did the “marine combat veteran” step up to the podium to complain about any of this. Not once. Why? Because he is getting all of his information and marching orders from them, which explains why I saw Wayne at Jeff Wise's house the night I was elected along with Matt Look, Bob Ramsey, Colin McGlone, Jeff Wise and yes, DARREN LAZAN. I suppose they thought I would buy in which is why they invited me, but I left quickly. I reported it to the League of Minnesota Cities but they told me they are allowed to meet in social situations as long as they don't discuss city business. It still stinks to high heavens to me. These are the same people supporting the "marine combat veteran" and the same ones whose signs he he hung his signs from. They are one big happy family and I had to laugh and hold my nose at the same time when they cried about “good ole boys clubs” during the last election. Be careful who you vote for.
After contacting Backous to confirm the comment as his and intended for publication we discussed a number of things off record, but on record and in response to inquiry, and Backous can correct me if I misrecall the discussion, he indicated JUNGBAUER was not at the meeting he describes, TOSSEY was not there although elected at the same time as Backous, DAVE ELVIG was there but left early, and JOHN DEHEN and DAVE JEFFREY as other serving council members were not there. Backous also noted he still recalls surprise at seeing Wayne and Maria Buchholz there, being guests invited to the event along with the already named individuals.
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It appears as if Look is/was inciting Buchholz to ignore federal law; but those seeing Buchholz signs around with stars replacing the anchor-globe-eagle Dept. of Defense trademarked badge, will know the candidate did not follow the stand-your-ground-and-don't-give-up-the-fight advice.
This is Matt Look, the officeholder who took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution and laws of the land, saying, some you like and obey, but big guy, when you don't ... they're "stupid rules/laws" ... so march to your own drummer, which hopefully is a viewpoint which does not carry over as thinking in mind during discharge of official county duties and services, on behalf of County Board District 1, and indeed, on behalf of all citizens of the entire county.
Civil disobedience was fine for Ghandi, but Ghandi did not seek office and a comfortable public paycheck while advocating it. But few of us are Ghandis. Ditto, Martin Luther King, but few of us are Kings.
As to the Landform/Lazan contract, the pattern which I call original sin, an initial contract valued at twenty-three thousand dollars - for professional services under fifty thousand hence not having to be put out for competitive bid, morphing into the form Backous has written about, a pattern can be followed from back in 2009, by readers - I hope these links work well - here, here, here, here and in the extended material here, especially at subsequent pages here and most especially, here et seq. to here.
With, early in the process in mid-2009, there being a Ramsey Town Center Steering Committee on which Kris Williams served, and with the committee working then in harmony with Lazan/Landform, a hope for voters is that candidate Williams will flesh out her current view of harmony or disharmony with the course of events Lazan/Landform contracting took from summer and autum of 2009 times. (2009 is from before Backous and Tossey were elected and serving on council and during the gap in Strommen's service terms.)
QUICK UPDATE: The initiating comment to which Backous responded should be thought of in context of what really is Ramsey's economic development page reflecting about how current Ramsey officials are approaching things, including utilizing on a commission only basis a clearly competent, licensed real estate broker, a professional where professional skills are needed. And delivered, as any reader can verify.
This is not an effort at marketing real estate by any person/entity lacking a brokerage license. CBRE is for real. As is their brokerage license.
FURTHER UPDATE: Blogger, the Google engine behind this and other ...blogspot.com blogs has a comment defect, i.e., not preserving paragraphing a comment author submits, and truncating comments. However, with comments moderated the service emails the full comment for review on whether to publish or not. Crude insults and name calling irrelevant to a post is screened out, and it was my cause to shift to moderating comments. That said, Randy Backous submitted a follow-up statement, set out next:
Your posting of my comments is accurate and my eyes have never been opened more quickly and clearly as when I walked into that party and saw all of these people together. I was a naïve fool before that night. That night defined my purpose during my whole term and opened my eyes to the hypocrisy of some of the local “fiscal conservatives” calling for transparency and limited government – neither of which they provided themselves. I called them on it; all of them and staff as well for pandering to them.
They were surprised by my behavior. I was treated as an outcast because I crossed the party. I’m still a Republican and always will be but after witnessing some of the intelligent individuals I formerly admired turn a blind eye for the sake of the party to what was clearly happening under their noses, I know I still have a lot of work to do.
Wayne never complained about the Landform deal. He has never complained about the hundreds of thousands of dollars still bleeding out to Landform to this day. Why? His Principals mean more to him than his principles perhaps?
I’m tired of these “patriots” waving their flag over there so you don’t notice what they’re doing over here. I’m tired of them complaining about the nickels and dimes in order to distract you from the millions they are wasting. Somehow I’ve got to get people to open their eyes and see what happened right here in little old Ramsey. I promise you I will. If it can happen here, what the hell is going on in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York?
Cronyism and corruption crosses party lines so we have to start looking into the mirrors and being honest with ourselves and calling people onto the carpet even if they’re on “our side.” We have to start valuing principles over Principals.
In a like sense, I have been critical of Obama for his healthcare alterations being insufficient and too intentionally accommodating to the health insurance/health industry mega-powers; and I have criticized Dayton for not taxing the rich beyond a token step, despite his promise. Incrementalism, than saying "Well we addressed that last term" is the key human condition standing in the way of a fuller response by government to needs. The incremental minimum wage situation now at play, preelection, is another example where Democrat officials need to be called out. Private sector effort for fair wages has put into a stark contrast the feeble official responses where there are any to the erosion of citizen buying power nationwide, with movement by aware workers such as the $15 in '15 effort in Seattle, which now has support across Lake Washington to expand within that entire metro area, and as being advanced by fast food wage increase effort presently active.
We do not now have single payer healthcare nationally and we do not now have the rich more fairly taxed in Minnesota (nor nationally) and we are about to be sucked into more Middle East warfare because the Saudis will not fight when they can induce surrogates to put lives at risks for their purposes and policies.
And that last thing is bipartisan. Oil industry having its hand in things. Adopting a "We the people" slogan might assuage dissatisfaction some feel. But sloganing such as that, or "Occupy," will not by itself get sound change, and some may see it being co-opted by politicians not attuned to it - popular sovereignty - being a real goal, but rather viewing it as a tool of rhetoric to set or entrench a position in officialdom pecking orders. All that fits with Randy's points.
____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
CBRE is not Landform, that point was made previously. Curious readers might enjoy knowing who Flaherty's firm picked back in 2011 to broker in the nationwide commercial retail market their flagship Indianapolis property development, "Cosmopolitan on the Canal."
This image. I think the approach was a solicitation of offers for buying an equity participation share in the site, (presuming an offer to buy the whole thing would have worked if someone made an offer Flaherty could not refuse). Something like that, rather than a plain vanilla listing at a set asking price. Compare CBRE online items from Q2-2011 ["unpriced"] with Q3-2011 "UNDER CONTRACT" for the Cosmopolitan on the Canal rental housing thing.
[updated] Web search yielded detail, Indianapolis Business Journal, in June 2011 reporting:
The owner of downtown's Cosmopolitan on the Canal has put the property up for sale, calling it "unequivocally the city’s finest residential asset."
Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties finished the high-end, 218-unit apartment community in 2010, and it is already 98-percent occupied.
The local office of CB Richard Ellis is marketing the property to investors without an asking price, seeking either to sell it outright or to bring in an equity partner. The project, which is bordered by the Central Canal, Senate Avenue, Michigan Street and North Street, cost more than $33 million to build.
Also on the block: An adjacent, triangle-shaped parcel bordered by Michigan Street and Senate and Indiana avenues. The property could accommodate a second Cosmopolitan phase with 162 additional apartment units and 5,365 square feet of commercial space at a cost of about $24 million.
Flaherty & Collins' preference is to retain an ownership interest in the property and bring in an equity partner, said CEO David M. Flaherty. The company has several deals in the works and would like to free up some capital.
The Cosmopolitan should command a premium valuation and could attract a new-to-market buyer, Flaherty said.
"There is no more trophy property on the multifamily side than this, and multifamily is the preferred property type today," Flaherty said. "From a desirability perspective, it would be way up there."
Whatever else is to be said, Flaherty chose CBRE, and Flaherty is no dummy, witness how he got City of Ramsey to put more skin at risk in the game than he did, in building his Ramsey rental by the rails.
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Reader help requested, I am not a regular Facebook user, so is that thread in the image still intact, or altered? Please leave a comment.