Worse. Toss-up. Matt Look - Pattiann Kurak. Pick your poison. AND that includes the Bob Ramsey Mayor pack; Look being one of them in spirit and reach, even after having secured the bigger county board paycheck. All which has been worse about the Town Center adventure has much to relate back to that Kurak-Look pair. Nedegaard and the Town Center start, pin that tail to Kurak. Lazan and Landform, pin to Look in consultation with Mike Jungbauer who never even ever lived in Ramsey but for a time was close to Lazan/Landform.
Agree or disagree? That's what comments are for.
___________UPDATE___________
2:11 PM Sunday, August 21, 2016: Per comments here and here; participants in the Flaherty groundbreaking are pictured, Matt between Flaherty and Cronk, along with a bloc of the city council from then also in the photo op groundbreaking:
While not contradicting Matt's comment, it fleshes out a belief that he was amenable to decision making of the council, per the photo op of the Flaherty groundbreaking, then. Opinions differ on the wisdom of the Flaherty effort. It is rented out now, but buildings have multi-year histories where the tail-end life of it, and its place in the Town Center evolution ten or fifteen years from now, are to be determined. I think the final groundbreaking photo op participant, per the shovel on the right hand edge of the photo, was Dave Elvig. Neither Backous, nor Tossey, nor Strommen were a part of things there that day, if memory serves correctly.
_____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
With Matt Look saying in his comment he disagreed with some of the Landform-Ramsey contracting, it is news to me, where contemporary reporting showed no qualified opinion or viewpoint; Strib Jan 2013, online here:
Landform did preparation work for a 230-unit apartment complex under construction and the planned construction of two SuperAmerica stations, a McDonald's restaurant and an assisted-living complex. Landform also "cleaned up" city-owned land, making it salable, said Ulrich.
By the time Landform's current two-year contract expires, the city will have paid the Minneapolis-based firm $1.51 million since August 2009, according to Diana Lund, Ramsey's finance director.
Lund says the city has been authorized by its HRA to pay the company a total of $617,518 for "incentives" relating to specific projects. Landform was already paid $374,439 for the apartment complex being built by Indianapolis developer Flaherty & Collins, and for another project that was discontinued. The city will pay another $80,000 to Landform when the complex is completed. The remainder owed Landform is related to the other deals, Lund said.
Landform is also paid a $15,000 monthly administrative fee -- $360,000 over two years.
Landform was hired to work on property, rebranded the COR, that was part of the Ramsey Town Center project, a quagmire of controversy for years. At $1.3 billion, the Town Center was supposed to transform acres of soybean fields and vacant land along Hwy. 10 into a bustling suburb with a downtown, small shops and parks and 2,800 nearby homes. But the project collapsed after developer Bruce Nedegaard went bankrupt and died in 2006, and three bank executives involved in the project were eventually convicted of federal fraud charges.
By 2009, Ramsey's council had changed. Newly elected Mayor Bob Ramsey and fellow Council Members Matt Look, Colin McGlone and Jeff Wise were the core of a group that recruited Landform. Mayor Ramsey, McGlone and Wise lost bids for re-election last year. Look is an Anoka County commissioner.
There's nothing in the reporting to suggest disapproval.
Also, "two SuperAmerica stations, a McDonald's restaurant and an assisted-living complex," is a bit different from still vacant land. I am glad Matt submitted his clarification comment. This image.
Misimpressions can be formed and kept in mind for years, only to learn differently after time passes.