PUBLIC/Private Partnerships

Partnerships between the city and private developers can be useful to bring new features to the city that we don’t currently have; but when city money is used to subsidize endeavors that compete with existing local businesses, the government begins unfairly picking winners and losers in commerce.  

When the city gives one hotelier $18 million to build/renovate their hotel(s), but leaves other local hotels to finance themselves, that puts the first hotelier $18 million ahead of the competition using everyone’s tax dollars, including the competition’s! Furthermore, the city should not be taking unnecessary risks with taxpayer money.

The city invested $275,000 into the Green Flash Brewery, only to see it go bankrupt in less than three year That money would have been nearly enough to fully fund an after-hours response unit for Child Protective Services, but instead it’s gone into thin air.

 Projects need to be vetted through an open and publicly visible bidding process, so that the city invests only in the strongest projects with the greatest and most predictable benefit to the city.