Who Else Thinks These City of Glendale Stories Are Related?

It was not a good week for the City of Glendale. On Thursday, two stories were published in the Arizona Republic that reflect negatively on their money and managerial abilities. The first is somehow over 2 million dollars in bonus money was handed out to employees of the City when the majority of employees had no raises or bonuses, and there were furloughs and layoffs to boot. You can read the article here. http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/2012/05/02/20120502glendale-cash-strapped-questions-administrators-raises.html

Then, you could go over to the sports section and read Lisa Halverstadt’s article on the parking situation for the Cardinals. And how the CoG owes the Cardinals over 3000 parking spots that were bulldozed over to make a mall. And the Cardinal will see you all in court when they sue (apologizes to Boss Hogg). http://www.azcentral.com/sports/cardinals/articles/2012/05/02/20120502arizona-cardinals-threaten-sue-glendale-over-parking.html

So, anyone see any reason why it has taken three years for the CoG to get an arena lease deal?

This does raise a serious question. Who is overseeing the business decisions of the CoG and their elected officials? Who agreed to plow under the parking spaces? To get approval to build anything that requires money you must borrow, you or the financial backer must do environmental impact studies. This is done for any lending institution to determine who owns the property and do you have the right to build on the land? Somehow, the fact that the parking spaces were contracted to the Cardinals seems to have missed the financial backers of the project and the employees of Glendale who had knowledge of this project. When the bulldozers were parked in the lot, how did someone from the Cardinal either not call Glendale and ask what is going on or go to a judge to get a temporary injunction until it could be sorted out who owns the parking spaces and are they under contract?

The City of Glendale should be looking for new legal counsel and new project managers. The NHL and Greg Jamison should be circling like sharks in the water. They can get a great deal on the lease as Glendale should get out of sports arena ownership and parking lot management.

My favorite part of the story is here.

"City Manager Ed Beasley said Glendale transportation staffers are working to find spots and are likely to provide responses to the Cardinals soon. The city manager acknowledged March meetings with the Cardinals and the sports authority, but he could not say whether there had been discussions since or provide details on possible plans. Cardinals spokesman Mark Dalton said Glendale never responded to April letters, which were also signed by representatives from the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, the Fiesta Bowl and the NFL."

Might bet time to get those early retirement papers in Ed.