City Council Spending Our Money Again!

There is a City Council meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, November 18. On the Agenda for the Redevelopment Agency is the following:

Approve and authorize the Executive Director to execute an Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with SADI, LLC, in substantial form, for the development of an affordable multi-family housing project on the corner of Manchester and Orangewood Avenue.

Now y'all may recall that the last time SADI LLC came before RDA for an affordable housing project, it was that stucco monstrosity over at Elm Street Commons. Richard Chavez, backed by Lorri Galloway, pulled that project for discussion, and bumped the developer's profit from the standard 15% that every other developer gets, to an unprecedented 50% profit! All this (over Mayor Curt's objections) while Galloway admonished the developer to be sure to acknowledge how cooperative Council had been to them! If you will recall, Lorri Galloway recently received a substantial donation of Independent Expenditure during her campaign from "Elm Street", which popped for those ugly billboards all over town, and a hefty mailer.

So the questions for next Tuesday are:

A) Can Galloway even vote on this if she recently received an IE from the developer?
B) Will Galloway try to give away the farm again for this project?
C) Why do we continue to deal with private developers like SADI who demand higher profit margins, when non-profits like Mercy Housing do a fabulous job and agree to the standard 15% profit margin?

I for one intend to be there to ask, and will certainly report back here. Anyone care to tag along?

On a personal note, my beloved Mother In Law, Marianna Ward, has been diagnosed with advanced stage 3 cancer which has metastasized, and prayers are welcome and appreciated. I will be dramatically scaling back a lot of my volunteer work, and frankly much of my work-work for a while. If you are here looking for info on Marianna, I have begun a new blog at http://wardnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/ However, if I gave up watching City Council to watch my Mother In Law she would have my head, so I will somehow find the time for community activism. But I could use some help with extra eyes and ears during the challenges my family is dealing with, so if I can count on the community to give me a head's up for upcoming events, or dirty deals, it would help me immensely. Thanks.