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June 18, 2009
You probably have heard news by now as to the outcome of the Authority board meeting this morning. Sembler’s abatement extension request was tabled, but another attempt could re-surface in the future after Maria Mullins develops a comprehensive incentive policy. This more aggressive policy will require scrutiny. Even if Sembler comes back with another abatement request, it won’t be this one.
I started to scan and email documents, but checked Jim Walls’ blog where everything is located. Please check out Burrell Ellis’ memo and the Commissioners’ Resolution.
http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/atlmainstream0618.html
There were probably just over 50 people in the room, and I do not know how many stood outside. A Fire Marshal was there for crowd control. Three TV cameras and several newspapers reporters and bloggers attended also. Fuqua attended with presentation board’s, but did not get a chance to speak. He was not visibly surprised by the vote.
Chairman Eugene Walker opened the meeting with comments, in which he stated that he did not believe his actions in accepting Sembler money at the time he voted on Sembler’s 10 year abatement to be a problem. He said it was not illegal, which is true, or was an ethics violation, which is debatable, and that there was no ethical reason for recusal. But he did, avoided the inevitable vote. He turned it over to Judy Turner and left the room after chastising Mike Jacobs for being anti-development.
Dick Layton with Wachovia disagreed with the claim that Sembler shouldn’t trumpet the future revenues generated by the apartments to prove the value of the proposed abatement – even though the apartments are owned by other developers and cannot be included in the abatement. Wachovia’s review focused on verifying KPMG’s numbers.
Layton said Wachovia believes fewer taxes would be abated, but the benefit to the county and schools would be less. So Layton basically verified Sembler’s numbers. Due to the uproar by…everyone…Layton said he was asked to expand his task. He also analyzed the impact of not completing the project, although he said he knew Sembler didn’t intend to walk away. Layton said all the numbers are based on probability, and “nobody knows what’s going to happen in the future.”
After Maria Mullin read Burrell Ellis’ memo into the record, Delores Aldridge moved to defer the request until the policy was approved, but according to board members this effectively killed the current proposal. The vote was unanimous. Vaughn Irons said he wished some of the board’s better decisions had received half as much media, and Michael Williams said the board should take the opportunity to seriously improve the Authority’s transparency.
To a television interviewer, Jeff Fuqua said that without the abatement Sembler would just have to build a smaller development.
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