I find it disappointing that Ken Ulman attempted to make a $4 million dollar capital expenditure without receiving the proper approval of the County Council. What I find outright disturbing is that the only person who publicly questioned this was the lone Republican, Greg Fox. If we had an all Democratic council, would this have gone unchallenged? No other checks and balances are in place on a $4 million dollar deal to see that the procedures are followed?
Now granted, I am NOT suggesting that the expenditure for the building in Oakland Mills is illegitimate. I am sure that this building is an appropriate use of already budged funds and it will ultimately be approved by the Council without any problems. Ulman did not try to hide this expense, and as a matter of fact, held a press conference to announce it. However, the point is that the Council must approve budget amendments to allow for this specific building to be purchased, and that approval was not sought when it should have been. Is this just a technicality? For sure. But it’s easy to be careless with money that isn’t yours, isn’t it?
1 comments:
fm,
This little real estate move bugged me too. Basically the county is giving Metroventures a big handout. The argument they offer is that without the county purchase of the first floor, the building would not be able to obtain financing to build. So what? That is what this business is all about. If they can't get the financing they should sell the parcel to someone who can.
This deal is a bailout plain and simple.
-wb
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