Interesting revelation today that the operators of the former Smirnoff Music Centre at Fair Park (now Superpages.com Center) might owe the city more than $850,000 in back lease payments, according to a DMN story about a city audit just completed for 2001-2006. You can read the DMN story here for the details, but just think about this: The city partners with a private operator to run a city-owned venue and winds up getting the shaft, but doesn’t even find out about it until years later. And due to what are probably imperfect records and a johnny-come-lately timeframe, now the city winds up "negotiating" to settle for a fraction of what we’re probably owed.
Do you see any parallels here with the proposed taxpayer-subsidized convention center hotel? Everyone’s going to claim that safeguards are in place to prevent this from happening again, but that’s what people always say when they want to get a deal done. And when the liquor hits the fan years later, so to speak, the people doing most of the promising today are long gone.
But I’m sure things will be different with that deal, seeing as how we’ll have 100 times more money on the line there…
