Alchemy

With the Quad City Times’ editorially spurring Davenport to “Go For It” (below), the City Council approved a motion to undertake the due diligence necessary to negotiate a final purchase agreement for the Rhythm City casino on October 24, 2012.  Following that policy directive, a contract for accounting due diligence was prepared by the City’s legal team and presented for signature on December 12, 2012. 

The same day, the public was informed at the City Council meeting that Deloitte was on the team of experts we had assembled.  You can watch the December 12, 2012 presentation, archived on the City’s website, here.  Deloitte is specifically referenced, in foot high letters, on the presentation screen (page 3, here).  The entire presentation is here.  The idea that the Deloitte contract was secret is fiction.  Deloitte was referenced multiple times, at multiple public meetings.  The due diligence contract was signed at the specific recommendation of the City’s Corporate Counsel, who reports not to me but to the City Council on legal matters.  The Quad City Times had a reporter at the December 12, 2012 meeting, but did not report on Deloitte’s hire until months later.

Not a complaint, just an observation - there are only so many column inches in a newspaper, and not everything can fit on any given day.

The City Council would later ratify the contract and authorize payment of the invoice.  It is fiction to state that the contract was secret, that the bill was paid by anyone other than the City Council or that the City attempted to sell public records.  Davenport is a leader in open government and has provided more than five thousand pages of documents to Mr. Meloy at no cost.  Open records requests and responses are posted for all to see on Open Davenport, along with e-mails to and from my office and checks we write, down to the smallest expenditure.  No other local government in the region comes close to our leadership on openness.

The Diercks and Lane case, one of more than a dozen pending cases filed against the City by attorney Meloy, is now in the hands of a judge.  Mr. Meloy rested his case before calling me to the stand, so I don’t have the full perspective on what happened at the trial, but I was able to watch the closing arguments.  I know every document in my possession was provided, as is standard practice.  Mr. Meloy and his clients have multiple boxes of records, and I’m not aware of a single document that was entered into evidence that was withheld by me.  Heck, I've had people ask me for a piece of casino info and I've had to tell them I don't have the document anymore because my only copy has been provided to Mr. Meloy.

I was in the courtroom when Mr. Meloy objected to the introduction of an exhibit that demonstrated Deloitte was specifically referenced at the December 12, 2012 City Council meeting.  It seemed odd at a public records trial to object to a public record documenting a public presentation at a public meeting (archived on a public website), but the truth was contrary to the storyline he was cultivating, so you gotta do what you gotta do, I suppose.  The objection was not reported by the Times, but it was overruled by the judge.  

One overarching truth is without the City’s committed leadership, there would have been no progress on breaking the Isle of Capri’s Scott County monopoly.  The Deloitte bill was not small, but it was an effective public expenditure.  Had the City acquired the casino to hold in community trust similar to the Mystique casino in Dubuque, the Deloitte bill would have been roughly equivalent to the net community benefit (whether via lower taxes or improved services) each week.  Twenty million dollars of net annual revenue is $384,615 per week.

Those were the stakes the City was playing for; more than $300,000 in lower taxes or improved services each week.  While that did not occur, when the land-based casino opens at the intersection of I-74 and I-80, combined revenue increases to the City, County and School District will still be several multiples of the Deloitte bill, every year.  We’ll also get back nine acres of public riverfront.

Those are facts which could inform an editorial, but that’s hard to do when they aren’t reported to start with.  Again, not a complaint but just an observation - making opinion gold out of leaden facts is rather tricky alchemy.

If anyone has further questions or concerns, I’d welcome a call at 326-6139 or an e-mail at ctm@ci.davenport.ia.us.