In this week’s Albany Journal (also posted as a commented here by Kevin Hogencamp), it was revealed that city funds were apparently used to purchase things like shopping carts and inventory. Obviously, Buie is claiming that nope…he did everything alright. And yet, in the above link, Hogencamp says the owner of the Dollar Square specifically refutes Buie’s claim.
Keep on dancing that dance there Don.
I’m going to lay it out on the line here. The emails that Kevin got regarding the Georgia Open Records Act request for information? I was CCed on most of those, including repeated requests for information not included. I have seen the receipt from the Stretch A Dollar in Locust Grove, GA. What isn’t in that pile of documents is pretty straight forward. There is nothing refuting the claim in the Albany Journal. No documentation outlining that part of that receipt was paid for, and part wasn’t. Nothing.
Now, the Herald report claims that documents refute the allegations that money was mismanaged which is amusing since that probably should have been included in the previous request. Did it not exist then? After all, common sense should have told Buie that this was going to become an issue otherwise.
Still missing is the Dollar Square’s lease document. Obviously, many are quite convinced that it doesn’t exist, and I’m not about to doubt that. After all, Al Lott and Don Buie have been less than forthcoming with information. Buie’s a fan of luring businesses to downtown with incentives, so free rent may well be part of his plan.
Also missing is any documentation that the Dollar Square provided any matching funds in accordance with the grant. While the Herald seems quite happy to report other grants of a similar nature, including $22,000 to Subway, there’s no mention of how irrelevant that is. The grant to Subway isn’t being questioned. I have no doubt that Subway provided matching funds. The Dollar Square, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely.
Buie can tap dance all he wants, but when he was less than forthcoming with information requested – things such as the lease – and can’t provide documentation in an open records request that the Herald is now saying they’ve seen, he has a problem. If the Downtown Manager can’t put forth the evidence when it was requested, how can we trust the documentation now when other sources like SWGA Politics and the Albany Journal didn’t see it?
This story will be updated as new information becomes available.
I think we need to ask ourselves the question of whether or not Buie is merely a symptom of a much broader disease called ADICA?
Buie is a symptom, yes, but I don’t the ADICA is the disease. I think the disease is much deeper than that.
Why is it that nearly every time that Don buie’s name is mentioned, it has to do with something …………I don’t want to say illegal……maybe kosher is the word I seek. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Is there a leave agreement with Dollar Square where they actually pay rent? And why are we giving “grants” or bribes maybe to lure businesses to one part of town? Why have we never done that for the east side of town? The east side of Albany has always felt like a red-headed step-child in that the powers that be seem to ignore them as far as trying to find businesses to relocate on that side of town.
Perhaps we need an Eastside Manager to work with the Downtown Manager and they can then divide the spoils!
If there is a lease agreement, Buie seems to be unable to find it. It was requested along with a host of other financial records. So far, nothing. There is evidence of ADICA paying the county for the space (Dougherty County actually owns the building, and ADICA leases it from them, then in turn leases it to Dollar Square), but nothing of ADICA receiving rent.
Some other items of note:
- The grant only covered projects started “after the Facade Facelift Commitment Letter agreement is signed by the applicant”. The application was signed on January 20, 2009. If, and this is a big if, but if the Commitment letter was signed that same day, only $12,300+ dollars actually were from expenses incurrect after that date. The rest predated it. The grant application specifically says funds can’t be use “for work begun prior to receiving a Facade Facelift Commitment letter from ADICA”.
- There is no evidence that the Dollar Square matched ADICA funds, which they were supposed to do. This wasn’t supposed to be a straight grant, but a matching funds grant. You put up a dollar, ADICA puts up a dollar. However, there’s nothing showing that the Dollar Square put up a dime.
- Tim Washington, who owns the Dollar Square, told the Albany Journal’s Kevin Hogencamp that Buie isn’t telling the truth. ADICA paid for shopping carts, knee pads, fruit juice, and a whole host of other things that should never have been funded with ADICA funds.
As for an Eastside Manager, that can’t be a good idea. The Herald and Journal would both run out of ink far to quickly just from reporting about improprieties…though it would stimulate the newspaper industry in the Albany area
I interned at ADICA when Wes Smith was manager and he will always keep an eye on that agency like it’s his first born. Someone wake me when all this mess is over.
.-= Slyram´s last blog ..Dr. Henry Louis Gates and Soledad O’Brien Discovery My Black America =-.
I saw the mention of the $22k to Subway today in the Herald. Are you kidding me? We are paying money to a national chain? I know its grant money – but that doesn’t make it free. It makes me wonder who else is being paid. It is such an unfair advantage over the entrepreneurs who do not get bribed to locate downtown. Since it is our money; what would it take to get a list of all businesses along with the amounts, who received grants, loans, rent subsidies, juice reimbursements, etc.?
Buie has helped portray the image that downtown Albany is nothing but a propped-up facade. What is really sad is the commercial disinterest in downtown even with taxpayers paying the overhead.
What a great salesman for downtown! Is he still looking for that lease agreement?
One of the items mentioned in the Herald article on ADICA reimbursements was kneepads. Does anyone know if these were for taxpayers recovering from financial abuse at the hands of Buie, Langstaff, Marietta, etc?
By the way, Langstaff thinks our property taxes haven’t increased. Does anyone else find that as comforting as I do?
“What a great salesman for downtown! Is he still looking for that lease agreement?”
Again, does the fact that we are effectively paying tenants to move downtown suggest anything about downtown’s financial viability???
Commissioners?? Are you listening??
Cartman: In all fairness, Subway is a franchise, meaning a much smaller operation actually owns it. Granted, it’s probably sufficiently big enough to have paid it’s own $22,000 for it’s fascade, but it’s not the monolithic sub sandwich corporation it may seem.
Jack: I’m no fan of this tactic either. If a business can’t make it on it’s own, then let it fail. Period. End of discussion.
Tom:
I happen to know that the Subway franchise downtown was sold to the current owner by its original operator. Presumably it was sold at a profit. Presumably the current owner thinks a profit can be made there.
Is there any schedule for the $22k to be repaid or is it basically a giveaway? How do you apply for such a grant? Who has the copies of the application or written terms of the grant or is that paperwork lost as well?
Did the ADICA board approve this?
Tom – your point regarding Subway possibly being a small business franchise is a legitimate one. The way it was so casually mentioned only makes me curious regarding the number of other downtown businesses that have grants, subsidies, rent assistance, etc.
Buie did all of us a favor. His ineptness inadvertently exposed the extent of downtown waste.
Jack: Perhaps a profit can be. Honestly, I think it can as well.
As for the $22K, I assume that since it was a grant, it was a give-away. Otherwise, it would be a loan. I could be wrong, but that’s generally how I see the terms applied. Subway’s grant information isn’t something I’ve looked at nor asked for, so I have no idea how readily available it is.
Cartman: I’m not sure it’s a small enterprise or not. I was only pointing out that it might be a locally operated shop rather than a large corporation.
That said, I’m with you on the number of other businesses that get money from the public coffers. I plan on looking more indepth at this one down the road. I know that the Hilton gets subsidies, and we know that Subway and the Dollar Square got grants. That’s three more than should be getting public funds in my opinion.
ADICA in its entirety should be ripped out, root and branch and completely shut down. I am not impressed with its board, either, including Phil Cannon.
One of the reasons I’m unhappy with Phil specifically (apart from the conflict I referenced earlier) is that he has handled this entire Buie “check” situation with a degree of incompetence that seems astounding for an attorney.
Apparently, Phil never met Nicole Brown and let his receptionist prepare the affidavit. He then reported it to the GBI without any form of independent investigation. I have read that he did not even read the affidavit before turning it over. I am hopeful he handles the cases for his paying clients better.
The point here is that Buie will now gain undeserved sympathy if the Nicole Brown story proves false. This will be a significant part of the ADICA whitewash I expect over the coming weeks.
In my view, the real scandal here is that Buie seems to have been allowed to make expenditures at will with no apparent oversight from ADICA’s board or anyone else. According to Phil Cannon, he was denied access to ADICA’s books for months, but for some reason did not go public with that info until the check allegation arose.
Again, I won’t feel any better about ADICA with Phil’s “people” running it instead of Buie. A bad idea is a bad idea. Stop the bleeding.
It’s my understanding that Phil turned it over to the GBI based on advice from Wes Smith and others, rather than just going off half cocked. I don’t know where you read that he didn’t even read the affidavit, because he didn’t tell me any such thing when I sat down with him to talk about this very case.
As for independent investigation, what was he to do? Honestly, he couldn’t get access to Wal-Mart’s wire transfer records, or Nicole Browns bank account, or anything else that would have yeilded results. It’s part of the reason why I haven’t conducted any investigation into the case either.
That said, I’ve just posted my latest thoughts on downtown and I’ll let those stand on their own
Tom, based on his quotes from the following article, it appears he may have written one version of the affidavit, but not the one he sent to the GBI, which his receptionist apparently edited.
What could he have done? Gone public about the real scandal at ADICA (no accounting, board not seeing the financial info, ect.). In my mind the check issue is a distraction from how bad an operation ADICA truly is. I would also hasten to add that the accounting and accountability issue should have been very obvious to Phil and everyone else, long before the matter of the check arose.
“To this day, I have never laid eyes on Nicole Brown,” he said. “Over the course of from six to 10 phone calls, I drew up an affadavit based on what she told me. She came to my office, read what I had written, and then talked with my secretary/paralegal (Theo Lovett) about the contents. She told Theo to ‘change this’ and ‘change that’ and then she signed the document.”
http://www.albanyherald.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=4315&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&S=1
The “grants” were giveaways, not loans. They were not approved by the ADICA board — only, somehow, by the city manager. The ADICA board hasn’t even deliberated, much less approved, policies for the program. Thus, there’s not even any money in the budget allocated for these giveways.
There is a legitimate matching-funds facade improvement grant. Nearly all, if not all, of the money given to Dollar Square and Subway were for interior improvements. And in the case of Dollar Square, at least, there were no matching funds.
And, Dollar Square apparently has not been required to pay ADICA rent. ADICA rents the Dollar Square space (only) for about $2,080 a month.
Lots of new info about this. For example, Dollar Square submitted a quote for a sign to be erected by Jack Ivey signs, and was “reimbursed.” But guess what? Jack Ivey says they didn’t do any work at Dollar Square — they only provided an invoice.
Another doozy is this. On the facade grant application that Dollar Square submitted, ADICA states that no funds will be reimbursed for work done prior to the grant application date. You guessed it. Most of the work was done before the grant application.
Folks, Tim Coley has spent countless hours digging up most of this public information in spite of the city’s administration’s and city commission’s direct and sometimes illegal resistence. He is doing the city commissioners’ job for them — purely on behalf of us taxpayers. He’s even being required to pay most of the public information he’s getting from the city.
And to think, the city commissioners recently doubled their salary.
Please support Tim, Phil Cannon, Bo Henry and Tom Knighton and thank them for their efforts.
.-= Kevin Hogencamp´s last blog ..Lee County Taxpayers Association formed =-.
Jack: That quote says that he didn’t lay eyes on the affidavit before Brown signed it, but it says nothing of him not reading it before it was forwarded to the GBI. The quote you use is almost verbatium what Cannon told me directly, but the document wasn’t forwarded to the GBI immediately. What happened there isn’t exactly an uncommon practice with affidavits. As for the transparency, I’ve been harping on that for a long, long time and I agree that it should never have been allowed to have happened.
Kevin: Thanks for sharing your information with us. As for thanks, I appreciate it. I’m just trying to help make Albany a better place to raise my son
Thanks for posting Kevin. Sounds like Tim Coley deserves a thank you as well.
Tim most definitely does. He truly is fighting the “good fight”.