Moral hazard in Metro's purchasing past

One definition of "moral hazard" is taking undue risks with resources acquired when incentives exist to do so. I'm wondering whether the Mayor's Office, the police department, and Metro Council (34 members) realized that definition in 2009 when purchasing the old Frensley car dealership in order to flip it into the West MNPD Precinct.

Neighborhood leaders were skeptical and challenged Karl Dean's budget man Rich Riebeling and former police chief Ronal Serpas. They wondered if the cost was fair market. They wondered about the site's flood-proneness. They wondered about the political patronage behind the deal.

CM Buddy Baker, a buddy of Bob Frensley, spearheaded the effort even though the car dealership was not in his district. An ethics complaint was filed against Mr. Baker for allegedly concealing the information that the former police commander of the West Precinct was a trustee for Bob Frensley. Mr. Riebeling pushed the deal through without a detailed site plan, and he was surly and arrogant toward concerned neighborhoods, acting like he was going to put down $4+ million on a cheaper property simply because he could with or without public support.

The incentives for moral hazard were there.

Then came the Great Flood of 2010 that proved community leaders were exactly right to be skeptical of the risk Metro Nashville was willing to take for the West Precinct plan. So then, extra money was needed for flood mitigation of a HQ on a flood plain at a time when Metro was tearing down buildings on other flood plain. But Metro could not or would not spare enough money to provide a large enough community meeting space to allow public meetings for many to attend.

The flood was revealing of the undue risks Riebeling et al. were willing to take with public funds to ignore planning and to patronize the circle of good old boys built up around Bob Frensley through the years. Yet, it was also incentive to continue to take risks to mitigate the costs of keeping MNPD on Charlotte Ave flood plain and stay callous toward the community.

Jump forward to 2013, property reappraisal time.

If you are a property owner, you have likely received your tax appraisal from Metro in the past week. Mike Peden looked at a tax appraisal for a property near to the West Precinct and emailed me this morning:

The tax appraisal for the property next door to the West Precinct on Charlotte went down from $3,816,900 to $3,452,100. (5330 Charlotte Ave)

That seems strange since the tax appraisal on the land metro purchased was $2.88 million and they paid $4.2 million. I thought the justification for that was that the property was under appraised.

In a separate email, Mike wrote that the appraisal of Wendell's Restaurant (5300 Charlotte)--where CM Baker like to hold court occasionally--dropped 6% ($437,200 to $411,900).

Smells to me like moral hazard drove the Frensley dealership deal.

Maybe his manhood is a little threatened by women

For CM Buddy Baker it's a second strike in the game of gender politics. Today he was quoted in a story calling the woman running against him, Mary Carolyn Roberts, a "girl":

On Monday morning, Roberts said she would visit the Davidson County Election Commission to compare lists of those registered to vote in District 20, and those who voted in the district Thursday night ....

"This girl, I'm telling you the truth, she just cost me a bunch of money," Baker said of Roberts, referring to his decision to hire an attorney to represent his case. Baker has tapped attorney Stephen Zralek, who works at Bone McCallester Norton PLLC, to provide legal counsel.

This was not the first time someone in Baker's camp referred to Roberts as a "girl." Several days ago the president of Nashville Limousine Service, Inc. also caricatured Ms. Roberts with his own diminutives in a campaign letter sent to voters:

We don't need a Belle Meade thinking girl that has no idea of the history and thinking of this community. I urge you to vote Thursday and I ask you to vote for Buddy Baker for councilman.

I might not have as much of a problem with Baker's side calling Ms. Roberts a "girl" if, every time they did, they referred to Baker as a "councilboy." Otherwise, Ms. Roberts should be referred to as a woman. Who knows, she may end up being called "councilwoman."

CM Baker tells why he won't be heeding public ambivalence/opposition to a new convention center

From CM Buddy Baker's latest newsletter to District 20 constituents:

I have been receiving a LOT of e-mails about the Convention Center. I want to tell you that after a lot of consideration and information gathering I am leaning toward voting for the Convention Center. This project was begun 10 years ago. The tourist taxes that were approved then has been collected and that is what has been paying for the projects that have been ongoing toward the building of the new center. These taxes by law can only go toward a new convention center. Because of the unemployment rate and cheaper material costs, I feel that now is the time for this center to be built. It will create 2500 - 3000 jobs while the building is going on and approximately 1500 jobs after completion. I have heard a lot about the convention business being in a downward spiral and I agree to a point. I also believe that the only way to get out of this recession that we are in is to build our way out. I have faith in our city and I know that we are in a special place for the tourist industry. People want to come here not only for the music but for the business as well. Some of the arguments that I am hearing I heard 23 years ago when we built our present convention center. It was too small then and it is still too small. There is no room to expand other than up and it would be too expensive to do that. We are better off as a city to lease that building to the Medical Mart and let them pay for the expansion. I personally believe that with the Medical Mart and the convention center there will be a hotel built by a private developer. I do not believe that the city of Nashville should be in the hotel business. Unless we can compete with other cities for the larger conventions, and they are still being held, we cannot expect to gain more tax money in the form of sales taxes. I have heard from 16 Labor Unions, 15 are for the convention center and 1 is against it. I am for putting our people back to work, i.e.: more work, more taxes paid, more money for the government to work with. As most of you know, I was a firefighter for 40 years, 2 years I worked on Rolling Mill Hill with the Public Works Dept. I know what it is like to have to work for a living and I know how hard these people work. I feel that it is my job to represent all of the 20th District when I make these decisions, some of them I don't like to have to vote for but I have to do what I feel is right. If I can help provide jobs for the unemployed that is what I will do.

Any thoughts from Baker's constituents or union members out there?