By TOM HELD
When I get bored on Wednesdays, I can generally get a good laugh by checking out what our local city government is doing by reading the local papers. That's when I get this vision of Ricky saying to Lucy: "Lucy what have you done now?"
The city pays a consultant over $400,000 for a little over a year's worth of work to tell us his vision of Ketchum. His vision includes many projects. The city starts just one project and has to apply for a loan (funds that now will not be available unti1 2008) to finish the project. So, after spending over $400,000 and realizing they don't have the money for his vision of Ketchum because the city has "budgetary challenges," they let him seek other employment. The city spends over $400,000 in "vision design" for a project that cost $940,000, and doesn't have the money to pay for it without reopening the budget on May 21 to "adjust numbers and shift funds to pay for Fourth Street." Lucy?
Now, the Feds are after the city because they believe the city discouraged potential developers from bidding on some land the Feds wanted to sell that just happened to have old rental units on the site. I don't know of too many people that go out of their way to take on the Feds.
So having angered the Feds to keep some old affordable housing, it's really quite ironic how the city is acquiring the Mountain West Bank lot. The city cut a deal with the Mountain West Bank developers that allows them to not provide affordable housing units if they would pay just enough in-lieu fees that would allow the city (with existing collected affordable housing in-lieu funds) to purchase the existing Mountain West Bank land. The city, of course, wants the fees up front. I would have loved to have been in on those discussions. So, the city buys maybe the most expensive commercial land in Ketchum by doing away with probably their number one goal, providing additional affordable housing.
Remember when Lucy took the job of boxing chocolates and the conveyer belt kept speeding up and Lucy finally started stuffing the chocolates into her mouth? All this makes me think that's exactly what the city is doing. It doesn't matter if it's the Feds, creative budgeting issues, taking away affordable housing units for their own purpose, or being creative with new taxes, all they are doing is trying to keep the chocolates from falling on the floor.
It will only get worse, because it would not be ethical to take away affordable housing units to buy land without the intent to build affordable units on that land. Here's what would drive Ricky really nuts; the city knows it cannot take that valuable land and just put housing on it. So, I can just see it now, a new Ketchum City Hall/Visitor Information Center with affordable housing units on the top floor. I don't think that was part of the "vision" for improving the commercial core. The chocolates just keep coming! "Lucy what have you done now?"
By the way, I have always supported the city whenever it tried to acquire land. The city can never have too much land. It's how the city acquires the property that counts. Beware of elected officials that call citizens "toxic" for daring to question the city's fiscal policies.
