Saturday, October 15, 2011

ER #16: Tickets to Party

City Hall Elevator Rumblings #16


Rider #1: Boy, the natives are really restless since the DMN published the names of all the folks who have been attending ball games in the $485,000 city-funded/chamber suite at Cowboys Stadium. City staff and council folks are even starting to wonder if their ‘gravy train’ has reached the station.


Rider #2: Tell me about it. What is even more problematic is attempting to justify the fluffy numbers the chamber compiled to demonstrate that “economic development” had actually occurred during all these events. Does it really qualify as “economic development” if a council person eats 6 lbs. of Cajun-boiled Gulf shrimp and downs four beers while in the suite?


Rider #1: I wouldn’t worry about that right now. What we need to worry about is if the DMN questions what the chamber might be doing with the $485,000 suite for other events in the stadium. How they handle council and chamber request for using the suite for Taylor Swift concerts, championship fights, college football games and other non-Cowboy venues could be an even larger “non-economic development” problem for the city-funded suite.


Rider #2: You’re right. If anyone spots an Aggie picking his nose while going into the chamber suite for a college game, then the whole “economic development” scheme makes the chamber suite look like a playpen for the well connected “do you know who I am” crowd.


Rider #1: Maybe the Capo will have a sit-down with his “family” members to see if they can pin the entire problem for this squandering of city funds on the former mayor and the Crankies. This would help redeploy some of the complicity from city staff and the bobbleheards on the council.




A note from counsel: These “candid” elevator conversations have been injected with fabricated nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, adverbs, modifiers and maybe a few dangling participles….Mark Holbrook