FAILED OVERSIGHT: Sheraton, MATA and Failed City
Local & National News | October 04, 2024
Local & National News | October 04, 2024
Its always the same solution set in Memphis shut 'em out and run 'em out of town. Memphis and Shelby County has publicly and excessively spent billions in economic development to attract external investment and people to the City. Yet, through intentionality and failed oversight, Memphis is running investment and population out of town. Given the former reality, the only winners of the billions spent on local so called economic development, is not the community but the same small local few. We all know the names: Smith, Hyde, Orgel, Belz, Turley, Dobbs, Hooks, Carlisle, Hardy and more.
Meanwhile, intentionality and poor oversight has permitted International Brands such as Hard Rock, Starwood, and Schulte to be run out of town with others following them. Given Memphis is closed for business, the best the City could do is to now acquire the Shearton, but it could have been avoided with oversight.
Back in 2019, no City Councilor, through oversight, thought to ask why the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) was prioritizing Loews over the Sheraton, which is physically connected to the convention center. And no Councilors raised questions with the DMC, about the opportunity of having a Hard Rock Hotel on Beale Street. Given the lack of oversight, Memphis missed out on having 2 new full-service hotels operating downtown. And now taxpayers are paying, with this Sheraton debacle going back years.
The Loews deal helped to run Starwood and Schulte out of town, coupled with, in my view, investor dismay with a declining ecosystem. After all, the Sheraton investors just simply had to look at City Hall and the unmaintained Mud Island garage City gateway to further inform their decision to not invest in downtown. To rebut this absolute collapse in public oversight, local government and the media are labeling the international investment firms Starwood and Schulte as “bad out of town investors” as if the group intended to lose $45M on the sale of the Sheraton in a non-depressed market.
Keep in mind on Tuesday, there was no discussion by Council, regarding the $30M acquisition of the Sheraton, lessons learned, or the systemic failure of the DMC. The Sheraton acquisition measure passed unanimously with no public discussion. As far as Mayor Paul Young, while DMC CEO, Young prioritized spending millions on unneeded public parking in support of the elitist small local few along with the Downtown Mobility Center Garage Mahal. Consequently, under Young, the DMC forgot mobility and now there are no trolleys running downtown. The former brings us to public transit and MATA, where more failed oversight can be found. So, the refrain starts, run ‘em out of town.
The goal of public oversight is to prevent public implosions. But in Memphis, only public implosions get a shot at oversight, which comes only after the public has been entirely ripped off by local elitists. The Council just does not care to practice public financial oversight. And MATA is a perfect example, while only now, Councilors are finally taking a shot at overseeing and understanding the local $70M MATA public transit agency.
Like with the Sheraton debacle, systemically poor oversight, going back years, has resulted in the MATA implosion. The fact is that MATA was in freefall with the introduction of the Transit Vision for funding in 2019 when senior Council members took office. For example, Senior Council members never reviewed or asked for the MATA budget or current financials. And based on a cursory review of published MATA financials, there were no monthly MATA financials published for public review going back years. Monthly MATA financials only recently appeared with the arrival of MATA CFO Hamish Davidson, who had to dig them out of a botched ERP implementation where millions had been spent. Will Councilors try to run off “outsider” Hamish Davidson. We shall see.
Councilors had no idea of the botched ERP system, uncovered by Davidson where millions had been spent, because Councilors do not care to practice public financial oversight. While there has likely been COVID waste at MATA, nothing is going to trump running empty 40-foot buses daily throughout the City.
However, while the jury is out on Bacarra Mauldin, MATA is now doing the right thing in cutting inefficient fixed routes, while being underfunded throughout the years. To patch the underfunding in 2022, the best the Council could do was to adopt a bogus funding source, as projected by EDGE of all entities, which came from expiring PILOTs.
Around the time of adopting the bogus funding source, the elitists were plotting to dedicate all the rental car and hotel/motel taxes to help fund $1.2 billion in excessive spending downtown for the FedEx Forum. More for the small few and not for the community. So much for public transit in Memphis which is often viewed elsewhere as a component of economic development. But not in Memphis.
Then, of course, with no Council oversight, there are questions for MATA which are captured below:
There are other questions but those will get the ball rolling on MATA.
Its not only Sheraton and MATA but everything else that has been locally crippled due to failed oversight. Its failed oversight over EDGE, MSCS, Sports Authority and Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP).
The MRPP failure was publicly launched by Alan Crone and Crone was rewarded and appointed over the scheduled $1.2 billion Sports Authority public ripoff. And then there is Paul Young elected as Mayor, after participating in the collapse of the DMC. To this extent, public botching clearly pays in Memphis.
And just know, with this blog and others, I can already hear them. Run ‘em out of town…..
Check the Facts
City Council Budget 11/21/23 - MATA $20M Loan Consideration (01:03:30) – Council never requested to see MATA Budget or current financials and approved the loan
