Integrity in Government?

If the City Council signs off on the Gateway deal than what does this mean for integrity in government? Does the Council reduce the concept to an oxymoron by allowing a lucrative no-bid contract to pass through unimpeded? Does approval mean that Council member McMahon was right to observe that Related is a "fourth branch of government?"

Of even greater concern is the fact that the Council, by approving this deal, will have ratified the superseding of its charter-mandated powers under Section 384. What you can bank on is that the Council will re-visit this usurpation but only after Gateway is pushed forward, making the BTM merchants absolutely right, albeit posthumously.

Another thing you can bank on is that the Alliance will come and testify at the expected "integrity in government" hearings and we will expose the hypocrisy of the entire effort. When the BTM deal was sent to the Council we mused about "pedestrians and motorists", and it is now clear that the activist past is certainly not prelude to the power-holding future when elected officials ascend to lofty political heights. The era of no bid contracts has now begun.