Unelected Wyoming committee abuses taxpayers

Last month the Wyoming City Council approved the final piece of an expensive and controversial sweetheart deal that awards over $700,000 of taxpayer resources to help someone open a restaurant.  It passed 6-1, with Councilman Vicky Zwissler the only No vote.  COAST wrote a same-night report after this vote, and prior to the vote we had encouraged Council to do the right thing and oppose this terrible abuse of the taxpayer.  

This bad deal: 1) gives away a property valued at $443,000 to the developer Dino DiStasi; 2) gives away an additional subsidy of $270,000 to the developer; and 3) gives away a piece of the adjacent city park to the developer.  All this to add another restaurant (like there's a shortage of them), at which the developer hopes to create a whopping 25 restaurant jobs.  For a subsidy of this magnitude, one should be opening a large office complex.

One overlooked item that should deeply concern Wyoming taxpayers - most of this deal was negotiated and approved by an unelected committee and not their elected Council.  It is the Wyoming Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) that gave away this property.  It is the CIC that gave away the $270,000.  Shouldn't City Council be making these decisions?  Council's only vote was to approve the final piece of the deal, the parkland giveaway.

The CIC has bungled this piece of property and this restaurant deal from beginning to end.  The CIC's first mistake was purchasing this property in 2008 without a clue in the world as to what to do with it.  Would any competent organization purchase an expensive property without any plan to utilize it?  The CIC did.  It only got worse from there. 

According to the May 2012 Word on Wyoming newsletter and January 2012 City Council Committee of the Whole minutes, city Commissars determined that the location should be a restaurant.  Nevermind that several restaurants had already existed there and all failed, and that no other restaurant owner was willing to build a new one there without significant taxpayer subsidy.  Consumers don't want a restaurant there and restaurant owners don't want to build one there, but the government central planners know better and will spend limitless taxpayer funds to get their way.

The best way to generate economic development at this (or any) location is to recruit as wide a range of businesses as possible.  Instead of pursuing this common sense approach, the city refused to consider any idea that wasn't a restaurant.  Then the city commissars complained about the lack of quality proposals as a reason to approve this deal. 

In other words, the city arbitrarily slammed the door shut on every workable possibility, then cited the lack of good proposals as an excuse to blow nearly $800,000 of taxpayer resources.  It's like killing your parents, then claiming the orphan defense. 

The gross incompetence of the CIC has cost Wyoming taxpayers a significant amount of limited taxpayer funds.  Taxpayers should ask their Council why they refuse to do the job they were elected to do.  Currently the Wyoming City Council only meets once per month.  After this fiasco, they should: 1) abolish the CIC; 2) meet twice per month; 3) use the extra time to do their own jobs for a change. 

Wyoming City Council subsidizes its own Mahogany's

Wyoming City Council, resembling Cincinnati City Council in both incompetence and unprofessional behavior, approved the final piece of a deal which subsidizes approximately $750,000 in taxpayer cash and property to favored friend Dino DiStasi to bring one single restaurant to town. This 6-1 vote took place at their monthly Council meeting on Monday night.

Combined with the city's Community Improvement Corporation (CIC), Wyoming's government has now voted to give away:

1) A city/CIC-owned property worth $443,000. Given away, not sold.
2) An additional gift of $270,000. Not a loan, a subsidy.
3) A piece of the adjacent city park.  Again - a giveaway, not a sale. 

In return for nearly $800,000 worth of gifts from Wyoming taxpayers, DiStasi promises to build one restaurant that will bring a whopping 25 jobs to town. That's 25 restaurant jobs, most of which are quite low in pay.

Several restaurants have previously been at this location and failed.  The fact that so many prior restaurants have failed here should indicate the lack of demand for another eatery in this spot.  In addition, since this building went vacant in 2008, not a single person has sought to build anything there with their own money. 

Let's recap.  Restaurant owners don't want to be there.  Restaurant consumers aren't supporting anything there.   But the Wyoming City Council/CIC knows better, and to prove it they've given nearly $800,000 of taxpayer resources to their friend to get another restaurant built there. 

If this reminds you of Cincinnati's much-maligned Mahogany's deal, it should. In that deal, Cincinnati City Council voted to give away a grant of $684,000 as well as a $300,000 loan to lure one single restaurant to downtown.  This irresponsible deal generated significant opposition from COAST, Christopher Smitherman, Roxanne Qualls, and many others.

These kind of crony deals are good examples of elected officials serving their donors, friends, and special interests instead of their constituents.  Does anyone believe there is a shortage of restaurants in the Greater Cincinnati area?  In reality, the restaurant industry is oversaturated.  Restaurants have a high failure rate and come and go frequently.  No rational person would spend $1.8 million of limited taxpayer resources just to lure two restaurants to town instead of spending that money to serve their residents.  But that's exactly what Cincinnati and Wyoming Councils just did.

Voting 'Yes' were Councilmen Barry Porter, Lynn Crider, Will Papa, Pamela Kamm, McCauley, and Jim O'Reilly.  The lone 'No' vote was Vicky Zwissler.  Also of note is the membership of the Community Improvement Corporation, the inept group that spearheaded this project:  Al Delgado (Chair), Chris Harmon (Vice-Chair and Economic Development Commission representative), Jon B. Boss (Secretary and Planning Commission representative), Tim Cavanaugh (Treasurer), Fred Robbins, Lynn Crider (Vice Mayor), Barry Porter (Mayor). Frank Klaine (City Solicitor) and Lynn Tetley (City Manager), staff representative. This is a group of people you don't want anywhere near your money. 

Vicky Zwissler takes on waste in Wyoming

Read the guest column, "City gives away too much to developer" here.

Zwissler takes on pork in Wyoming

It's not just the City of Cincinnati that seems to delight in crony capitalism, picking the winners and losers in the "free market," forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab, but also our supposedly more conservative suburban brethren.

In the Village of Wyoming, the town fathers are planning on subsidizing a local bistro to the tune of $713,000.

This is Wyoming's own version of Solyndra.  Why the hell is the Wyoming City Council in the business of subsidizing a restaurant? It's not like this residents of this affluent community can't afford their own brie and Chardonnay.

Read it in the Enquirer here.

Council member Vicki Zwissler is taking the lead in opposing the spending.

However, if the Village persists in this wasteful expenditure, local taxpayers will take comfort in knowing that “the design is intended to be light, open and airy, and feel as if it’s an extension of the park,” according to Community Development Director Terry Vanderman.


COAST says: Zwissler has this one right.

And COAST intends to name names when the final vote is taken.