Revel is a planned Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Or, it will be after construction resumes on the project, stalled since 2009 due to a loss in financing at the time of the 2008/09 crash. The developers of the project are able to get back into construction because of a massive, Quarter-Billion Dollar investment by a new partner.
Good for them, you think. Who’s that deep-pocketed investor, who is flush with enough spare change that they can gamble $261 Million Dollars on a new Atlantic City casino hotel at a time when the existing properties are having major problems attracting and keeping business of their own?
Why, You Are!
That’s right! The State of New Jersey has become a 20% investor in this project for its $261 Million as a result of a complicated tax-reimbursement deal. Pretty sweet, yeah? Well, not everyone is happy. This deal, announced by Governor Christie, has its critics on all sides of the political spectrum.
Former Republican candidate for Governor Steve Lonegan said “It’s just another in a long line of failed attempts to subsidize Atlantic City. The Revel Casino hit the jackpot here at government expense.”
NJ Policy Perspective Exec Director and former Jon Corzine spokesperson Deborah Howlett stated, “When we have to take such deep cuts in our investment in educating our children, in police, in sanitation workers, for Pete’s sake, but we’re still finding hundreds of millions to give to corporations, there’s an imbalance there.” Even the Trentonian editorial board is skeptical.
Hey! you think. Whoever swung this deal for Revel has to be pretty influential. To get this NJ Administration, and this Republican governor – who is famous for his claims to pinch a penny, cancel a tunnel and drown public school teachers’ puppies (OK, maybe not that last) – to gamble a quarter-billion of our tax money, wow, that takes some juice.
Who was behind this? I don’t know if they can take all the credit for it, but the registered lobbyists for this project are… wait for it… the good folks at the Cooper Levenson Law Firm, of Atlantic City! (See page 22. Thanks to Jim Carlucci and Mark Stradling for the links!)
Imagine that! They must have some serious influence at the State Capitol to have done such successful lobbying. A quarter-billion is a pretty cool payoff for their efforts.
So, what the hell are they doing in Trenton?
Why are they so anxious to keep their $50,000 contract?
Why are they so invested in Tony Mack?
Why do Cooper Levenson AND Mayor Mack continue to be so damned evasive about the issue of whether CL’s June 4 $7200 donation to Partners for Progress – made on the same date as the Linwood “get-together,” remember – was returned in time to comply with the City’s Pay-to-Play Ordinance? From the public documents available to us so far, there is no evidence – none at all – that this donation was returned 30 days afer the June 15 election. The only item that was released was a letter that Cooper Levenson claims they sent to Partners for Progress last June, formally requesting the donation be returned to them,
The problem with that letter? Well, according to the Times: “[Mack] said that his administration received the same letter shortly after he took office July 1. However, the copy of the letter the city provided The Times yesterday bears a fax timestamp Tuesday, Feb. 1, suggesting the city received it this week. The reason for the new timestamp was not clear.“
Imagine that.
There are a lot of questions out there, a lot of separate dots that are now, slowly, starting to come together and form a coherent picture. It’s not pretty.
Until the time when – and if – Cooper Levenson or Partners for Progress release a copy of the canceled check, dated before July 15, 2010, there’s nothing to talk about. Cooper Levenson can make all the calls they want and ghost-write all the press releases they like. Mayor Mack can bluster all he wants, and threaten to overrule his Law Director all he wants – although it’s unclear he can do that.
Without proof positive that the firm complied with the city’s Ordinance, the decision made Tuesday by City Attorney Marc McKithen should stand. All seven members should, as North Ward Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson said last night, stand “shoulder to shoulder with Mr. McKithen.”
While all this is going on, laid-off city employee Michael Morris has filed a $1 Million suit against the city, claiming he was laid off in violation of city and state regulations, in favor of a mayorally-appointed brother of 2010 Council candidate Juan Martinez. Another law suit the city will have to expensively defend. Hey, who will represent us? Cooper Levenson?
Yesterday, I quoted a couple of Partners for Progress board members who called their June support of Mack “a mistake,” and who believe as Mayor” in the past seven months, Mayor Tony Mack has demonstrated flawed leadership and compromised decision-making.”
This morning’s article in the Trentonian quotes Mack’s other transition co-chair and supporter Dr. Jack Washington, about his disappointments in the Mayor. “I didn’t expect these guys from Atlantic City to have such an influential position. I wanted Tony to surround himself with people from Trenton — people who knew the communities, people who grew up here. I was like ‘Who are these guys?’… Anyone who thinks these guys are here for a $50,000 law contract, that they are fighting so hard for one law contract, need to rethink that opinion. The (Atlantic City) guys arejust trying to stay in the game. They are like piranha fish, going after everything.”
Even one-time Trenton supporters of the man are dropping away and turning against him in disgust,
After seven and one-quarter LONG months of this –
- crony appointments of unqualified people;
- political and personally charged selective layoffs in violation of civil service rules;
- financial and budget chaos;
- contract and purchasing process abuses;
- indictments;
- lawsuits;
- evasiveness, pettiness and incompetence;
- and now, outside power brokers muscling their way into our affairs like “piranhas;”
After ALL this, and more, one has to ask:
Who DOES Tony Mack Serve?
Because it ain’t me, it ain’t you, and it ain’t the 84,913 souls who call this town Home.