You know the old saying about how you can get statistics to say just about anything you want?  Well, it was a bit like that at the Ed. Corridor meeting last night.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I want to like the Ed Corridor.  I LOVE education.  But the more I look at this concept and see the behavior of it’s leaders, the more nervous I become.

The financial  guys started by saying the main impact of the corridor would not be the spending by the college because that would not be as significant as the “credit accumulation”.  This term means that an educated workforce makes more money than a non-educated population, and they had a cute, cheesy graphic showing a big head with an arrow pushing “credits” into the head while the income counter went higher and higher.

This was very interesting because they kept referring to the benefits of credit accumulation as regional.  It should mean that any regional education expansion would bring the same benefits. But when this question was asked during the Q&A, the financial guy equivocated and said the synergistic advantage of being in one corridor would make a bigger impact.  But he didn’t even say it that well, he nervously grappled for words and looked like he was caught trying to cover himself.

The financial impact was so skewed toward the corridor concept it was ridiculous.  They showed slide after slide of graphs detailing how the corridor would bring income from 1.) creation of temporary construction jobs, 2.) additional spending and 3.) additional productivity of the workforce.  They figured a total of $38.1 million by 2028.  I don’t think that sounds like much at all.  That’s less than 2 million a year.

They NEVER talked about the costs, the investment the public would have to come up with in order to build the corridor.  Not one word.  Remember the Kroc Center?  The city kept saying “It’s a $6 million for a $60 million dollar asset.  That’s a great return on our investment.”  (even though the public will never own one bit of it)  No talk of Return On Investment last night; No talk of costs.

Then they quickly skimmed over the predicted outcome if the site went private/retail only.  They figured their total based on two questionable assumptions:  1.) that only 7 out of the 17 acres would be actual “footprints”–I’m not sure it that’s building footprints or actual property ownership because I’ve never heard “footprint” used for a whole lot.  Are they assuming that 10 acres would be needed for streets and parking??  Of course, they did not tell us their assumption on land use for the Corridor concept.  2.) Any retail buildings would be only 2 stories high.  Odd, though, that their own graphic rendering–the one Dan posted here on OpenCdA–shows the Corridor retail having 3 to 4 story buildings!  Limiting the Private/Retail Only option to 2 stories would limit the property tax revenues they the financial analysis would have to report.

They did not include job creation in the estimate for the private/retail only option.  That makes the report appear faulty on its face.  And they seemed to only figure property tax values of 7 out of 17 acres.

We need to review this info and demand real public meetings.   We need open, honest meetings.  Much like those the school district is now holding all around the community.  Just come in, sit down and ask any question you want.

I wrote out my question on the required 3×5 card,  I hate that format, but I went along so as to get this question answered:  “When will you hold an open public meeting where citizens can openly ask any and all questions after they’ve had a chance to review these studies and reports?” NIC Trustee Mic Armon talked all around the question without answering it.  He said that the NIC board meets “eleven times a year” and the public can come and ask questions.   Are you kidding me?  Everyone knows the NIC Board will NOT answer any public questions at their meetings.  This is their policy and I’ve been told that directly by two Trustees:  They do not hold public meetings, they hold their meetings in public.

When Mic wouldn’t really answer my question, I broke the rules.  I spoke out and asked if they would schedule a public meeting.  Then, when they were fussing about trying to get around an answer, I spoke again.  Right there from my seat in the audience…oh my!  I suggested they consider following Hazel Bauman’s example (she’s the new school district 271 superinentdent) and hold public meetings at various times of day at various location in the community and have a totally open format.  Mayor Bloem said she would support that idea.  I couldn’t tell if the NIC folks would also because the Moderator ended the meeting.