$137 million without a Feasibility Study is Madness!
A reputable national consulting firm should be engaged to undertake a full feasibility study and the results should be made public. To date, there has apparently been only one out-of-date marketing report not meant by its author to be used as a feasibility study, and its findings were inconclusive, if not negative. Meanwhile, convention centers are disappointments throughout the country. (www.NewsLanc.com) An unsuccessful project could result in higher taxes, reduced government services, a stagnant downtown economy, and inability to accomplish worthy projects for lack of public funding for decades.

City families are asked to risk $5,000 each.
The City would guarantee bond issues totaling $36,000,000; that's almost $5,000 per family. The guarantee could turn out to be like borrowing money against their homes.

Stevens & Lee: $5,324,533 in Convention Center Legal Fees
The Stevens & Lee law firm represents the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority (LCCCA) and the Lancaster County Commissioners. Stevens & Lee has received $5,324,533 in payments from the Convention Authority. It is our understanding that $3,000,000 is largely ascribed to litigation over the Hotel Sales Tax several years ago. (The hoteliers spent $800,000.) An additional $2,324,533 has been subsequently paid to the firm. Note: Stevens & Lee has also reportedly declined to submit an itemization to the County Commissioners to justify a recent payment of $288,000 on the sale of Conestoga View for $8,500,000. The Commissioners are currently considering replacing Stevens & Lee as County Solicitors.

Lancaster Newspapers: Mishandling of Conflict of Interest
Lancaster Newspaper, Inc. is a limited partner in the proposed Convention Center. Owning the morning, afternoon,and Sunday newspapers creates a public trust. Reporting on issues in which the newspapers have a financial interest requires an even higher standard of objectivity. Historically, each newspaper had an independent voice. More recently, much of the reporting on the Convention Center and related matters appears slanted and self-serving, and many of the columns and editorials appear biased.

Lancaster Newspapers: Spin, Distortions, and Attacks
Probably because of Commissioner Dick Shellenberger's principled opposition to the Convention Center, the newspapers have published strident attacks on Shellenberger on this and other issues with the apparent goal of precipitating his resignation and the appointment of a successor who will support the project. The newspapers have lost their moral compass.

Partial List of Convention Center Authority's Extravagances:

• Stevens & Lee (lawyers) - $5,324,533
• Sprague & Sprague (lawyers)- $646,341
• Growth Business Development - $591,385
• Metrovision - $409,447
• $216,000 annually in bond maintenance expenses

Bond Swap is meant to tie Commissioners' hands
The bond swap would substitute a fixed rate of interest for a variable rate and could lead to an $8 million dollar penalty to cancel the bond should the project be abandoned. The intention seems to be to make project cancellation impractical and to thwart the public will. (In a recent Fox-43 poll, 79% of Lancaster County residents who offered an opinion opposed government guarantees of Convention Center and Hotel bonds.) The four member majority on the Convention Center Authority is rubber-stamping the approval of huge contracts and the bond swap while disregarding the urgent requests of the three newly appointed members for time to review past records, to study current proposals, and to discuss the issues at their meetings.

Demolition: Folly before total costing
Marriott Hotel investors want to tear down Watt & Shand and the Thaddeus Stevens House now, which would create a giant hole in the ground in the heart of the city. They want to do this before final costing has taken place. Isn't it bad faith to create an irreversible action in order to prevent the possibility of these buildings being incorporated into an alternative project?

RACL: Don't pay $7 million for Buildings worth $1.25 million.
Why should the Redevelopment Authority for the City of Lancaster (RACL), a city authority, bail out convention center investors by paying them $7 million for a property appraised at $1.25 million? $7 million amounts to about $600 per city family household!

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