Lioneld Jordan and Dan Coody at Republican Women's Meeting

Lioneld Jordan and Dan Coody spoke and answered questions at the Washington County Republican Women meeting today. Lioneld noted his open door, transparent government and that he intends to properly manage taxpayers money. Lioneld asserted that he would be a better mayor. Lioneld when asked about his rejection of the SouthPass Development answered that he was concerned that the city of Fayetteville couldn't afford a project that could be in excess of $25 million dollars. He stated that he was wrong to vote for the original resolution in 2004.

Dan responding to the same question about SouthPass noted that there was a contract and the resolution passed in 2004 was binding. To rejected the contract would subject the city of Fayetteville to lawsuits. Dan said that the current cost quote was negotiable. Dan went on to explain that he was trying to get a number of smaller business into Fayetteville to partner up with existing businesses. He noted that a number of companies from Sweden were looking into moving to Fayetteville.

I went back to the city council meeting minutes from 2004 to see what really happened. The resolution clearly states that it would authorize the mayor to execute an agreement with the SouthPass Development Company. Later on in the minutes Kit Williams noted that "if the Council passes this resolution tonight, they will be authorizing the Mayor to sign the contract." I didn't noted much discussion about the cost of the project in the minutes. They spent more time talking about the landfill and the park. I think they should have paid more attention to a comment by Barbara Moorman who said "the city was committing themselves to a large subdivision and all the costs of the roads, sewer etc. She questioned if this developer has anything in his past that has been successfully completed." Well, what's done is done. Now it's time for the city council to get the best deal they can for Fayetteville.

In other news, Lioneld slipped in that he had a press conference later today to announce that he had gotten Steve Clark's endorsement.