The Capital today has an article about the grand opening of the Mt. Olive A.M.E. church community center, entitled "An Example of Working Together". How sweet. Sadly, I fear that 'working' might not be the proper term for the arrangement.
The article says that the developer of Parole Town Center pledged $2 million to the church to get the project going. I thought to myself "self, developers are shrewd people. The left sides of their brains are Intel processors, and their bones are made out of recycled granite counter tops. Why would a developer give that kind of dinero to a church?"
Next, I went to the grocery store. But after that, I though to myself "self, what about this Mt. Olive Church? Does it have anything to do with politics?" Yes!! If I've learned anything from this blogging racket, it's that Mt. Olive is the unofficial church of Ward 3, and Ward 3 Alderman Classie Hoyle.
The best I can figure, there is a love triangle out in parole that involves the Parole Center, Mt. Olive Church, and the Honorable Alderman Hoyle. Here are some of the facts:
1. Mt. Olive becomes the unofficial church of Alderman Hoyle. I don't know exactly how this happened, but Alderman Hoyle is the chairman of the Mt. Olive Community Development Corporation, and the church's reverend (Johnny Calhoun) did give a modest donation to the Hoyle campaign for county council.
2. The Parole Town Center Development is in the planning phases, and seeks the blessing of the Ward 3 Alderman, even though it is outside of city limits. A business named "Parole Service Inc" gives $500 to the Hoyle campaign, presumably with an expectation that the development will go forward and that businesses' value will be propped up. The development corporation ponies up $1000 for good measure.
3. Alderman Hoyle begins a persistent string of political favors on behalf of Mt. Olive. First, she moved to change the Moderately Priced Development Unit (MPDU) Program to allow non-profits to buy the properties--rumor has it that she wanted Mt. Olive to be a landlord for these dwellings. Next, Hoyle introduced and passed R-14-08, making a certain area of Parole (including Mt. Olive!) a "designated area". As "luck" would have it, designated areas can receive funding from the state, but first need the blessing of the municipality. So, in due course, Hoyle introduced and passed R-15-08, which gives such a blessing. None of the other businesses in the designated area received a similar resolution.
The whole mess smells fishy, but there are questions that still remain. Why is Alderman Hoyle so loyal to Mt. Olive? And why do the Parole developers feel the need to donate to the Hoyle campaign and give such a big pledge to her pet church?
28 comments:
What I believe is a greater conflict of interest is what happened in the latest City budget round. Ald. Hoyle, as Chairperson of the Finance Committee, pushed through a grant for $35,000 for the Mt. Olive Community Development Corp., which as you say she chairs. And even more outrageous is that they didn't even make a grant request on time like every other non-profit was forced to do!
That is certainly damning evidence. Do you know the budget that the money came out of? What the city has on the internet is completely worthless--all expenses are divided into either "personnel" or "operating" and no specifics are listed.
While Mt. Olive is not listed in the "Non-Profit Capital Funding" in the Capital Budget, there are grants all the time given out of the operating budget and I would love to find this one.
Brian:
I was at the Budget meeting, when Hoyle pushed through the grant, even though Cordle made an issue of the fact that they had not made their grant request on time.
Had I known Hoyle was on the Mt. Olive board, I would have vigorously objected. She made no mention of that. She clearly should have recused herself from that vote.
If she's on their board, it's even more absurd that they didn't get their grant request in on time.
Bob McWilliams
The grant to Mt. Olive was part of the list of grants given to non-profits that was voted out of the Finance Committee and approved by the Council as part of the FY09 budget. Where these grants appear in the budget, I agree, is difficult to find.
I don't think that she is chairman of the board in the sense that she controls the corporation.
The corporation has 'officcers', 'board members', and 'the mount olive community development corporation advisory board'. She is chair of that last thing, but clearly has involvement.
This leads me to question not Mount Olive, but the evil and oh so white St Mary's Church--how much political influence and corruption must surround it---I want to unveil this NOW !!!!
Wow, someone played the race card. Did not see that coming.
Ebony eyes, your prejudiced response is appreciated.
This post was only concerned about green, public green for that matter. Spare us the race baiting.
"This leads me to question not Mount Olive, but the eveil and oh so white St. Mary's Church"
What leads you? The name of St. Mary's has yet to come up. This is classic misdirection...excusing bad behavior with other bad behavior. Except in this case, St. Mary's has not been implicated in any shenanigans.
"how much political influence and corruption must surround it..."
Why do you say 'must?' Gut feeling? Do you have some inside track? Maybe something that you could take to the State's Attorney General?
"I want to unveil this NOW!!!"
All caps and three exclaimation points. You must really, really mean it. Which is good, because you have some unveiling to do, Columbo.
Tim
"All caps and three exclaimation points."
No, I used 4 of the the aforementioned punctuation marks. I really, really, really, really mean it.
The race card ? Is Mt Olive a predominately black church ? Is this Blog mostly attractive to white republicans ? hmmmmmmmmmm
Race Baiting---hmmmmmmm. Interesting concept, I think I will investigate things further !!!!!
Ebony,
Its a free country so please do investigate. Let us know what you find. If there is something shady going on with St.Mary's like at Mt. Olive then it should be made public. Investigate away.
I do know Mt. Olive is predominantly black, just like you know St. Mary's is predmoninantly white. Remember all the evil white people you mentioned.
Also, white doesn't equal republican just like black doesn't equal democrat.
But like I said, this isn't about black or white, it is about green.
Clear those ebony eyes of the blur produced by your overly attuned racial sensitivies. Stop seeing race first in everything and you might actually start to see a little truth in matters.
So as I said before, investigate away and let us know what you find. We will be waiting with non race-baited breath. ;-)
I too was shocked to learn that Mt. Olive A.M.E is predominantly black. Being an African Methodist Episcopal church, I thought the congregation would be predominatly Norwegian!
St Mary's is full of illegal immigrants, they even hold special services for them. Furthermore, because of their staunch pro-life stance, the membership is constantly at odds with our Great American War President.
St. Mary's is not a law enforcement agency. It is their philosophy to provide spiritual guidance for their community, and I'm sure they are quite unconcerned with where those people came from.
More importantly, the comparison of St. Mary's with the subject of this post is ridiculous. St. Mary's did not have a prominent parishoner as the chariman of the finance committee, nor did it receive any money from the city as far as any of us know.
Furthermore, Catholic doe not automatically mean conservative right. Immigrant Catholics were largely Democrat. And while Catholics' anti-abortion stance is leans towards the Republican party, the respect for life doctrine also leads Catholic philosophy to oppose the death penalty in many cases.
I take it your Catholic Brian ?
I am Catholic, which has nothing to do with anything. Are you incapable of debating issues, or do you just enjoy being a pain?
If St Mary's fails to report the illegal status of a hispanic alien they are aiding and abetting the enemy and working against the War on Terror.
All Patriotic Americans must help us win this war, to do otherwise is a crime worthy of execution
There is no war on terror. In fact, the war on terror fizzled months after the invasion of Afghanistan. You know that, but I give you credit for being a Grade-A Noodge. And I'm putting it on the table...I am starting to have serious doubts that you are actually the pope.
Tim
But again...brilliant misdirection. We're not even close to the original topic of the blog. And that I admire.
Tim
Brian,
I am all for free speech, but his comment log needs some editing.
You need some editing anonymous, the entire Right Wing needs editing!!!!!! The Fundie Christians need editing, the pro-lifers need editing !!! McDonald's editing, Limbaugh must be silenced !!!!!!
But this Blog,,,This BLOG is representative of the mustard seed-like ideas of the Parents of this Great Country and the Constitutional Principles for which our soldiers die and continue to die.
For you to speak of censorship is nothing less than a smack in the face to the fine men and women that fight for your right to ask for censorship.
We are Americans,and all good patriot would rather die that lose freedom.
woah. I hope that persons keyboard is alright after that rant.
I think Super Patriot could liven up Paul Foer's blog a bit. Of course CP is censored, so Super Pat probably couldn't get posted.
Too bad. CP could use some shouting from the other side. His ratings are sliding faster than GW Bush. If Paul doesn't get some new topics or a little chatter going he's going to be totally irrelevant instead of simply marginal.
I bet he doesn't even get on Moyers nerves anymore.
Go visit him, Super pat
Looks like our soldiers are fighting for the right of a certain someone to use capital letters where none are needed. And I would also die for his right to do that.
Tim
Did the above poster say that Limbaugh must be silenced (with lots of exclamation points) and then lecture someone on speaking of censorhip and it being a slap in the face to those serving in the military?
Convenient hypocrisy is it not?
I think SuperPatriot was saying that because the people he wishes to censor don't allow/entertain diverse opinions to be considered they should be censored.
I think he was trying to be as absurd as the one who was asking Sir Brian the Benevolent to edit posts he finds do not fit his ideology--But is suspect he holds a strong prejuduce against McDonalds and Pro-lifers
AS far as Paul Foer's column goes, he is pretty much a generally unlikable person. I mean really,he complains that a farmer won't take a hundred dollar bill ?
Geeze,. what a goofball
I think PAUL is writing half the Shit on this blog. He is just sicko enough to do it! I hope he gets back on his meds soon. Get him an RX plan please!
Don't forget, Classie received considerable support from development weasel, John Pantelides, during her ill-fated County Council run.
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