"Two days after the Greensboro City Council aired its confusion over funding for a proposed downtown hotel, Guilford County commissioners realized they too made key mistakes regarding the project."

The local daily enters the fray with a bang.

This is odiferous:

When asked why he stepped out of the meeting room before the vote, Alston later said he was in negotiations to become a broker and wanted to avoid a conflict of interest.

Several commissioners said Alston should have revealed that before the vote...

...[Alston]  refused to disclose how much money he could make from the $54 million project.

"That’s none of your business, frankly," Alston said. "I don’t ask how much you make."

And the Rhino wades in with a hard-hitting take...nah, kidding. The local real-estate weekly sure is eager to get County property into private hands; I'm not saying we shouldn't rationalize our portfolio, just that we should watch where the money goes.

UPDATE: Alert reader AB points out that the Rhino does have a take on the City angle, claiming that the Council was "tricked by city staff into approving the project."

Meanwhile, the N&R article says the bond guidelines are vague and quotes county commissioner Linda Shaw taking some of the responsibility: "We just should have been more careful."

Comments

[Andrew Brod]

FWIW, the Rhino does have a hard-hitting take: Hammer thinks city staff "tricked" the council into approving the hotel project. Good-faith confusion over a complex bond issue? Only a wimp would believe that. For Hammer, the only explanation is that city staff are liars, liars, liars. I realize this isn't a new opinion on his part, but it's still pretty hard-hitting.

[Tim]

I think its pretty clear that Billy Yow doesnt like Skip Alston and im not going to go into the reasons why (hint hint). Thats why he made such a fuss not knowing Skip was involved.

But whether you support this hotel or not, we all can agree that this whole process has been a mess. I question the recent feasibily study though because it does not include some revenue generating factors in the project. Not to mention the worlds largest hotel feasibilty study firm has contradicted that report. But yes there is confusion every where.

[Joe Killian]

I may have just entered the fray - I'm pretty new on the county beat.

But Amanda, Brian Ewing and Dick Barron and the folks in editorial have been writing about this since at least the summer, when few other people were paying attention and it evolved from a story about perspective office space to where we are now. They've reported on various reports that said the project wasn't viable. They've given voice to critics and followed every step.

No one at the paper has devoted ALL of their time to this story, but stories in our archives I was reading up on yesterday chart the development of the story pretty well and reach pretty far back.

[Brandon Burgess]

Maybe Tim is on to something. Green in Yes! tells us that it's racism that is keeping Chisolm, Alston, and Hayes project from moving forward.

Hayes feels that it's very "paternalistic" for us to question the viability of this project.

I wonder how this hotel idea got to the front of the line for consideration. I mean, was it simply a "Wow, this is a good idea"?

[Stephen]

What does, I assume, Deena Hayes and the school board have to do with any of this, Brandon?

[Brandon Burgess]

Stephen, I was under the impression that Deena Hayes is very supportive of this project, as well as a member of Ole Asheboro Group.

I wonder if all of the confusion surrounding what is going on with these bonds with regard to this project relates to Hayes' comments/Green's reporting that sexism and racism are the reason people are asking questions are related.

To my ears, Alston's comments sounded very arrogant, though I'm not sure if he is legally or ethically obligated to reveal his end.

Isn't there some confusion regarding Ole Asheboro Group being in on the bonds even though the proposed hotel will not be located there? If so, I could understand why Hayes wouldn't want anyone poking around.

[Stephen]

I didn't realize she was part of the Ole Asheboro Group.

Evidently, the Ole Asheboro Group stands to gain an equity stake in this project and receive a cut of the profits, so to speak, just for being the Ole Asheboro Group - that and Hayes and Chisolm are buddies.