CARLTON FLETCHER: There’s plenty of blame to go around in ADICA debacle

Stop, hey, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.

— Buffalo Springfield

The Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority has a problem.

Maybe the quasi-governmental authority, created as a “pass-through agency” to help with the development of Albany’s inner city, lost sight of its mission over the years as an ever-changing lineup was appointed by the Albany City Commission. Maybe city leadership relied too much on ADICA to handle things downtown while it focused on other compelling issues.

Or maybe the agency just got too damned big for its britches.

No matter the reason, ADICA’s ever-shrinking credibility has put officials like Downtown Albany Manager Sharlene Cannon, interim City Manager Tom Berry and the City Commission in the unenviable position of having to answer for dubious decisions made by the ADICA board. So much so, many officials are saying privately it’s time to “seriously rein-in or disband” the authority.

When Cannon, respected as one of the country’s top downtown developers, joined city management, she did so partly at the request of Berry, who had seen her lauded work in Thomasville up close when the two were there. Cannon is one of those glass-half-full, let’s forget the nonsense, roll up our sleeves and get to work kind of leaders who saw the downtown Albany challenge as the perfect way to rekindle her love for downtown makeovers after a period of retirement that didn’t quite take.

She soon learned, though, that the $2.7 million in bond funding issued to ADICA to help with downtown development projects in anticipation of an influx of tax money created when county voters OK’d the creation of a downtown tax allocation district was, essentially, used up. Worse, money being generated within the TAD was not enough to service the bond debt.

When a reorganization of the city’s finances, started by former City Manager James Taylor and accomplished under Berry’s command, eventually focused on ADICA’s spending, the news was not good. Then-CFO JoEllen Brophy told the authority board that not only did it not have bond money for new projects, it would have to alleviate or alter the scope of some already green-lit projects to remain in budget.

ADICA also bought into a redevelopment plan pushed by Patrick Plettner with North Carolina-based Shandon Development Properties — despite the warnings of City Attorney Nathan Davis — providing more than $284,000 in funding that was to be used to help with the purchase and renovation of downtown property owned by businessmen Bob Brooks, John Wurst and Al Corriere.

According to a financial report prepared for ADICA by Plettner, more than $139,000 was paid to the property owners as options on their property. That total included more than $50,000 in additional expenses that were paid to extend the options. Still, the developer never managed to secure financing to purchase and upgrade the properties, which have reportedly since reverted to the owners.

Had Shandon been able to secure bank financing, ADICA had voted to provide another $450,000 to help with the property development, action that Plettner said was necessary to help his group secure some $1.1 million from a lending institution.

And, most recently, The Herald discovered that Plettner and Cannon’s predecessor, Aaron Blair, had put together a deal whereby ADICA purchased land next to the Hilton Garden Inn on Oglethorpe Boulevard for $195,000 and sold the land to Waffle House for $5,000 after extracting a promise from the company that it would build a restaurant on the site.

In discussions about that action, The Herald was told that Shandon received some $39,000 for “development services” that included its work on the Waffle House deal.

Berry has indicated that he, the city’s finance team and Cannon will more closely monitor ADICA activity in the future, insisting that the agency can still be a big part of downtown redevelopment if it “does things the right way.” Presumably, the right way does not include turning over the purse strings to the agency.

There’s no question that ADICA board members’ actions have been taken in what its members considered the best interest of the city. That they were allowed to do so with abandon is a mistake that has hurt downtown development as much as it’s helped. And there’s no good reason to assign blame here. There’s plenty enough to go around.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected].