City Council Takes First Step Down Same Old Secret Path In Solstice Debacle

The site of the promised Solstice hotel and casino at
Falcon Ridge and Pioneer remains as unbuilt today as it did
when this photo was taken in 2008. 

Just when it looked like the Mesquite City Council was showing itself to be something special, something the people of this city could be proud of, the council returned to the old, secret, behind-closed-doors practice of making decisions away from the public's eyes.

On Tuesday, the council tackled just one more remnant of the failed Susan Holecheck administration when it discussed the ill-advised $2.5 million loan to Solstice during the Redevelopment Agency board meeting which preceded the regular city council meeting.

The loan was a horrendous idea when the previous council voted to take the huge chunk of money out of the city's RDA fund.

The fund, created by an act of the state legislature specifically for Mesquite, was originally intended to renovate and improve the city's downtown business district.

In 2009, the city initially tried to just give the money directly to Solstice to build a road to their high-end trailer park just past the Mesa View Regional Hospital. 

Of all the things Solstice and their owners Barcelona Partners promised to build when they bought city-owned land for a fraction of its value back in 2006, the trailer park is the only thing they've actually built.  The 20-story hotel, casino, shopping plaza, and housing development originally touted by Solstice back when they were playing Pied Piper at civic clubs and public gatherings to gain the support of the community were never even begun.

Some of the land obtained by Barcelona Partners for the project has since been foreclosed on by lenders after the company ran up debts that were higher than the original purchase price of the property.

The land where the luxury motor home park is located is still owned by Solstice and Barcelona.  For now. 

In 2009, when the city figured out they couldn't give away RDA money to a private entity for a project that was nowhere near the city's downtown business district, the administration figured out how to use some loopholes and get around the RDA rules by making the $2.5 million a "loan" to build the road that was supposed to be the responsibility of Solstice, according to their own development deal with the city.

It was a galactically stupid decision, particularly considering Solstice was already showing signs of economic trouble, in addition to the fact that they hadn't built any of the hotel or casino projects they had promised when the city sold its rodeo arena to the company.  Now we have no rodeo in Mesquite, a longtime tradition that pre-dates the city's founding, and we don't have the stores or entertainment venues the company promised.

On Tuesday, the council considered Barcelona's request to "restructure" the loan, now that they've missed the last two semi-annual payments.

At first, the council debated whether foreclosure would be an option, but quickly figured out just how stupid they had been in floating a loan on property that already had two lenders ahead of us (another red flag that was ignored in 2009). 

Then the city asked for more information on Barcelona's financial situation.  The company refused to release the numbers, claiming it was "proprietary information."

Sound familiar?

Throughout the catastrophically flawed Desert Falls fiasco, that term was thrown out every time the citizens asked for more info on their funding (which, it turned out, didn't exist).

Can you imagine any bank accepting the "we can't tell you our financial situation because it's proprietary information" stall when deciding whether to renegotiate a defaulted loan?  Not hardly.

So instead of pushing through with foreclosure or a restructured payment schedule, the council took a "time out" on Tuesday to meet behind closed doors with the city attorney.

Just like the most insidious days of the former mayor's regime, the council then returned and quickly voted to "use any reasonable, available remedies in consultation with outside counsel to satisfy the debt that is owed to the City of Mesquite," without further explanation.

The first problem is they made a decision outside the public arena.  That $2.5 million is OUR money, so our government needs to be very open in how they plan to get it back.

Second, the motion is so vague that it allows a ton of wiggle room and negotiations that will be done quietly in the back rooms of city offices instead of on the council floor, where it belongs.

Sadly, this is what lawyers like to call the "slippery slope."  Once a government starts going down this secretive road, it is almost impossible for it to break the habit.

The people of Mesquite should be angry and disappointed that once again, their elected officials are saying "trust us, we know what's best" instead of doing their job of representing the people, in front of the people.

At some point, we can only hope that state investigators get off their duffs and start looking at the details of this shady deal, going all the way back to 2006, with special emphasis on the use of RDA money for a project outside the RDA area.  It's unlikely that the state would take kindly to the city thumbing its nose at their rules.

About the only thing that's funny or ironic is the fact that, months after Holecheck, most of her council cronies, and her ringleader Tim Hacker are gone, that administration has posthumously found a way to do what they couldn't do in 2009 - find a way to give RDA money to that private entity without the city ever getting paid back.