ORLANDO, Fla. — Last year, 9 Investigates exposed how the City of Orlando gave one local company until 2034 to repay taxpayers nearly $1 million interest free.
Now, Channel 9's Lori Brown has discovered city residents paid for another deal; this one handed a different developer nearly $300,000 in public money even after the company failed to live up to its end of the bargain.
Brown asked why the public had to pay while being left with an empty lot, but she first reviewed audio from a meeting of city employees who approved the payout.
“Someone has to be real blunt with me,” Deborah Girard, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, is heard saying on the recording. “I don't get why we're doing this.”
"This has been negotiated for a long time," Orlando chief financial officer Rebecca Sutton responds.
The audio recordings are from a 2011 meeting between five City of Orlando employees. The conversations took place moments before they agreed to hand over $300,000 in public funds to a developer who failed to do what he said he would: develop Callahan Square, a Parramore housing project at Otey Place and Parramore Avenue.
The site is still an empty lot today.
Before the final decision, the city's own deputy chief administrator expressed serious concerns about the payout.
“I'm not at a good place. I feel very uncomfortable with this,” Girard said.
“This has been negotiated by Byron,” Sutton responds.
“But negotiated for what?” asks Girard.
"These negotiations have gone on for probably a year-and-a-half," Sutton said.
Brown took her findings to former Orlando commissioner Phil Diamond.
“I think of $300,000 as a nice start to getting a road built, fixing sidewalks or putting three additional police officers on patrol for a year,” Diamond told Brown.
The decision to pay PSA Constructors never went to the Orlando City Council.
“Did you have any idea taxpayer dollars were being spent this way?” Brown asked Diamond.
“No, no I didn't. The first I heard about it was when you told me recently,” Diamond said.
The developer in this case argued that due to the recession he could no longer develop the project on which he had bid. But he claimed he'd already spent $500,000 preparing for the development.
“So that's their claim. Is it a good claim?” Deputy City Attorney Jody Litchford said during the recorded meeting. “I don't know that it's a good claim. We’re avoiding litigation. Whatever litigation costs, we’d have to just get this resolved.”
But Orlando CFO Rebecca Sutton argued the city would benefit from PSA’s work product.
In the end, the city’s Risk Management Committee voted 4-1 to approve the deal.
Brown later found out that the developer's attorney told the city much of the work product for the empty lot was confidential, so it was never turned over to the city.
Despite the city losing the development and not getting the work product from the company, it still ended up paying the developer.
“We'll avoid the black eye being played out in public,” said Litchford, the deputy city attorney. “Not that it's a huge black eye. But it's not a happy story. It's a sad story.”
And it’s a costly one, too.
Although it’s an empty lot now, the land eventually will be used for a new Parramore public school.
PSA Constructors referred Brown to the company attorney, who has not gotten back with her. The company is now working on the Orlando International Airport expansion.
WFTV
