Huge thread over Greensboro City Council member Tony Wilkins’ Facebook page on the, um, questionable contract between the city and the International Civil Rights Center and museum for the first installment of a $1.5m forgivable loan.
Note that none other than Samuel Spagnola,attorney and former local blogger with a sharp legal mind, says the contract appears to be legal. Spag’s most recent comment:
Lawyers cut and paste boilerplate language all of the time and don’t always catch differences in specific language. It’s quicker to cut and paste than to retype the whole language. Whoever drafted the document should have left the date, month and year blank for the notary to fill in. It seems to be a clerical oversight here.
Of course the man who should really have all the answers is —you guessed it — City Attorney Mujeeb Shah-Khan, who —-according to the N&R — has said only “there was no legal problem with the payment” and that the city “is advancing the ball.” Shah-Kahn owes the public a detailed legal explanation.
Note on the contract that “Piedmont Triad Film Commission” is crossed out and International Civil Rights Museum is written in. Reminds of the MASH episode where Henry Blake wants to requisition a pizza oven and the quartermaster tells him to use the standard form, just cross out “machine gun” and write in “pizza.”
Not sure where this goes, but the fact that we’re drawing analogies between a our city government and a sitcom —albeit one of my favorites —speaks volumes as it is.
