The committee overseeing Winston-Salem’s taxpayer-financed downtown baseball stadium held its first meeting yesterday. One member was absent and another member realized he might have a conflict of interest.
A couple of things here —- it’s been obvious for quite some time, but the committee acknowledged yesterday that the city’s $4.7 million for hard costs will quickly go poof as contractors finally get paid. And here’s the process by which the committee will oversee construction:
Committee members yesterday learned about the steps they will go through to review spending. When a contractor submits a bill, the city and Bank of America — the bank that is handling the payments — will review it and, if it’s approved, send it on to city officials and the committee for further review.
The committee will get a chance to question payments and ask Assistant City Manager Greg Turner to find answers. Turner said that the committee has to be satisfied with the information it is getting before the bill goes to the next step and the city’s portion of it gets paid.
OK, I guess I’m glad there’s finally some oversight of this process, yet I fear now things have gone to far the other way and bureaucratic red tape will further delay the finished product. Wouldn’t it have just been better if government hadn’t gotten involved at all?
