Anatomy of Deception
The City's Top Bureaucrat Shows the City's Playbook to the Dayton Daily News
Deception (noun) - An instance of actions and/or schemes fabricated to mislead someone into believing a lie or inaccuracy.
The City’s Top Bureaucrat Speaks
It was on March 29th when I read these lines in an article in the Dayton Daily News celebrating the latest efforts of the restoration of the IOOF/Old Miami County Courthouse. As customary for the legacy media, the newspaper wanted a quote from an adversarial party, and the City’s Top Bureaucrat came through in flying colors.
“I emphasize that the city has done nothing to impede the building stabilization efforts,” said Troy Service and Safety Director Patrick Titterington. “We are monitoring the progress to ensure the benchmarks in the agreement are being met, the building is stabilized no later than April 30 and the Adjudication Order is lifted on or before that date so that West Main Street can be reopened as quickly as possible.”
“This is our primary goal and, in light of the fact that our Law Director has a conflict, we have retained outside legal counsel to monitor the agreement on our behalf,” Titterington continued. “Our residents want reassurance that the road will be opened, and they can get back to normal as soon as possible, and the agreement’s deadlines are the only way to be assured of that happening.”
Now, why the Dayton Daily News decided to publish the first sentence of that statement, when there is plenty of documented evidence to prove the contrary, is something I will probably never understand.
Let’s not forget, the City’s new shiny $20,000 lawyer sent a letter to Judge Wall on March 8th crying foul that the Troy Historic Preservation Alliance (THPA) didn’t meet their first deadline. The remedy that the city was looking for was not for additional information from the THPA. No, the City’s lawyer wanted the Judge to immediately issue a stop work order and have the THPA tear down the building.
It wasn’t until on March 21st, when the City finally made their first somewhat conciliatory statement, which coincidentally came after the hour and a half executive session City Council had on the 18th:
“The City is encouraged by the work on the IOOF Building that has been on-going since February. There is not nor will there be any intent to impede the progress of its stabilization. The City will continue to be supportive of all efforts to stabilize the IOOF Building under the terms of the Settlement Agreement mediated by Miami Common Pleas Court Judge Stacy Wall, filed on December 26, 2023.”
From the 21st statement of “there is not nor will there be any intent to impede” to the 29th statement of “the city has done nothing to impede” is actually quite the turn of a phrase. In the span of eight days, the City went from making the decision to not stand in the way of the THPA’s progress to make it sound like the City has never tried to stop progress on the building at all. At this rate, the City could end up saying they have been cheering THPA on from the sidelines since that tornado tore through downtown over four years ago.
The City Couldn't Care Less About Progress - They Only Care About Deadlines
But a careful read of what the City’s Top Bureaucrat said lends some other interesting tidbits of information that need to be looked at a bit further.
In the first part of the statement, the City’s Top Bureaucrat said the following: “We are monitoring the progress to ensure the benchmarks in the agreement are being met, the building is stabilized no later than April 30 and the Adjudication Order is lifted on or before that date so that West Main Street can be reopened as quickly as possible.”
Breaking that down, there is basically a two-step test to get West Main Street open. First, the building must be stabilized by April 30th. Most importantly, the Adjudication Order must be lifted.
In other words, the THPA could stabilize the building and meet the April 30th deadline, but if that Adjudication Order is not lifted, the building could come down. The worst part of that scenario is that neither the THPA nor the City of Troy have zero control over the lifting of the Adjudication Order; it’s done completely by the authorities that issued the document in the first place, the County’s Building Department. If April 30th comes and goes, and we have a stabilized building, but the Adjudication Order is still on the books, the City could make the argument that the second test wasn’t met and the $1.3 million private investment needs to come down.
And that is exactly what the city is angling towards. If you don’t believe me, read the second part of the statement the City’s Top Bureaucrat gave to the newspaper: “Our residents want reassurance that the road will be opened, and they can get back to normal as soon as possible, and the agreement’s deadlines are the only way to be assured of that happening.”
In the City’s eyes, it doesn’t matter if the building is complete. The only thing that matters is that the Adjudication Order is lifted by April 30th.
What If?
So what if April 30th comes and the building is finished, but the road is still closed, and the adjudication order is still in place? Does the building automatically come down?
Hardly.
The question that must be asked is, “Who would actually tear the building down?” Or better yet, “Who would pay to tear the building down?” By the settlement agreement, the THPA would have to pay to have the building torn down, but if they have just invested $1.3 million of private funds, there could be some serious doubt that they have the cash to tear it down. Plus, they aren’t going to pay to have that building torn down until the Judge rules that the THPA must and the group has no choice. And with the gears of justice running slowly, that could be a long decision to wait for.
Could the city pay for having it torn down? Maybe, but actually tearing a building down of that size is more than likely going to cost more than $50,000. That is an important number because that is the limit the City’s Top Bureaucrat can spend without approval of City Council.
Anything over $50,000 and City Council must approve the expenditure. So, would the City Council actually authorize the expenditure of taxpayer dollars to tear down a building that was just stabilized with $1.3 million of private dollars. That seems like a pretty far-fetched scenario.
But, I can hear some, including the City’s Top Bureaucrat, say, “But the city must enforce the Settlement Agreement and force the building to come down.”
My answer to that is simple….why?
City Council never approved the agreement; look at the meeting minutes, look at the legislation. No one will find any City Council action on any agreement because it does not exist. Not one city council member has their signature on the agreement. The City Administration entered into the settlement agreement, not the City Council. The City Council can still exercise some sense of independence in this matter and safeguard the City Treasury.
What Probably Will Happen
What the City’s Top Bureaucrat should have said to the Dayton Daily News is, “Our residents want reassurance that the road will be opened, and they can get back to normal as soon as possible, and letting the Troy Historic Preservation Alliance continue their work and being supportive as possible is the only way to be assured of that happening.”
The progress the THPA has made in the short time that they have owned the building and had the appropriate permits in hand to complete the work has been nothing short of remarkable. They have raised over $1.3 million and made massive physical improvements to the IOOF/Old Miami County Courthouse Building in what can only be a described as Herculean effort.
I believe we can anticipate on May 1st, a fully stabilized building, a lifted Adjudication Order and finally, to the relief of the entire community, West Main Street will be fully open to traffic downtown.
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Thank you, Mr. Bill Lutz for honesty, clarity and cold hard facts. The "word games" must STOP.
Excellent report on the subject.