With a variety of other matters vying for the local spotlight, one thing that has pretty much escaped recent notice is the City’s ongoing quest for a big new police station.  Which is why you might have missed the small story on Page 4 of last week’s Herald-Advocate titled “Napleton’s Busse site is still on table for possible police station” (July 31, 2008).

As reported there, the City Council met in…you guessed it…yet another “closed session” on July 21 to discuss the acquisition of the former Napleton auto dealership property at 501 Busse Highway as the site of the new cop shop. 

Napleton is turning out to be Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark’s most favored campaign contributor, with the mayor trying a variety of ways to put taxpayer money in owner Bill Napleton’s pocket ever since the windfall $2.4 million tax and environmental clean-up deal (on which Frimark himself cast the tie-breaking vote) fell through because the Napleton dealerships closed.  Even after the closure nuked the clean-up contract, Frimark still pressed for Napleton to get the $400,000.

And just last week Bill Napleton himself shamelessly warned the neighbors of his former Cadillac dealership who want residential redevelopment of that site that commercial redevelopment could occur unless they asked the City to “assist” in – as in “provide cash to” – the residential redevelopment of that property. 

We can only hope that those neighbors are sharp enough to see Napleton’s appeal for what it was: Just another ploy by a greedy carpetbagger to wheedle more corporate welfare from compliant public officials and gullible taxpayers.  And the same goes for his attempts to sell his Busse Highway property to the City for a new cop shop, which remains high on his “to do” list.  And apparently high on Mayor Frimark’s list as well.

The only way we ordinary citizens even found out about this most recent closed session push to buy Napleton’s property is, not surprisingly, because 1st Ward Alderman Dave Schmidt once again did the right thing – and the perfectly legal thing – by first voting against the closed session and then letting the press know what went on during it.

We’re not quite sure whether we are more impressed with Schmidt’s honesty and integrity, or more depressed that not even one other member of the City Council seems capable of matching it – or even understanding it.  The eagerness with which they retreat into closed session suggests that Ald. DiPietro (2nd), Bach (3rd), Allegretti (4th), Ryan (5th), Carey (6th) and Wsol (7th) might prefer meeting exclusively in closed session, outside of the press’s and the public’s scrutiny.

Schmidt, alone, correctly pointed out that discussing sites for a new police station before the Council has made a final decision on how big a station it wants to build and how it’s going to afford it – without letting our basic infrastructure and city services erode even further, or raising taxes even higher – is putting the cart before the horse.  We heartily agree.

In just the past four years the City – without having a firm plan for the size, shape, kind and cost of the station it expects to build – has actively pursued the acquisition of 515 Busse (the Owen Hayes II fiasco), the parking lots bordering the AT&T building, 720 Garden, 164 South Prospect (School Dist. 64 headquarters), and now Napleton’s Busse property, to name just the ones we know about.  And that doesn’t include 229 S. Courtland, which the City actually bought in 2006 for approximately $660,000 and continues to hold for no apparent reason. 

As we’ve said many times before, the current police station definitely needs an overhaul but it doesn’t need the additional 30,000 square feet that the hired-gun consultants recommended just because that’s what they were hired to do.  By every objective measure we can find, the current station is still getting the job done, which probably is best explained by the late, great Vince Lombardi: “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”  In this case, that’s the police officers and support staff.

But, of course, if you’re trying to cut a sweetheart deal with a connected landowner, you sure don’t want to wait for cop shop plans and specs, or a proposed budget to get resolved.  After all, a big new cop shop pretty much ensures that not only is there land to be bought, but there are consultant, architect, engineer and construction contracts to give out.  And bond financing to obtain.  There’s probably even some insurance and performance bond coverage to be procured. 

And those are some of the things that Mayor Frimark loves best about being mayor.