[den-the-coach]

Be nice now. After all, he was president of the United States. Similarities are amazing.

[Elvis]

my take on san diego is spanos wants to leave. the chargers have been trying for 14 years to get a new stadium to me is bs, they hired fabiani to resolve the stadium issue and he has done nothing but reject this or that and voice his displeasure with this person or that person. i just don't see how the nfl can say the chargers put forth the good faith effort to stay. thanks for the welcoming!

Thanks.

We have bubbaramfan giving us the lowdown in Carson and you with some on the scene SD info, keep it coming.

BTW, sent you a PM last week saying pretty much the same thing...

[Elvis]

Lawmakers say Nixon is accountable for stadium financing plan

5 hours ago • By Virginia Young

JEFFERSON CITY • Gov. Jay Nixon has been the “quarterback, coach and general manager” of the campaign for a new St. Louis football stadium, so he should remain a defendant in a lawsuit contesting the project’s financing, a group of six legislators said in court filings Monday.

The legislators were responding to Nixon’s request to be dismissed from the suit, which they filed last month in Cole County Circuit Court.

A planning team appointed by Nixon has proposed a $985 million arena just north of downtown, with as much as $405 million paid by taxpayers. The suit challenges the plan by Nixon and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority to provide most of the public money by extending bonds that were used to build the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis.

In court documents, Nixon has contended that all he did was appoint a two-member task force to “look for ways to finance a new stadium” and discuss the ideas in public.

Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, the attorney for the group of six legislators and one of the plaintiffs, disputes that characterization in the court documents.

“While suggesting impotence to this Court, Gov. Nixon has been busy blustering in public that he’s in control and that this lawsuit will not slow him down,” Barnes wrote.

“Gov. Nixon does not play special teams. Instead, Gov. Nixon plays quarterback, coach and general manager in this game to siphon away more than $400 million in taxpayer moneys for illegal purposes and through illegal means,” the motion said.

Barnes also filed a new version of his lawsuit’s claims. The amended petition contends that the proposed stadium financing would violate a state law that says the new stadium must be “located adjacent to an existing convention facility.”

In fact, the new football stadium would be a half-mile from America’s Center, the petition says.

To buttress his point, Barnes cites a memo from 1989, when the original stadium-funding law was written.

In the memo, supporters said the stadium act “would be used to finance the construction of an exhibition center adjacent to the Cervantes Convention Center,” which is now known as America’s Center. Such a facility “also could be used for professional football games and other major events,” the memo said.

Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green was assigned to hear the lawsuit after the legislators asked Judge Patricia Joyce to remove herself from the case, which she did.

[Hacksaw]

Another judge gets replaced? I guess girls might be less favorable towards football stadium needs. I'd have to hope it was more than that though

[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... 67863.html

Dome authority refuses to release stadium records; St. Louis resident sues

18 HOURS AGO • BY DAVID HUNN

ST. LOUIS • Last month, a St. Louis University Law School professor asked the Edward Jones Dome to hand over a bevy of records relating to plans for a riverfront football stadium.

University legal clinic supervisor John Ammann and his client, city resident, social welfare advocate and former state Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford, suspected two things.

First, they figured that the public body that governs the Jones Dome already had some pretty specific plans on how to fund the new stadium, but it wasn’t releasing them. Second, they wondered if the city was already funding the stadium effort, perhaps in violation of a city ordinance requiring a public vote prior to such an expense.

So they asked the public body that governs the Edward Jones Dome to send them, among other things, “communications, records, contracts, agreements and any other documents reflecting plans of the City of St. Louis to provide financial assistance to the development of a new football stadium.”

On June 2, Christopher Bauman, an attorney at Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch, wrote back.

Bob Blitz serves as general counsel for the Dome authority, and also one of two members of Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force.
Bauman said that none of the records were public. One day after Ammann and Mott Oxford had sent their records request, several state legislators filed suit against Nixon and the Dome authority over the stadium funding.

And that meant that all of the documents in question concerned “pending litigation,” Bauman wrote, and were closed by state law.
On Thursday, Ammann and Mott Oxford sued.

The suit says the Dome authority is “attempting to avoid disclosure of records that would indicate the nature of planned public expenditures for a new football stadium,” and asks the court to force the Dome to hand them over.

“They have refused to give us one single document responsive to our request,” Ammann said from his car on Thursday afternoon. “They appear to be operating as if the stadium authority is a private business.”

Bauman at first declined to comment. Then he changed his mind.

“They didn’t mention one word in their petition that says that the exceptions to the Sunshine Law we rely on are inapplicable or wrong,” Bauman said late Thursday. “And they don’t —because that’s not the law.

“They don’t have an argument because there is no argument.”

[Hacksaw]

The legal system ugh.

Elvis, I bet when you made this tread title you didn't realize how many times it would be appropriate... lol

[Elvis]

It's quite the catch-all, we'll see who files next...

[moklerman]

Carson, St. Louis, SD...all sound like a mess. I haven't heard anything about Inglewood though. Not negatively, anyway. Seems hard to believe that it would lose the "race".

[OldSchool]

Oh goodness.... Looks like we got our comedic break at ROD with mr.stlouis chiming in after a few days away from the thread. Every time I read something from him I imagine an Ostrich with it's head in the sand happily dancing away to the Barney theme song.

[Elvis]

Oh goodness.... Looks like we got our comedic break at ROD with mr.stlouis chiming in after a few days away from the thread. Every time I read something from him I imagine an Ostrich with it's head in the sand happily dancing away to the Barney theme song.

I guess that's why he's Mr. St. Louis: Everything is always going St. Louis' way, including this: