Geri Ottobani-Gilmore, in her letter to The Explorer, June 18, writes that giving Sanofi-Aventis a construction tax rebate of $360K is not necessary.
Hopefully, our new Town Council will agree as they vote on this issue this evening.
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Desirable OV has no need to give any incentives
You can always tell when a business is on the ropes and management has lost its competitive edge. It starts cutting prices.
Oro Valley sits atop one of the most desirable locations in the entire country, but Councilman Gillaspie seems to think the only way Oro Valley can attract companies such as Sanofi-Aventis is to use public funds to bribe them.
In an e-mail response to a constituent, Gillaspie wrote: How do we make this happen if we do not engage in mutually beneficial agreements? I don’t intend to be cynical, but standing on the corner and waving is not very useful. It is apparent that Gillaspie learned nothing from the Vestar debacle that resulted in OV forking over $23 mill to get a Wal-Mart.
Even worse, out-of-touch Councilwoman Dankwerth described the $360,000 bribe to Sanofi-Aventis as “miniscule.” To whom is 360 thousand dollars miniscule?
And the always generous-with-tax-dollars, developer-poster-boy, Councilman Parish, said “it would be a snub ... if we didn’t give this $360,000.”
I guess it’s easy to give away other people’s money, but any councilman or councilwoman who cannot adequately extol the inherent virtues of this community and induce businesses to locate here is demonstrating his or her inadequacy for the job he or she was elected to perform. If Gillaspie, Dankwerth and Parish choose to subsidize a multinational corporation, which is already located in Oro Valley, they will create more angst and provide yet another opportunity for the referendum. Voters are disgusted with giveaways. Fifty million in giveaways is more than enough for our little town.
Perhaps their limited business experience contributes to this Wal-Mart, give-away mentality, but my business experience is quite different. If you produce an unique, quality product and back it with exceptional service, customers will flock to your store. Locating in Oro Valley is the desirable product. Unlike Detroit, Oro Valley does not have to bribe people to come here.
Occasionally, listening to the voters is a good thing for politicians.
Geri Ottoboni-Gilmore
Oro Valley
8 comments:
Just want to touch on a couple of points made in GO-G’s letter. She states her business experience is quite different from the limited business experience of the previous council members, hence the giveaways. I lack business experience but on a recent Friday evening I visited upscale, unique La Encantada with a guest. We walked around the center and browsed several of the UPSCALE stores, Coach, Cole Hahn, Tommy Bahama, The Walking Company, to name a few. There were no customers in any of the stores when we walked in and none when we left despite the exceptional customer service. The flocks were not there.
Next, Sanofi has proven to be a good neighbor based on the fact they are already in OV and want to stay rather than shuttering their building and moving to greener pastures. They are “going green” in our town and possibly seeking a higher LEED certification. Oro Valley is getting a better building and retaining a good neighbor as well as some higher paid employees. I, for one, don’t want OV to become a Globe, Superior or even Bisbee, once boom towns, but when the big guys packed up their marbles and went away so did the once thriving towns. Don't see this as a bribe. The low end isn't appealing, yet we retain the high end and that isn't good enough either.
Every time I go to LaEncantada, I have trouble finding a place to park. There are lots of people there. On a Friday evening, however, I've noticed that most of the crowd is at the restaurants rather than the shops. But at other times of day, there are quite a few shoppers milling around, although I also don't usually see a lot of customers at places like Coach and Cole Hahn, probably because their inventory is so limited. But if you go to the upscale stores that have a lot of things to offer (Crate & Barrel, Talbot's, Anthropologie, etc.) you will see lots of shoppers. If you went on a "recent" Friday, it may also have been too hot for people to be walking around and shopping. I know I don't shop outdoor malls in this weather. I won't be back to LaEncantada until the fall, except for stops at AJ's for things I can't find anywhere else.
It appears very obvious at least to me that this letter from Geri Ottobani-Gilmore was written or submitted a while back.
Why is the Explorer printing this letter now?
Very strange!
yada yada yada,
you say that at least Sanofi is already in OV and want to stay rather then shuttering their building and moving to greener pastures.
Actually I think Sanofi Aventis should be happy to be here.
I also don't think we should be using tax incentives, especially not now to
gift companies for either staying here or being here.
Do you think for a NY minute that Sanofi would stay if it was financially benefical for them to leave OV?
Government exists to defend and provide essential services.
We need only look at the whole Vestar issue to see what happens when government steps out of line
We all pay and dearly at that.
I, too, thought that there was an error in printing this letter as it looks like it was written months ago. Gillaspie made that comment in an e-mail months ago, Dankwerth made the "miniscule amount" comment months ago, and she and Parish are no longer on the council. So I think this was a mistake since it's all old news.
Why, I wonder would the Explorer print a letter that looks obviously like it was written sometime ago. The only answer I can come up with is that, someone on the Explorer Staff saw that The Sahofi scenario was on the agenda for the Council meeting.
If anyone watched or went to the Council meeting and saw the discussion of the budget, they would understand why the Council voted against the $360,000 incentive. The money is just not there. The Council stated that they have to decide what kind of incentives they would consider be it monetary or otherwise.
Lets look at it this way. Oro Valley is a nice town to live in. Good schools, police and of course most importantly high ground, expecially during Monsoon season. So would you rather pay for the expensive gas to drive down to Tucson or have a business close to your home. It is a benefit for Sanofi's employees to save precious time and money to work close to home. Sanofi is smart enough to figure that one out, perhaps that is why they moved here so long ago.
To All....
I am proud of all of you for noticing that the letter and the comments made by Geri Ottobani-Gilmore at the Town Council meeting last Wednesday were so outdated that it begs the question, who put her up to it? Just for the record Ms.Gilmore, has never had a conversation with me, she has never (in any media) asked me a question and she knows nothing about me.
I know where the paperwork she submitted came from. I know which Council person (and yes it was a Coincil person) orchastrated these diatribes.
It's really sad that we have to put aside qualifications to accomodate political desires.
In the end would you rather have qualified people making decisions or just some 'yes' person? That's what this boils down to.
Thinker,
I think a lot of us in OV are fed up
with the YES people. The Yes people are what gave us projects like the Vestar EDA and other similar deals.
A lot of us are tired of the developers getting approval for projects simply to benefit their finances.
I don't think that is fair, do you?
I also don't see how that benefits the citizens of Oro Valley.
Unfortunately too many bad decisions have been made by post council members that have caused
so much distrust in our government.
We will now "demand" open government!!!
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