Questions Steve Stanek Would Like the MCC Board and Staff To Answer

Tonight at 7 at the McHenry County College campus board room, people will be able to offer advice to trustees as to what instructions should be given its “due diligence” analyzer of Equity One’s Mark Houser’s and his buddy baseball promoter Pete Heitman’s numbers.

Yesterday, I jotted down some quick things I think the Economic Research Associates folks should answer.

Today, McHenry’s Steve Stanek adds a list of questions. He’s busy tomorrow night at his day job, so to speak, with the Heartland Institute, so feel free to ask these yourself, if you attend.

1) Can a MCC board member or President Packard cite any independent economist who believe public funding of sports facilities is economically beneficial on a regional basis? Who are these economists and how do they respond to the overwhelming opposite view of other economists?

2) Are any MCC board members or staff members willing to sign a contract to fund, out of their personal resources, any shortfall between projected stadium revenues and actual revenues, at any time during the term of the debt?

3) Are Frontier League officials or team investors willing to sign a contract to fund, out of their personal resources, any shortfall between projected stadium revenues and actual revenues, at any time during the term of the debt?

4) The Chicago Tribune several months ago reported Crystal Lake City Manager Gary Mayerhofer started all this by approaching Mark Houser and his associates with the idea of building a minor league stadium at the college. Why did a stadium become essential to the expansion plans when plans were being laid without a stadium?

5) Did anyone on the college board worry about the perception of using millions of dollars of borrowing to help people who have a personal relationship with the Crystal Lake City Manager? How many residents of the McHenry County College district have that kind of pull?

6) How did college and city officials arrange their discussions of the baseball stadium proposal to avoid breaking the Open Meetings Act? How were these discussions actually conducted? Who conducted them?

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The head shot is of Crystal Lake City Manager Gary Mayerhofer.


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