Beware The Rouse Project - Part 3
Hiruy Hadgu
In June, 2020, Columbia Association and Inner Arbor Trust filed a lawsuit against the Downtown Columbia Arts and Culture Commission and It’s my Amphitheater in Howard County Circuit Court to stop that year’s annual Symphony of Lights.
The Graft Agreements
According to the lawsuit, DCACC and IMA put on the Symphony of Lights event without approval from Columbia Association, which owns various land-use rights for Symphony woods, which surrounds Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Various agreements between DCACC, MPBT, IAT, CA, HHC, and IMA enable access to the Pavilion during events. The relevant agreement descriptions and dates are found here.
The 2019 event took place without express approval from IAT and by extension Columbia Association. Instead, Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning under the control of County Executive Calvin Ball issued a permit.
But DPZ and County Executive Calvin Ball had no right to issue any permits since the easement is owned by CA. In helping IMA and DCACC, County Executive violated a basic principle of property rights. Even the county has to enter into an agreement with IAT and CA to be able to use a CA-owned facility. By tipping his hand into this disagreement on behalf of IMA, County Executive Ball exacerbated the dispute and hurt IAT and CA.
IAT Board Minutes are not that great, but an August 2019 board meeting shows that IMA was an “elephant in the room”, as the conflict was brewing.
The 2020 event took place despite multiple injunction attempts. The cabal got lucky for the second year in a row. But they may not be as lucky this year. So County Executive Ken Ulman got the band back together and added new band members.
He sprinkled the band with some people of color including former Board of Education Member Ms. Sabina Taj, who has used her platform to elevate developer events, et viola. The perfect performative playbook that can conceal the true motives, by deflecting any potential criticism because “diversity.”
Takeover Campaign
In reality, this venture allows the cabal to elect their preferred CA board members. One of their stated goals is to halt the search for a new CA president and CEO until the new CA board is installed, even though the current CA board is well within its rights to hire a new president and CEO.
Specifically they say “Seven of the ten CA Board Members responsible for choosing the next president are up for re-election on April 24th. Given the timing of these elections, it is in the best interest of the incoming President, CA staff, the new CA Board and the community at-large to have the Columbia Association’s new leader be selected by the people who will be in place when he or she is hired.” Furthermore, “We call upon the Columbia Association Board of Directors to delay selection of the next President/CEO until after their April 24 election.”
The reader will remember that in 2016, Senator Mitch McConnel denied confirmation of President Barack Obama’s pick to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, for almost identical reasons. McConnel said "I believe the overwhelming view of the Republican Conference in the Senate is that this nomination should not be filled, this vacancy should not be filled by this lame duck president."
A New Scheme to Siphon Pubic Dollars
The Rouse Project wants to elect its preferred CA board members, much like the 2013 board who would vote as instructed to pick a new CA president and CEO. And much like Mr. Phil Nelson, this new president would concoct a new scheme to siphon public dollars for private gain and guide the CA board through the perfunctory voting process. One of the board’s new tasks would be to make permanent the temporary and illegal county-brokered arrangement that allows IMA to access CA owned land with impunity.
Of course this is the short term goal. In the mid and long term, this board will remove any structural barriers that potentially stand in the way of HHC. It will also serve as a launching off platform for future central committee members, county executives, and council members.
The reader will remember that at the heart of many of these deals is a zoning and land-use deal that would not be profitable without taxpayer dollars.
The Voter is Losing Trust in Government
Many view the results of the 2020 presidential election as a decisive victory for the Democratic Party, instead of seeing it for what it really is. The fact that nearly 74.3 million voters considered Trump as a viable alternative to Biden at a time when hundreds of thousands died due to criminal levels of negligence by Trump’s administration should be viewed is a canary in a coal mine.
To many voters, governments, political parties, and elected officials are self-serving. For many the political party in power does not matter, because year-after-year, their quality of life continues to dwindle. They see the wealthy getting away with causing massive financial disasters while they face evictions or lose their entire livelihood for missing a single payment.
Yes, the Democratic Party is better rhetorically, but that is form over substance. When it comes to the bread and butter issues, we consistently see both parties benefiting special interests and their corporate backers.
The two parties have a different approach. The Democratic Party says “black lives matter” or “we are a nation of immigrants” while the Republican Party is openly hostile to these values. However, when it comes to the money, both parties have been singularly focused in helping it flow in one direction. To the wealthy. The only difference is that the Republicans actually keep their promise of taking away black people’s freedom.
Let there be no doubt, the Republican Party has completely succumbed to fascism. Some will use that as a reason to give the Democratic Party the benefit of the doubt. This is a terrible standard. As far as the outcome of losing a Democracy or a free society is concerned, actions that decrease trust in government also lead to fascism.
Howard County’s Democratic political establishment is simply a microcosm of what the voter is witnessing at the state and national levels.