Foul Air

When you’re Barry White and you’re sandwiched between Lori Davis and Al Gray like he was on the last commission meeting’s agenda, discretion is definitely the better part of valor. By not being there while Davis and Gray did their best to dismantle the TEE Center parking deck, the TEE Center and pretty much everything else in the city that wasn’t bolted down, White lived to pitch another day. So he put himself back on the agenda and Tuesday he was back in front of the commission, getting the chance to talk about all the great things the CVB was doing to promote the TEE Center and what a great asset it was going to be for the city. The commission, however, was less interested in that than they were in stumbling over the latest hurdle with the TEE Center itself, a $300,000 change in the smoke evacuation system that would bring the city-owned exhibition hall in compliance with the Marriott’s air quality standards. The Marriott’s air quality standards. The Marriott, which is connected to the exhibition space, has standards that are higher than the state standards the building was built to comply with, but without the upgrade, Administrator Fred Russell seemed to feel the Marriott would not be totally onboard and the project could slow to a halt while they quibble over the details. You know all those arguments about the city building the Marriott an exhibition center? This is where they come from. When a private company starts dictating the standards of the city-owned, taxpayer-funded building it’s connected to, the tail is coming pretty close to wagging the dog. You can almost see the battle lines being drawn. Though the mayor came down on the side of building a quality product (“Remember the Jail!”) and Joe Jackson likened the problem to being a little bit pregnant, the commission voted to refer the issue back to committee, where a lot of people will be finding new life in old arguments and someone will undoubtedly be asking, once again, why we are only learning about this now.You Might Also Like: