Billie Redmond’s love/hate relationship with debt

The News and Observer published a letter today from Raleigh mayoral candidate Billie Redmond, in which she responded to mayor Charles Meeker’s reassurance regarding Raleigh’s debt.

Redmond’s letter closed with this:

Making our debt a high priority, based on a slowing economy, and demanding that we spend within our means – and not take on new projects we cannot afford – is not being critical. It’s being responsible.

Let’s take a look at Billie Redmond’s history with debt, shall we?

Back in 2007, Redmond co-chaired Wake County’s Citizen’s Facilities Advisory Committee, a group appointed by the county commissioners to help guide the school system in spending its bond money wisely. Redmond’s Trademark Properties commercial real estate firm had been hired by the school system to look for land in Apex to build some schools. Trademark came up with some property, known as the Apex Olive property, and pitched it to the school.

You can guess what happened next. Trademark’s “expert” advice to the school board was that the county should buy it for its $8.7 million asking price. This just happened to be $4.4 million more to $4.8 million more than the property was worth, depending on which of the two independent audits you consulted. Redmond’s company stood to gain over $250,000 in commissions had the deal gone through, but fortunately the school board nixed the deal.

Redmond then had the gall to defend her audacious money grab:

“We didn’t just pick that price,” said Redmond, who was recently named Realtor of the Year by the Triangle Association of Realtors. “We worked very hard. We reviewed reams of in-depth information.”

Like, um, how much money she would make on the deal, perhaps?

Perhaps Redmond was born lacking the ability to discern right from wrong but to quote Wake school board chairman Ron Margiotta, “this smells to high heaven.” It’s troubling that Redmond has no concept of a conflict of interest. Regardless of whether a conflict of interest actually took place, it’s troubling that Redmond didn’t steer well clear of even the appearance of impropriety. It doesn’t take a genius to know that if it looks, bad, it probably is bad. Is Redmond dumb, greedy, or both?

In spite of the concern she recently expressed, Redmond seemed perfectly happy loading the public up with debt when it looked like she might pocket a large chunk of it. Needless to say, her advice on debt rings a bit hollow. I hope this isn’t Redmond’s idea of making Raleigh a “business-friendly” city.