District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte speaks during a budget town hall meeting Monday at a senior center on San Antonio's Northeast side. Michael Karlis" class="uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle"> click to enlarge District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte speaks during a budget town hall meeting Monday at a senior center on San Antonio's Northeast side. - Michael Karlis
Michael Karlis
District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte speaks during a budget town hall meeting Monday at a senior center on San Antonio's Northeast side.
Sparks flew at a Monday night town hall organized by District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte as he and Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones — a guest at the event — traded verbal jabs over Project Marvel.
Jones, who's on a last-minute blitz to build support for a "strategic pause" on negotiations for the downtown sports-and-entertainment district, called on those attending the meeting at the Northwest San Antonio senior center to make sure Whyte knows what they think of the costly proposal. The $4 billion development would include a new Spurs arena, and the city would be on the hook for $489 million of the facility's cost.
In response, Whyte accused Jones of being less-than-truthful in her messaging.
"The dishonesty, unfortunately, continues," Whyte fired back. "Tonight is about the town hall on the budget, and we had an agreement, literally 5 minutes ago, that we would allow the mayor to come up and speak if we kept it to the budget, and not Project Marvel — and yet, we all saw what took place."
Some in the crowd greeted Whyte's comment with boos.
As the public forum got underway, Whyte invited Jones to speak about the city budget, which is facing staffing and operational cuts due to a projected $200 million deficit over the next two years.
During Jones' discussion of the city's finances, she pivoted to talking about a vote scheduled for Thursday, during which City Council will discuss two competing agenda items related to Project Marvel.
The first, supported by Whyte and a coalition of others on council, would reach a preliminary agreement with Spurs Sports &Entertainment — known as a term sheet — for the proposed NBA arena. The competing item proposed by Jones would pause negotiations and postpone signing the term sheet until an outside consultant can conduct an independent economic impact study.
"I love the Spurs, I want the Spurs here, but I want independent information," Jones said, drawing applause from the crowd. "And then I want to make sure your good councilman brings that data to you — and brings you a draft term sheet."
Whyte approached Jones to try to take away her microphone.
"One sec. What's the rush, man? What's the rush?" Jones fired back.
"Let her speak," some in the crowd yelled at the councilman.
Despite Whyte's attempts to keep steer discussion away from Project Marvel, several attendees made it clear during their microphone time that they're in favor of Jones' agenda item.
The public dustup between Jones and Whyte comes as the drama surrounding Project Marvel nears a fever pitch.
Before a Monday afternoon press conference at City Hall, Jones in an exclusive interview with the Current, maintained that she wants to keep the Spurs in San Antonio and "wants to make a deal."
Even so, members of community watchdog group COPS/Metro, a group that's been among the most vocal opposing any use of public dollars fund a new Spurs arena, surrounded the mayor at the presser. Members of the organization also were present at Whyte's budget town hall to gather signatures for a "No Project Marvel" petition.
Following his town hall, Whyte said he's confident a seven-person council majority will vote Thursday in favor of the term sheet.
Just the same, Jones seemed determined during her interview with the Current to build last-minute grassroots support for a pause.
"I'm talking to you, the people, you the voter," she said. "You know your worth, you know what you deserve, and frankly, you know that this is moving very fast. So, if you think you deserve an independent economic study and if you want to look at that term sheet before your council members sign you up for $489 million, then you know what, you give your council member a call."
Some political observers agree with Jones that an initial economic impact study, conducted by CSL International, on project marvel doesn't provide enough information for the city to make an informed decision on such a major project.
However, Whyte disagrees.
"The financial folks from the city have said it best: we have all the information that we need in the current economic analysis," Whyte told the Current after the town hall. "When you take a sort of dying area downtown and put a new arena in it, especially in this particular location, you're going to have economic development that will occur."
Stay tuned. More fireworks are expected.
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