Todd Paris, Salisbury Attorney and Candidate for Salisbury City Council
♦ Salisbury City Council incumbent and BB&T banker Brian Miller was quoted in local print media as saying that council should be run like a board of directors and considers his service a “hobby” due to his work schedule. Miller, after serving four terms on city council, a full eight years, is seeking re-election again. You should not vote for him. Why?
Brian Miller:
Director Failure – Miller was on the Downtown Salisbury Inc. Committee that pushed the purchase of the stalled and failing Empire Hotel. The debt service payments cost taxpayers around $90,000.00 per year for a total of nearly one million dollars over the past ten years since it was purchased. It can’t sell because it had a bad “Phase One Environmental” report when it was purchased due to lead paint, asbestos and dry-cleaning solvents in the earth. After ten years, in this, an election year, all Brian Miller has to show is a “non-binding agreement” to develop the property that was supposed to have closed months ago. We are paying a collection of banks almost 90K per year for ten years and still the pay-off is more than $700,000.00! Anyone know what the interest rate is? Was this financed on DSI’s Capital One Credit Card?
If I were shareholder in a corporation and one of my directors sold my company on a deal like this, he would be fired. Let’s treat Council like a board of directors. We need to give Miller his gold watch and send him home. Should local voters reward failure?
Failure of tenure – Miller has eight years on council. Miller presided over the draw down of the Salisbury Police Department to the point where it was almost one quarter empty at the beginning of this year. This contributed to the run-away crime we are experiencing. Brian, Maggie and Karen Alexander claimed they had no idea that Fibrant was loosing millions per year. It took me 15 minutes with the budget in October 2015 to realize that most Fibrant employees we hidden under other departments in the budget. Our noble editor Steve Mensing exposed the losses for years on Anti-Fibrant.com and in the RFP by reviewing the budget and other documents. The only two conclusions that can be reached concern either incompetence or lack of transparency.
Lack of Leadership – This year while the city was dealing with the Ferguson Laurent, Jr. officer involved shooting, where was Miller? Where was that leadership while Mayor Alexander horribly mishandled the matter? Thank goodness District Attorney Cook disarmed this public relations bomb by releasing the full SBI report online! The new Police Chief stated on television that two shots were fired and the autopsy comes back with ten wounds and then city hall attacks the ministers and leaders who noted the flagrant difference? In all fairness, Miller was spotted at “Pops at the Post.”
Shareholders and stakeholders of Salisbury! Are you satisfied with your hobbyist director? Have things with “Salisbury, Inc.” improved during Director Miller’s eight year tenure on “Salisbury Inc’s” board of directors? If you want to improve this city, stop rewarding failure.
Photo Journey through the 8 years of City Councilman Brian Miller:
Miller the Visionary (2013):
Amongst the City Council Visionaries (2013):
Find Brian Miller in this photo:
