By Mike Thayer
By the hand of city administrator Kelly Hayworth, Coralville's city council members created themselves a huge problem by trying to lure retailer Von Maur from the Sycamore Mall to the Iowa River Landing. Throwing multi-millions of taxpayer dollars at Von Maur was a bad idea. Recruiting an anchor store from a neighboring town was a bad idea. Blowing off local developer and business input/inquiry for the IRL was a bad idea. Hiring an out-of-state firm to do the work the locals could do was a bad idea. Financing the Von Maur deal with taxpayer money the city doesn't have because the out-of-state firm couldn't come up with the funding was a bad idea. The city of Coralville filing a suit against area business leaders protesting the resident tax dollar giveaway to Von Maur was a bad idea. Hiding as many details as possible about this shady deal from the public is a bad idea.
I don't think these guys are going to stop digging until they get to China.
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