Hello everyone -
Hopefully many of you were able to tune into the Ignite Media feed regarding the public hearing in Tooele County tonight.
http://www.ignitemedia.tv/live_stream.html
There is a lot of detail, and I encourage you to watch the whole thing, but for those of you who do not have the time (or the patience, after all many of you are racers) - here is a quick summary.
The meeting took place in 5 phases:
Phase 1:
The county discovered during due-dilegence for the sale that some control of the Miller property had been conveyed to an RDA (Rural Development Association) at some point in the past. The records were incomplete and there was no certainty that consideration (payment) had been received by the county for the transfer. As a result the responsibility and ownership for the property has been re-established by the county. This was purely procedural.
Phase 2: Presentations
There were 4 presentations given this evening.
Presentation 1 was by county attorney Scott Broadhead. In his presentation he articulated the series of events that brought us to this date and hearing. He was detailed in his explanations of how each of the bids was reviewed, what groups were consulted before the decision was made and some of the reasons why the MiTime Bid was selected.
Presentation 2 was from UMC President Alan Wilson articulating the plans that MiTime has for the facility.
Presentation 3 was from a professional assessor who was paid to prepare a "fair market value statement" for the sale of the property. He explained in detail the different ways that you can use to appraise a property value, which they selected and how they used that method to arrive at a market price of about 9 million dollars for the facility.
Presentation 4 was from Zion Bank based on an analysis they have done to determine the market impact that the operation of the motorsports park has on the local economy. It would be an understatement to say that the numbers are staggering and the facility is an extremely important part of Tooele County.
Phase 3: Public Comment
During this phase about 30 people spoke. What, in the past, has been a split between supporters and opposers of the sale to MiTime, tonight was 100% in support of the sale to MiTime. Not a single person spoke against the sale.
It is important to note at this point that Mr. Cartwright (owner of Centerpoint, the competing bidder) was in the gallery and chose not to speak in support of his own proposal or to defend the current lawsuit he has filed against the county in an attempt to block the sale.
Phase 4: Vote
In this phase the Commission voted unanimously to approve a purchase and sale agreement with MiTime for the motorsports property. This sale agreement has built in a "backup" clause whereby if the sale is blocked either by the lawsuit or by a delay in the approval of the sale to a foreign entity by the Federal Government the county can lease the property to MiTime in an arrangement similar to the arrangement the county had with Miller.
Phase 5: Public Concerns
During this time a resident from Tooele County stood, commended the commission for their decision to approve the purchase and sale agreement and publicly called for Mr Cartwright to drop his lawsuit.
This was met with tremendous applause from the gallery - it was the only public concern articulated.
The commission then voted to adjourn.
Stay tuned -more exciting announcements are queued up, we're going to have a great 2016 here in Utah!
Thanks to everyone who came out and supported tonight. The hearing room was full of supporters and concerned citizens - our voices have been heard!
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