THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 14, 1995 TAG: 9501140211
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Saying that he didn't want the image of ``back room politics'' to taint the city or its negotiations for a riverboat operator, Councilman James C. Hawks tried to convince the City Council on Friday to release the proposals from the top three casino candidates.
Hawks said he wanted to disclose publicly all the proposals so that citizens would understand why the council chose to negotiate with Eldorado Hotel and Casino, a Nevada-based outfit that has a group of eight prominent local investors. The city chose Eldorado over Bally Entertainment Corp. even though the city staff rated Bally's offer as slightly better than that of Eldorado.
Hawks wanted to make public the bids from the top three competitors to illustrate how similar the offers were and why a majority of the council agreed to begin negotiations with Eldorado.
However, City Attorney Stuart E. Katz warned the council that if it unveiled the proposals, it would violate the state's procurement laws. ``While conducting negotiations,'' he quoted from those laws, ``there shall be no disclosure of competing offers.''
Katz said that if the proposals were publicly disclosed, the city would be exposed to lawsuits from the losing companies.
``I had hoped we would be able to discuss this in public,'' said Councilman James T. Martin, an Eldorado supporter. ``But given the considerations of the city attorney, I don't want to do this in public.''
Hawks persisted, asking the council to consider calling the companies to first get permission to disclose the proposals and to make the negotiations public. However, the majority of council declined to consider the issue on Friday.
The council instead met behind closed doors for two hours to discuss the negotiations and the actions of council members who spoke publicly Thursday about the Eldorado proposal.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL RIVERBOAT GAMBLING CASINO by CNB