To the editor:

At the end of Tuesday’s Lawrence City Commission meeting, Vice Mayor Jeremy Farmer openly solicited his fellow commissioners to commit to donating 10 acres of the proposed police facility land to the Boys and Girls Club, at a value of nearly $500,000.

The discussion was brief, but some commissioners could be heard to remark that they supported this donation and hoped that in exchange, the Boys and Girls Club would help with the Friends of the Police campaign, to advocate for an affirmative sales tax vote in November’s election. Such blatant quid pro quo would be shocking if it were not, by now, sadly expected.

Heads up, city leaders. The Boys and Girls Club is a non-profit 501c3 organization. As such, it cannot lawfully engage in “action” activities, nor may it participate in electoral campaigns.

Further, it hardly seems fair to the numerous non-profit organizations that were defunded in the city’s 2015 budget cycle, for the city to now allow one favored organization to gain an extraordinary windfall, at taxpayer expense, without any open public process.

This police facility is looking more like Rock Chalk Park every day. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with public safety. It’s about real estate. 

What happened to the processes that are supposed to protect the interests of the taxpayer?

How many times does our community have to be led down the primrose path by those with vested financial interest before we learn?

Thank goodness the police facility, and all the baggage it now carries, is going for a public vote. I, for one, intend to vote no.