In the firestorm following City Council’s controversial decision to table a vote that would have potentially brought more then $2 million in state money for downtown came this nugget from regular commenter Jim.

Jim spoke of what the decision could mean for future state funding for Erie:

This is symptomatic of what many have been complaining about for years regarding the damage done to our city by the poor performance of elected leaders, tolerated year over year by Erie voters. That’s not being negative. That’s fact.

If I understand Kim Green’s comments correctly this is not a situation where council was not aware of what was being attempted or of Kim’s work. Nor did it seem to be a case of council’s usual excuse in these situations, of not having enough information from the administration. That said, as painful as it is to say, apparently Sinnott is right, it amounted to political pandering of the usual council kind.

Now whether one agrees with the project or not, is beside the point here. The point is, this kind of action, this late in the process sends negative messages about the climate in Erie. You simply can’t do business here, expecting to get anything done in a timely fashion.

The other concern I have, is that I have been critical of the state funding in Erie of late, from the lateness on the completion of the Warner project, to Rendell’s cancellation of the Koehler grant, refusing to allow the money to remain in Erie. Now council takes this action, which could have ramifications with the state, in that it can be used to justify past or future actions costing Erie dollars.