The secrecy of the dealings between Squire, Sanders & Dempsey lawyer Fred Nance and MMPI suggests we won’t know how bad a deal the County Commissioners have made until it’s much too late.
The public should demand that Nance and his firm remain off limits on any bond work for the Med Mart & Convention Center.
The Squire-Sanders firm should forgo any relationship with the County bonds or with MMPI.
Since Nance has been intimately involved in the dealings on this issue he should remove himself and his firm from any further work. He is being paid up to $175,000 by the County for his bargaining work, which seems less than stellar since he led the choice of Tower City as the site.
He seems to have played a more intimate role than the County hired him to perform.
Otherwise, we have a serious conflict of interest on the part of Nance and Squire-Sanders. Playing dual conflicting roles isn’t unusual for Squire-Sanders.
Nance has already said that he expects Squire-Sanders to participate in the bond borrowings, a lucrative business for bond counsels and others.
That should be treated as presumptuous.
The fact that the leasing deal with MMPI (Merchandise Mart Products, Inc.) and Cuyahoga County remains a secret is a strong signal that the public interest isn’t even a consideration.
We don’t know what we’re giving away and how many loop holes are in the deal.
A deal marked by smells of self-dealing all over the place.