STA issue returns
The ad: “Money Pit,” a 30-second TV commercial by the National Republican Congressional Committee, basically is an earlier NRCC ad with a makeover. The ad accuses Don Barbieri of making a $900,000 profit off land his company sold to Spokane Transit Authority in the early 1990s. Barbieri’s company, Goodale & Barbieri, was working with STA to build a 23-story hotel, retail and transit center downtown.
“The STA then leased the land back to Barbieri, who leased space back to STA for 25 years with $2.8 million to be paid in advance to Barbieri. Barbieri then dumped the project, ‘leaving a cavernous hole in the ground,’ ” the ad says.
The only new information in this ad is the $2.8 million advance payment and a mention in the beginning of the late Lou Barbieri, Don’s father, who originally sold some of the land to his son.
Another difference is the tone. The first ad was gloomy and ominous. The new ad is set to what sounds like circus music.
NRCC’s stance The NRCC created a second ad to provide voters with information about the issue that it didn’t include in the first ad, spokesman Bo Harmon said. The ad says Don Barbieri bought some of the land from his dad to show that “it was a very cozy sort of business deal,” Harmon said. He added, “With all of the questions about Barbieri’s business practices, when you have a proven effective legislator in Cathy McMorris, I can’t imagine why anybody would want to take the risk of sending someone this questionable to Congress.” | Candidate’s stance Barbieri spokesman Stephen Barbieri’s feelings about the second ad aren’t much different from his thoughts on the first: It’s inaccurate and misleading. He said pulling Don Barbieri’s deceased father into the picture is a nasty tactic. “They’re implicating (Lou Barbieri) in a series of transactions that they are calling unethical,” Stephen Barbieri said. “He was a highly regarded person in this community. There’s no reason to bring him into the fray.” |
The new information in this second ad is just as disingenuous as the information in last one. The first ad said Barbieri made a $900,000 profit, when in fact he lost more than $300,000 on the STA deal. The new one suggests he received a $2.8 million payment that was never actually made. To recap an Ad Watch from last week, STA and G&B agreed that the company would sell downtown land to STA and then lease it back. STA was to make a $34 million profit over 60 years on the arrangement. The project fell through because it began to cost more than had been anticipated. STA eventually built the current transit Plaza on the site. Yes, STA bought five of six parcels for $900,000 more than Barbieri paid for them, as the ad says. But Barbieri’s total price tag – including the sixth parcel and the cost of demolishing the buildings and doing an environmental cleanup – was higher than the ad says. He wound up losing about $300,000 on the overall deal. Plus, state law prohibits public agencies from paying less for land than its appraised value, and a firm appraised G&B’s property at $3.525 million after the land was cleared. STA ended up buying the land from G&B for $3.689 million. After attorney Steve Eugster filed a lawsuit, even the courts said STA’s purchase price was reasonable. As for the $2.8 million advance payment mentioned in the new ad, Stephen Barbieri says G&B never got that money because the deal fell apart. Harmon even says the ad was “just describing the deal (Don Barbieri) set up.” When asked whether he felt viewers would get the impression that Barbieri received that money after watching the ad, Harmon said, “We never say that.” The ad accurately quotes a Nov. 7, 1991, Journal of Business article that calls the land a “cavernous hole in the ground.” But the words “Don Barbieri’s Money Pit” immediately follow that quote in the same font, giving the impression that the statement came from the same article. In fact, “money pit” didn’t come from any article. Those are the NRCC’s words, Harmon said. | |
Ad Watch is an analysis of campaign advertising that will run regularly during election season. Contact Megan Cooley at (509) 927-2165 or meganc@spokesman.com | For more information on the election, and to see selected campaign advertisements, visit the online election guide at: www.spokesmanreview.com/elections |