Judging by the comments and chatter generated by the previous post about Toby Futrell’s admitted conflict of interest re: Wal-Mart, I think it’s important to come out and state a few things: The post was not intended, as one e-mailer put it, to be any sort of “gotcha” moment tying Futrell to the development. If anything, it was meant as a humorous, you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me instance representative of the city’s (by now trademarked) ham-handed manner in handling Northcross. Futrell’s COI wasn’t exactly a secret – the documents are available on the city’s Web site here – but its timing – immediately submitted before the Northcross site plan – does raise interesting questions. As neighbors seek to rein in the expansion, we’ll see more questions of council and staff, especially of the “what did you know, and when did you know it” variety. And if in fact Futrell’s husband does HVAC work for Wal-Mart, and because of this she has an admitted conflict of interest, then we’ve done our job.
This article appears in December 1 • 2006.