As an addendum to this week's Council Report Card, Bobby Henon also introduced a new bill on behalf of Council President Darrell Clarke that would inject still more chaos and unpredictability into the city land sale process. 

Council essentially already enshrined Councilmanic Prerogative in the Land Bank by inserting the Council-controlled Vacant Property Review Committee into the process for approving land sales.

It's the veto point in the process for stopping the sale of properties that Councilmembers don't want to sell, for whatever reason. The Land Bank can reject or ignore requests for sale on behalf of Councilmembers, and our elected officials never have to explain themselves. 

Council President Darrell Clarke now wants to take this a giant leap further by allowing the land bank to take back already-sold or already-developed properties if any sale terms aren't met--no matter how minor. 

Not only would this embolden Councilmembers to micromanage city land sales even more, turning land sale terms into an exciting new frontier for provincial politics, it would also make land bank properties undevelopable. What insurance company or financial institution would agree to insure or finance a building that could be seized back by the land bank?

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