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| Why does DPZ feel "Navy Fed got 'burnt' on this deal?" |
As I wake up today coming off of what I felt was a good meeting yesterday (beginning at 20:08 of this video), where the commissioners were working together and arrived at a compromise for the development of OLF-8--I can't help but wonder about the text message, above, from Mike Weich of DPZ Co Design to Marina Khoury, also of DPZ Co Design. In it, Weich states that he "Just feel(s) bad for Navy Fed...they were 'burnt' on this deal."
This text message comes as a result of a public records request that DPZ fulfilled late last week. The context of the above quote is: this was a commentary between these two on a series of unflattering articles, blog posts, news pieces and television stories that came out last month illustrating the fact that there were several "behind the scenes" meetings between Navy Federal Credit Union, a coalition of NFCU employees and some residents, and the county's consultant, DPZ. In these meetings, county staffers were specifically excluded and the goal of "embarrassing" and undermining the BCC's goals were discussed and DPZ staff was copied on these plans.
Then it was also revealed in these articles that the chief media spokesman for NFCU, Bill Pearson, was simultaneously working with the "NO Commerce Park on OLF 8" campaign against the BCC. He (Pearson) even helped edit their talking points. And Marina Khoury was aware of this, as members of the DPZ team were copied on these conversations. Sadly, at the time these machinations were occurring, nobody at the BCC (DPZ's Client) was notified in real time. Many believe this was a breach of DPZ's ethical obligation to the BCC, DPZ's sole client here on this OLF-8 project. This all was discovered after the fact--- which was embarrassing for both NFCU and DPZ.
So perhaps Weich feels NFCU got "burnt" because of the poor way in which DPZ handled these actions--leading to the conduct at issue being discovered through a local journalist's public records request? If that's why he feels they got "burnt"- he should look in the mirror for the culprit.
But maybe Weich feels NFCU got "burnt" because they didn't successfully kill all the jobs and commerce to be developed on OLF-8? (This could be valid--as prior to the embarrassing public records emails detailing the NFCU behind the scenes involvement with DPZ in this---what was
