Jeff Hawkes’ column “Inside a shifting Alliance” suggests “A sign of these tough times is a leaner Lancaster Alliance, the CEO-driven civic group behind many initiatives to revitalize the city. A strategic planning process has led the 14-member Alliance to sharpen its focus and downsize its operations.
“The biggest casualty is the Lancaster Campaign, the community development arm of the Alliance that will come to an end later this month….the Alliance has narrowed its focus to two areas: city finances and public safety. ..,”
We at NewsLanc will not grieve over the reduce role of the Alliance in community affairs. Its record has been both hit and miss. At times the Alliance has seemed the ‘cats paw’ of the old Lancaster elite, examples being their advocacy of the convention center project and street cars for downtown Lancaster. Their efforts seem to have been more about furthering financial interests or simply bad ideas of their sponsors rather than concern for than the public. We suspect the funds could have been applied in better ways to improve the Lancaster community.
Reproduced below is a NewsLanc article from 2008 and a letter in response. We believe them as applicable today as then.
LANCASTER ALLIANCE: The streets of Hell are paved with good intentions
Posted on September 5th, 2008
NewsLanc conducted an extensive interview with Lancaster Alliance President Jack Howell. It seemed clear that the Alliance has done valuable work and often been a positive influence in nurturing and eventually spinning off organizations serving the needs of the City of Lancaster. And contrary to questions raised by the Lancaster Post, it is a legitimate 501(c)3organization.
Representatives of the eighteen largely big business sponsors meet once each month but August to discuss and determine what projects the Alliance should nurture and support.
But like all such organizations of the powerful – be they professional associations or oil cartels – the Alliance walks a narrow line between altruistic and wise endeavors and self interests or ill conceived projects.
They wield a collective power, but are without public input and oversight. Until a recent Lancaster Post article, the amount each member was contributing was kept secret!
NewsLanc is impressed with much of the Alliance work and Howell’s skills. But it saw signs that insufficient care may occur in choosing new endeavors, street cars for example, and the Alliance staff and board may be unreceptive to new information when it is contrary to its preconceptions and desires.
What is perceived as good by eighteen major local entities may not always be good for Lancaster. After all, the Alliance was the incubator for the convention center project!
LETTER: Why did Alliance distort reasonable proposals?
Posted on September 6th, 2008
“Regarding the NewsLanc article about the Lancaster Alliance: “The streets of hell are paved with good intentions”
“There is no question that the Lancaster Alliance has performed community services worthy of a legitimate 501(c)3 organization. Yet whether the Lancaster Alliance is actually a legitimate non-profit can be called into question, based on their past and present actions.
“For example, the hotel and convention center currently under construction – originally proposed by the Lancaster Alliance – clearly violates the findings of the 1998 LDR International report, which was commissioned by the Lancaster Alliance and is still displayed on their web site. How and why did the Lancaster Alliance take perfectly reasonable proposals and distort them into a project where private companies making a minimal investment stand to make a considerable profit, while taxpayers are stuck with nearly all of the exorbitant costs and practically all of the risk?
“Also deserving of scrutiny is the streetcar proposal, which seems to be a done deal even though not one single vote has ever been taken by any governmental body which would be required for the streetcars to operate in the public rights of way.
“These and other projects by the Lancaster Alliance must call into question whether its actions which truly benefit the community constitute its true purpose for existence, or if the Lancaster Alliance’s philanthropic work is nothing more than a cover for an agenda which exists primarily to profit its most powerful members.”
