San Antonio mayor calls for “pause” on Spurs arena, city council says how’s okaying $500m in two weeks sound?

The San Antonio city council held a hearing on the San Antonio Spurs‘ proposed Project Marvel arena-and-convention-center-and-other-stuff development yesterday, but while it had been teased as a discussion of CSL’s predictably questionable economic impact report on the project, it turned into a throwdown between the mayor and the council about whether to worry about economic impact at all:

• Newly elected Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones asked for a “strategic pause on this entire effort” in order to conduct a “full independent review” of the costs and benefits of the deal.
• Seven out of 10 city councilmembers said screw that, they were ready to go ahead with a vote on the arena project as soon as August 21. “I trust the Spurs,” said councilmember Phyllis Viagran. “I know the Holts. I know they want to be here, and they’re the majority owners. So I’m ready to tell you, Erik, move with the lawyers and continue to get this done and bring it to us for a vote.”

What exactly the council would be voting on to approve remains a little unclear: There’s been talk of using the city’s share of hotel and property taxes, but no word on a specific cost breakdown. City officials have said that the total city subsidy would amount to $500 million, but haven’t provided details; Jones told KSAT that three years into negotiations, “we still don’t have a final number” for how much the project will cost.

Any council vote will be “nonbinding,” so presumably further council votes will be needed down the road to approve a binding version of whatever it is the council thinks it’s giving a thumbs-up to this month. A full independent review of the costs still sounds like a great idea in the meantime, but it also doesn’t sound like the bulk of the council is interested in that, not so long as they have their report from clown consultants in its clear plastic binder.