FeedWord on the Street reveals behind-the-scenes beneficiaries of Firefly loan
May 28, 2007 in The Wire
Kudos to Jennifer Davis and Molly Parker for their breakdown of the behind-the-scenes mechanizations that led to last Tuesday’s extraordinary vote by the Peoria City Council to guarantee (with the county) $6 million of
Here’s how much O’Neill “respects” Peoria business:
If all goes as planned, Firefly will move out of ICC and into the building O’Neill’s company has purchased on Galena Road, once the site of Foster & Gallagher Co. The plan is to build another building next door that will eventually serve as the company’s world headquarters.
O’Neill also hopes his Morton firm will eventually secure contracts with Firefly to build the high-tech core components that would then be shipped to battery plants in Missouri and Ohio.
And let’s not forget that State Rep.
Feh. I’d be more disgusted if it wasn’t standard operating procedure in Peoria for people to promote handouts to millionaire developers as some sort of civic altruism. And since
But frankly, I’m more than a little disappointed in the council for approving this thing 10-0, with only Bob Manning asking the tough questions. I just wish he had voted “no” after those questions were not answered.
Here’s another question: Presumably, National City Bank got a look at Firefly Energy’s books. Since taxpayers are guaranteeing this loan, do city council and county board members (who are at least supposed to be representing taxpayers’ interests) also get a look at those books?
NOTE: My spam filter is sending comments with the word “l-o-a-n” to the trash bin. Best spell it out, or wait several hours for me to recover it.
May 28th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Anytime David Leitch is involved in a deal it costs the State and the taxpayer's money. Just like the deal with the old Zeller property.
May 28th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
That was my main concern; I expressed over at the Chronicle. How will the city know if Firefly is in danger of default? Are they going to be presenting quarterly financials to the council or will they just up and miss a loan payment and the city will have a week to come up with 3 million dollars.
May 28th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
It's like anything dealing with the Church of the Great Yellow God. Asking for quarterly statements is akin to heresy. Firefly Energy cannot possibly be anything but a great success. To suggest anything else is to not be a cheerleader. I am scared to death there will have to be cutbacks in essential services 10 years from now because Firefly goes out of business.
May 28th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Why isn't SBA backing this loan instead of the city/county? Why aren't they using the new Employ Illinois program with the state Treasurer's office and the Illinois Financial Business Services/SBA? These are all available and the Employ Illinois goes up to $10 million dollars using the system of how many employees you have. This is all available and would take the problem off the local taxpayers backs. I've asked this same question at least five times and no one comes back with an answer. Michael Smith of the Treasurer's office is more than willing to talk to them.
May 28th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Well I just requested the 4 documents filed with the SEC for Firefly. Then we can at least know 35% of what CAT owns.
May 28th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
At the risk of being the lone positive voice in a sea of negativity, here goes:1) First, no gun was held to the head of the City Council in voting for this. I observed a rare unanimous vote in support this effort. Perhaps there is a real positive here for the City. While I doubt that most on the board can understand the true financial implications of their vote, many did their homework before voting.2) Competition for these type of start-up companies is very tight. In this case, the City and County (assuming they approve it) have maintained in Peoria a company that has great potential for growth and job expansion. This was accomplished with no actual dollars invested, simply a loan guarantee.3) There is a precedent for action of this type - just look at the Keystone deal where the County loaned $10M to keep a bankrupt company in business. I don't recall any concerns about this type of effort then (when real dollars were committed).4) Yes there is risk, but life is all about taking calculated risk. Exactly what is occurring here. Yes they could default — but they also could grow and expand. In which case, the City's investment could provide MORE funds for basic essential services.5) Why do some people look to CAT to fund every project in the community and then at the same time complain because everything in town is controlled by CAT?We need to celebrate successes like this and hope for more home-grown companies of this type. Sure hope I'm around in 10 years to say "Told you so.".
May 29th, 2007 at 8:02 am
typos, typos, typos, typos……
May 29th, 2007 at 8:03 am
clunky, slow …..
May 29th, 2007 at 11:19 am
If National City wouldn’t directly invest in FireFly, why should the city/county (we) do it? I have taken a pretty good look at FireFly because of my job and think they have great potential - but like anything, it’s a risk. If National City doesn’t want to take that risk, what makes the city/county a smarter bank? They are simply willing to take the risk because it’s our money that will back it up. National City plays it a lot safer because it’s their money they’ll lose - they can’t play with the money we have deposited there.
I’m not saying this is a bad deal. Promoting high tech and bringing this kind of industry to the Peoria area is smart business indeed - this is just an awfully risk way to go about it.