Local: Ummm …. does the City of Peoria own Cat stock? (UPDATED)
I’m sitting here in the late evening without access to the data to look this up. But it sounds to me like Randy Oliver told the fine folks in Durham, N.C. that the City of Peoria owns (or could one day own) a bunch of Caterpillar stock. The post is from a Durham blogger who attended a forum for the three folks who are applying for city manager, including Randy Oliver, who held the job here in River City:
There were additional differences among the candidates in response to questions about sustainability, especially of our water supply (Mr. Oliver was very specific about tiered water rates, for example, while Mr. Kolb talked about the use of porous asphalt to build parking lots that didn’t increase runoff, and Mr. Salerno was more general about the “interdependence of the environment, the economy, and social justice.”) and about the use of economic incentives for attracting new business. Mr. Oliver talked about how Peoria got stock options from Caterpillar in exchange for policies easing the creation of the Caterpillar spinoff Firefly(i feel like i’m talking about little known science fiction TV shows here) which makes environmentally friendly(er) lead free batteries. I guess if the business is successful, the city cashes in its options and makes more money than it gave away in incentives, which is certainly innovative. I wonder if that’s legal in North Carolina.
There’s nothing in my posts about any stock options given to the city. I’ll have to make some phone calls, but perhaps also some readers might shed some light on this.
UPDATED: The answer is … no. I got this email from Randy Ray, which confirmed what my commenters said:
The Firefly arrangement was approved by Council on May 22, 2007. In exchange for pledging revenues to guarantee Firefly’s bank loan, the City received a warrant, valid through Sept. 7, 2017, to purchase up to 333,334 shares for 72 cents per share.
My thanks to Mr. Ray for the prompt reply.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
They received warrants for Firefly stock, not CAT stock. The city is entitled to by a certain number of shares at, I think, $1 a piece (maybe 1,000,000 shares). You know when Firefly goes public the city is going to make 5 million dollars off those warrants, just ask Leitch. The meeting that had the powerpoint presentation and the Leitch comments happened in May of last year. Everyone was talking about when they went public not if. Like this wasn’t venture capital or something. It really chapped my ass.
May 23, 2007, Journal Star:
There’s your answer, Billy. No stock is available yet, by the way.