Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Obama Presidental Center EXPOSED for owing MILLIONS to unpaid contractors

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Obama Presidental Center EXPOSED for owing MILLIONS to unpaid contractors · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Well, some new drama surrounding the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Amid all the fanfare of its opening last Friday, some
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: subcontractors who helped build it claim they still have not
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: been paid. The allegations hit especially hard because the massive
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: construction project was supposed to help minority businesses and local
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: firms lift their fortunes, but some say they're owed millions
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of dollars and are struggling to stay afloat.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I feel like an aluminum can that's been thrown in
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: front of a steamroller. I've just were crushed this then
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: our internals, the overall moneys expended on this project have
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: now reached nearly four million dollars in the red that's
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: in totality over the last five years. That is a
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: hole that no subcontractor small business can survive financially. Our
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: reserves have been completely drained. We are barely getting by
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: right now. Unfortunately, we're probably going to have to lay
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: off union workers here in a short term so that
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: we can regroup and lick our wounds and hopefully live
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: to fight another day.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Fasts contributor James Freeman writes he didn't pay to build
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: that add Unhappy contractors to the list of locals disappointed
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: with the new Obama Center. He joins us now, James,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: thanks very much for joining us this afternoon. You know,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the Obama Foundation says, you know, they've settled up with
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the organization that's dealing with all the contractors here. But
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: what did you learn in finding all of this out?
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: And you know, what's the status of this this very
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: large presidential library in Chicago.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, good question, And kudo's having mister Owen in that interview.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: One of the reasons we're only hearing from him is
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: because he wasn't bound by a non disclosure agreement.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: Many of them were many of the.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Contractors, and as far as we know from the African
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: American Contractors Association, there are a lot of small business
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: people struggling waiting to get their bills paid by the
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Obama Center. It's part of a really big question about
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: this project. The president, the former president says it's his
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: way of giving.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: Back to Chicago, and Chicago and.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: The state of Illinois have certainly given him a lot,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: but it's not clear what he's giving back. This used
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: to be public parkland, free, open to the public. He's
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: now charging, So it's a private venture that was given
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: a ninety nine year lease for ten dollars for nineteen
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: acres of land that would be sold for millions per
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  Speaker 3: acre if you could even sell it. It was part
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: of a historic park in the National Register of Historic Places,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: So it's kind of impossible to believe that any other
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: project would have been able to execute this takeover of
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: public land for essentially nothing, and then as a private adventure,
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: not a presidential library managed by the National Archives, but
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: as a private adventure, then charge people to visit.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I've been to a ton of these presidential libraries and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: they range from President Nixon's and is basically his house.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: It's built adjacent to that. It's fairly understated. You've got
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: an Air Force one in Simi Valley where President Ronald
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Reagan has his library. How is this library different from
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the dozens of others that Americans can go to.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean a lot of people have criticized the design,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: saying it looks like a Klingon prison, etc. That's in
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: the eye of the holder. I think the question is
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: the creation of this thing and the continuing liability. It
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: was supposed to have a massive endowment because it's obviously,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: as you can see in the picture, a lot of
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: land to take care of. They never raised that money,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: or maybe because the cost ended up being nearly three
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: times what was originally forecast to build the project, maybe
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: that's where the money went.
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  Speaker 4: But the point is that they really need that.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Admissions revenue otherwise the people in that neighborhood and the
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: taxpayers of Chicago and Illinois are going to have a
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: massive bill in the future to maintain this place. Also
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: very different from other libraries. Why it had to be
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: taking over a public park, I mean, ironically, while former
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: President Obama was running a Netflix special about beautiful Treasured Parkland.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's almost amusing if it wasn't that takeover
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: of public land. And there was a group a local
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: conservation is called protect our Parks, which fought the project
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: valiantly for years in court. The Obamas were able to
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: beat them, And now it sounds like the local contractors
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: helping to build the thing are sort of the latest
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: group of unhappy locals at this project.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Are there other concerns from neighbors? I mean, anytime you
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: have a large project like this, there's always the concerns
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: that values are going to shoot up, Taxes will shoot up,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: you'll have traffic, you'll have all these other things that
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: not necessarily everybody wants in their backyard. Nimbiism, if you will.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Had those concerns been in this neighborhood in Chicago or
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: is it a welcome development?
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  Speaker 3: Well, some people have criticized it because they think it's
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: going to raise their rents in the neighborhood. I think
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: if it actually does long term create a lot of
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: value there, I think you'd have to say it was
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: a good thing for the city of Chicago and the
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: South Side. But as I said, the endowment that was
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: supposed to maintain this thing was never raised.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: So going forward, are.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: People going to keep wanting to buy tickets for years
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: years into the future. And we should note in terms
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: of where's the benefit for the locals?
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  Speaker 4: There is a reduced price.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: So normally a person pays thirty dollars to visit, twenty
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: three dollars for kids. If you're an Illinois resident, you
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: pay twenty six dollars fifteen for kids. But in one
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: of those beautiful ironies that Democrats seem to specialize in,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: now you need to present a valid id to get
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: the Illinois discount at the Obama Museum, even though you
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: don't need to present one to vote in Illinois.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think it'll be a polling center, but
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: you know who knows. James Freeman, thanks so much for
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: digging into this, and now, by the way, it encourage
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: you go out and check out presidential libraries across the country.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of really cool ones out there, so James,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: thank you so much.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: Thanks Ray.
• 6:47
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• 6:53
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