Letter: Says info was missing in dog track appraisal article

Dear Editor,

Last week’s paper failed to fully report the facts on the St. Croix Meadows dog track appraisal by Valuations Specialists and the felon appraiser who contributed to it. These were the facts left out:

1) The felon appraiser’s name was Paul J. Daley (not John Daley as reported in the printed version of the HSO).

2) Paul J. Daley had five felony convictions of theft by swindle according to court documents because he and a coworker were caught embezzling over $140,000 from their employer.

3) Daley was sentenced to 54 months of prison at Minnesota’s St. Cloud facility.

4) Since the conviction, Daley continued to misbehave and has multiple records, including gross misdemeanor and misdemeanors which have extended his probation.

5) The check from the Hudson School District for $6,000 went directly to Daley’s office in Prior Lake, not Jeffrey White’s office in Eau Claire.

6) The appraisal was more than double the purchase price. A clause in the purchase agreement for St. Croix Meadows allows the seller to gift the difference to the buyer.

7) A clause in the appraisal cites “Extraordinary Assumptions/ Hypothetical Conditions” on page 9 out of 78, stating that the appraisal number of $16.8 million includes “hypothetical condition that the school building improvements have been completed per specifications supplied to the appraiser...retrofit of 90,000 square feet of the building improvements...curb and asphalt paving improvements.”

These facts go directly to the credibility of the appraisal and the subsequent marketing campaign by the district and Vote Yes Hudson. If journalism is about reporting facts and letting the public come to their own conclusion, then the Star-Observer and Meg Heaton desperately failed the citizens of Hudson by not sharing the facts.

Tags: opinion, letters, money