Mayor Thompson: Wild West auction's significance beyond bidding

"Every item you're able to purchase is an investment in our future." - Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson

HARRISBURG ? For Mayor Linda Thompson, the upcoming Wild West auction represents a turning point in the city?s fiscal recovery ? and, maybe, the chance to expand her Louis Vuitton collection.

When asked Friday which of the 8,000 items she?ll bid on, Thompson said Friday she might go for a suitcase that reportedly once belonged to Annie Oakley.

?I certainly am a Louis Vuitton lover,? she said. ?I?ll have to ask myself whether I want to invest in that at this time, so I have my eye on that.?

She spoke during a news conference meant to kick off the auction during its second preview day at the D&D public works warehouse adjacent to the city?s incinerator.

The facility is the source of between $340 million and $370 million of the city?s debt, with another $100 million or so tied to its parking garages. A number of smaller obligations ratchet up the total past $600 million.

Resolving that debt - the school district's $437 million is separate - is the focus of ongoing negotiations among creditors, city and county government officials, bond insurers and others.

It?s well past the June 24 mark previously cited by Thompson and state-appointed receiver Gen. William Lynch as their estimate for when they?d reach consensus.

Dramatic disruptions in the bond market were cited as a reason for more recent delays during a meeting of the Municipal Financial Recovery Advisory Committee earlier this week by state Department of Community and Economic Development?s Fred Redding, who ran the meeting in the absence of both Lynch, who has been on vacation this week, and Thompson.

But Thompson says she sees the auction as the start of the city?s financial recovery. Estimated values for the Harrisburg collection range between $500,000 and $5 million. Whatever it brings, a judge must approve how it?s spent as per the Act 47 recovery process that resulted in Lynch?s appointment as well.

Savings on insurance for the collet ion will be an additional help to the city?s structural deficit.

Thompson said she?s previously been unable to procure from insurers due to its inclusion in an umbrella policy.

?Every item you?re able to purchase is an investment in our future,? said Thompson, who pushed legislation to force the sale of the objects during her second City Council term. ?These artifacts had been in the city?s archives for a very long time, ? and here we are today (at) that important moment to see what Harrisburg?s history looks like and the opportunities ahead.?

Bidding starts 10 a.m. Monday.

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/mayor_thompson_wild_west_aucti.html

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