It's happening again. Negotiations for a new casino hotel are occurring virtually undetected by the public, or the primary landowners whose properties are so cavalierly being bandied about.

Editor's note: Prior to press time, the Davenport City Council tabled the appointment of John Nahra and canceled meetings scheduled for April 11 and 12.

Last week, eight Davenport aldermen and the mayor signed what several of them thought was a petition seeking the reorganization of the city legal department that had been drafted nearly a year ago but vetoed twice by the mayor. Following the petition - less than a week later - the demotion of sitting corporation counsel Mary Thee (without a formal performance review), a revision of the ordinance governing the council's supervisory purview of the legal department, and the hiring of retired Judge John Nahra to replace Thee were all on the table for a special council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 10, at 5 p.m. The administrator's office scheduled three special meetings - for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday - in case Tuesday's meeting did not result in a waiving of the "three readings" requirement for an ordinance change.

On Monday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. on the second floor of the River Music Experience, the City of Davenport is hosting a "kickoff" meeting that will commence a "public process to design the expansion of LeClaire Park." The city's news release reads: "With the pending departure of the Isle of Capri's Rhythm City gaming operation away from the riverfront, a historic opportunity exists for the community to gather and collectively share ideas to transform the soon-to-be vacated property to uses everyone can enjoy and be proud of." The city claims that no design consultants will be used to "develop the conceptual plans" to expand LeClaire Park. The staff will introduce the project and provide background information and a schedule of upcoming input sessions. The city states: "The project's focus will be to use a community-based, grassroots approach to help the city take the next step in the evolution of its magnificent Mississippi riverfront."

The Davenport city leadership is receiving strong objections from the community regarding the elimination of regular standing-committee meetings by folding them into the bi-weekly Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting. How responsive it will be to the collective opposition to this serious degradation of the public process remains to be seen, especially since it tends to conduct far more business behind closed doors these days.