An Email from the County Commissioners:

October 2nd, 2005

Re: Lancaster County Convention Center - Taxpayer Protections.

Dear Friends:

During the several months that have passed since our last e-mail, the Board of County Commissioners has continued to be active in protecting citizen interests concerning the hotel/convention center proposal. Recent statements by the Editors and Columnists of the Lancaster Newspapers suggest an effort to forget why the Board has acted. So we hope you will be interested in this brief e-mail summarizing our personal views, unfiltered by Lancaster Newspapers, one of the private partners in the hotel/convention center deal. For ease of distribution, this joint e-mail has been sent from Molly to Dick, with a "bcc" to you. If you are not interested in this topic, please hit "delete" and accept our apologies for any inconvenience.

We entered office supportive of the idea of a private hotel/public convention center, but opposed to the $60 million County guarantee. If the project truly was as viable as supporters claimed, such a guarantee was unnecessary. Our concerns were increased greatly when Penn Square Partners refused to answer a single one of the "57 Questions" we posed in response to their request for exemption for the private hotel from County real estate tax. The "Twelve Points for Taxpayer Protection" were intended to be a starting point for a compromise to move the project forward with a reasonable sharing of public and private risk. These "Twelve Points" are attached to this email. We believe you will find them reasonable. Once again, Penn Square Partners refused to discuss or negotiate these points.

Penn Square Partners refused to delay demolition of the historic buildings and purchase of the Watt & Shand building for $6.8 million until bids and financing for the project were in place. To the contrary, project supporters suggested that even before bids and financing, the County-guaranteed LCCCA debt (which at the moment is owed to a single bank holding the loan proceeds in escrow) should be issued to thousands and thousands of public bondholders. This would vastly increase the risk to taxpayers.

With no response to the reasonable suggestions made by the County Commissioners, the Board has continued to examine the legality of the financing, appoint an independent voice on the LCCCA Board, protect the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitor Bureau's marketing efforts and taken other reasonable actions.

We welcome any comments and questions you may have on this or any other matter. For example, the sale of Conestoga View has been much in the news. Please be assured that the sale price was based upon appraised value and that protections were built in to assure continued indigent care in a way that will provide equal care and less cost to the taxpayers. We welcomed the public input to the process which resulted in an improved arrangement.

Thank you.

Dick Shellenberger

Molly Henderson