Sen. Lashresce Aird is firing back at the city’s claims [it] was coerced by her or her staff into picking Bally’s Corporation as Petersburg’s casino vendor, calling it “merely political theater” and highlighting that Petersburg’s council will not do anything “in the best interest of the people they represent.”
Aird also said her office was so heavily involved early in the process because Petersburg’s city attorney repeatedly balked at advising the city on conducting a public process for soliciting both contractor bids and citizen input on the project.
“These attempts to blame the General Assembly and portray themselves as coerced into anything by me or otherwise is merely political theater and a distraction from this council’s true intentions to move forward with no process, no public engagement, and proceed in the least transparent way imaginable,” Aird said in a statement sent to The Progress-Index.
