KELLY DANIELS and BRIAN HAWKINS
Starkville officials say they are supporting an architect’s service on the city’s Comprehensive Planning Committee despite reports questioning his business dealings and the quality of prior development projects in Louisville, Ky., where he used to live.
Architect Mark Isaacs, who is listed as member of the ad-hoc Comprehensive Planning Committee, reportedly owes millions of dollars in unpaid loans and hundreds of thousands in back fees to numerous contractors and subcontractors in Louisville, according to a report published last weekend in the Courier-Journal, that city’s newspaper.
Some creditors have accused him in lawsuits of misappropriating money and some subcontractors have asked the FBI to investigate him, the Courier-Journal reported Saturday. Multiple clients for condominium and other developments on which Isaacs worked claim that he left projects unfinished and that several buildings he constructed are leaky.
Isaacs told the Courier-Journal that his problems resulted from the national economic downturn and that he was one of numerous developers that took a hit with the recent recession.
Despite the reported problems in Kentucky, Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman and Ward 5 Alderman Jeremiah Dumas, who chairs the Comprehensive Planning Committee, said Isaacs is serving on the panel — which was formed to advise city leaders as they update the 2005 comprehensive plan — because of his professional expertise.
Isaacs holds a bachelor’s degree in art and design and a master’s degree in architecture, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
According to information published in the Louisville, Ky., newspaper, he has worked as senior land use
planner, president of an architectural firm and as architect/builder and president of his own firm, Legacy Development Corp.
Wiseman on Monday confirmed he had read the article in the Courier-Journal and received multiple e-mails from Louisville, Ky. residents about Isaacs’ situation.
Read the article from Starkville Daily News.
Isaacs sounds like a crook, but should we be surprised he has the support of our city leaders? Why would you continue to support a shady character even after knowing the history? Starkville deserves better.