Sing it with me, “Unless the council says no, no, no.” (Sorry, the Amy Winehouse song has been stuck in my head for a few days now – and I should apologize cuz it will not be stuck in your head.) And, well, I’m not sure the alders will have a chance to do that.
News finally broke on Wednesday that the Library deal was in trouble, the media declared the project dead, the Mayor said it wasn’t, the city and developers met yesterday and then for Friday news, they declared the project once again dead.
From: Mayor
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 5:05 PM
To: ALL ALDERS
Cc: Dimick, Barb; MY GROUP; ‘bkunkler@fioreco.com’
Subject: Central LibraryDear Colleagues:
Moments ago we completed a discussion with Bill Kunkler of Fiore/Irgens, city staff and some of Bill’s team. In the end we agreed that we could not come to terms on the costs of the project. We want to thank Bill and his team for negotiating in good faith and working hard to make this project work.It is now our intent to move forward with the re-imagining of the current Central Library on its current site. We believe that this project will cost less and can be built in about the same time frame. We will be going back to the Library Board and Common Council for approvals on the new direction.
Sincerely,
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
The whole thing seems fishy. The developers told the Mayor last August there wasn’t enough money for the project, but our stubborn Mayor pushed ahead. They closed the gap from $3.1M to $900,000 while the mayor never budged from his initial position. (More on the developers point of view here.) Then, he unilaterally decided the project is now dead, knowing the alders were getting restless with wanting to know what was going on and to have some input. After that putting pressure on the Mayor and Council leadership, they finally were told they would get an update on Monday at Board of Estimates, it will be interesting to see if that is still on the agenda when it comes out late this afternoon. And, if the Mayor goes into closed session. If I understood it correctly, I think the City is going to pay the $900,000 difference and maybe more to the developers based on the last letters exchanged.
I was originally in favor of the rehab. It’s a greener choice. It cost less, etc. But, it also requires the library to go through some crummy gymnastics during construction. All that was shot down tho in favor of the more expensive project that put the land on the property taxes and created more jobs. Throw out all those old talking points about why that won’t work and backtrack. I will be interested in how they now sell the project that was earlier decided to be unworkable.
Finally, I wonder what the process will be here. Will the Library Board be involved in the discussions? Will the council? How about the public? Will the decisions be made behind closed doors? Will the Mayor’s decision stand? It sounds like he is going to plow ahead with his plans and has already decided. Will the council find a way to challenge that?
