Fairhope City Councilman Mike Ford is hoping there’s an operatic soprano somewhere in the wings – one who’s about ready to advance on stage to sing the last aria and finally bring the curtain down. But the Fairhope library saga is soap opera – not grand opera. And soapers never end. They just drag on and on, seemingly forever.
So he’d better get used to requests from the library board to make “One more final payment.” But he doesn’t have to like it. And Councilman Ford reflected his dissatisfaction when he cast the sole vote against advancing more money to pay bills owed by the library board. This time it was $75,000 for furniture. But as Mike groused during the discussion period, by his reckoning this was the fourth “final bill” that’s been sent up to the council for payment. His only slightly rhetorical, “When is it going to end?” should be treated as serious question that needs an equally serious, carefully researched and absolutely accurate answer.
But no answer was forthcoming at the meeting. In fact, no one could say for sure how much of the city-backed line of credit for the library had been spent so far. Not a big surprise given the persistent lack of timely and accurate reporting of financial matters from Mayor Kant’s staff. But that isn’t all that is wrong in the little drama played out at this council meeting.
Regardless of any problems with Fairhope’s financial controls, the library project has its own difficulties. It’s a runaway program with inadequate financial controls. Management was left to the esthetic enthusiasts with nary a green eyeshade visible on anybody involved. Architects (interior designers, too) have at their very core a drive to develop grand plans and to create monuments. It was an architect who advised, “Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir humanity’s blood…Make big plans; aim high in hope and work…” Which means at the practical level, unless there is a bottomless pile of money, somebody has to deal with the almost sure-to-appear edifice complex and to rein in the professional predilection for more.
In Fairhope this might have been done by the city council, or the mayor, or even the library board. But the council and mayor were able to avoid facing the collision of grand plans and meager funds by establishing a ceiling on the city’s contribution. They then finessed the inadequacy of this commitment, by letting the library project continue based on the promise that the board would take care of any shortfall. A reasonable promise as at that time the shortfall seemed manageable.
The library board’s head and father of the new library, Dr. Hollis Wiseman, took on the task of rounding up the money. No stranger to fund-raising, he cranked up the grant-writing machine, called on his civic-minded and affluent friends and beat on corporate doors to get donations. As the costs grew, so did the tempo and reach of his efforts, but in the end his powers of persuasion were overwhelmed by the project’s costs. He was stuck having to go to the city for a bridge loan to pay the burgeoning bills and allow the library to be completed.
It is this bridge loan, in essence a line of credit advanced by the city using borrowed money, that was drawn on to pay the recent “final bill.” The plan always was to have the library board reimburse the city, but as Dr. Wiseman’s successor, Martin Lanaux, noted, none of the $1.4 million bridge loan has been paid off. While there are deferred donations that will provide money in the future, at this moment it’s pretty clear the seemingly unconstrained costs incurred in building and furnishing the new library have far outstripped the near-term availability of money.
No issue – the finished library is impressive. The two-story grand hall with its coffered ceiling and iron-railed balconies, the maple trim (some of it I’m told covered over with paint in a late reconsideration of décor) and designer furnishings do “stir humanity’s blood,” but none of this is essential to the effective operation of a library.
And it is this last point that underlies what bothers Mike Ford and others about the library project. It’s grand and monumental – made that way, so its proponents have said, to fit Fairhope’s future. Maybe it’s a good investment, but it is using far more of today’s dollars than lots of people expected. Worse, this cost growth occurred without much evidence of efforts to cut back or even slow it down. And worst of all, management oversight was lax enough to have this happen with virtually no forewarning. In fact this fourth “final bill” that rightfully bothers Mike Ford so much, is evidence that we still aren’t sure what city is on the hook for.
And what about the commitment of the library board to pay the city back? Dunno, but heard tell that Mayor Kant has filed away their promissory note right next to his Enron stock.
Contact Pete Gleszer at jubilee@lagniappemobile.com.
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