From Harford Campaign for Liberty:
Dear Harford Voter,
This May Harford’s County Council voted on 46 amendments to the FY 2016 County Budget – all unanimously passed in the course of two meetings, with little discussion.
One of the amendments added $50,000 to the Budget to construct a parking lot on the land the Center for the Arts has proposed to build its six-phase Arts Center. The Center for the Arts (CFA) wants a parking lot on the site so it can bring potential donors there to better imagine their grand vision.
Billy Boniface, the Director of Administration for our new County Executive, told the Council that Harford would not be on the hook for the $50 grand or for the maintenance of the lot. He assured the Council members the CFA would take care of everything.
When asked for the Memorandum of Understanding that detailed the parking lot agreement though, Boniface said the Memo wasn’t quite finished yet.
Almost three months later, the Memorandum between the County and the Center is still being drafted. Neither the Council nor YOU, the taxpayer, have seen what’s in the agreement.
In a classic Nancy Pelosi move, our Council voted on legislation they hadn’t yet read.
But the CFA is desperate to get something – anything – built on that land. If they don’t show progress on a facility to promote cultural arts by 2018, the Trustee of the Emily Bayless Graham Charitable Trust can revoke the County’s land grant.
If the CFA dissolves, what becomes of the promises in this missing Memorandum? Who will be responsible for maintaining this parking lot?
Does the County Council think the Center’s CEO will be out pouring blacktop every spring if this bloated venture goes belly up?
According to their recent Harford Tourism Grant application, the CFA was running a $63,000 loss for first quarter 2015. Although they hyped a profit of over $100,000 from last year’s Dancing with the Stars event, they still only showed $41,800 in the bank for FY2014’s end. And that’s after receiving a $50,000 grant in 2014 from the previous administration!
Folks, if you were on the County Council, you wouldn’t allow one tree felled on that land until you’d read every word of this Memorandum of Understanding.
If you were the Trustee of that land, reviewing progress every year on behalf of the Graham family, you’d be screaming “Forget about county grants, where’s the money you’re supposed to be raising?”
After ten years of existence, this group has nothing to show but an anemic checking account and an architect bill still in repayment?!
The Center has since scaled back their grand vision from a $60 million Mega Center to a $25 million “first phase”. They want us taxpayers to pony up $16 million in county and state grants to start.
But do they have THEIR $8 million in private donations in the bank and ready to go?
Until they can prove their portion is funded and this venture is profitable, Harford County’s elected officials shouldn’t allow one shovelful of dirt to be turned.
So Does Campaign for Liberty hate the Arts?!
Of course not.
We are hard-working moms and dads wanting to our children to have rich opportunities for ANY talents they may have.
We are small business owners who love our County and hope to see it thrive.
We are musicians, poets, writers, and painters who cherish our rights to free speech and expression.
But growth in Harford County, in any form, must not be linked with burdensome debt. We cannot be a great county by building with borrowed money and taking on swelling interest payments.
We cannot afford to take on projects that years later could cost us millions just to keep open.
Ask your neighbors if they can afford an increase in property and income taxes so that Harford can build a museum, multiple theaters, and space for business conferences.
Many people around this great county are now living paycheck to paycheck. Should they be forced to fund an Arts Center that’s forecast to operate in the negative as soon as it opens?
Tell the County Council NO MORE WASTEFUL SPENDING.
Harford Campaign for Liberty has had an overwhelming reply to our petition against funding this Mega-Plex, and we intend to hand-deliver each individual response to the County Council when they reconvene in September.
BUT WE STILL NEED YOU TO MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
SIGN the petition, and let your Council Member know how you feel about this wasteful spending. The form has space for comments, if you want to send a personal message to your representative.
Politicians react to two things – campaign donations, and ANGRY VOTERS.
If our Council members want to be re-elected, they need to REGARD THE ANGER this Center has caused – and then VOTE DOWN any more taxpayer funding of the CFA.
Please sign the petition, and forward your friends and neighbors this email.
Together, we CAN make a difference in this county’s future.
For Liberty,
Christina Trotta
Steering Committee Member
Harford Campaign for Liberty
P.S. If you haven’t signed the petition to reject public funding for the CFA, please take two minutes to click and add your voice to the outcry against wasteful spending.
Bingo! Center for the arts: Where is your 2014 tax year Form 990????? You seem to love posting FAQ’s on your website and then obfuscating in the answer; how about posting my FAQ above, and then putting a scan up of the actual form 990? It was due in May! What are you hiding? Just show us. What is the harm in sharing a public document with us like other 501c3’s do????
Good point Ellen. The dancers, their organizations and companies, and all the generous people that are giving them money should simply demand the form 990 (or an explanation) before giving another dollar. Here’s question #2 for CFA: You posted an FAQ on your new website that says: “Why was a new parking lot recently funded by a grant from the Harford County Council?” Your answer was ” The recent approval by the County Council regarding funding for the parking lot is with the understanding it will be paid back. “.
The county is on record in the media as saying it was not funding; that it was an appropriation allowing you to spend your $50k on the county’s land; who’s telling the truth? you or the county? have you indeed rec’d funding as your FAQ implies? IF you haven’t rec’d funding, how do you explain the misrepresentation in the FAQ and the answer??????
I like this format. Simple questions… very easy to answer. Here’s question#3, a multiple choice, for the CFA team: Where are your financial records from inception?
A) we destroyed them because of mold at Tudor Hall; and we inexplicably do not have electronic versions of them
B) we destroyed them for some other reason; and we inexplicably do not have electronic versions of them
C) We lost them and we inexplicably do not have electronic versions of them
D) We of course have our records and they are available for inspection or we will post them on our website
Here’s a thought. They could have used the auditorium from Edgewood High School. Oh yeah, that’s right. They tore it down!
I am sure EHS still has one
Ms. Trotta raises many valid points that deserve responses and correction.
Nonetheless, it is incredible how extraordinarily passionate she (and other my money people) is about an issue that, individually, would cost county taxpayers a mere pittance.
One wishes Ms. Trotta and her Crusaders for Liberty were so passionate about the expanding income inequity in Harford and across the US, about the inherent bias in the nation’s judicial system, about the man-made deterioration of the environment, etc. etc.
A question of values.
Sarcasm, right? Brilliant. Otherwise, ridiculous.
I respect your point, but…… $2 million raised and spent to date; $25 million more to go; the annual cost of funding an unrealistic endeavor. none of these are a pittance? agreed?
Mr. Moderate’s comments reek of liberal trolling – first sound reasonable, then follow up with emotional accusations with no bearing on the issue.
People have been asking them to confirm or deny that they’ve raised AND spent about $2 million since inception (with three signs on the road to show for it). Here’s a doozy of an FAQ from their new website that “addresses” it:
How much has the Center for the Arts raised to date?
While the official capital campaign has yet to kick off, pending finalizing an updated strategic plan, our fundraising efforts have been significant. Last fall’s Dancing for the Arts fundraiser alone netted more than $100,000 for the Center for the Arts. $50,000 of the 2014 Gala dollars were raised to “Fund the Need;” those funds, both received and pledged are reserved for capital projects, unless otherwise designated. In addition, about $200,000 has already been invested in plans and studies that have been conducted.
oh my…..
I love the “unless otherwise designated” clause. It appears that these people are just completely unaccustomed to serious scrutiny or oversight.
The dancers and corporations and individuals and organizations that are pledging money should be demanding more accountability and transparency. Shouldn’t they be?
Here’s another FAQ from CFA’s new website:
Will Center for the Arts be a county-funded project?
The current Memorandum of Understanding suggests 1/3 of the funds will come from the Center for the Arts from private funds (e.g. corporate, individual, foundations, etc.), 1/3 will come from the County and 1/3 from the State or Federal sectors.
So CFA, some more questions for you:
– How “current” is this memorandum of understanding?
– What does “suggests” mean? Most MOU’s don’t “suggest”
– Who are the parties to this MOU? If the “state or federal sectors” are going to pony up $8 million, which agencies signed it?
– what are the terms under which Harford County “suggests” they’ll pony up $ 8 million?
– Can you post this memorandum of understanding on your website? Its a public document. Why are you so apparently fearful of transparency?
If you do not have answers to the above, or are unwilling to share them, then how can you expect all of us to take you seriously, give you our money, or believe that this is not a complete charade and an exercise in the denial of reality?
And if so, are you really being fair to your dancers and their contributors by putting them in this position???
If it is a public document, the County should be able to supply you with one. Contact your County Councilman.
Will do.: Christina: can you also contact the county for a copy of the MOU that says the county and the “state/federal sectors” will contribute 1/3 each. Thanks.