Greensboro's News and Record on the Civil Rights Museum; "Self-inflicted"

"Greensboro’s struggling downtown civil rights museum has busted a pair of important deadlines and fractured its own credibility in the process.

$750,000 was picked up

by a Greensboro civil rights museum rep on Nov 1 2013.

 

Why didn't the city attorney confirm the terms of the tax credit agreement,
instead of accepting verbal confirmation on a phone call?
 

...the International Civil Rights Center & Museum had not yet fulfilled a key condition of a loan from city taxpayers. The museum missed a Jan. 1 deadline to submit the findings of a 2012 audit to the city. It also missed a deadline extension until the day of the gala, Feb. 1, to provide the audit.

How much of the $750,000 is left?

 

How much was spent on what?

 

Who at the city was in charge of making sure the audit was delivered on time?
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...the City Council had no idea that the audit hadn’t been provided on time or that former City Manager Denise Turner Roth had granted the deadline extension.

Did we tell them to stop using the $750,000

when the audit didn't show on time?

 

Who else at the city knew? 

How could no one on the city council know

if the city has two members on the museum's board?

 

Was the museum's board informed?

The audit ...ignores the accountability that must come with public funding.

It makes the museum’s leaders appear both unreliable and ungrateful.

Yvonne Johnson, Greensboro City Council; Skip Alston, Candidate for NC District 28; Earl Jones, Candidate for NC District 60

...As for the audit itself, it revealed more of the same: lingering debts and deficits and flat fundraising. In 2012, the museum took in nearly $700,000 less in revenue than it spent and totaled $20,000 less in ticket sales. It faces $6 million in debt.

The audit says the museum has total liabilities of $25,460,519

on page 4.

...you’d expect that museum officials would be eager to ...reassure the community that the fiscal tide is about turn — that a detailed master plan in place to reverse the museum’s fortunes.

From the 1/31/2014 sustainability plan;

 "ICRCM is grateful that it has secured a $1,500,000 allocation from the City Council."

...a spokesman for a PR agency was trotted out to take only written questions — to which he responded with mostly vague and cryptic nonanswers. This is no way to treat a generous benefactor — in this case, city taxpayers.

http://www.news-record.com/opinion/n_and_r_editorials/article_18917006-9362-11e3-897a-0017a43b2370.html
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The "detailed master plan" appears to be a farce;

"Museum Tours" Revenue Past and Projected

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/02/from-civil-rights-museum-sustainability_4185.html

"Special Events" Revenue Past and Projected

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/02/from-civil-rights-museum-sustainability_7996.html

Contributions/Membership

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/02/from-civil-rights-museum-sustainability_11.html

Rental Income

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/02/from-civil-rights-museum-sustainability.html
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Linkfest from the Civil Rights Museum Sustainability Plan, and Past and Expected "Grants"

http://hartzman.blogspot.com/2014/02/linkfest-from-civil-rights-museum.html