Hard to say how The Leonardo's latest plea - both contrite and combative - will play, but it seems clear the museum's new bosses know this is their last chance to rescue a science center at Library Square.
Before the City Council last week, new Executive Director Peter Giles said the board was "overly optimistic and naive" about its fundraising goals, especially naming rights. "I was very concerned about that. A naming gift of that level usually only comes after years of cultivation."
Sorenson Legacy Foundation stung museum leaders recently by declining to offer $5 million to $8 million for naming rights, a sum the museum had counted on.
But architect and board member Allen Roberts argued there is little risk for the city since "95 percent" of the planned improvements are not Leonardo specific.
"Where's the loss?" Roberts challenged the council. "The city ends up with a fully functioning $11 million project. Even if we fail, you're still coming out ahead."
The museum team took veiled swipes at Mayor Ralph Becker and The Salt Lake Tribune for "misconceptions." And both men warned that if the city solicits new proposals for the old main library, it will "break faith" with donors lured by the promise of a yet-to-be released $10 million bond, approved by voters in 2003.
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Rocky: Still a cheerleader,but . .
Former Mayor Rocky Anderson argues Salt Lake City has a "moral" and "legal" obligation to release the $10 million, voter-approved bond for The Leonardo - based on a 2004 "matching-funds agreement."
"The city doesn't have an option to go another way," he says.
So why didn't Anderson release the funds? After all, he was still in office nearly 20 months after The Leonardo's $10 million match was certified in May 2006.
According to the former mayor, Leonardo never asked.
"I would have done that immediately had the request been made by The Leonardo."
Council veterans say they have sat on the bond due to "insufficient funds" for a complete renovation.
Another point: As mayor, Anderson fought to make the museum a "first-class project," saying voters were promised a world-class science center. (He still favors a sales-tax bond as the best solution and scolds Mayor Ralph Becker's camp for lacking the "vision" to get something done.) But given Leonardo's fundraising failures and a cautious economic climate, Anderson has turned pragmatic.
"To have a turn-key, everything-in-place project right now," he concedes, "is unrealistic."
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Following the money
Salt Lake City Councilman J.T. Martin scolded Leonardo officials for a donor list with "real obvious" omissions. "A real leader needs to come out, folks."
And Council Chairwoman Jill Remington Love predicted if the project doesn't fly in two years, "you will come to us to bail you out. That is our fear."
Love also quizzed Executive Director Peter Giles on whether he lives in Salt Lake City full time. Relocating, he said, is premature until he knows what the city will do. "To do something this challenging in this environment," Giles said, "is an act of faith."
Meantime, Gordon Hoskins, the city's finance director, has serious doubts about The Leonardo's fundraising prowess.
"They have no money, they have no cash," Hoskins said. "They can maybe come up with $1 [million] or $2 million max, but they need to have at least $2 [million] to $3 million for operations. For two years, that's $6 million - plus they want reserves."
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Projector politics
Who knew that a pair of projector screens could flush out Salt Lake County Councilman Michael Jensen's political loyalties?
But that's precisely what happened recently as supporters of a Broadway-style theater in Sandy prepared for their video presentation before the County Council. They asked, innocently enough, which of two screens the Council members would be watching.
Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch stated matter-of-factly that the screen to his left belonged to the liberals. Republicans watched the one to his right.
That's when Jensen's partisanship - he's a moderate Republican hailing from the county's blue-collar west side - became the punch line.
Motioning toward the left screen, GOP Councilman David Wilde said this of Jensen: "Now I know why he's always looking at that one."
Amid the chuckles came Jensen's response:
"I look at both," he insisted. "I'm right in the middle."
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A what tax?
The newest member of Mapleton's Economic Development Board definitely hit the ground running.
Within two hours of his appointment, Karl Hale had a suggestion for raising revenue and easing the tax burden. He noted that some anti-commercial-development residents have, in the past, run off a dairy farm and a python breeder, costing the south Utah County city taxes that have to be made up by homeowners.
"I recommend a new tax on people who stifle development," Hale said during a truth-in-taxation hearing. "I would call it the jackass tax."
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* Have a tip for Off the Agenda? Contact DEREK P. JENSEN at djensen@sltrib.com, 801-257-8785; ROSEMARY WINTERS at rwinters@sltrib.com, 801-257-8737; KRISTEN MOULTON at kmoulton@sltrib.com, 801-831-0467; JEREMIAH STETTLER at jstettler@sltrib.com, 801-257-8755; JENNIFER W. SANCHEZ at jsanchez@sltrib.com, 801-257-8736; MARK HAVNES at mhavnes@ sltrib.com, 801-647-2731; DONALD W. MEYERS at dmeyers@sltrib.com, 801-440-2859; MARIA VILLASENOR at mariav@sltrib.com, 801-257-8790.
