The Journal Star is reporting that an agreement has been made between Peoria County and the Museum Collaboration Group on who will run will the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum.
The agreement reached Monday – after the two sides appeared stalemated on Friday – calls for a governing board of between 17 and 22 people, according to [County Administrator Patrick] Urich. A minority of the members – eight, nine or 10, depending on the final size of the board – would be representatives of one of the five agencies that constitute the museum collaborative group. […] A majority of the board would be residents of the county unaffiliated with any group in the museum collaborative group. There would be no representative from county government.
Also:
Urich said the exact relationship between the museum board of directors and the county will be spelled out in the by-laws. The county would own the building, but the board would operate the museum.
And:
“We would be looking for the best and the brightest from the community for a seat on the board,” Urich said.
Here’s how this will work in practice: A bunch of people who are politically connected (the main requirement for being considered “best and brightest” in Peoria), but know nothing about how to operate a museum, will be appointed to the museum board. They will all look to the Lakeview appointees as the “experts” on museums, and vote in accordance with their recommendations. Eventually, they’ll get busy with other things and stop coming to a majority of the meetings — just enough will show up to maintain a quorum. At that point, the majority of those who actually attend will be Museum Collaboration Group members. Their meetings will not be open to the public. Poor decisions will continue to be made, leading to chronic underfunding problems, requiring tax revenue for operations. The project will be determined to be “too big to fail,” given its huge initial cost and prominent placement on the riverfront, so tax money will be diverted to keeping it afloat in perpetuity. It will draw the same number of annual visitors as the current Lakeview Museum by year three, at which point plans will be drawn up to expand the museum (at taxpayer expense, of course) so it can draw more visitors. Peoria County voters will approve more funding.
I vote for CJ to be on the board.
No April Fool’s joke — just more lumps of coal.
Unfathomable …. especially if Patrick Urich has been accurately quoted.
Voters were led down the primerose path.
I saw this article and didn’t even read it.
This thing is going to happen come hell or high water. I’ve given up.
Any input from the voices that were on here pre-museum vote telling us how great this would be for our community?
I’m sure they will be there for the big grand opening, along with the other “movers and shakers” that attend any big social event. This same group will probably be at the new hotel opening downtown.
You know, the real projects that help Peoria.
“but know nothing about how to operate a museum” – So who exactly would you consider to be qualified to sit on this board? Last time I checked Peoria County wasn’t exactly the hot retirement spot for former museum administrators.
I would like to nominate Billy Dennis for the Museum Board.
11Bravo,
I think that is C.J.’s point exactly. Despite the fact that “Peoria County [isn’t] exactly the hot retirement spot for former museum administrators,” we are entrusting these fools with how many millions of dollars to run a museum?
The current Lakeview board inherited a museum that was up and running prior. The fact that this current project has never been able to get off the ground successfully, is another indication of how incompetent the entire museum group has been.
Actually, I would vote for Peoriafan to be on the board, but…….
would that really help anything?
What else would you expect from ‘money’ and “”connections”” in Peoria ? ranks a close second to District #150 and/or City of Peoria City Gov’t. for being screwed up! State of Illinois has to be First.
FYI: There is a least one retired museum administrator in Peoria.
C.J.,
Forgive slight-of-hand. There are several people with-in the tri-county area who are more than qualified to chime in on this project. I also know that many of them would rather be ‘unemployed’ than work with the hoo-ha gang from Lakeview. Their opinions of the museum partners are little better – if not worse.
With the exception of a few ‘well placed’ Bradley professors, and a college pres or two, most of the area academics think this museum project is a joke. Can you blame them?!?!? See you on the Bat-channel.
This editorial appeared in todays J-Star:
Forum: Schock isn’t representing Peorians’ values
Posted Dec 27, 2009 @ 11:01 PM
“I sincerely hope the people of Peoria wake up and start asking questions about the way in which Congressman Aaron Schock has been representing them in Washington, D.C.
Many moderate Peorians seem to like Mr. Schock’s personality, and thereby choose to somewhat blindly support him. Looking back on his first year representing the 18th District, however, Mr. Schock has unabashedly demonstrated that he is in lockstep with only the far-right-wing extremists of this country and cares little about his majority-moderate constituents in Peoria.
For example, on the Dec. 16 edition of “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” Mr. Schock openly supported the American government torturing military prisoners if doing so could possibly result in the saving of a life. This is but the latest instance of Mr. Schock’s readily apparent willingness to pander to Republican Party leaders instead of representing the interests of Peorians.
With each disingenuous remark and every talking-point-laden interview, the novelty of the wunderkind who ran the write-in campaign for School Board wears thinner and thinner. Peoria deserves better than mindless demagoguery, and it is time that a higher quality citizen take the place of career politician Schock before he steps all over even more constituents in his endless quest for higher office.”
– It seems to me that Mr. Schock and our very own city council/county board, have a great deal in common; especially when it comes to the museum project, hotel development, money-saving programs implemented by Peoria City Council, etc. The constituents be damned [at least the bulk of Peoria’s working middle classes]! This museum is only one example of our local politicians putting THEIR interests ahead of their so-called constituents. Before anyone mentions the fact that the sales [museum] tax was voted on by the general public, we must remember that public approval for this tax was achieved only after the museum group [and local politicians] made a certain number of….’promises.’ All these promises centered round the idea that this ‘museum’ would bring Peoria back from the [current] economic ‘brink.’ So far, and correct me if I am wrong, the museum group & Co. have not made good on one promise!
What goes on here?!?