Will Arizona’s Centennial be postponed?

On Arizona’s 98^th birthday, Governor Brewer announced a magnificent centennial “birthday gift”. The nine million dollar 5C Arizona Centennial Museum, featuring cotton and cows was to be absolutely awesome. The Governor promised:

“This new Centennial Museum will be a vibrant, interactive facility, offering state-of-the-art technology and exhibits unlike any in Arizona.”

Unfortunately, her 5C Arizona Centennial Museum project managers dropped the ball. The Arizona Centennial 2010 Foundation and the Arizona Historical Society have accomplished nothing since the Governors exciting announcement. Now, following Arizona’s 99^th birthday, they have a serious problem.  The “centennial” museum can never be open until a year or more after Arizona’s centennial. So, what do you call a centennial museum that has nothing to do with a centennial?

In their recent belated solicitation for a general contractor, the project managers introduced the name “The Arizona Experience.”  That may not be as absurd as centennial museum, but it also has a problem.  The name is completely worn out.  A Google search on the phrase “The Arizona Experience” brings up hundreds (perhaps thousands) of prior uses.  A few examples are:

·        A 2011 dog show sponsored by the Border Terrier Club of America

·       A children’s coloring book by Carole Marsh

·       A presentation on wolves by Kim Crumbo

·       A book about Arizona by Adrian Peterson

·       A package deal at the Adobe Rose Inn Bed & Breakfast in Tucson.

·       An article on managed medical cost savings by Nelda McCall

·       An endowment campaign by the University of Arizona Alumni Association

·       A national weather service article on data collection by Al Haffer

·       A Federal Highway Administration report on ADOT asset management

·       A paper on Colorado River water rights by lawyer Robert Glennon

·       A report on charter schools by the Goldwater Institute

·       A Kino community Hospital report on mental health care by JM Santiago

·       A panel discussion on Arizona experience with SB 1070 on KCPW news.

·       What the Town of Cave Creek claims to offer tourists

·       Group Communication Therapy for Aphasia patients

·       A paper on rubberized asphalt by Julie Kliewer of the Arizona DOT

·       A paper on acute cared hospital beds by Frank G. Williams

·       Service provided by Private Coach Limos of Sedona, AZ

Renaming the centennial museum just won’t work.  Even with a name less lame that “The Arizona Experience” a “centennial” museum that misses the centennial will be a flop.  There is only one workable solution. Arizona’s centennial must be postponed.

Arizona cannot be cheated out of a fitting introduction for “exhibits unlike any in Arizona.”  This magnificent gift must be introduced with appropriate pomp and ceremony.

The centennial can wait!

The 5C Arizona Centennial Museum must be presented on Arizona’s centennial, just as the Governor promised.

                                           
                        Artists sketch as of February 2010

                     Artists sketch as of January 2011
                     (note chnged name above doors)

Reference:
Press Release: Office of the Governor

Governor Announces Centennial Birthday Present

Privately-funded museum dedicated to telling Arizona’s remarkable story of growth Phoenix, February 12, 2010

Cocktails or Education?

 

In February 2010, Governor Brewer announced her “Birthday Gift to Arizona”.  It was to be a centennial museum built and maintained with “no public money.”  The Governor’s wondrous promise of a free gift is documented in her February 12, 2010 press release entitled “Governor Announces Centennial Birthday Present.”  The “free” museum was to be administered by the Arizona Historical Society, a state agency with prior museum management expertise that could purportedly make the new museum self supporting.

A year later, the “gift” is beginning to stink.  Private funds to build the museum have not been raised, and the Governor is trying to sneak public money into the project. An example is Senate Bill 1262, which transfers some license plate fees to the centennial museum.  The AHS has obvious museum management experience, but no expertise. Their current Marley Center Museum in Tempe is poorly attended and their continued existence depends on multi-million dollar subsidies from taxpayers. The museum portion of the building is not maintained, the classrooms are full of junk, and the library is closed. The layout of Marley Center strongly suggests it was designed for cocktail parties rather than education.

Due to AHS incompetence in the cost estimation process, the centennial museum is already 50% over budget even though work has not started. Because the Governor’s “private sector funds” did not really exist and funding is still not available, the museum cannot possibly be completed until long after the centennial is over.  Yet, the Governor says it will be built.

Why the continued push to complete a centennial project that can never be complete for the centennial?  Does the centennial museum really have anything to do with either education or a museum?  Or, is to be a place for politicians and lobbyists to host cocktail parties?  Unused floor space in the preliminary design sketches, the reference to an “event space” in the RFQ, prior comments by the AHS and Governors staff, and the obvious precedent of Marley Center strongly suggest the latter.

Unfortunately, if built, the centennial museum will displace important education programs. The building is currently occupied by the top rated Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum.  The museum currently conducts K-12 earth science education programs. Teachers receive instruction and class room materials, students receive structured earth science field trips, and outreach programs are provided on site at schools.  The museum mineral collection is also used as a reference collection by geologists and mining engineers. All this will end if the centennial museum, featuring the trivial 5Cs theme, is built.  Like the Marley Center, it will not support education.

In summary, the Governor appears to have given cocktails priority over education. The agency she chose to administer the centennial museum obviously did exactly that when they planned Marley Center. For Arizona’s children and Arizona’s future, the 5C Arizona Centennial Museum project must be stopped before it destroys the existing top rated Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum. There is little time. The AHS (with the Governor’s assistance) has already executed a hostile takeover of the mineral museum and has announced a June 1, 2011 closure. Student field trip requests for the next school year are being refused.

Students protest upcoming loss of mineral museum

The Arizona Historical Society executed a hostile takeover of the Arizona mining and Mineral Museum in 2010.  The AHS now announced the mineral museum will be closed June 1^st 2010.  According to AHS plans, it will eventually be converted to the 5C Arizona Centennial Museum, which will feature the trivial theme of the 5Cs. Arizona children and teachers will very much miss the top rated mineral museum and its K-12 earth science education programs.  A lifetime learning experience will eliminated.  Even worse, millions of precious dollars will be spent during a financial crisis to down grade education.

Clayton is sad because he enjoys looking at the many beautiful mineral and rock displays. He does not understand why the Governor is not willing to save his mineral museum, especially when doing so would save millions of dollars. He is begging the Governor to reconsider.

Johnny enjoys the historic mining machines, especially the ones that have been restored to the point where they actually work. He learned al lot about mining by watching the old machines operating on Family Day (February 19^th). He discovered that Arizona has one of the few operating stamp mills in the county, and he just cannot understand why the Governor and the AHS would scrap it.

Andrew loved learning how to facet gem stones. He cannot believe the Governor and the AHS will actually end important and interesting education programs at the mineral museum. He thinks the Governor should place more importance on education. He also wonders why Arizona would want a centennial museum that can never be open in time for Arizona’s centennial.

Students protest 5C Arizona Centennial Museum

Last spring, the AZ Legislature gave the Arizona Historical Society control of the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum. The AHS plans to replace it with the 5C Arizona Centennial Museum.  The AHS has announced that the mineral museum will be closed June 1st. Thus far, the AHS has refused to reveal what will happen to the mineral collection and historic mining artifacts.

The first student protest against the 5C Arizona Centennial Museum was held on Saturday, Feb 19th.  Students are outraged that the mineral museum is being scrapped to make room for a centennial museum that will never be open for the Arizona centennial anyhow.  Thus far, the centennial museum is 50% over budget and a year behind schedule. Furthermore, the required private funding has not been raised, and there are efforts, such as SB 1262, to sneak public funds into it. That breaks the promise made in the Governors Feb 12, 2010 press release about Arizona's “birthday gift.”

Special Arizona Centennial plates will damage K-12 education

Senator Linda Gray of Phoenix sponsored Senate Bill 1262.  The bill will create a special license plate commemorating Arizona’s centennial.  That seems innocent enough, but this is a very bad bill for Arizona. It will cause serious damage to K-12 science education.

In 2012 and there after, $17 from each plate sale will go to the Arizona Historical Society to operate the new $14 million 5C Arizona Centennial Museum. That superficial history museum will displace the existing top rated Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum and the associated earth science education programs. The mineral museum currently provides training materials for teachers, conducts out reach programs for Arizona schools, and hosts K-12 students on structured educational field trips. Those trips are a lifetime learning experience. Arizonians now in their 50s vividly remember their class field trip to the mineral museum. Those trips have inspired many engineers and scientists. The AHS is already refusing to schedule more field trips.

Also, when Governor Brewer signs SB 1262, she will be breaking the promise she made to the people of Arizona in her press release of February 12, 2010. In both the press release and a presentation, she promised that no public funds would be used for the new 5C Arizona Centennial Museum.

PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE special Arizona Centennial plates.

Reference:

Lawmakers propose bevy of specialty license plates

Rabekah Zemansky

Cronkite News Service

The Arizona Republic

Page B3

February 18, 2011

Note:
Although work has not even started on the 5C Arizona Centennial Museum yet, it is already 50% over budget and a year behind schedule. It cannot possibly open until long after the Arizona centennial is over.

Why attack the Arizona Historical Society?

The following comment appeared under the February 4^th post.  It is a very good question, and deserves further discussion.

It seems as though your position is one against both the AHS and the museum. Regardless of the problems with AHS, the work it does is important, and focusing on the AHS only drives away many of those that would otherwise support your position against the museum.

In the quoted comment, “museum” means 5C Arizona Centennial Museum. Others have asked a similar question.  The questions obviously assume the AHS is really dedicated to Arizona history.

This blog did begin as a non-political attack on the proposed 5C Arizona Centennial Museum. At the time, the AHS might have been just another victim in the Centennial Commission’s plans. However, it later became apparent that the AHS was not an innocent party. Documents now show that, beginning in mid 2009, the AHS was a willing participant in the plans for a hostile takeover of the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum.

As a result of that takeover, Arizona’s scientific mineral collection is now under the control of the AHS. That is completely inappropriate and unacceptable. Recovery of the collection is urgent, and collateral damage to the AHS cannot be a concern. Furthermore, the hostile takeover of the mineral museum is damaging K-12 earth science education and Arizona’s mining industry. The AHS has already started shutting down the education programs.

Claims that the AHS had museum management expertise were found to be flawed. The AHS obviously has experience, but not expertise. The AHS is either not interested in, or does not understand, the operation of a top rated museum. The design and condition of the Marley Center Museum clearly demonstrates that.  The somewhat hidden museum area is in a state of disrepair, and the library is closed. The AHS does not appear particularly interested in its assigned mission.

The AHS, with funding for 50 full time equivalent positions, never produced a top rated museum. The mineral museum, with funding for just 1 full time position, did. The AHS has powerful political connections, but no community support. It pays a lobbyist to harvest tax dollars, but is unable to rise any private funding.  Arizona is not being well served by the AHS.

The work that the AHS is supposed to be doing is indeed important.  Nothing on this blog takes a position against the mission assigned to the AHS as it appears in the Arizona statutes.  However, the AHS is apparently not focused on that mission. The AHS needs to be cleaned out and refocused, or replaced with a private foundation.

Thus, the attack is now directed on the AHS as well as on the 5C Arizona Centennial Museum.

$50,000 bonus for the Arizona Historical Society?

Looking from the outside, there is nothing exceptional about the Arizona Historical Society.  In spite of massive state support, it does not have a top rated museum.  Attendance is apparently so embarrassing they will not even release numbers. The AHS is unable to support itself, and depends on tax dollars and land trust funds to exist.

The AHS has also had several taxpayer funded fiascos.  The Marley Center Museum was ridiculed at length in the media, and criticized severely by the Auditor General.  It gave Arizona a big black eye, and taxpayers are still not out from under the debt.  The Rio Nuevo museum ate up $1.5 million in public money and nothing was ever built.  The highly controversial 5C Arizona Centennial Museum looks doomed from the beginning.  Although no work has even started yet, not even preparation of designer’s and architect’s drawings, it is already a year behind schedule (see note 1) and 50% over budget. The “centennial museum” can never be open for Arizona’s centennial. Yet someone is getting performance pay (AKA: a bonus).

Who?  Why?

The performance pay is shown on www.azcheckbook.com under category 6028: Performance Pay.  In FY 2009 the state paid $49,000, and in FY 2010 the state paid $42,500.  Thankfully, few payments are shown for FY 2012 thus far, but why were there ever any?

What exactly did the AHS accomplish that merited taxpayer funded “performance pay”?

Notes: