Special to Home in Henderson
By Elissa Yount
If you are intelligent, you know that Henderson cannot afford any capital expense associated with a cultural arts center auditorium.
But the present city council has tied Henderson to this project. While the Embassy Foundation made the very public statements that no taxpayer money would be used, fundraising would be totally private, and that they would pay the city back for all of the money expended so far for the auditorium, these promises hold little validity. It looks like Henderson has been duped into buying into a project that the city taxpayer hardly needs and cannot afford.
The city council went along with the Embassy Foundation in requesting a CDBG grant that tied the building of an auditorium to the revitalization of David Street, a project in North Henderson that at the time had already been completed and closed. There was much public outcry against the unreasonableness of this project. The status of this application has yet to be made public, but here are some facts that can be found in the application:
The city was required by law to take public comments on this grant proposal. The city had two hearings. At the first hearing, Mr. Gupton presented over 150 petitions against using CDBG money for an auditorium. The city then had another hearing. Mr. Gupton asked at the second hearing that all the information from the previous hearing be included as part of the public record and included in the grant application. It may come as no surprise to you to know that the petitions from over 150 taxpayers against the grant are not included in the grant application that I received from the city. If the city makes it a practice to archive complete copies of such applications (as it should), it can be assumed that those petitions did not make it to Raleigh. Is this fair? Or ethical?
Another piece of information in the grant application includes how the money could be borrowed for the project. The city sent to Raleigh as part of the grant application a plan that proposed that the library building should be used as collateral for the loan to build the auditorium. (This information was not included in the documents I received from the city prior to the public hearing.) This is just one piece of bad news for the city taxpayer. It is now, and always has been, the clear understanding that the Embassy Foundation is to deed the library building to the city when the debt is cleared. How then can the Embassy offer the library building as collateral on a loan for the auditorium?
This grant says that the Embassy Foundation has raised ten million dollars. If that is true, then why has the library not been returned to the city, since that is far more than needed to pay for the building?
There is even information in the grant on how the city changed its charter to allow property owned by the taxpayers to be given to Embassy. It says in June of 2003 a “letter was written”. It does not say whether the letter came from the city council, from a consensus at a public hearing, or even from a government agency. I wonder who wrote that powerful letter that got Henderson started into all this mess? I wonder how much money had been contributed to that legislator?
It may surprise you to know that there is a state law that a municipality must have a referendum vote before they use taxpayer money to build an auditorium. Henderson is getting around this by saying it is the Embassy Foundation that is doing it.
(Dramatic pause.)
You got it. It’s more smoke and mirrors, and it’s more bad news for the city taxpayer.
What should really bug you is the letter from Danny Wright, an Embassy Board member and a Vance county commissioner, giving his powerful endorsement to this project. I guess it is easy for him to say how great it will be when he will never have to face the debt it will bring the city taxpayer.
The city taxpayer is a patsy. It is time to stand up and take back our government. We need answers and the city council should be required to give them to us. If they do not, Raleigh will. Stay tuned.