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News :: Elections & Legislation : Government Secrecy |
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Satterthwaite Campaign Misleading Urbana |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ben Grosser
(No verified email address) |
12 Feb 2005
Modified: 11:48:19 PM |
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The Satterthwaite for Mayor campaign recently sent a postcard to registered voters in Urbana that has sparked a controversy over the accuracy of its claims. The card claims Satterthwaite was a strong supporter of the Urbana Free Library expansion project. Many others involved in that project, and documented facts concerning its history contradict those claims. |
Urbana Mayoral candidate Tod Satterthwaite recently mailed a postcard to voters in Urbana. This card highlights the library expansion project as a success for his administration. However, the most bitter fight he fought in his 12 years as Mayor was against the Library Board and City Council over funding for the library expansion.
For example, the postcard says Satterthwaite saved $5 million over several years for the library project, and lists the amounts set aside each year. The truth is that from 1994-2000, he insisted that $3.5 million was the maximum the city would spend, enabling only a 50% rather than 100% increase in the size of the building. The $750,000 he lists for ‘02-03 wasn't put into the budget until after the Library Foundation Board agreed to increase the goal for private donations to $2 million. The $807,160 listed on Tod's postcard for 03-04 was authorized by unanimous city council vote, over Mayor Sattertwaite's objection.
After Satterthwaite, the City Council, Library Board, and Library Foundation agreed to double the size of the library--and Foundation members raised $2 million from private donors, including gifts for specific features in the plan--Satterthwaite secretly directed the architects to chop 6,000 square feet from the addition. He failed to disclose this to the Board, Foundation, Council, or the public.
Luckily, someone leaked the truth to the City Council just hours before a vote to approve the architect’s downsized design. When Council members asked at the January 28, 2002 meeting what was lost by the downsizing, Satterthwaite asserted that everything that would fit in the originally approved plan would fit in the downsized version. He said the space was just used more efficiently.
Again, Satterthwaite was not honest. The space he cut was for more than 26,000 books—16,000 from the Children’s department alone. City Council then voted to spend the extra $807,000 needed to restore the space that Satterthwaite had secretly cut.
Satterthwaite’s card also lauds the use of “Smart Building Concepts,” including the new roof. Yet the Mayor opposed spending money to replace the roof. Despite the fact it was leaking, and the entire building was about to undergo renovation, he insisted it still had a few more years of life and replacement could be deferred. Noting that in a few more years it would cost considerably more to replace the roof, the Council voted against Satterthwaite and for a new roof.
Can’t Urbana do better than this? Satterthwaite has already had three terms in office. Yet after all that time, he tries to persuade the voters with mailings claiming credit for things he fought against. Simple honesty between the Mayor and the public should be a minimum qualification for the position. Isn’t it time for an open, honest Mayor who focuses on the urgent needs of Urbana?
For those interested in reading more about the facts surrounding the library expansion project, there are several sources:
Many letters to the editor have been written in response to Satterthwaite’s claims of credit for the library project. Several are from former Library Board members and current and former City Council members.
A detailed chronology of important events from 1999 to 2002 that illustrate the facts about the project, compiled by Urbana City Council member Esther Patt.
Tom Kacich, a News-Gazette editor, recently wrote about one of Tod’s endorsers now backing Laurel Prussing for Mayor because of the library postcard.
The Daily Illini recently published an article by reporter Nate Sandstrom that details disgruntlement over the library postcard, and includes quotes from current and former library board members.
For reference, you can view a scan of the postcard.
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