Wednesday, July 09, 2008

ABYSMAL CITY STEWARDSHIP OF CITIZEN ASSETS

ABSTRACT: Under the mayorship of Sue McCloud, the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea has an abysmal record of stewardship of citizen assets. Specifically, public assets inaccessible to the public, including the Scout House and Flanders Mansion; underutilized assets, including Rio Park; under maintained assets, including Mission Trail Nature Preserve, Forest Theatre and Carmel Beach; and art collection assets unknown to citizens. Information regarding City expenditures for the City’s ART COLLECTION and SCOUT HOUSE between December 2006 and June 2008 is presented. A COMMENT is made.

• ART COLLECTION: Between December 2006 and June 2008, the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea expended a total of $49,892.54 on the City’s ART COLLECTION, including $46,475.00 to E. OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS for INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION, $2,880.00 to FACL, INC. for CONSERVATION OF OIL PAINTING AT HARRISON MEMORIAL LIBRARY, $500.00 to SHERYL NONNENBERG for PROFESSIONAL SERVICES and $37.54 to Sue McCloud for REIMBURSEMENT FOR ART INVENTORY PROJECT VIDEO, according to the City’s Check Registers.

111929 12/5/06 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 250.00 INVENTORY OF ART COLLECTION
111990 12/12/06 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 2,500.00 INVENTORY OF ART COLLECTION
----Vendor Total---- $ 2,750.00

112109 1/5/07 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 1,500.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION
112217 1/23/07 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 2,000.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION
----Vendor Total---- $ 3,500.00

112339 2/6/07 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $5,000.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION

112491 2/27/07 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 9,900.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION
112667 3/20/07 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 7,500.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION
----Vendor Total---- $ 17,400.00

112782 4/10/07 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 6,250.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION

112917 5/1/07 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 1,500.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION

113161 6/5/2007 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 5,000.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION
113275 6/19/2007 E.OSTERKAMP APPRAISALS $ 5,075.00 INVENTORY/APPRAISALS OF ART COLLECTION
----Vendor Total---- $ 10,075.00

113336 6/26/07 SHERYL NONNENBERG $ 500.00 PROFESSIONAL SERVICES-CITY ART COLLECTION

113596 8/7/07 SUE MC CLOUD $ 37.54 REIMBURSEMENT FOR ART INVENTORY PROJECT VIDEO

113904 9/25/07 FACL, INC. $ 2,880.00 CONSERVATION OF OIL PAINTING AT HARRISON MEMORIAL LIBRARY

• SCOUT HOUSE: Between December 2006 and June 2008, the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea expended a total of $3,100 on the SCOUT HOUSE, specifically an APPRAISAL FEE.

112963 5/8/07 INDEPENDENT REAL ESTATE $ 3,100.00 SCOUT HOUSE APPRAISAL FEE

COMMENT:
Abysmal city stewardship of public assets is evident in the majority of historical, cultural and environmental public assets being inaccessible, underutilized, under maintained and unknown to Carmelites. A city government with a ethic of stewardship, contrary to the city government of Carmel-by-the-Sea presently, would have budgeted annually for improvements, upgrades and ADA compliance measures to the Scout House so that user groups could utilize the community facility; would have budgeted annually for maintenance and improvements to the Flanders Mansion prior to a Superior Court Judge ordering the City to maintain Flanders Mansion per the Municipal Code and found a compatible public use for the Flanders Mansion; would have budgeted annually for the maintenance of Mission Trail Nature Preserve, Forest Theatre and Carmel Beach for the enjoyment of residents and visitors alike; and would have placed the City’s Art Collection Inventory on the City’s website and held exhibitions for the benefit of Carmelites so that Carmelites would be aware of their artistic assets, et cetera.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Holy Cow! With a list like this of poorly managed properties in trust for the public, what are these fools doing in office today. Maybe Ken and Karen have an excuse because of their short tenures on the council, but Sue, Paula and Gerard have no excuses. And with that fool of a city manager don't expect any of these assets to be managed in a responsible way any time soon.

Anonymous said...

For $50,000, Carmelites, the owners of the art collection, should be intimately familiar with all the art pieces in the collection. And you are right, the city should have exhibits for the public to know what we have and enjoy it. What is the calibre of the art collection? Are the works on par with the paintings in the library? How many works of art are there? And so on. Why are our representatives such bad stewards of our property??

Anonymous said...

What would the blogger suggest the city do, that is practical, to make its art accessible to the public. It's easy to complain but when you do it's much more useful to also suggest realistic solutions that will bring real benefits.

Anonymous said...

This and previous city councils, led by Mayor McCloud, have clearly been unwilling to spend city revenue and even less willing to spend money on things that don't increase the income of the city's businesses. Rather, they have wanted to get rid of cultural and environmental assets that are not income producing e.g. Rio Park, Flanders, the Scout House or to convert them into white elephants such as the Sunset Center and possibly the Forest Theater. Even, perhaps especially, those members who grew up in Carmel fail to have any sense of history or place. There is little if any sense on their part that they represent the interests of the people, who live here. In fact the City Council will spend hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars to fight against what is in the city's best interest, even in cases where the City Council will almost certainly lose, just so the council members can uphold their very conservative to libertarian philosophies however impractical or opposed to Carmel's best interests they may be. More than one member has publicly stated that Carmel needs fewer trees and all have made it impossible to maintain, never mind rejuvinate, our forest. They seem blind to the fact that our forest is one of the major things that draws the kind of tourists that the city most needs. The City Council also fails to recognise that the beach is another major attraction. As it gets less and less attractive, the City Council allows small amounts to be spent on the beach that will look good at election time while actually refusing to allocate enough funding to deal with the growing problems. The damage that Mayor McCloud and city councils have done over the past eight plus years will probably take decades to repair but this cannot even begin to happen unless and until new city council members are elected who are willing to turn Carmel back from the path it is now on and turn it onto a path that balances the interests of all of the stakeholders, who live and work here.

VillageinForest said...

TO: anonymous @ 1:05 P.M.
Actually, to a larger point, the dearth of complaining by Carmelites suggests Carmelites have a very, very low expectation of government and will tolerate worse than mediocre governance. That’s a deplorable testament.

As to making city art accessible to Carmelites; in a letter to The Carmel Pine Cone, Hans Lehman suggested a renovated Flanders Mansion would be an ideal venue for exhibiting city art. Unfortunately, at that time, Mayor Sue McCloud failed to seriously consider his suggestion and instead violated State and Municipal laws in her attempt to sell the Flanders Mansion property.
(Also, see DEBUNKING MYTHS ABOUT FLANDERS
http://www.flandersfoundation.org/myths.htm
3. There is no use for it. Not true. Flanders has had many uses – as headquarters for the Carmel Art Institute, Carmel Heritage, the Carmel Survey and the Arboretum Committee. It could be used again as a cultural and natural history museum displaying Carmel’s large art collection (including its Weston collection), preserving city archives and educating residents and visitors about Carmel’s development and evolution.

Lastly, the point of the post is that the City has a responsibility and obligation to make available city art to Carmelites. Otherwise, the City may as well deaccession the city’s art collection so those who understand the power of art and appreciate art can benefit from the viewing of the artworks.

Anonymous said...

Blogger 1:05 P.M.: Be Creative. Offer your solutions. Or better yet, consult with the mayor. Oops. If she had the answers there would be no accessibility problem now.