Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
2008-02-04
Section: Metro
Edition: NortheastE
Page: B1
Councilman wants residents to decide paying for public art
ADRIENNE NETTLES Star-Telegram Staff Writer
KELLER — City Councilman Jim Carson wants Keller voters to decide whether the city should help pay for a statue at Veterans Memorial Park. The council will consider two resolutions Tuesday on Protector of Freedom, a statue of an eagle sculpted by Arlington artist Darrell Davis. Davis won a contest during the city's 2007 Brushes to Bronze Fine Art Show and Sale in October to have his $80,000 sculpture in the park.
As originally arranged, the council had committed $55,000 toward the cost. The remaining $25,000 was raised by the Greater Keller Women's Club and the Keller Rotary Club. The sculpture was scheduled to be installed Veterans Day.
Carson will ask the council to decide whether residents should vote on the $55,000 contribution during the May elections. The council will also consider a motion that doesn't require voter approval but instead authorizes new City Manager Dan O'Leary to enter a contract with Davis.
"I love art in all its form, but I cannot ever justify making taxpayers pay for public art," Carson said. "We've never heard from voters directly on this issue."
But John Baker, former chairman of the Keller Public Arts Board, questions Carson's timing. The process to commission a sculpture for the park began more than two years ago, and at this point it's 99 percent complete, said Baker, who oversaw the sculpture's commissioning.
"There were multiple briefings to the council," Baker said. "At any time, Carson could have asked for a public vote but has waited until after we've made commitments to an artist, the Greater Keller Women's Club and the Keller Rotary Club. If the city does not approve the contract, then basically the city has backed out on its word."
Mayor Pat McGrail called Carson's request embarrassing, saying several other art pieces have been commissioned by the city without voter approval.
"This is not the time to be discussing this," he said. "It should have been done years ago."
Public-policy issue
Carson said going around voters to fund the sculpture is reminiscent of the council's attempt in 2005 to pay for a new $7.6 million library at Keller Town Center by issuing certificates of obligation, bonds that don't require voter approval. A group of residents forced the library issue to a public vote after collecting more than 1,000 signatures on a petition. The library measure failed in a May 2006 election.
In November, voters approved $4 million to expand and renovate the city's existing library at 640 Johnson Road.
"Even though the art project is smaller in scale, it's the same principle," Carson said. "Voters have not said how they want to fund public art."
O'Leary, who started as Keller's city manager Jan. 7, said he placed Carson's request on Tuesday's council agenda because public art is a public-policy issue.
"In terms of public art, I don't have a position on it," he said.
'Disingenuous'
Baker said this isn't Carson's first attempt to control funding for public art in Keller. Carson persuaded the council last year to change funding from a special revenue fund to a general fund item, which restricts and cuts the money spent on public art, Baker said.
In the city's 2007-08 budget, the council set aside $105,000 for public art under the city's general fund, $35,000 less than the previous budget year. Whenever a public art project is proposed, "we have to argue about funding and whether public art is more important than streets, sewers and police cars," Baker said.
Public art in Keller has been funded by revenue from leasing new cellphone towers and by requiring that the city's trash collection provider, Allied Waste, contribute $25,000, Carson said. When that revenue was in the special revenue fund, the council couldn't touch it, he said.
"It allowed the council to pretend that the money doesn't belong to taxpayers," he said. "To me, it's horrible to pretend the City Council has no jurisdiction over that money. It remains to be seen how important public art is if we ever get it on the ballot," he said. "When John says I'm launching a sneak attack on his project, he's being disingenuous."
Online: www.cityofkeller.com
Keller City Council meeting
7 p.m. Tuesday
Keller Town Hall
1100 Bear Creek Parkway
817-743-4000
ADRIENNE NETTLES, 817-685-3820 anettles@star-telegram.com
JIm Carson