Cultural funding process assailed

Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 6, 2007 at midnight

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Denver City Council President Michael Hancock is blasting the process used to determine which cultural facilities get funding as recommended by the Infrastructure Priorities Task Force.

Hancock said facilities such as the Boettcher Concert Hall and Denver Botanic Gardens would be funded at the level they request because their supporters - usually middle- to upper-class people - are more likely to vote.

But the Denver Public Library, which he said serves working families, stay-at-home moms and people who can't afford to shop at Borders, would get only one-third of the money it requested under the task force recommendation.

"That's real disturbing to me, which means I have a long way to go before I can support something like this," he said Tuesday at a council committee meeting. "The information is . . . quite frankly, unfair to some very key folks. Or, I should say, a major part of our population," he added.

Fofi Mendez, chairwoman of the task force's Cultural Facilities Subcommittee and a library commissioner, told Hancock, "I would absolutely agree with you."

After the meeting, Hancock said he supports all cultural facilities but he wants equity.

The library identified $70 million in capital improvements and repairs, which includes "critical repairs and improvements to all existing library buildings and the construction of three additional branches in Stapleton, Green Valley Ranch and West Denver," according to a memo from city librarian Shirley Amore.

But the task force's executive committee recommended a list of projects totaling $28 million of the requested amount. The projects include $14 million for critical maintenance of existing buildings and $14 million for a new branch in west Denver.

"Alternative funding approaches are being suggested for new branches at Stapleton and Green Valley Ranch," Amore wrote.

The public may comment from 6:30-8:30 p.m. today at the District 3 Police Station, 1625 S. University Blvd., before a final recommendation is made.

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