Monday, January 26, 2009
Editorial: Leadership has its price
Roanoke City Council gets it. Council, not consultants, needs to provide leadership in deciding the fate of the Market Building.
From the RoundTable blog
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How much does vision cost these days? Roanoke City Council prices it at $40,000. That's the amount it shaved from a contract with consultants hired to shape a plan for the Market Building.
If not for a procedural glitch, council members would have continued to flounder with the project, wasting time and money, gathering redundant information. The glitch meant they needed to wait two weeks before hiring Cunningham Quill Architects in Washington, D.C. In the interim, each council member heard an earful.
We took them to task for once again failing to muster the leadership necessary to define what needs to be done with the Market Building, and we urged them to stop trying to buy vision. Several expensive studies had already provided sufficient information. Council needs to make a decision, not hand off that duty to consultants and certainly not hire them then refuse to follow the recommendation.
We weren't the only ones appalled at the waste.
Council members said Thursday they heard from many, telling them to stop studying and start leading.
Finally, council gets it.
Members approved the contract with a narrowed scope and a reduced price of $120,000, reflecting council's decision to provide vision.
Come Feb. 2, Roanokers will find out if their mayor and council members can actually do it. Council expects to meet with Cunningham Quill associates. By then, everyone should have brushed up on all the recommendations, public input and ideas that have been proffered before.
At that meeting, council should make a decision and provide clear direction. Members already appear to agree on one point: The Market Building should contain a food court.
Moving beyond that, to something more than a place for a quick lunch, seems to be where they are stuck. But it would be a disservice to the potential of the City Market area to stop there.
Once council decides what it wants, the consultants can then look at the building's components to determine if it can support the concept and how much it will cost to upgrade systems and the structure.
All except Councilman Court Rosen endorsed this course. Rosen thinks council should define its concept before hiring the firm and determine where it would find the money. Further, Rosen prefers to concentrate more on construction drawings than on concept drawings.
Rosen's concern that council may again spend money for plans it cannot afford to enact is valid. Council's leadership task only begins with defining a concept. To follow: tough financial decisions.
