Mayor Papenfuse Embraces Democracy

In a stunning departure from his past positions, Mayor Eric Papenfuse has professed support for elected politicians controlling public purse strings. Could the little oligarch’s puppet be a closet democrat?

The remark came amidst the mayor’s rant against the Civil War Museum, an entity he views as unfairly benefitting from city largesse. Of the Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau, he said, "It's just wrong to have millions of dollars in city assets controlled by an unelected group of self-appointed board members with no real connection to Harrisburg.”

That position is radically different than the one Citizen Papenfuse embraced when he advocated for a Midtown Improvement District (MID) to bankroll additional security in Midtown (around his business) after a well-publicized robbery.

The MID would have come into existence had the matter been placed on a ballot sent to all property owners within the District’s proposed borders. Unless 40% of property owners had voted 'no', the District would have been established with the right to levy assessments against area residents. So in the spirit of representative democracy, property owners who failed to vote would have been counted as ‘yes’ votes. The MID would have been run by an unelected board with discretion to spend the funds as they saw fit. The MID effort died on the vine before reaching fruition.

All of that is now in the past though. Since becoming an elected official, Mayor Papenfuse now sees the wisdom of leaving public spending to elected officials. What an epiphany.)

More Museums are the Answer

If, as the saying goes, government decides who gets what and how much, Mayor Papenfuse is getting the hang of being a politician, not a good one, but a politician nevertheless. Fresh from bungling the Fourth of July and presenting the school board with tax abatement figures that don’t add up, he has aligned his crosshairs on the Civil War Museum.

He claims the museum does not benefit the city and has asked the Dauphin County Board of Commissioners to stop funding it with dollars earmarked for promoting Harrisburg tourism. The Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau receives one quarter of one percent of the hotel tax to promote area tourism. Most of that money goes to the Civil War Museum under an agreement negotiated by Stephen Reed before he left office.

The Mayor notes that the Civil War Museum’s lease agreement states that it should “endeavor to operate as a self-sustaining enterprise” and he appears poised to push the fledgling out of the nest to see if it can fly. In its place, the Mayor’s spokesperson, Joyce Davis (no relation), proposes marketing the Fourth of July (we’ve seen how well that worked), Kipona, and summer enrichment programs for kids. Even if the administration actually informed people where the events were, Fourth of July and Kipona have never been big revenue generators. I’m skeptical that summer enrichment programs will help much either. Some grand plan is clearly needed.

Before jettisoning any particular museum, the Mayor should understand some basic museum economics. Single museums often do not fare well. However, cities that have clusters of museums tend to see a symbiotic effect. The new Susquehanna Art Museum on North Third Street presumably will be completed at some point. Downtown has the State Museum and the Whitaker Center for the Arts so another museum between downtown and the Civil War Museum’s Reservoir Park location could help link them. I’m not arguing for us to buy back Annie Oakley’s underwear. We are well rid of Stephen Reed and his cowboy fetishes.

No, we should build museums that reflect Central Pennsylvania culture and nothing says Harrisburg like crooked politicians. So let’s build a Political Corruption Museum. Some may say the Capitol Building already serves that purpose. Three times more tax payer money changed hands than should have when it was built in the early 20th Century and five people went to jail for graft as a result.

Recently, the brass plaques beneath the portraits of three former Speakers of the House and one past Senate president pro tempore hanging in the capitol building have been altered to include their criminal convictions for corruption.

So put all the museums on a grand tour and keep expanding it. I’m thinking a Scrapple Museum at the Broad Street Market with a stop off at that tourist magnet, The Midtown Scholar, could bridge the gap between the Susquehanna Art Museum and downtown. A trolley car could serve double duty by ferrying visitors along the museum route without forcing them to pay the parking fees Standard Parking charges.