City hopes public-private partnership will lead to one-of-a-kind children’s museum

It’s been five-and-a-half years since El Paso voters approved spending $19.5 million for a state-of-the-art children’s museum, but ground still hasn’t been broken and the over all cost has tripled.

“The Children’s Museum in my mind, and in the minds of some other people working on this project, is the game changer among those quality of life bond projects,” said Richard Pearson, President and CEO of the El Paso Community Foundation. “It is the one that’s different. It’s going to compete on the educational spectrum. On the quality of life spectrum. The economic development spectrum.”

Pearson and the Community Foundation are playing a pivotal role in the planning and building of the children’s museum. “As we went further down the road, we realized through due diligence the original budget number was not a real number at all. We don’t know where it came from, but it wasn’t right. So, we asked the City for more money and we doubled our pledge as well to $20 million,” said Pearson.

As a result, the original $19.5 million grew with the City promising to commit another $20 million to the project for a total public investment of $39.5 million. That additional $20 million in funding will come from certificates of obligation, according to Tracey Jerome, the City’s Director of Museums and Cultural Affairs. Certificates of obligation are new debt the City can take on without voter approval.

The $39.5 million in public funding will not cover the entire cost of the project, which is where the public-private partnership comes in.

“Talking with the community and understanding what the community wants – we need to go to another level to make sure that we are going to deliver a quality project and a project of excellence to the community,” said Jerome, “We want to make sure that we are being responsive in every way that we can to our community, but we’re also planning a project that’s sustainable.”

“It’s important that we aren’t building for today, but were building for the future because were building, for not only this generation of children, but generations to come. This has to be a viable, vibrant site,” Jerome said.

The Community Foundation and other community advocates created a non-profit called EPC Museum that is tasked with raising an additional $20 million. “We have already gained commitments of almost $10 million just in the few years we’ve been working on this,” said Pearson.

“The city is capped at maximum exposure of $39.5 million,” said City Engineer Sam Rodriguez, “And the foundation through its donors and its fundraising capabilities it’s going to be responsible for any overages associated with the project. That’s also what made it very attractive to the city where we have an entity that’s willing to be the operation arm of the museum that’s going to provide a big benefit to the community.”

Jerome believes the idea of a project of this type being purely funded with city dollars is an outdated model. “We are stepping forward by moving to a whole new model that is where we should be and it’s where we need to go with all of our sites moving forward. It is the best way to guarantee our financial sustainability of the site,” she said, “It also takes a huge amount of pressure off the taxpayer because we know what our commitment is. We’re going to be in a partnership, but we’ll know what we’re doing and there won’t be question marks.”

In order to work with EPC Museum in a public-private partnership, the City is creating a local government corporation. Rodriguez believes the LGC will allow for more flexibility. “You design a project, you build it, there’s a change because some exhibit that might come in later won’t fit, we may need to do a redesign or change order, go back to council, get it approved, etc. So, that brings about a lot of inefficiencies and delays on schedule.”

ABC-7 asked Rodriguez if creating a corporation will reduce oversight and if there are any concerns with the bidding process and how contractors are selected. “Not at all. They are still required to follow certain state laws,” said Rodriguez. “For example, the whole competition with the architect – it’s still basing it on qualifications and making sure we have a good qualified architect that’s going to build the facility that has experience and has the right team to design this type of facility. So, from that aspect they are still required to do all of that. Even for the construction and the contractor still have to follow processes that are transparent and follows the state and local laws.”

Pearson had a different response to a similar question: “We’re able to circumvent some of the rules around the RFP (request for proposal) process and requests for bids that allows us to move a little more efficiently and get the best value. I think that’s a little bit of an abstract term. What is the best value in any situation? But, the Community Foundation has been here for 40 years. We aren’t going anywhere. We’d be out of business if we were poor stewards of the public money and we have been for 40 years.”

ABC-7 asked Rodriguez for further clarification about public access to financial records and reports. He said the City is not going to build the building and just hand it over to the nonprofit.

“The City has acquired the museum site and will enter into a ground lease and funding agreement with the El Paso Children’s Museum Local Government Corporation,” said Rodriguez, “The LGC will enter into a museum development, management and operating agreement with the El Paso Children’s Museum. The El Paso Children’s Museum will design and construct the building and operate the museum.”

“The agreements provide for very specific reporting of financials by the El Paso Children’s Museum to both the City Council and the LGC. Once presented, these reports will be public. As always, correspondence to or from a City Official and/or an LGC official, unless specifically excepted under the Texas Public Information Act, is public,” added Rodriguez.

Jerome told ABC-7 she doesn’t expect the museum’s final name to include the words “museum” or “children.” She cited the “Thinkery” in Austin and children tending to shy away or feeling they’ve outgrown visiting places with either word in the name.

As far as when the museum might open its doors Pearson said he remains hopeful it will be completed by late 2021.