Richmond City Council will vote Sept. 10 on a proposed public-private agreement to build an arts center in downtown Richmond.

City Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson kept the review of two ordinances related to the project on the fast-track yesterday by calling a special meeting of her finance committee for 5 p.m. Wednesday.

City administration officials had asked the full council to vote on the ordinances Sept. 10, bypassing the committee's next regular meeting Sept. 20.

Chief Financial Officer Harry E. Black has said the expedited review is necessary so a construction contract for the $65 million Richmond CenterStage project can be signed before prices increase.

Robertson and City Councilman Bruce W. Tyler met with Mayor L. Douglas Wilder on Friday to discuss the agreement. It would allow the arts center to be developed and managed by Richmond Performing Arts Center LLLP through 40-year leases with the city, which would own the Carpenter Center, and the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation, which would own the rest of the complex. The center is scheduled to open in fall 2009.

In a follow-up letter Tuesday, Wilder told Robertson he's glad she's asking questions but expressed bewilderment that she hasn't stayed abreast of the project. Wilder noted that City Council appointed Robertson and City Council President William J. Pantele to the board of the arts foundation in 2005.

"Given what should have been your access to detailed information through your ties on the performing arts board, I expected you to have a firmer grip of the Carpenter Center project and what is being proposed," Wilder said.

Robertson did not return two messages yesterday but said last week that she hasn't attended foundation board meetings for about a year because they conflict with a class she's taking.

Pantele called Wilder's scolding disingenuous. He said Wilder knows the details of the agreement were hammered out not by the arts foundation, but by administration officials and business leaders tapped by Wilder since the project was scaled back last year.

Pantele said council members are right to ask questions about whether the city would be exposed in the event of construction or operating cost overruns.

"Those are new provisions that he has apparently negotiated on his own," Pantele said of Wilder.

City spokesman Linwood Norman would not respond and said Wilder was unavailable for comment.

In his letter, Wilder also suggested that he and the council hold joint meetings together to answer questions of each other and the public on a variety of issues.

Pantele supports the idea. "It's a good idea to have some kind of informal discussion."
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.