St. Petersburg Housing Authority commissioners voted Thursday to sell off the city's only African American museum against the pleas of volunteers, residents and city leaders.
"We consider the Dr. Carter G. Woodson Museum to be an irreplaceable community asset," said local businessman Frank Wells.
"Selling off this property would be an extremely poor decision and short-sighted," said former mayor Bill Foster.
"We have a proud jewel in the African American community," said resident Oretha Pope. "Which is now perhaps faced with a critical challenge."
The Dr. Carter G. Woodson Museum is located at 2240 Ninth Ave. S., in a neighborhood that is undergoing revitalization. The museum's lease expired earlier this month.
The housing authority's financial staff recommended the museum be sold for budgetary reasons but some commissioners pointed out those numbers have not been made public.
"The expenses need to be provided and that needs to be expressed openly. So, the community can see how they can participate in offsetting it. But again, none of that has been provided, none of it has been stated," said commissioner Ayele Hunt. "It’s hard for me as a commissioner, I don’t understand what the issue is. I sit up here and I still do not know a year later, understand what the problem is or why this is still an issue."
Commissioner James Bennett also expressed his support for the museum.
"This is a class act and we’re about ready to vote you out of business," he said. "Shame on us."
St. Petersburg Vice Mayor Dr. Kanika Tomalin also urged the commission to vote to keep the museum open.
"It’s our only African-American museum," she said. "Its location is critically important."
The only public official that voiced his support for selling the museum off was St. Petersburg city council member Wengay Newton. The museum is located in Newton's district.
"No curators, no grants," he said.
After the lengthy and heated public debate, a majority of commissioners voted to sell the museum in a 4-3 vote. Commissioners Ann Taylor, Harry Harvey, Delphenia Davis and Lucinda Spires all voted for the sale. Commissioners Ayele Hunt, James Bennett and Valerie Robert voted against the sale.
"We’re not understanding why they want to sell the museum," said museum chair Terri Lispey Scott. "They’ve gone from us not being fiscally responsible, which proved to be not true. That we weren’t really functional, which proved not to be true. To now, let’s just sell it."
Bennett made a motion to extend the 90 day window to vacate the museum to 180 days, to give the housing authority more time to investigate any legal ramifications of their vote to sell the property. That motion passed.