~by Janice Harbaugh for GreeneCountyNewsOnline
The Greene County supervisors changed their tune about music from the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower at their regular meeting Monday.
In a sudden and complete reversal from what they said just four days earlier, the supervisors and county attorney Thomas Laehn decided at their meeting on Jan 18 that the Public Art policy is in no way applicable to music played on the Mahanay bell tower bells.
On Jan 14, supervisor Peter Bardole told the board he had received a request that patriotic music be played from the bells on Inauguration Day. The board denied the request, reportedly made through the Bell Tower Community Foundation by the Greene County Democrats.
The request was denied by the board of supervisors, according to Bardole in a telephone interview with GCNO on Jan 16, because of the Public Art policy.
Bardole told GCNO, “the Public Art policy does not permit groups or individuals to publicly suggest things to the board. Any ideas for art or music on county property have to originate with the board.”
Bardole said the request for patriotic music played on the bells on Inauguration Day “had to be denied because it came from a source other than the board itself.”
At the Jan 18 board meeting, Bardole and board chair John Muir remembered the statements made at the Jan 14 meeting as “suggestions or guidelines rather than a denial of the request.”
However, reporter notes from the meeting are clear as to the words used, as are the notes from the interview on Jan 16 with Bardole.
At the Jan 18 meeting, GCNO, attending electronically through Zoom audio, requested four minutes during the open forum to ask three prepared questions concerning the board’s messages through bell music as required by the art policy, the board’s support for the choice of almost exclusively Christian sacred music played on the bells, and the appropriate application of the Public Art policy to music selection for the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower.
The questions were to pinpoint responsibility for music selection and whether the board believes the art policy is applicable to music selection, given stipulations made by the tower’s benefactor, Floyd and Mahanay, prescribing a large percentage of the music played on the bells must be patriotic and sacred.
The questioning turned into a virtual free-for-all, board members and members of the public in the gallery responded with their opinions before the questions completely spoken. Janice Harbaugh, reporting for GCNO, had to raise her voice into the microphone to be heard as several people discussed issues among themselves rather than supervisors answering her direct questions.
A gallery member interrupted this reporter’s floor time repeatedly with an issue only tangential to the questions under consideration. Chair Muir allowed the disorder to continue.
County attorney Thomas Laehn, author of the Public Art Policy Resolution adopted by the supervisors in 2019, eventually researched the issues raised by GCNO and returned to the meeting toward the end.
Laehn reported his opinion that the Public Art policy “only applies to tangible works of art and doesn’t apply to music (sound).”
“The Public Art policy does not apply to the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower,” Laehn told the supervisors.
Laehn also said the board of supervisors has no authority over the music played on the bells or the musicians who select their own music for Mahanay Maestro Tower Tunes concerts.
“If one person is allowed to play the bells, all must be allowed to play,” Laehn said. “The responsibility lies with the Foundation (to implement the stipulations of Floyd Mahanay and meet the legal requirements for attractions such as the Tower).”
The board discussed the breach in procedure that caused the current issues.
Various board members contributed to the explanation that two people associated with the bell tower were “confused about their roles and responsibilities and passed on the community group’s request for music to their liaison, Peter Bardole, who mistakenly passed the request to the board.”
However, the confusion was widespread, as the supervisors acted on the request with a denial when they had no authority to do so.
Attorney Laehn emphasized the board of supervisors’ disconnection from creative aspects of the bell tower several times and said he plans to meet with members of the Foundation to clarify their responsibilities.
