If we can't explain ourselves, of course it's racism!

The City of Plano has dumped $450,000 in city dollars to a group planning an African American Museum there. Six years into the project, there is still no museum, and the group is asking for $245,000 more.

When the City of Plano started asking questions, the museum's chairwoman, T. J. Johnson, said her group was being unfairly singled out and harassed -- she says the city has put few nonprofit groups through the same scrutiny, the implication being that they were singled out because of race. But could it be because most other non-profit groups have visible evidence of what they've done with their money?

Here are a few of the city's unfair complaints:

1) The museum's five-person board has missed financial reporting deadlines. A large portion of the money allotted to the project for the past fiscal year was spent in the last week of the year. That raises some red flags.
2) The board has failed to hire an executive director as agreed.
3) The city has asked the board to return $36,000 that was spent in violation of the group's grant.
4) The group has not cooperated with auditors.
5) The front steps to the house they are restoring do not meet Plano building codes.
6) The restored house is supposed to be open to the public from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. four days a week. It is not.

Ms. Johnson says the city's scrutiny is "overbearing." She's upset because they came out and measured the diameters of some trees they had planted. I suspect the reason for that was that they paid for crepe myrtles with a 3" diameter, but the planted trees were 1.5" in diameter. Did the nursery overcharge, or did that extra money go somewhere else? Either way, I say it's a valid concern. So does Plano Mayor Phil Dyer who said, ". . .there is a certain burden that comes with receiving city money. If you don't have the ability to meet the requirements of the grant, then you shouldn't be applying for it."

"City faults museum's progress." The Dallas Morning News; August 21, 2010; p. 1B.