Onondaga County officials unveiled the name for the aquarium that is expected to be open in September, but controversy continues over the transparency of donors to the project.
On one end of town Tuesday, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon stood in front of school kids and announced the name of the aquarium set to open around Labor Day.
"The Harborview Aquarium," McMahon said to applause at the Syracuse Academy of Science.
Two students at the school helped come up with the name. 5-year old Cailin Coffey and her sister, 6-year old Riley, were driving with their mother near the aquarium when they came up with the name.
"They thought 'it's really pretty, you can view everything from there. What's that area?'," said their mother, Jennifer Coffey. "I told them 'That's the harbor' and they said 'it should be called the Harborview.' So i submitted the name and here we are."
A naming sponsor will still be added to the name, much in the same way the Lakeview Amphitheater is named.
As McMahon announced the name of the aquarium, on the other end of town, Democrats from the county legislature were announcing plans to change the way the names of donors to the group Friends of the Aquarium are released.
"We are drafting a revised law dealing with donations and gifts to include clearer and more frequent reporting requirements so the legislature can do our jobs and provide checks and balances on these transactions," said Legislator Elaine Denton.
For months, Democrats have been pressing the McMahon administration about the names of private donors that are covering a $19 million shortfall in the aquarium’s building costs. It was a meeting in March that really spurred the latest action. Legislature chair Nicole Watts said lawmakers didn’t know why the Friends of the Aquarium didn’t disclose a $5.7 million donation from a non-profit called The Syracuse Soundstage Corporation, which holds a balance from the defunct Syracuse Film Hub.
"When you learn something you felt like you should have been told and then it becomes clear that you weren’t told it, you wonder how many other spaces that is true of," Watts said.
Friends of the Aquarium Chair William Gilberti said that’s because the source of donations stays private unless the donor is willing to go public. Gilberty is worried this will have a chilling effect on giving.
"It saddens me that there's this kind of discussion going on because to me it does nothing but have an impact on the willingness of people to consider our organization for their charitable donations," Gilberti said.
That would change if Democrats can get this legislation across the finish line. It would require any donation of more than $10,000 to Friends of Aquarium to come before the Onondaga County Legislature and be approved. Lawmakers say that decision would be made in Executive Session.
"What we’re trying to establish isn’t an antagonistic relationship with he county executive, but a collaborative one where we’re at the table at the discussion of public funds," Democratic Legislator Jeremiah Thompson.
There’s no timetable for introducing this legislation. If the Democrat-controlled legislature approves it, it would need a two-thirds vote from the legislature to overturn a potential veto, meaning there would have to be some Republican support for it.
