On June 16th, Hot Air posted an article about the latest scandal involving the Obama Presidential Library. The Obama administration claimed to be scandal-free, but much of the information coming out about the administration since President Obama left office has shown that was not the case. The Obama Presidential Library is also not scandal-free.
The article reports:
It'[s going to be a big party when the doors open, but there are some people who were involved in the construction who might not have the thirty bucks to get a ticket to darken the doors.
It turns out there are many unhappy and unpaid contractors on this massive project, and a required endowment for future maintenance and repairs on behalf of the Obama Foundation of $470 million that has never once climbed above the initial $1 million deposited in the account years ago.
,,,The Obama Presidential Center opens to the public on Chicago’s South Side on June 19, the Juneteenth holiday, with a grand opening ceremony the night before. The 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park houses a 225-foot museum tower, a digital library, an athletic facility, a café, conference space, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, and offices for the Obama Foundation, which will run the center as a private nonprofit.
The center cost roughly $850 million to build, nearly triple the original $300 million projection. Public infrastructure spending tied to the project has crossed $350 million by state and city transportation department figures alone, with no agency producing a final consolidated total.
A $470 million reserve fund the Obama Foundation pledged to seed for the center’s long-term operations stands at roughly $1 million. Median rents in the neighborhoods near the campus have risen 43 percent and home values 130 percent since the center was first announced in 2015. Days before the opening, several Black-owned subcontractors who built the campus say they are owed millions and are fighting to keep their businesses open.
In March, Fox News reported:
The Obama Foundation is looking for 100 unpaid volunteers to work alongside the former president’s highly paid cronies at the $850 million Obama Presidential Center in Chicago when it opens in June.
Officials are pitching the no-paycheck gigs as rooted in former President Barack Obama’s legacy of civic engagement. The recruitment campaign comes after Fox News Digital reported that the organization’s CEO, former top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, was paid $740,000 in 2024.
Maybe the people paying the bills at the library need to revisit their priorities.