News-Record.com

You'll be hearing a lot about the city bond referendum in the coming months.

My jury is still out on many of them, but these truths seem self-evident at this point:

1. The proposed city-owned swim center, at a cost of $9 million, has the most impressive and persistent group of lobbyists, followed closely by War Memorial Auditorium, the most expensive single item at $36 million.

2. War Memorial Auditorium has the most diverse supporters, including the physically challenged and a wide variety of arts and cultural groups.

3. The civil rights museum has been lowest-key, perhaps because it remains a polarizing subject among some, especially after its most recent construction delays.

4. Maybe Tom Phillips didn't bump his head on the City Council dais after all.

Phillips has opposed bonds for economic development, saying it's not government's business. Then he turned around and voted to place the swim center on the ballot. What gives?

Phillips explains that he voted to place the swim center on the ballot out of a kind of a protest that the civil rights museum probably will be on the ballot. Makes no sense, he says. It's not a city-owned facility. If it's on ballot, he reasons, everything ought to be.

But Phillips says he does not intend to vote for the swim center come November.

In fact, Phillips says he'll vote at the polls only for probably two of the bonds: one for fire stations and one for War Memorial Auditorium

He makes a compelling case for fire stations. But his no-nonsense, needs-vs.-wants rhetoric sputters when he defends his support for remodeling War Memorial Auditorium.