The Obama Presidential Library That Isn’t
In a break with precedent, there will be no research library on site, and none of Mr. Obama’s official presidential records. Instead, the Obama Foundation will pay to digitize the roughly 30 million pages of unclassified paper records from the administration so they can be made available online.
And the entire complex, including the museum chronicling Mr. Obama’s presidency, will be run by the foundation, a private nonprofit entity, rather than by the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency that administers the libraries and museums for all presidents going back to Herbert Hoover.
SAUCE
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/arts/obama-presidential-center-library-national-archives-and-records-administration.html
In blow to Obama Presidential Center backers, judge allows lawsuit challenging Chicago's Jackson Park location to proceed
The ruling to allow the suit to proceed is significant because it could delay construction for months, and potentially raise the question of whether the $500 million sprawling presidential campus can be built at all on lakefront property in Jackson Park.
Charles Birnbaum – (Cultural Landscape Foundation President)
“The Obama Foundation could make this issue go away by using vacant and/or city-owned land on the South Side for the Obama Presidential Center (which is planned to be a private facility rather than a presidential library administered by the National Archives), or, better still, land owned by the University of Chicago, which submitted the winning bid to host the Center,”
U.S. Judge John Robert Blakey
“the ‘public trust’ doctrine is to have any meaning or vitality at all, the members of the public, at least taxpayers who are the beneficiaries of that trust, must have the right and standing to enforce it,”
Blakey has emphasized that he doesn’t want the proceedings to drag on. He has set another court date for later this month and said he will stick to a strict schedule.
Margaret Schmid, co-founder of Jackson Park Watch, a group that also favors relocating the center, said members are “quite pleased” with the ruling.
“We think there are some very important issues involved in this case,” she said. “One of the things we think is important is to resolve the question of whether public parkland can be given to a private entity without judicial review.”
SAUCE:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obamacenter/ct-met-obama-center-presidential-library-chicago-lawsuit-20190219-story.html
NARA and Obama Foundation Sign a Digitization Memorandum of Understanding
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – Signed 2/15/2019 by ROBIN COHEN – EXCUTIVE DIRECTOR, OBAMA FOUNDATION
https://www.archives.gov/files/foia/obama-digitization-mou-executed-2-15-19.pdf
Letter of Intent (LOI) –
WRITTEN on 8/11/2018 and signed 8/21/2018 by ROBIN COHEN – EXCUTIVE DIRECTOR, OBAMA FOUNDATION
https://www.archives.gov/files/foia/letter-of-intent-re-obama-digitization-project.signed.2.pdf
Who is ROBBIN COHEN?