Flandrau running from trouble

The people at the Flandrau Science Center may be wishing on a star to head downtown, but instead face budget cuts and pink slips.

While money is the primary concern in moving Flandrau in the future, it is also a problem that has dogged the center for the past eight years.

"We've been in the red every year," Flandrau director Jack Johnson said.

Mounting financial problems brought about an order from Levy to cut Flandrau's budget of $900,000 by $149,336. Most of the cuts were made in salaries, Johnson said.

A shake-up of the staff at the center was only the first step in a process that could move the center off campus.

"When I came on board the goal was to change this place from just a planetarium to a science center," he said.

Changing Flandrau's purpose was just the beginning, as talk has continued about moving the science center to a downtown location.

"For about a year and a half now, we, meaning both the public and private sectors downtown, have been talking with the leaders of Flandrau about the move of the science center to a part of a larger science center downtown," said Carol Carpenter, City of Tucson's downtown development specialist.

UA spokeswoman Sharon Kha said the idea of moving Flandrau, currently at 1601 E. University Blvd., off campus has been discussed for the past eight years.

"The talk has progressed somewhat," she said. "The issues about moving downtown are ideas in search of money."

Carpenter said preliminary cost projections have ranged from $25 to 60 million, depending on "how cutting-edge we want the facility to be."

Carpenter said the project is still in its "infant" stage, and the decision of how the move would be funded has not been hashed out yet.

But plenty has been agitated on the personnel front.

Johnson is retiring in two weeks and will be replaced by someone from outside the university. Johnson said that Department of Sciences Dean Eugene Levy is in the process of selecting a final candidate for the job.

Johnson's decision to retire was the first major personnel and financial move in a process that he said started when he was hired in 1989.

Budget cuts resulted in the decision to terminate the position of the deputy director, which cost Michael Midkiff his job after working at Flandrau for 14 years.

Midkiff had been among those considered for the position of director when Johnson retired by a search committee appointed by Levy, but Johnson said "the most accurate statement was that they were more impressed with other candidates.

"Michael is one of the most talented people I've worked with," Johnson said. "It's really unfortunate that this had to happen."

Midkiff said the reason for his dismissal was never made clear to him.

"I think I lost favor with the dean," he said. "Once you fall out of favor with the dean you're pretty much screwed."

Levy said that he had nothing to do with the elimination of Midkiff's position.

"It was part of a reorganization in the planetarium made by the director," he said. "But it would be inappropriate for me to comment on personnel matters in any case."

Johnson said it was a simple fact that Midkiff had no chance for advancement.

"The fact is he was not going to get my job," Johnson said.

Midkiff resigned and is currently looking for other work at UA, but he said that he doesn't buy the notion of financial problems being the reason he lost his job.

"Then why is the UA trying to get the city and community to pay $45 million for an off-campus science center?" he asked.

Midkiff said that several other people have been laid off recently as part of the financial cuts that Johnson undertook.