Latest N&R report on controversy surrounding the payout to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum:

City Council members adopted a new rule Tuesday night: no more issuing checks without signed contracts.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan requested that rule following the revelation that the city staff gave the International Civil Rights Center & Museum $750,000 without a signed loan agreement for the money.

“I think this is the first time on City Council that I have voted to legislate common sense,” Councilman Tony Wilkins said.

Meanwhile the city has posted documentation related to the museum’s $1.5m forgivable loan, and it doesn’t look good for former City Manager Denise Turner Roth or City Attorney Mujeeb Shah-Khan. Based on staff emails from October 2013, it’s clear Roth was anxious to cut the first $750,000 installment even without a contract, despite warnings from city finance director Rick Lusk, who signed off only “as long as everyone understands the risk of not having a signed agreement and circumventing the internal control system,” to which Shah-Khan replied “we understand the risks.”

Note in the comments to the N&R write-up former City Council member Tom Phillips –no whack job blogger he—-says:

The city attorney needs to go. This is not the Obama administration. People need to be held accountable and he is clearly the person that screwed this up.

No sign during last night’s meeting that the council was going to hold Shah-Khan responsible for this screw-up —to the contrary they continued to seek his advice over whether or not to execute the contract in question. But whether or not Shah-Khan is held responsible still ignores the bigger picture surrounding the museum — they hold a staggering $20-plus million debt and the money it’s bringing in is a mere drop in the bucket.

According to the presentation before the council on tuesday, the museum “has served approximately 260,000 persons during its 47 months of operation and generated $1,573,000 from admissions” while “retail purchases (books, t-shirts, games, and other gift shop products) totaled $602,000,” making earlier suggestions that buying a coffee mug will help save the museum a total joke.

So Shah-Khan may or may not be held accountable for this debacle, but the museum’s financial problems are overwhelming and –short of simply closing the doors — will be a burden on this city for quite some time. And the public’s patience is wearing thin.