On Tuesday, Ken Michalove, a former Asheville mayor who was also a long-serving Asheville city manager, delivered a scathing report to Asheville City Council regarding its decision to give $2 million in taxpayer money to the Asheville Art Museum’s ongoing fundraising project to expand and renovate its space in Pack Place.

Pack Place is an Asheville institution, a unique nonprofit entity that came together in the early 1990s as an effort to bring much-needed vitality to downtown Asheville at the time. The Pack Place umbrella covered the Asheville Art Museum, the Health Adventure, the YMI Cultural Center, the Colburn Earth Science Museum and the Diana Wortham Theatre. Pack Place provided space for these nonprofits all under one roof, and the center drew people to the heart of downtown.

Over the past several years, the Health Adventure moved out and the Asheville Art Museum moved on plans for a major expansion. As the art museum has moved on its plans, the other Pack Place members have felt put out, to say the least. It’s all been happening under the radar, but Michalove brought it to a head on Tuesday. Michalove said he was hired in December 2011 as a Pack Place consultant to help work through the issues.

On Tuesday, Michalove said he resigned that position to speak out against the $2 million allocation and spotlight the issues tearing apart Pack Place. Michalove also delivered a long memo, which I will be posting here in three or four parts. Here’s the the first piece: