The Downtown Library and Affordable Housing Project, given the green light two years ago by the defeat of Measure O, is a contraption of many moving parts. The library is one part, housing another and a third is parking, which will serve as the foundation of the housing. Then there is the Toadal Fitness building, which the city of Santa Cruz has purchased for $2.5 million and will demolish to clear the property for construction. The library building is also supposed to include commercial space and space for a child care center.

Because of the complexity and interdependence of the components, with whatever regulations and contingencies, funding and financing issues, grants and private donations pending, the project’s timeline has been a receding horizon, with the city’s projections repeatedly revised into the future. Groundbreaking, according to the mayor’s office, is scheduled for 2025 and, unforeseen conditions permitting, the new library-housing-commercial-child care-garage could be operational as soon as two years after that. That would be more than a decade since Measure S passed with its promise of renovation or reconstruction of all 10 branches of the Santa Cruz Public Library system.

By now, all branches have been renovated or rebuilt in place except the downtown flagship branch, which was reportedly so decrepit that the need to fix or replace it was urgent and would cost much more than the $27 million allotted by Measure S.

Then-Councilwoman and four-time Mayor Cynthia Mathews, arguably the city’s most skilled and experienced political operator, spearheaded the idea that the best way to upgrade the library, leverage the city’s assets and expedite construction was to move the library to Parking Lot 4 at Cedar and Lincoln streets (kitty-corner from a house she owns) and combine it with a badly needed parking garage.

When that concept bombed in public opinion, parking was reduced and “affordable housing” added, which closed the deal because nobody likes cars but everyone loves affordable housing.

As it turns out, the library and the housing are separate buildings, even though they will share the Lot 4 property, presumably for some economic advantage. But eight years later one must ask how much more the library (not to mention the rest of the project) will ultimately cost and how much longer it will take than if the $27 million in 2016 had been combined with available grants and loans and invested then — as most voters expected — in renovation of the Church Street library, which would be done by now.

I’ve never understood why Mathews, the master politician, thought her project was such a great idea. When her constituents cried “bait-and-switch,” besides tacking on affordable housing she had to mobilize her entire political apparatus, from subcommittees and clubs and commissions to consultants and marketing strategists and advertising wizards, with major financial help from the real estate industry — while she was recused from City Council deliberations because of her real estate conflict of interest — in order to crush Measure O and win approval of the public and the council (of which she, recused or not, was by far the most influential member).

So, almost a decade after Measure S, we have no new library nor any reliable timeline for its construction, much less completion. The project will cost nobody knows how much more than it would have in 2016, accounting for inflation and increased costs of planning, engineering, design, permits, materials and labor, plus the usual delays and cost overruns.

Bottom line: Santa Cruz was scammed into believing the lie that building a shiny new library would save the city time and money.

Will Cynthia Mathews and her enablers ever be held accountable for fiscal mismanagement and political malpractice?

Stephen Kessler’s column appears on Saturdays.