… will consist of theatres operated by people who have no experience in the field of the performing arts, and managed by a firm that has been accused in the past of over-charging the city and gaining sweetheart city contracts over more capable competitors; a company that mainly manages hockey arenas and convention centers, not performing arts facilities.
It sounds like a bright future with “serious fun” ahead. From Thursday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:
The developer of Richmond’s performing-arts center is negotiating with the management of the Richmond Coliseum to handle bookings and operation of the Landmark Theater.
City officials also want to speed borrowing of about $1 million to pay for improvements at the Landmark.
A proposed agreement between the city and the Richmond Performing Arts Center would set the stage for the center to sign a deal with a facilities-management company, possibly Philadelphia-based SMG, for daily operations. The City Council is scheduled to consider the city’s agreement with the center Monday.
“My understanding is that they’re ready to go with SMG,” Council President William J. Pantele said of the performing-arts center yesterday.
SMG’s performance in handling our local arena has hardly been something to celebrate, as the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation’s personal friend Mr. Pantele surely knows. This city audit of the Richmond Coliseum from 2001 shows that, under SMG’s management…
- Bookings and income at the city-owned Coliseum declined even as SMG’s management fee increased or remained steady.
- The Coliseum’s overall costs remained the same when the amount of resources necessary to operate the arena dropped.
- There was a $534,000, or 43%, jump in the arena’s operating losses in one year, which prompted a deputy city manager to recommend having SMG replaced as a result of the added losses.
- NCAA officials were forced to cancel a postseason basketball game at the Coliseum because the floor was too slick. It seems that SMG neglected to pay for removing hockey ice under the floor before the ball game (an embarrassing incident that made the national media).
But that’s not all. From the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2001:
SMG won the contract from Richmond to manage the Coliseum despite a panel of city officials recommending that it should go instead to Global Spectrum Inc. Global submitted a bid that could have saved the city $150,000 a year. And the company scored higher than SMG in a comparison by the panel.
Global alleged a conflict of interest last year because a city agency’s board member, Kenneth Johnson, joined SMG in its five-year bid for the Coliseum. Johnson is the chairman of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority. He said the move is legal, and the Richmond commonwealth’s attorney’s office agreed.
It’s worth noting here that the Richmond Coliseum is owned by the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority. So RRHA Chairman Johnson joined SMG to bid for his city agency’s very own contract. Now, even in a town that doesn’t know the meaning of conflict of interest, that’s conflict of interest.
But even if SMG didn’t have a measurable taint and a mediocre track record, this deal would stink. The company specializes in convention centers and big arenas, not performing arts centers. Why wouldn’t VAPAF or the Mayor’s office choose a firm that has widely-respected national experience in managing performing arts venues, like Live Nation? (One wonders if Live Nation submitted a bid. Hello, city reporters?)
SMG’s glaring lack-of-expertise was noted by one city bureaucrat — who normally asks few questions about these sort of deals:
Sixth District Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, who chairs the council’s finance committee, said she didn’t see a problem with the accelerated funding but that she still needed to review the proposed management agreement. She said she was surprised to hear SMG was being considered.
“I got the impression [the center would] be looking for someone with experience” more in keeping with theaters, she said.
So: performing arts professionals are once again left out in the cold by VAPAF (sorry, “the CenterStage Foundation”) and their surrogates. And taxpayers are just supposed to swallow another sweetheart deal — Mayor-approved — that makes no logical sense.
But this latest plot twist in Richmond’s longest-running big-budget farce should surprise no one. VAPAF still has not provided the city with the economic studies justifying their CenterStage plan that they claimed existed during city council’s “rush” vote on the measure. And, in the nearly five years since the meals tax was raised to fund them, there has not been one officially-held public meeting where taxpayers could voice their opinions and offer suggestions on VAPAF’s proposals for our city’s historic theatres (compare and contrast this with the two widely-advertised public meetings that were held to get input on the PRIVATE First Market Stadium at University of Richmond — are you starting to get the idea that some folks’ public input is more valuable than others?)
I recently learned that the well-heeled gatekeepers at VAPAF were asked by a city council member to consider putting local arts professionals in positions of authority within their publicly-funded organization. The request was politely declined.
But how can that be? The city was recently treated to a series of hometown lectures on the topic of “change” by VAPAF Chairman Jim Ukrop that included pleasant quotes about “inclusion” and “the power of ideas,” and sensible words about “who needs to be at the table.” Wouldn’t an 11th hour infusion of arts authorities and/or local voices be just the thing for Mr. Ukrop’s pet downtown project, which has heretofore eschewed and ignored the general public?
But as we’ve written before on these pages, actions speak louder than words. And what’s currently going on with our business leaders and their private-vanity-project-on-the-public-dime is a more accurate barometer of community inclusion and the current state of trusting in expertise than all the platitudes you could ever possibly think of.
In any case, one looks forward on Monday night to seeing the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation’s deal with SMG Inc. receive the same kind of intense scrutiny and adherence to high standards of public input and “workability” that we are now witnessing with the proposed Downtown Master Plan.
One also looks forward to seeing Elvis teleport down from his UFO to eat a fried banana sandwich, with Marilyn Monroe on his arm.
Guess which one is more likely to happen?
