Washington Pavilion

Washington Pavilion Contract likely to be renewed with little to no oversight and review

l3wis October 31, 2017 0Comments

With all of the kerfuffle about the secret siding settlement and secret RFP process, it seems the city council has learned little to nothing. And I’m not talking about a select few, I’m talking about ALL of them.

The Washington Pavilion is up for contract renewal soon (Finance Director Tracy Turbak is expected to do a short presentation next Tuesday, November 7 at the informational with a resolution by the council of approval on Novemeber 14.) And that easily the Pavilion will have renewed their 5 year contract with the city, with little questioning, little review, no accountability, and no outside competition.

We wonder what went wrong with the EC siding? Well a little combination of all of the above and you create a perfect storm for corruption. So don’t act shocked when bad things happen.

I enjoy the Pavilion and go to shows there and enjoy the visual arts center (though it should be free again) but that doesn’t mean the council should just blindly take their word that everything is on the up an up when it comes to the day to day operations.

Let’s look at some concerning factors;

The Pavilion hasn’t had a city audit in over 10 years.

Besides a subsidy to their operations, the city spends millions from the entertainment tax fund for brick and mortar upgrades to the city owned building each year with little oversight to those upgrades.

The Pavilion hasn’t shown us a financial report since 2015. The 2016 report is still NOT finished. That’s right, only 2 weeks away from a contract renewal and the 2016 audit is NOT complete yet. The Pavilion claims they are saving money by having the audit so late in the year. Yah, sure, you betcha.

The Pavilion management has changed so many hands in 5 years it’s hard to keep track who is in charge. And since Darrin Smith has been in charge many long time and short time directors and management have left. Has anyone asked why? Nope, just get out the rubber stamps, than in 3 years we can put a cute timeline together of what went wrong, because that is much easier than asking the tough questions to begin with.

Than there is the NEW leader of the Pavilion. A former city councilor who quit mid-term after losing a mayoral bid. Re-appeared to dig up false dirt on Staggers winning him a job in the Huether administration as director of community development (something he knows nothing about) in which he screws up the DT parking ramp deal (and we keep throwing thousands of dollars at the project) and runs away once again to another job. This time he lands his feet as the director of the Pavilion, still cashing in on the taxpayer buck. Here he decides to wait 10 months before auditing the year before, than not only appoints a youth minister cartoonist to run the arts center but also the science center, I heard soon he will be also in charge of cleaning the rain gutters.

It seems the city council can’t understand why they have so much controversy surrounding the lack of transparency, secret settlements, and no oversight. If they approve the Pavilion contract without truly digging in what has been happening there over the past 5 years, they only reap what they sew.

City Council MUST do a thorough review of Pavilion contract before renewal

l3wis October 22, 2017 0Comments

When I see stuff like below, I am continually baffled by the decisions the Pavilion management is making. Obviously the citizens hands are tied and their isn’t much we can do to persuade the board of directors BUT we still have the city council.

The Pavilion’s management contract is set for renewal on January 1, 2018 and as I understand it, it will be an automatic renewal. We haven’t seen an audit of the Pavilion in over a decade and the last annual report was posted online in 2015.

I don’t understand how the Mayor and City Council could just let this contract renew itself without a complete review and outside audit? Especially with the recent change in contractors at the golf course after we let one contractor run the joint for 23 years.

It’s extremely irresponsible for our municipal government to be so careless with our tax subsidy and property ownership. Please, do your job and do a full review of the Pavilion before you sign on the dotted line before the whole building is run by youth pastor cartoonists.

Washington Pavilion Management contract renewal

l3wis September 27, 2017 1Comments

As I have already blogged about recently the Pavilion’s contract is up for renewal on January 1st. I believe it is a 5-year contract that will have to probably be renewed in October or November.

I know with all the talk about the Golf Contract and the secrecy surrounding contracts recently, I’m just wondering if there has been any talks about changing some terms with the Pavilion before renewal? The last city audit I could find I think was 9 years ago (don’t quote me on that, the city council probably has better access to those).

Besides an audit, the ONE thing on my wish list for change of terms is making the visual arts center (the galleries) FREE admission again as promised in the original contract. Obviously they would have to charge something for international/special exhibits like Rodin and Warhol, but for regional and even National work, I think the admission should be FREE for all AGAIN.

Believe it or not, I don’t think Darrin Smith would be opposed to that proposal. I talked to someone who saw the last couple of internal audits and they said the Pavilion only takes in approximately $15K in admissions since they implemented it. That could easily be covered by a couple of sponsors or grants.

I am also concerned with all the entertainment tax money that is being poured into the place. I would much rather see the money be spent on paying down the EC mortgage.

With all of the talk about letting the sunshine finally in on the Huether Administration, I think the City Council could use this contract renewal as a good experiment moving forward on contract awards, and their involvement in that process.

Washington Pavilion Management looking to renew contract in October

l3wis August 9, 2017 1Comments

The Washington Pavilion is looking to renew their 5-Year contract in October of this year (The current contract runs until December 31, 2017). The first I heard about this, and most of the councilors was yesterday during the budget hearings.

Besides the fact that SMG has been salivating for years to get the contract on the only room in the building that makes any money, the Great Hall, I am wondering if the Pavilion contract has ever been put out for bid? Or like the external auditor contract, we just pick someone in the dark of the night?

I think with the recent move to allow other entities to bid on our public golf course contract, it might not hurt to open up the bidding for the PAV.

Even if they don’t, the council should have oodles of questions for the current management team. It has been NO secret for years that the Great Hall makes the Pavilion money. Mainly because the Pavilion controls it’s own ticket sales and much of it’s promotion of shows (something they need to do at the Events Center). Do they make money on all of their shows? No, but year after year, the Great Hall has been profitable, very profitable. I think the only time the Great Hall probably didn’t make money was during the economic downturn in 2008-09. The Visual Arts Center has always kind of broke even. Mostly through grants, etc. and there skeleton staff. The Science center has always been a money pit. The problem is that the Pavilion doesn’t split up the accounting for the 3 departments. In other words, even if the Great Hall makes money, there is an appearance of loss due to the Science Center because all of the money sits in one kitty. This needs to change with the new contract.

The Pavilion has also had some major management changes over the past year, not just with the new Director, Darrin Smith, but some long time managers have said bye-bye.

So why is it important that the city council dig deep before signing another 5 year contract?

The last internal city Audit was in 2008

The last 5 year contract was signed in October 2012 (Item #31)

Last annual report presentation to city council was in 2014

As you can see, besides the Pavilion spending millions over the past couple of years in building upgrades sliding under the radar in the consent agenda and taking money from the lucrative money tree called the entertainment tax, there has been very little transparency since the last time they signed a contract.

It’s time for the council to really pull up their boot straps and dig deep, and ask the important questions before blindly signing another contract.