Washington Pavilion Management looking to renew contract in October

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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.

The Pavilion must be getting VERY desperate for VAC directors

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TV Host, Cartoonist, Artist, Youth Director . . . there isn’t nothing this guy can’t do.

I had to take a double take when I read this;

The Visual Arts Center in Sioux Falls will have a new leader starting next month.

The Washington Pavilion announced Thursday that Jason Folkerts has accepted the position and will start on August 2.

Before joining the staff at the Washington Pavilion, Folkerts graduated from the University of Sioux Falls and worked as a youth pastor for 12 years. He is also a full-time artist and owns his own business that specializes in murals, cartooning, and live art.

Folkerts used to be the editorial cartoonist for the Argus Leader. He was relieved of his duties after a couple of local cartoonists made the newspaper aware that he may have plagiarized a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist. But the AL just couldn’t get enough of Jason’s work so they brought him back, until he was suspected a second time of plagiarizing another international cartoonist (who ironically was the president of an anti-plagiarizing organization). The AL relieved him permanently after that. (You can read all of Jason’s comments about the incident HERE in the comments section of this blog post).

Besides his lack of integrity when it comes to other artists creative property, what baffles me even more is that the Pavilion would hire an individual that doesn’t even have a degree in art, art management, etc. Heck, he doesn’t even have a degree in regular management or business, he is a youth pastor with a seminary degree.

Running a Visual Arts Center isn’t like running summer Bible Camp folks.

I have been told though that the qualifications for the position have been drastically changed since the last director left (it was also changed a little before she took the job).

The Pavilion management and board are apparently losing their freaking minds. There needs to be a National search for an ACTUAL art director with the experience to run such an important division of the Pavilion.

The city is tightening their belt? Fooled me.

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If you look at this week’s council meeting (Item #1 – Consent) and the business bid notices you would think the city is awash in money for play things.

As you may or may not know, the penny entertainment tax came about to help pay the bonds on the Pavilion and Convention Center. Once the bonds were paid off the city has decided to keep collecting the cash cow and they haven’t been shy about throwing millions at the Pavilion over the last couple of years. But what is even more puzzling is the $300K in lighting upgrades to a $117 million dollar building that is practically new. I have a feeling more and more there was a lot of ‘unfinished’ work to the EC to keep it under the price tag amount, including a half-ass siding job.

Remember when the city council recently approved a new snowcat groomer for Great Bear because they ‘might’ have to change a couple of hydraulics on the old one? Now they want new snowmakers. One portable snowmaker runs between $2,500-$12,000 each.

Funny how the mayor says he is tightening the city’s belt, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at these expenditures.

UPDATE: Washington Pavilion Annual Meeting

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UPDATE: So this is interesting. About 2 weeks ago someone told me that the Pavilion holds their Annual Meeting in June of each year (traditionally) usually the 3rd or 4th week of the month. So I get one of my city friends to ask one of their Pavilion friends. They confirmed it was today, but never got a time. My assumption was it would be at noon during a board meeting. I called the general information line yesterday to confirm a time, I told the operator I was looking for the time of the ‘Annual Meeting’. I was very clear that was the meeting I was looking for. He politely grabbed the schedule for today and said, “Yup, 8 AM, Belbas Theater”. While I found the time to be unusual, I stopped holding my breath about the way they do things at the Pavilion years ago.

This morning I showed up to the Belbas, and before the meeting started I noticed on the big screen that it was a meeting about radio protocols. Darrin Smith was there, so I asked him. “Isn’t this the annual meeting?” He said, “Oh no.” I asked if they have an annual meeting, he said, “Well, kinda.” I asked when it was? Darrin replies,  “We just kinda make one of our board meetings an annual meeting.” Then he offered to have lunch sometime.

Maybe lesson learned here is not to post about meetings before they have them? But trust me, I know the bigger lesson here.

A local economic impact study that actually shows us the numbers

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Of course, it did NOT come from city hall. That would go against their fierce opposition to transparency.

Findings reveal the non-profit arts and culture industry generates $104.5 million in total economic activity in the Sioux Falls area, supports 3,567 full-time equivalent jobs, generates $71.1 million in household income to local residents and generates $2.8 million in revenue to local government.

The Study found that on top of admission costs to events, arts and culture audiences spend an additional $30.35 per person per event. This figure is up from $21.57 reported in a similar study released in 2012. The effect of these dollars is felt throughout the local economy: organizations pay employees, purchase supplies, contract for services, and acquire assets within the community while audiences spend money locally on meals, hotel rooms, and gas, among other things. The ripple effect of arts and culture spending in Sioux Falls amounts to $84.8 million annually.

Add to this the $20.8 million spent by arts and cultural nonprofits themselves, the result is $105.4 million in cumulative economic activity in Sioux Falls.

What I found interesting is that while the Pavilion participated, SMG (Events Center) and the Convention Center did NOT. You would think that if both or either one participated, these numbers would look very different. But like I said already, that would require letting the public look at the books.

I have requested a full copy of the study.