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8/24/2007
Does anybody out there care about this PAC stuff?
The PAC continues to weave stories – and I continue to wonder if there’s one soul in the community that’s going to call them on it.
I’ve said it over and over again. I love the PAC. We need it here; it absolutely cannot fail.
However, reveling in Lion King successes must not be allowed to cloud our thoughts about the financial picture over there.
The Post-Crescent lobbed a few softballs toward PAC President Susan Stockton this week via a few e-mailed questions meant to capture the spirit of Lion King and advertise the coming season (free of charge, the article and picture filling a whole page). To paraphrase Stockton, Lion King was wonderful, I’m a Tony voter and things are really really rosy at the PAC.
Well folks, I’ll raise my well-documented concerns once again. (Go to the “Search Our Site” box on this page and type in Performing Arts Center.) After asking the questions publicly, I was invited to talk with Stockton and her Vice Presidents of Finance and Communication. I was very specific in repeating requests for substantiation of claims that fundraising is going swimmingly. I was patronized then villainized and through it all remained polite but insistent. (I have the meeting tape if anyone is interested.) Despite my repeated requests, substantiation of questionable PAC fundraising claims, (claims repeated again in the recent Post-Crescent “interview”) was simply not forthcoming.
The meeting served only to confirm for me Stockton’s expectation of and the PAC’s need for $2 million in contributions every single year from this community. Over and above ticket sales, of course. That’s a lot of bucks for a community focusing so intently on basic human needs and economic self-sufficiency. Well, it’s a lot of bucks for any community this size, much less a community with a plethora of arts venues to support.
I learned also in that joyous encounter with the PAC big three that million dollar shortfalls in recent PAC budgets were funded with loans from funds contributed to pay for the building. Doesn’t that sound rosy?
And salaries and operating expenses. How about this for a tough question from the hometown circular:
Post-Crescent: "Occasionally, the Center will take some heat [i.e., from FoxPolitics.net] for the number of people in its administration – and their pay. What’s your response to those critics?"
Stockton: “Being good fiscal stewards of the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, thereby ensuring its long-term success, is one of our top priorities. To ensure this, we participate annually in a local wage and benefits survey, along with a regional and national industry survey. Based on the most recent survey results, our management team’s wages are 9% below industry averages.”
Poppy-cock. I’ll say it again. Show me. Local wage and benefits survey? What local non-profits pay their president $262,500? Regional and national industry survey? Are we being compared with Chicago, New York, or San Francisco? Show me. Just show me. Show the community. Show your donors. Show those paying $300 for a family of four to see a Broadway show. Just doggone show us the dang survey.
Just for the record, salaries plus deferred benefit payments, reported in tax records for highly paid employees, for the period ending June 30, 2006:
President, Susan Stockton $262,500
VP of Finance 108,768
VP of Communications 108,768
VP Facilities 109,000
Development Director 99,000
Does anybody else out there care about this stuff?
COMMENTS
Jo: I think a lot of people are wondering what is going on and the fact that you continue to shed light under the rock is refreshing. I agree that they seem to refuse to give the community actual data and are content to generalize information in their statements.
I know quite a few business people who contributed to the PAC who are not happy with the financial situation and that they are being asked to contribute to ongoing operations when they gave originally to construct the facility. They expected operations to be self-sufficient. Keep up the pressure. Others are listening!
Mike Thomas (Fri Aug 24 07:45:45 2007)
U GO JO!
Michael Bina (Fri Aug 24 07:53:01 2007)
I care about the PAC.
RE: Stockton and her salary. It is easily understandable that Stockton must be a person of special talent and judgment. She has to find appropriate shows for the PAC, and lobby to get them here. Yet, all leaders must have special talents.
Are the wages spent down there appropriate? I would like to see the local wage and benefits survey, along with a regional and national industry survey.
I agree with you Jo. Poppycock.
David (Fri Aug 24 7:58:07)
2x Bina's comment above!
Brian Murray (Fri Aug 24 09:09:34 2007)
Jo,
Thank you for your efforts in keeping the pressure on those responsible for the PAC's finances. I too love the PAC and have suppported it from the beginning. Before I contribute any more, I will confront them with the issues you have been pursuing. Maybe if more of the community will do this, we could get their attention.
Barbara Boudry (Fri Aug 24 09:09:44 2007)
Keep it up Jo...there are many of us out here paying attention. I don't understand why all aspects of the PAC finances, operations, and fund raising aren't made public...on a regular basis...for all of us to see. Where is that young, hungry Post Crescent reporter who wants to do an investigative piece?
Pete (Fri Aug 24 09:49:14 2007)
Does anybody else out there care about this stuff?
Yes and no. I've only been there once - and that was for President Bush's speech before the last election.
I'm interested in this statement
I’ve said it over and over again. I love the PAC. We need it here; it absolutely cannot fail.
We need it here - why?
Background: I moved to the Valley just as they were finishing the PAC - it was pretty much the first thing I saw downtown when I drove in from the airport. So I've never not known Appleton without the PAC.
Perhaps this isn't any of my business - I live in Neenah. Is any of my tax money paying for this? If 'yes' then I'm not comfortable paying for a facility that should support itself.
We need it because we appreciate the exposure to world-class performance art. We need it as an attraction for professionals and families considering a move to the Fox Valley. We need it as one more mind opener for all who will avail themselves of it. People who stay in Neenah hotels/motels pay an extra 2% tax which is used to pay one of the loans for the building (an $8.3M loan). People who stay in Appleton hotels/motels pay the same 2% plus another 1% that goes toward annual operations and maintenance of the facility. JE
Brian (Fri Aug 24 10:20:23 2007)
Thank you, Jo, for keeping the questions coming regarding the PAC. The interview in the PC made me gag. The Board of the PAC owes this community more transparency and less arrogance if they want to develop loyalty in this community. As for the Post Crescent, they continue on their dumbed down path. For the interviewer to not ask a follow up question pertaining to the $600K in executive salaries at a non-profit shows pure laziness. He obviously did no research in that area in preparation for the interview.
pk (Fri Aug 24 10:36:14 2007)
Keep asking the questions, Jo, and keep publishing the answers. It is a fine community resource but it has to be able to pay its way at some point.
The Lion King is a good coffer-filler but are there enough profits in the 600 count crowds for a Tuesday night in February to keep the heat turned on.
Don't let the PAC fail because no one was watching until it was too late.
"Coffer-filler" is questionable. I'm was thrilled about the Lion King sellout crowds, very pleased we here in the Fox Valley were able to host such a world-class production. The catch is our contract that provides the PAC with rent from the Broadway series production companies, and a percentage of product and beverage sales. But that's about it. We don't suffer losses from less successful productions and from the way I understand it, we don't gain much from the rousing successes either. JE
grumps (Fri Aug 24 11:10:40 2007)
I'm still paying off my credit card that I used to buy Lion King tickets for my family! Now I see why tickets are so expensive with salaries like that!
As for The Post Crescent, all they are after now is to sell papers to increase their profits.
Scott (Fri Aug 24 12:25:43 2007)
Thanks for your diligence, Jo! I'm a complete supporter of the PAC. I love that it's here. I love having such a wonderful facility with such a great slate of entertainment, without having to travel to Milwaukee or Minneapolis to see them. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to see 'Lion King' or 'Spamalot' or other big touring productions without making a big, expensive weekend out of it. I also like the PAC's proximity to downtown entertainment and businesses. That's something the Weidner can't boast and probably one nail in its coffin ultimately.
Be that as it may, we have a tremendous investment community-wide in its continuted success and holding its leaders' feet to the fire is absolutely vital. Thanks for consistently banging that drum. Anyone who truly values having a world-class facility like the PAC in their community (and all the potential benefits that come with it) should be interested in seeing it be successful. Neglect it and it will just become another Weidner. It's our responsibility and I, for one, take it very seriously.
Wow. All really well said. Thanks. JE
Mark (Fri Aug 24 12:27:31 2007)
I agree completely that the PAC salaries are way out of line. Has anyone checked out the salaries for the talented people running the revitalized Weidner Center in Green Bay? They're doing a super job on salaries at least 50% less than Appleton's PAC. Is the cost of living in Green Bay that much less than Appleton?
Mimi (Fri Aug 24 13:58:17 2007)
You wrote "We need it because we appreciate the exposure to world-class performance art. We need it as an attraction for professionals and families considering a move to the Fox Valley. We need it as one more mind opener for all who will avail themselves of it."
Speaking only for myself, my choice of moving here was motivated only by this: relocate to the Valley and keep my job or stay in Texas and look for a new one.
Having a PAC did not even enter into it.
There is also this. In Dallas my wife and I would go to all kinds of interesting events - foreign films, plays, etc. They were never held in a huge PAC but small art houses and performance spaces. I simply could not see paying that much money for tickets. This is still true.
Interesting points. Wouldn't an Indy and/or Foreign Film house be great? JE
Brian (Fri Aug 24 14:27:25 2007)
Jo, I hope you are heartened as I am by the above replies, scant though they may be.(There will never be enough!) Please be encouraged that your consistent, sincere and forthright pleadings for the same in PAC response are not going unheard or unread. As your readers have said please keep the drumbeat beating. Someday (I wonder when) this PAC place will come to understand its community and enjoy sharing with it. The PC interview was a farce.
Thanks for your thoughts Lee. The key is transparency. I want to be a questioner, a bit of a skeptic. But surely don't want to be a perpetual whiner! I just don't understand why the PAC can't be more open in its dealing with its community, as you say. JE
lee (Fri Aug 24 15:39:35 2007)
I'd like to pick up on the arrogance point mentioned above (and I hope the discussion continues!).
Arrogance has taken the form of not answering any criticisms of this place (PAC).
Arrogance (in my judgment of values) has brought light weight television class entertainment to a facility for fine arts in the form of adaptations of cartoons.
Arrogance is a top-heavy management under the guise of a non-profit-- a non profit which can inflate salaries by dictate and fiat.
Arrogance is a faux class conscious calculation of 'what the traffic can bear' and what the public will pay for as 'art'.
Arrogance is the assumption that current management is so well ensconced that they can sign ten year contracts (ClearChannel) with providers that carefully control their content,
performers and distribution.
The arrogance litany could go on.
But community review, not whining about what is wrong or how this arrogance could take hold in a community like Appleton, is needed.
How would the public protest take place? I'd be a sign holder in such a group.
Something like "take back the PAC" should be a good message to start with.
Community review. Financial transparency. Answering questions clearly and succinctly, with supporting documents. Some would say it's a private entity and it's none of our business. But I'm with you. JE
Lon Ponschock (Fri Aug 24 14:43:19 2007)
With salaries that high, I'm sure they must be donating to the PAC at the highest annual levels...right?
Good point. Hmmm. JE
cb (Fri Aug 24 20:14:32 2007)
Not so much an additional comment but a comment to your comment....
I definitely think an arthouse theater would do bangup business here. Especially how infrequently good independent films come here. That's why we started a satellite site to Fox Cities Blog all about movies. I'm trying to keep an eye out in the Fox Cities/Green Bay market so when good little films do make it our way, people can know about it.
If I had the business sense (and the money), I'd open an arthouse theater akin to the Rosebud Cinema Drafthouse in West Allis or even the Oriental in Milwaukee. If any community needs one, it's ours!
Have a great weekend!
~Mark
FoxCitiesFlicks.com
It would be great! Will you be making time for a few treks to Milwaukee during the Milw. Intern'l Film Festival, Sept. 20-30? (Shep. Exp. has all the news.) JE
Mark (Fri Aug 24 22:54:03 2007)
Jo wrote "Wouldn't an Indy and/or Foreign Film house be great? JE"
It would be great but .. is there enough of a market to pay for one?
I am no expert, but I expect the answer is 'no'.
Yup, I agree. For now, we'll settle for September's Milwaukee International Film Festival... JE
Brian (Mon Aug 27 08:08:25 2007)
Jo, You have taken a very complicated topic and interpreted it exceedingly well for those of us not in the industry. As a community citizen, it is extremely frustrating that we don't have free access to the information from the PAC itself, but I have found that Guidestar.org is a good source of financial information. I hope folks take it upon themselves to learn more about how the PAC operates and how it compares to other performance centers. I hope the PAC staff and board members realize - sooner rather than later - that this smoke and mirrors approach will eventually blow up in their faces. Better to come clean now.
hn (Mon Aug 27 13:02:01 2007)
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