Source: Rhino Times Greensboro

Music Hall Already Has Hidden Costs

by Alex Jakubsen

September 27, 2012

Far from open and transparent, the Greensboro Performing Arts Center (GPAC) Task Force is chock full of secrets.

The task force refuses to reveal how much the paid coordinator, Ross Harris – who last year was Mayor Robbie Perkins’ campaign manager – is paid, and the city claims not to know how much time city staff is spending working with the task force other than the hours spent at meetings and recorded in the minutes.

Despite the fact that the city has given the task force nearly $250,000 to finance its activities and has assigned city staff to several of its subcommittees, the city has not been keeping track of the man-hours that staff has invested in task force-related activities so that a more accurate estimate of the total cost to the city would be made available.

The city spent an additional $50,000 or so through the Greensboro Coliseum for plans presented at a City Council meeting by Coliseum Manager Matt Brown.

Greensboro Communications Director Donnie Turlington, who himself co-chairs a task force committee, said that the best estimate of city man-hours expended on the task force to date is 26.75 hours, based only on a review of meeting minutes.

Turlington also stated that the city has no intention of keeping track of staff man-hours as the task force moves forward, saying the work is considered a regular assignment for staff.

The other members of the GPAC Task Force are volunteers, and if city staff members are assigned to committees as part of their jobs, as Turlington said, they aren’t volunteers.

Although in the first phase of task force work city staff mainly served as advisors to task force committees, a new charge from the Greensboro City Council has placed staff members in leadership roles on four of the six task force subcommittees. The purpose of the change is to allow the city staff to be more involved with the committee as it pins down a more concrete and detailed proposal for the GPAC according Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth.

Roth had an ex-officio position on the Advisory Committee in Phase I, which met five times between April and June. However, it appears that Roth was absent from most of the meetings.

Roth is now an advisory committee member for Phase II. The Phase II advisory committee met on August 20 and is scheduled to meet three more times before the end of December. Roth was not present at the August 20 meeting.

Greensboro Director of Engineering and Inspections Butch Simmons serves as a co-chair of the task force Building Committee, along with Greensboro College President Larry Czarda. The committee is responsible for working with consultants to determine a site for the proposed GPAC and develop a site plan.

Simmons presented maps and charts at the Sept. 13 meeting. The committee has two more meetings planned for Sept. 24 and Nov. 5, and a three-day design charrette Oct. 16 through Oct. 18. The charrette is intended to be an open discussion process between consultants, the city and the public to explore and determine a site and basic design for the GPAC.

The Operating Model Committee, which is charged with determining how the facility should be operated to bring in revenue, is co-chaired by Greensboro Assistant City Manager Andy Scott and Reid Phillips, an attorney with Brooks Pierce. Councilmembers Nancy Vaughan and Trudy Wade also sit on this committee, which met Sept. 24.

The Financing Options Committee is co-chaired by Greensboro Director of Financial and Administrative Services Rick Lusk and Greensboro attorney Lewis Cheek. The committee is responsible for exploring options for funding the GPAC project.

The current financing model involves a $20 million dollar bond referendum, but the financing committee is intended to “broaden the discussion,” although the City Council is still considering holding a special spring election for the proposed $20 million bond referendum.

There is also talk of paying for the GPAC with a sales tax, a portion of which would also go to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, Triad Stage and the Carolina Theatre.

The Financing Options Committee met on Sept. 6 and is scheduled to meet three more times. Councilmembers Zack Matheny and Dianne Bellamy-Small sit on that committee.

The Greensboro communications manager is a co-chair of the Outreach and Advocacy/Marketing Committee along with Community Relations Manager Donna Gray and advisor to the nonprofit Greensboro Neighborhood Congress Donna Newton.

The committee has had five meetings between August 14 and Sept. 13. Turlington estimated his own involvement with the committee comprises between five and six man-hours. The committee is scheduled to meet 10 more times.