There was a distinct echo Wednesday evening at City Hall.
It wasn’t throughout the building, just in the large conference room in the City Council suite.
“Before we convene a committee, we ought to have a unified vision among stakeholders,” said council President Greg Anderson. A group was gathered to discuss the future of Hemming Park and the nonprofit that has programmed and managed the venue since September 2014.
Friends of Hemming Park, led by CEO Vince Cavin and board of directors President Wayne Wood, received $1 million from the city for the first 18 months of operations.
The nonprofit received installments from the city based on reaching private fundraising benchmarks.
Discussion began two weeks ago when the Friends approached council seeking an additional $250,000 set aside in the 2015-16 general fund budget to finance the nonprofit’s operations through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Cavin said the Friends were out of money. He and Wood said if more funds were not transferred from the city, the group would suspend operations in the park by the end of this month.
Council President-elect Lori Boyer pointed out one of the assumptions behind the management contract was if a private entity took over the park, it would be a self-sustaining venture.
“The city would get it off the ground,” Boyer said, and then the group would finance operations through corporate sponsorships and donations.
That hasn’t happened.
In addition, the Friends are proposing the city continue to fund its operations at the level of $500,000 per year, beginning with the 2016-17 budget that will go into effect Oct. 1.
“It’s the city’s park. We feel the city should fund it at a level that’s sustainable,” said Wood. “We’d like to see a commitment from the city.”
Jim Bailey, board chair of the Downtown Investment Authority, said he’s impressed with the changes in the park, but questioned the nonprofit’s financial management.
He pointed out the Friends spent almost $1,000 for all-access passes to One Spark 2015 and wrote a $500 check for funeral expenses. Cavin said the money was a gift to the family of a staff member who was killed.
Bailey said he wants to better understand how the group spent the $1 million.
“We have to be able to afford what we’re doing. We can’t afford it the way it’s going,” said Bailey, publisher of the Daily Record.
Mayor Lenny Curry’s Chief of Staff Kerri Stewart said the park has come a long way, “but we’ve spent a lot of money to get it there.”
She said a question from the administration is “what does success look like and what does that cost?”
Referencing the contract with the Friends, Stewart said moving forward the terms of the agreement need to be “tightened.”
The management contract was executed before Curry took office. Chief Administrative Officer Sam Mousa said Wednesday he thinks if the city knew then what it now knows, the contract wouldn’t have happened.
“If the Friends of Hemming Park said they’d be back for additional cash every year, I don’t think you’d have entered into the agreement,” he said.
Mousa also said based on his experience in city government regarding private groups managing city parks, it should come as no surprise the Friends are asking for additional funds
“Every other facility we’ve done this way, they’ve come back for more money,” he said. “The bleeding never stops.”
Council approved on May 24 a transfer of $100,000 of the $250,000 appropriated for the Friends through Sept. 30.
Legislation has been filed to transfer the remainder, but that won’t happen until after the council auditor completes a study of the Friends’ financial records, which was ordered when the $100,000 transfer was approved.
“I’m not willing to take a position on the $150,000 until we hear from the auditors,” said Boyer.
Anderson said he’d schedule another meeting after the audit is complete, expected to be by June 30.
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