Earlier this week, I wrote about what City Stages meant to me but it's becoming painfully evident that while City Stages started out as a great cultural event, the festival devolved into nothing more than a confidence scam the likes of which Bernie Madoff or Tony Soprano would be proud.
Organizers (accountable to no one but themselves) released a statement Thursday that the festival would not continue, blaming factors like the poor economy, the weather, nearly everything and everyone but themselves for City Stages' demise.
Not only did the organizers declare their Foundation no longer exists and ride off into the sunset with their bags of cash, they gave everybody the finger on their way out the door.
City Stages bounced checks to some vendors, stiffed others like the Bottletree Cafe and cleaned out the festival offices before this year's festival even started. I have a sneaking suspicion though that founder/chairman George McMillan got every penny of the exorbitant sum he paid himself every year to run the event.
Although McMillan's "salary" was a reasonable $20,000, McMillan and his company took home between $150,000 and $200,000 a year from City Stages, whether it was a success or failure, met its budget or sailed into vast debt.
Not included in McMillan's salary: his $83,575 expense account, his company's fee for managing food vendors, and the 15 percent commission his company received on all sponsorship money. The festival's tax documents show that commission totaling $78,995 in 2005 and $74,525 in 2006. His total take in 2006 was $188,925, and that was the year the festival's debt skyrocketed to nearly $900,000.
So I believe McMillan when he says he really tried hard to keep the festival afloat. I hope I can someday get paid that much to perform horribly at my job.
But forgive me if I'm not crying for George, who managed to seem genuinely disappointed that residents of Birmingham wouldn't buy tickets solely out of habit and the City Council was beginning to balk at handing him a blank check whenever he asked for one. McMillan released numerous statements about how he hoped the people and City Council of Birmingham would support this festival.
Nevermind the fact that festival organizers treated the public like drug addicts, getting us hooked on the good stuff at cheap prices in the festival's first 10 years, then charging us more and more money for lineups that weren't nearly as good. Not surprisingly, attendance dropped and City Stages was dragged further into debt. This strategy I'll chalk up to simple incompetence as opposed to intentional grift.
At this point the festival was in trouble, but could have been saved. In fact, though the details are sketchy, apparently fund raisers and some benefit concerts rescued City Stages from a nearly $900,000 debt after the 2006 festival to a much more manageable $60,000 debt.
But George is right, the people of Birmingham really let the festival down...
Despite this brush with financial solvency, City Stages was in the
hole again heading into 2008, and turned to another source for a
handout: the City Council.
The city forked over $700,000 in 2008 to keep the festival afloat, and this year gave $550,000, $250,000 of which McMillan demanded just three days before the start of the festival.
That makes you wonder. McMillan demands a quarter of a million dollars in taxpayer money on Tuesday, gets it on Thursday, and his "non-profit" Foundation's offices are cleared out on Friday, before City Stages 2009 started. That's curious.
Like any good con man, McMillan knew the game was up. He'd bled the residents and taxpayers dry for more than 20 years of ticket fees, sponsorship commissions, salary, tax-free gifts from the City Council, fund-raising events and benefit concerts. He played every card in his hand to guilt trip the city into coughing up more money with no accountability and the public into buying more tickets just because it was City Stages. It was time to fold up the tents and get out of Dodge.
People were asking questions. People like City Council President Carole Smitherman, who, according to The Birmingham News "called for full disclosure of the festival's financial situation, including organizers' salaries."
Ouch. That probably wouldn't end well for McMillan. Better to just close up shop and call it a career.
"This is something I have fought strenuously to preserve for this community, under enormous pressure for the past 11 years," McMillan told The News, in that same story. "I wish the festival had ended this weekend and made its budget goals. In that case, I feel we could have managed the prior debt and continued."
Right. Except for the whole emptying out the offices on Friday part. McMillan knew what was coming and now just has one thing to worry about: potential legal battles from his goose that laid him 21 golden eggs. I won't cry if there's a thorough investigation by somebody.
Random other things about McMillan's management that make me sick:
1. The Foundation's tax documents and mission statement mention charitable donations to benefit school music programs. The total amount donated in 2006 to such scholarships: $3,229. McMillan's take that year: $188,925.
2. Festival vice president and marketing director Guy McCullough hired his own firm, McCullough Advertising, to promote City Stages at a cost of $85,000 in 2006. I'm sure he thoroughly monitored himself every year to ensure that he made the most out of his money. Or something like that.
3. The unknown. I've been able to discover these examples of greed, cronyism and deception using just a MacBook and Google. I'm a sports reporter by trade. This isn't my specialty. God knows what a thorough examination of City Stages' books might turn up.
