Arts Centre Emails Reveal Strongarm Tactics, As Council Bends To Funding Demands
Emails between Arts Centre Director, Philip Aldridge and council, reveal for the first time some of the tactics the Centre used to pressure council to provide funding.
“Presumably the thinking is that it will keep down the rates increase and if there is a loud enough objection from the public in the consultation (which we will of course encourage) then Councillors can say ‘we listened and so the rates had to go up’ .”
Source: Christchurch City Council website
These words come from Philip Aldridge, the Arts Centre Director, in an email sent on 1 February to councillor Sam McDonald (above). They could also be seen as a harbinger of this week’s news the council could approve an aid package to the beleaguered city icon.
Asked about this email and the wider trove, Sam McDonald wrote that the -
“…only comment I can make is “We have received a significant number of emails regarding the Art Centre. Mr Aldridge is certainly entitled to contact me like anyone else. The important thing for me is that the Art Centre are able to sort out their operating model so that they are sustainable going forward.”
But the council email trove reveals an intimate picture of the lengths Aldridge went to to swing council funding its way, when other community organisations have been asking for council handouts to stay afloat.
A senior councillor has even gone so far as to admonish the Arts Centre, twice comparing its actions to those of a “bully”.
The Chair and I will therefore be recommending to the Trustees that we initiate the dissolution of the Trust. There seems little point in running a disruptive, divisive public campaign during the consultation period where we will unsettle the public, the staff and the tenants.
Philip Aldridge
But emails show Aldridge threatened Mayor Phil Mauger with a high-profile public campaign, after learning funding to the tune of $1.8 million per year had not been included in the council’s draft 10-year plan.
The day after Aldridge emailed McDonald, he wrote to the councillors and mayor, indicating that without the funding the trust would be wound up, with the city bearing the financial brunt of running the international icon.
With council set to adopt the draft plan on 14 February, Aldridge lobbied individual councillors, seeking coffee and one-to-one meetings. On 2 February, he sought a meeting with Mayor Mauger and staff.
“Dear Mary and Phil,
I write on behalf of the Trust Chair, Murray Dickinson and myself, as Director of the Trust. We have had more feedback from Council and understand that the Draft Plan cannot be altered at this stage to include funding of $1.8m per annum for The Arts Centre.
The Chair and I will therefore be recommending to the Trustees that we initiate the dissolution of the Trust. There seems little point in running a disruptive, divisive public campaign during the consultation period where we will unsettle the public, the staff and the tenants.
Given the trajectory of deficits at The Arts Centre, having minimised expenses and maximised income the trustees have little choice.
We would prefer to work with you to facilitate a calm, orderly hand-over to the new owner, which as you know will in all probability be the Council. There appears to be no other candidate.
The process of hand-over will undoubtedly take many months and by initiating the process now we at least gain five months before the LTP is published.
Before we take this decision we would like to meet you make sure that our understanding of the position is correct. Could we please meet, if only for 10 minutes, at some point next week (excepting Thursday when Murray is out of town).
With best wishes,”
By 5 February, with no word of a meeting, he wrote a second email. The tone had changed.
“We will seek to work with you to facilitate an orderly handover. I’m trying to focus on the positives of all this – we won’t have to have a public campaign, we won’t unduly unnerve staff and the tenants and we won’t have the disruption of having to make our case every three years. The public mostly seem to think that we are owned by Council anyway, so perhaps it is a better model. Before we initiate anything I have sought an urgent meeting with the Mayor and the Chief Executive to make sure our understanding is correct.”
On Monday, 12 February, Mauger and acting-Chief Executive Mary Richardson met with Aldridge. The meeting did not go well for him.
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