On Tuesday, the Council had a long discussion on hiring a consultant to review the AMS model for the Overture. They had previous rejected the same proposal. During the meeting there were doubts about the consultant. Here, we finally hear from the consultant.
The vote was for $25K plus $1000 travel expenses for one trip to Madison to do a presentation on the report, the other would be prior to that to see the center and visit Madison. There were concerns about what ties he might have to Madison and Schumacher and Bruer alluded to the fact that he might have ties to Madison that they were not aware of. Bidar-Sielaff promised that if he came to Madison, she would make sure that he only worked with the council and she kept an eye on him the whole time he was here.
Anyways, here’s what we hear from the consultant:
From: jundercofler@
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 12:43 PM
To: Cnare, Lauren; Bidar-Sielaff, Shiva
Subject: My Work for the CouncilDear Lauren and Shiva — and Members of the Council,
I thought it a good idea to lay out some parameters of my work, and to respond to some Alders’ concerns expressed on Tuesday evening (I was able to watch most of the proceedings live).
Here are some points:
I work for the Common Council, no other body. I am not working to find a political solution to the issues at hand. I am giving the Council an unbiased opinion. My opinion will be based on the following inputs: all historical documents, proceedings, and information available; interviews with key stakeholders; benchmarking of data against similar arts centers, as well as Madison-based organizations; and my personal experience and expertise.
I have 2 sub-contractors working for me. One is currently one of the Vice Presidents of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. He was ‘my’ VP for Marketing at the Philadelphia Orchestra and is, in my opinion, the best marketing/revenue guy in the business, with over 25 years experience. He will be doing the analysis of ticket sales and of the marketing staff design. The other sub-contractor is for fund raising. She was ‘my’ development director at the Eastman School of Music, where I was dean. She is by far the best development professional I have ever known, and has already given me remarkable insight into the AMS Focus model.
I plan to deliver my report to you in chapters. The first will be Governance/Management and Performance Standards. After hearing Alders’ concerns on these topics, and reading the editorial in yesterday’s paper, I believe this chapter needs to be first. I will deliver it next week, mid-week.
I do not believe it is a good idea for me to visit Madison twice. It’s absolutely essential that I maintain apparent objectivity. Yes, I will surely be objective, no matter what, but if I am seen dining and being hosted by members of 201 State or Overture Center, I believe my apparent objectivity could be questioned, and the hearing on November 30 could be tainted. I am fully confident that I have access to the information, people and benchmarking I need to give you an excellent report. I was especially influenced by comments by Alders Bruer and Pham-Remmele about this issue of apparent objectivity. I will be in Madison starting on Monday afternoon, November 29, and all day the 30th. I will be open then to meetings with Alders, or for meetings set up by Alders.
From now until November 29, I am available for phone calls, or email exchanges with any member of the Council. Please have them contact me directly. If I am overwhelmed with phone calls, I will let you know (!).
My best, Jim Undercofler
25K to hire another expert who will determine the 150K report is bogus. Anyone with common sense know that you can do very little to cut energy costs in an efficiently designed building…An the proposal here is that it will happen year after year. Would be that mother nature were so helpful…
The are holes in the AMS report so filled with holes you can drive a truck through them. Remember, this was the same consulting fire that at great cost prepared the initial operating pro-forma and we know how accurate that one was.