Open Letter to Bill Henry #2

After a heated email exchange today in which Bill Henry asked Tom Kiefaber for access to The Senator's listserv for a response, which he wanted Tom to agree to before even seeing the response, Tom just sent out another open letter to Bill through The Senator's listserv. I'll make no bones about it. I agree with Tom.

July 7, 2009

Dear Councilman Henry:

I received your response to my July 5th open letter, and your request for unfettered access to our entire email list serve in order to respond.

The blunt answer to your inquiry is no.

As my earlier letter stated, there are increasing concerns emerging among your constituents and the city and county communities surrounding the theatre and Belvedere Square over the upcoming public auction of The Senator on 7/22, and its aftermath.

The message "BILL HENRY WON'T MEET WITH THE COMMUNITY ABOUT THE AUCTION" on the front of the Senator's marquee was pointedly displayed to alert the public of your ongoing refusal to agree to meet at The Senator with the community and discuss what's taking place. The Senator's marquee also expresses a related community sentiment that reads: "THE CITY'S AUCTION OF THE SENATOR IS RUSSIAN ROULETTE OR A RIGGED SHAM".

The historic theatre's marquee is one of the few active channels with the public we have left as The Senator is headed to a little known, barely understood and potentially disastrous city public auction in two weeks time. It's an alarming situation that has apparently sent you and your associates to ground and it appears that you're simply dodging the crucial issues and running out the clock, while demanding that the critical marquee message be removed immediately.

Beyond the marquee, The Senator's extensive e-mail list serve is our most effective method to disseminate information and communicate laterally to a large recipient base nationwide. You and your colleagues at the city and the BDC are not hindered in this way and you have readily utilized the local media in ways that have served to undermine my credibility and confuse the public, but have unfortunately not defused a needlessly explosive situation at The Senator Theatre.

As our sole 4th district City Council representative and our self-appointed single community representative that participated in the private Senator Theatre steering committee discussions and deliberations, you've represented the city's position in this matter. Until recently when conflicts of interest and inconsistencies became apparent, you cheerfully assured the public through regular media appearances that the city's upcoming auction of The Senator was a well though out and necessary step on the way to save Baltimore's irreplaceable landmark theatre.

Until just a few weeks ago you were the city's high-profile point person representing the position of the BDC and the mayor's office and making effective use of the media to calm and reassure the public that the rapidly upcoming public auction was a necessity and that good things would result for the community.

You've been an enthusiastic advocate through the media and in public and private meetings across North Baltimore for the city's position regarding a Byzantine plan concocted by Deputy Mayor Andrew Frank and the BDC. The mantra repeated to the media and the community was that the outcome of the city's public auction was under control. You regularly assured all concerned that the city was going to soon own the theatre and you and the city will control the process of choosing the new owner or tenant to fulfill your personal commitment and your desire to "save The Senator" on behalf of the community.

In your talking points throughout this period, your mentions of the problematic and pivotal public auction were all minimized or skipped. As a result, the public's perception is that The Senator is already owned by the city and that select members of the community will determine what to do with it. In that context, you have also gone as far as to publicly reference Buzz Cusack's avowed interest in owning the theatre, perhaps with a BDC encouraged purchase of the iconic landmark Senator Theatre and it adjacent cafe space, subsidized by the city and the seizure of my residential Orkney Road property.

You were also one of the key Steering Committee members identified to the community, who endorsed the report's misguided assessment that no one will outbid the city's 950K position at public auction. The related conclusion by the committee is that therefore The Senator Theatre cannot become a non-profit facility, because it would require ongoing subsidy by the city, yet you are also well aware that the local consultants you steered our way in 2008 determined along with the community that historic facilities with the attributes of the renowned Senator Theatre are readily capable of achieving sustained funding without requiring the city to continue to foot the bill once the theatre achieves non-profit ownership status.

There are alarming contradictory factors and conflicting agendas inherent in the overall situation that need to be faced head-on and clarified now before the upcoming auction takes place. In this light, we feel strongly that you have a compelling and immediate need to demonstrate your political leadership and we again call for you to meet at The Senator and respond to a variety of concerns raised at an open and transparent public meeting. To continue to dissemble and decline the request in the face of what is unfolding is grossly irresponsible.

After 70 years of community-based family ownership, the crucial determination of what The Senator will become has been effectively taken from my family's guidance and the community's mandate for its future. It's probably headed out from under the city's control as well, in a risky game with potentially dire downside consequences for all concerned. This is unacceptable.

It's apparent behind-the-scenes that the city's murky, convoluted plan to utilize an extremely risky public auction process to eliminate the state's lien and acquire ownership of The Senator on the cheap has too many unethical goals. It has now jumped the tracks and is headed to the cliffs at high speed. After the auction, if it takes place, the result will in all probability be sadly headed through the courts, in a drawn out, slow motion process.

Under these circumstances, rather than posture and seek access to our list serve to possibly obfuscate the situation and delay the public's recognition of what may occur and what's at stake, we implore you drop the artifice and agree to meet as soon as possible at The Senator with the public.

You frankly appear to be hiding from your constituents and a confused general public regarding what they need and deserve to know immediately before the final gavel comes down at The Senator. It's currently a bungled and mercurial situation, Councilman Henry, and the city's miscalculated efforts to control the outcome have backfired, and now things are spinning out of control. This is not the time to run for high ground in your district.

Weeks ago you completed a mission to lull the public into complacency with what are turning out to be inaccurate and false assumptions. It's now an 11th hour turning point in The Senator's rich history, and you will hopefully rise the occasion and demonstrate your leadership by responding to concerns and providing straightforward reckoning of what's at stake, and where you stand. In Andy Frank's absence, Mayor Dixon needs to address these issues as well while timely opportunities remain to avert a disaster.

You have not supported the extended community's enlightened mandate for The Senator Theatre, in collaboration with non-profit historic theatre professionals and the city and state economic development representatives, to transition to not for profit ownership as so many other cities and communities have done successfully with their historic theatres nationwide. That's what you and The Mayor's constituents and The Senator Theatre deserve, not the rapidly approaching circus spectacle of an already tainted and risky public auction.

Sincerely,

Tom Kiefaber
The Senator Theatre

An Open Letter to Councilman Henry from Tom Kiefaber at The Senator

The Senator's listserv just sent the following open letter to Bill Henry, which I'll paste in after my own comment.

From my personal perspective, if Bill Henry wants to show his good faith with regard to The Senator, he could make sure the city stops spraying massive amounts of water all over The Senator's roof and marquee from their temporary pipes along Rosebank Avenue FOR THE SECOND TIME IN ABOUT A MONTH. I took video of this today, which I'll probably put up on YouTube at some point.

Coincidentally, the water started spraying all over the marquee soon after Bill Henry had his little chat on the phone with Tom Kiefaber that is described in the open letter, but I suppose it's just my own paranoia to think the two might possibly be connected. Just to be clear, I'm going to point out that Tom K actually laughed at me when I suggested to him that the two might be connected, so it's definitely only me that thinks so.

UPDATE: Gayle at The Senator called the city and someone came out and said they couldn't fix it because it was contracted out, but noted that it was the second time it had happened in the same place. Somebody put a large orange plastic object used for diverting traffic on it, which does have the effect of at least keeping the water from spraying up in the air. When I arrived at the theatre a few minutes ago, a guy in an orange vest was at least working in the general vicinity. Now Gayle just reported it's shut off.

Well, enough about the mysterious spraying water. Here's the open letter from The Senator's listserv:

July 6, 2009

Dear Councilman Henry:

I was hoping that your call today was for the purpose of discussing the alarming upcoming city auction of The Senator Theatre and the BDC's misguided Russian roulette approach to the theatre's uncertain future.

While I understand your concern over the marquee message currently displayed at The Senator, our assertion that you have declined to date to address the murky situation in an open and transparent manner is the truth. If it hurts to see the truth displayed on The Senator's marquee, then do something about it beyond simply ordering it to be removed.

Your stance of avoidance in refusing to agree to meet at The Senator with your constituents and other concerned citizens is unacceptable. Running out the clock and ducking the issue at this juncture is a dangerous and irresponsible course of action. It's not how you represented yourself to the community to obtain office.

We sincerely feel that your representation of your constituents regarding The Senator Theatre and its uncertain future has been abysmal to date. Aligning with the BDC and The Mayor's Office and overtly shilling for their potentially disastrous, disingenuous approach, rather than responding to community and constituent concerns over this matter, does not reflect your avowed platform and values when you requested our support.

In response to your specific request, The Senator's marquee once prominently displayed "ELECT BILL HENRY", in the largest font possible. We agreed to display that message to all concerned in good faith, based on your words and promises to the voters and to us. Your subsequent actions however, have proven otherwise. What counts with us is your actions and not your words, and as a result we have come to regret our past support of your candidacy.

Ducking the last pivotal town hall meeting over The Senator Theatre crisis called by Senator Joan Conway, while choosing to take calls from the town meeting perched on a barstool at Zen West, did not go unnoticed. Neither did your celebration with the Mayor's office insiders and BDC representatives at Zen West immediately following the town meeting you were too busy to attend.

I note this behavior because from our perspective it's indicative of the cavalier manner that you have been conducting yourself throughout this crisis regarding The Senator Theatre and its perilous future.

Enough is enough.

As a result, we will not acquiesce to your demands to remove the critical message on our marquee, which from our perspective reflects a growing understanding of your allegiance to others and not to the community. It tells it like it is.

It is also unfortunate that you still refuse to meet with the community at The Senator Theatre, despite our standing offer to schedule a timely gathering with your constituents, based around your busy schedule.

Please also note that our refusal to remove the message displaying your name from our marquee does not justify hanging up abruptly. It's counter productive to an expeditious resolution of the critical issues at hand.

Emotions aside, we look forward to working with you and representatives from the city to explore timely alternatives to the city's auction, alternatives that will avert the unacceptable risks the auction represents. Your leadership is sorely needed to help fulfill the mandate formed in the past two years among our extended North Baltimore communities to ensure that The Senator makes the critical transition to not-for-profit ownership.

Not-for-profit ownership of The Senator is the community's mandate that has been achieved in scores of other communities nationwide to preserve, protect and enhance the uses of their beloved historic theatres. It's a mandate that can and should take place at The Senator Theatre.

The "cliffhanger" situation at The Senator Theatre can still have a happy ending, and we encourage you to meet with the community and recognize the wisdom of this approach before it's too late.

Sincerely,

Tom Kiefaber

The City's Auction is Russian Roulette or a Rigged Sham!

The folks at The Senator tell it like it is.

Here's The Senator's marquee as of last night...





With a public challenge like this, will Bill Henry be able to continue to run out the clock on the auction without meeting with the community?

Don't forget to listen to the Anthony McCarthy Show on WEAA 88.9 FM this evening from 6 PM to 7 PM, when I'm sure Tom Kiefaber will comment on this and more.

No, this post isn't what Adam Meister of Examiner.com was hinting about yesterday. That's still to come. Stay tuned!

And, The Senator is having another block party this weekend, so we can finish up the painting of the sidewalk blocks. There's still a lot to be done. We had a blast painting the blocks last weekend. A lot of great volunteers came out and there was music and drumming and a good, creative time was had by all. Stop by anytime on Saturday or Sunday from about noon 'til dusk. Wear something you don't mind getting oil-based paint and turpentine on.

Just because I had to share...

I'm looking forward to hearing Tom Kiefaber get a bit more of the true story out there on the Anthony McCarthy Show on Friday. The media coverage has been so dismal on The Senator generally, with a lot of misinformation out there, but I know last time Tom went on the Anthony McCarthy Show it was really informative. The show will be on WEAA FM 88.9 and Tom will be on from 6 PM to 7 PM on Friday.

If you missed the recent interview with Tom Kiefaber on the Tom Marr show, you really should hear it. (Direct link to MP3 file.) Again, very informative, but there was a question or two that Tom K couldn't answer, such as why Bill Henry believes the city will control The Senator's future through an RFP process after the auction, and how he knows it won't become a church. He's been making those claims, but nobody understands how he can be so sure about the outcome of the public auction on July 21.

I know Tom Marr has invited Bill to be on the show and explain. Bill couldn't make it on Monday, which was the initial invitation date, due to an emergency community meeting. I understand that, and of course it was important for him to be at that meeting. I believe the invitation to be on the show still stands, though, so I hope Bill Henry will take Tom Marr up on his invitation soon.

Anyway, if you get a chance to hear Tom Kiefaber on either radio show, you'll understand the situation better. Tom has been the owner of The Senator for the past 20 years, and knows better than anyone what is really going on here. At times I think he has been reluctant to speak openly for fear of repercussions, but it seems like he's beginning to speak a bit more freely now.

Further Thoughts on The Senator's Conversion (Pun Intended)

Well, now that it seems Baltimore City officials have placed The Senator firmly on the track toward becoming an evangelical mega-church, how are they trying to undo the damage? By promising retribution after the fact.

The BDC's Kim Clark and 4th District Councilman Bill Henry recently threatened to control the situation by taking away The Senator's parking.

But she and Henry noted a deterrent to a congregation could be an existing agreement that allows for use of the parking lot across the street from the Senator only if the property remains in use as a theater.

Oh yeah. That's going to work real well (NOT!) --- let a church buy The Senator at auction and then try to take away their parking. This kind of meddling in a property owner's affairs may have worked to some extent to harass current Senator owner Tom Kiefaber, but do these city politicians really want to take on a whole congregation of churchgoers? Talk about a political landmine!

And what happens when the pastor realizes he can probably sue Baltimore City over constitutional issues related to church/state separation and remove ANY controls they try to put on use of The Senator, including the city's recent interior landmark designation?

But at least Bill Henry gave some insight into the city's thinking on this issue when, at a recent public meeting, he indicated the way they'd take away The Senator's parking is by making a deal with the owner of the Staples parking lot (currently also The Senator's parking lot), developer David Cordish, who Henry indicated has already agreed to go along with that.

On a separate, but related note, Bill Henry seems not to have gotten the message that Kim Clark, Joan Pratt and others agreed to at the May 20th meeting at The Senator --- the message about how it would be good for taxpayers if The Senator is sold at auction so the city can get its recent investment back (and its only investment in The Senator for the past 10 years).

If the goal is to get the city's investment back, why is Bill Henry trying to scare bidders away from the auction by pulling big numbers out of thin air and passing them off as estimates for the cost of renovations and upgrades on The Senator? This $500K number has no basis in reality, that I'm aware of. I'm sure it would be possible to spend that much over time, especially if doing a full restoration, but the cost to continue to run the theatre under new ownership would be nowhere near that. (I am speaking here as a volunteer who has been in the theatre for several hours almost every day for the past two months. Trust me, I have a good feel for the condition of the building.)

It's time for Baltimore City officials to recognize that the way to save the day in this situation is to come to the table with community leaders, the public, Senator owner Tom Kiefaber, and other interested parties, as they were requested to do back in January, and figure out how The Senator can transition into a non-profit multipurpose entertainment venue, and NOT a religious non-profit! Now, it's entirely possible that they planned to get around to that under the city's RFP process, but they made one miscalculation: they assumed nobody would buy The Senator at auction for over $1 Million. Now that it's clear that The Senator's national and international brand is worth a lot more than they bargained for, and that there are several probable bidders, time to rethink the game plan and do the right thing for The Senator while it's still possible.

A Reporter Gets Something Right on Senator Theatre!

Adam Bednar of the Messenger, move to the head of the class! A reporter finally got something right on The Senator Theatre. (Sorry to be so snarky, but local media reporting on this issue has been largely dismal.)

Mr. Bednar caught one of the key issues that came up in Senator Conway's meeting last night: even other agencies within Baltimore City government don't like the CHAP board's recent action to list the interior of The Senator on its Special List.

A quote from the article:

Where one city agency sees protection others see interference.

During a meeting Wednesday at the Senator Theater about the historic theater’s immediate future it was clear that the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation made an unpopular decision to place the theater’s interior on a special protective list.

Tom Kiefaber, the owner of the Senator Theatre, Kim Clarke, executive vice president of the Baltimore Development Corporation, and State Senator Joan Carter Conway all called the addition of the Senator to CHAP’s Public Interior Special List a roadblock to the financially troubled theater being sold. Kiefaber owes First Mariner Bank, the mortgage holder, $950,000.

“We thought the CHAP designation was unnecessary and ill timed,” Clarke said.

The special list is a stopgap measure that requires any owner of the theater to seek CHAP approval before it can alter the building’s interior while the Planning Department and the City Council consider whether or not to name it to Baltimore City’s Public Interior Landmark List.

“I perceive (the designation) as a barrier to get the dollars we need for the property,” Conway said.

Kiefaber, during the CHAP hearing last week and during Wednesday’s meeting, said CHAP’s actions scared away two parties that were interested in buying the Senator earlier this year.

Had those negotiations come to fruition, the entire debate about whether public dollars should be used to secure the theater would be moot, Kiefaber said.

The article goes on to note that Councilman Bill Henry, who was not at the meeting, is still in favor of the CHAP actions. Henry claimed he was too busy to come to last night's meeting, but was found just after the meeting at the neighboring Zen West restaurant hanging out and getting a report from other city officials.

Baltimore City Councilman explains Senator Theatre land grab!

A Baltimore City Councilman explains the city's notorious Senator Theatre land grab in this shocking video confession!

Baltimore City Looking for a Way Out of Deal with Tom Kiefaber?

ABC News reports on Baltimore Budget Woes:

City councilman Bill Henry told a meeting of community residents the deficit could be as high as $66 million dollars.

Henry didn't say when or where the cuts might be made, but warned residents the red ink could cripple any effort to secure new funding for the cash strapped Senator Theatre.

My comments:

Interesting response to the political will shown to save The Senator by the hundreds of people that showed up at the town hall meeting on Monday night and gave Tom Kiefaber a standing ovation. Is our city government actually TRYING to be unpopular?

It's time for me to share the remarks I had written prior to Monday's town hall. I wanted to make these points at the meeting, but there simply wasn't time.

My prepared remarks:

When I first moved to Baltimore, I chose this neighborhood in part because I instantly fell in love with The Senator. When a town hall here in January made it clear The Senator would be closing imminently, I wanted to help. Since then, I’ve been devoting a lot of time to research the situation here. I’ve found there’s a story that’s not being told in the media. As a writer, I want to tell that story.

Most people in Baltimore seem to think our city government has put a lot of money into this beautiful place, The Senator Theatre. The truth is, the city hasn’t put a dime into this place to keep it going in the past decade.

In the press, city officials like to talk about a $600,000 loan guarantee they put on The Senator’s mortgage with 1st Mariner Bank. They talk about this as if it were money they put into The Senator, but it’s not. The city will only have to actually pay out that money if Tom Kiefaber can’t pay back the loan after a likely bankruptcy court proceeding can’t squeeze any more blood from his family.

The city also likes to talk about the $320,000 they MIGHT put into paying off part of Kiefaber’s loan so that he could keep his house, IF the city determines that its conditions have been met. City officials usually sound as if they’ve already spent this money too.

The truth is, the city hasn’t put a dime into helping The Senator keep the doors open in the past ten years. Let that one sink in.

All these city officials misleading the public about all the money they’ve supposedly spent on this cherished landmark remind me of a guy who put ten cents in the red bucket at Christmas time, then wore a t-shirt that said “I support the Salvation Army” for the rest of the year.

The Book of Matthew in the Bible says “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” In Baltimore City’s case, the left hand knows what the right hand might do long before the right hand actually does it, and the left hand is happy to proclaim the right hand’s good deeds as if they had already happened, too.

On the right side of the street, however, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand already did. The City and State poured millions in grants into private enterprise at Belvedere Square, and they don’t want you to know about that. One of the reasons they don’t want you to know is because it smacks of favoritism. Why hasn’t the City similarly helped the beloved landmark Senator Theatre?

I also found out in my research that this neighborhood fought a big battle with the City ten years ago over Belvedere Square’s redevelopment. The City wanted to tear down a bunch of houses and put in Big Box Chain Stores. The neighborhood fought them and Tom Kiefaber sided with the neighborhood.

Right now, it looks like the City is going to let The Senator go to foreclosure auction so they can clear the debt from the property, saddle Tom’s family with the debt, and probably let one of their favorite developers scoop up the property debt free. If The Senator falls into the wrong developer’s hands, I think it’s likely to become the anchor business (or possibly the anchor non-profit) in Big Box Belvedere Mall Part II, The Sequel.

The Senator and this neighborhood deserve so much better than this. This beautiful place should be the area’s premiere multi-purpose entertainment venue, with a variety of events to showcase the many talented artists in the area, educate children, present high quality films, and continue to serve the community as a good neighbor like The Senator has always been. Make no mistake. Tom Kiefaber is ready to hand it over to a new operator, but he’d like to make sure it’s going to continue to serve the best interests of the community in the future.

I wonder if people in this community know what a good neighbor The Senator has been over the years. Do people realize The Senator has raised millions of dollars for local charities? Do they realize The Senator makes an average of about 500 in-kind donations to local charities every year? Do they realize one of The Senator’s employees picks up the trash for a few blocks on York Road every single day?

If the City wanted to keep The Senator out of foreclosure, they could put up 10% of the money that was put into private enterprise at Belvedere Square and save The Senator right now. But they won’t do that. Instead, they are going to gamble with the future of The Senator and this neighborhood and let Tom’s family be ruined financially.

So let’s talk about Tom Kiefaber and his role in all this. This is all his fault because he’s a bad businessman, right? Wrong.

Until last night, The Senator was one of the only single-screen theatres in this country that was still operating as a for-profit business. The challenges of running a single-screen theatre as a first-run movie house are legion. Most similar theatres have closed or else they’re non-profits that receive a lot of help from government, corporate sponsors, and private donations. Tom Kiefaber has been doing something that’s nearly impossible every single day for the past 20 years.

Should Kiefaber have gotten out of the business before he got into all this debt? If he was only thinking about money, yes. But the truth is, he was thinking about something bigger than himself and his own bottom line. He was thinking about the quality of life in this community and preserving this wonderful place for future generations. Tom has made incredible sacrifices because he loves this community and this theatre. The man is a hero.

So what does Baltimore do for its hero who has saved The Senator Theatre for all of us? He gets beaten up daily in the press, reviled for his debts, and if he’s lucky, his family might not lose their home.

Well, I’m here to say Tom Kiefaber and his family deserve better than this. I also think our neighborhood deserves better than this, but the proof of that may be in whether we’re decent enough to stand up for someone who stood up for us in the past. This should be about solidarity with a valued member of our community.

As I was writing this, I thought about the movie Spartacus. There’s a certain point in that movie when a community won’t let a good man take any more abuse, and they step up to share his burden. When the Romans are looking for Spartacus to punish him, each man stands up in turn and says “I am Spartacus.” I hope that our community is good enough that, rather than let a good man be punished for his community-oriented values, we all stand up with him and say “I am Kiefaber.”

Interesting Exchange Between Bill Henry and Tom Kiefaber

Last night, I attended a meeting of the York Road Partnership, a local community group, because I understood The Senator Theatre was going to be on the agenda.

As the meeting was wrapping up and The Senator had not yet been discussed, Tom Kiefaber raised his hand during the announcements part of the meeting. He announced that there was an enhanced learning event going on at The Senator this morning at 10:15-11:30.

Tom then asked what happens if the city’s steering committee decides The Senator cannot go forward as a non-profit.

Bill said the Mayor would have to determine if it can go forward as a non-profit at that point. He added that he hasn’t been part of any discussion over what happens if it can’t go forward as a non-profit.

That was the extent of the discussion in front of the entire meeting.

The conversation about The Senator later continued outside. It was witnessed by myself, another concerned neighbor, and Adam Bednar of The Messenger (it will be interesting to see what he might write about it).

The conversation was mostly between Tom Kiefaber and Bill Henry. Tom was very clear that he has accepted the city’s offer and is willing to work to iron out the details. He was pressing Bill to explain how the city is going to hand The Senator over to a non-profit and how they are going to determine what non-profit.

Bill stated the steering committee is really just crunching numbers to see if it CAN become a non-profit, and looking at the numbers for various plans that have been submitted to them by interested parties. They are NOT determining how The Senator will be run in the future.

I observed that if the city is going to pay off part of Kiefaber’s loan and then take over The Senator, but the city has not yet determined at that point what to do with it, obviously The Senator is going to close for a while. Bill did not deny that. In fact, he has admitted it publicly and on the record before this.

I also learned other interesting things from what Bill was saying:

The city is most likely going to allow The Senator to go to a foreclosure auction to “clear the debt.” (As Tom Kiefaber pointed out, this does not clear the debt from his perspective, because he will still owe it.) The Senator will therefore be sold to the highest bidder unless this foreclosure is stopped.

The Senator might not be a movie theatre in the future. Various proposals have been presented. It sounds like there is no guarantee it will be any kind of public theatre at all.

Bill reiterated that the steering committee is not going to take public input.

The city is in a position to potentially determine the fate of The Senator only because they guaranteed a loan to The Senator with public funds. To refuse to take public input on something that involves the use of taxpayer money is inexcusable, in my opinion.

Excerpt of WBAL taped interview with Sean Brescia

Sean Brescia of Clearpath Management, who is assisting in The Senator's transition to community-based non-profit, recently taped an interview with WBAL Radio when they called him in response to the Daily Record article. He sent me an excerpt of that interview:

SEAN BRESCIA: Look, there is no doubt that Tom Kiefaber has become a pariah of sorts in this whole situation. There is a lot of blame being thrown around, and a lot of facts and figures being quoted out of context-- A lot of focus on the past in general.

I think it’s no secret that certain folks downtown have lost faith in Tom’s leadership and the ability for this situation to be resolved within the walls of the Senator under current management.

And let’s face it, there is clearly a history of financial turmoil that on the surface seems to point to that.

But if you dig a little below the surface of the sensationalism, you actually find an equal number of people who commend Tom, in national circles even, for having somehow been able to keep this little single screen presentation theatre operational for as long as he has, when all of the practices and trends of the industry have basically conspired against the very existence of these types of historic theatres for decades now.

We can spend a lot of time as a community and as a city, pointing fingers, and blaming Tom at every media avail. One group can cite a bunch of financial assistance that was never fully realized. Another group can point to a complicated history of trends that got us to where we are now.

Or we can start getting really frank about the timeline in play here and put our heads together to try to find a solution that is in everyone’s interests. There are a number of interests that have to be balanced here:

The bank, certainly
The community
The city
The state
And other creditors

The bottom line is that Tom Kiefaber remains open and fully engaged in a proactive effort to make this transition, including transition of ownership and management to a new structure-- one that ensures strong influence and direction from the community going forward, balances the interests of the city and bank, and ensures the continued legacy of The Senator.

That has been his goal for some time and that remains his goal. But there is no easy exit strategy here for him. There’s a loyal staff involved and a family that this weighs extremely heavily on. And the interests of the community are also most important to him.

I think it’s a great sign that the city has formed a steering committee to explore scenarios for The Senator. But let’s be honest, there is a clear disconnect between the conversations being had behind closed doors downtown and the voice of the community which right now isn’t even being heard. Councilman Henry who sits on the steering committee himself has said that, “the committee is not seeking community input.”

Why would they not be seeking community input from the people who live with The Senator in their backyards and across the street from their businesses?

Tom is ready to be out of the way on this thing, BELIEVE ME, but there are a number of prerequisites to any deal that simply aren’t being shared publicly, much less even addressed, and should be.

The cleanest, most expeditious path to a viable and sustainable solution for The Senator going forward is going to be found through a cooperative integration of ideas and goals that balance all of the interests involved.

The city’s steering committee has not yet identified a viable non-profit that could assume ownership and operation of the Senator. The community has formed one. These people need to start talking to each other right away.

Its time everyone stops wasting sound bites on pointing fingers and assigning blame, and start working together out in the open to find a solution.

Maryland Daily Record Feature on The Senator

There's a feature today in the Maryland Daily Record, which outlines the parallel but differing efforts being taken by Baltimore City and the local community as represented by The Senator Community Trust LLC. I want to bring out a couple of quotes from the article here:

At this stage, the committee is not seeking community input, said councilman and committee member Bill Henry, who represents the district in which the Senator is located.

“None of us know anything about actually running [a theater], so we’re saying let’s not focus on that right now,” Henry said. “Right now we just need to make sure we save the real estate so someone can have a crack at it.”

And then compare that to this...

Ideally, Brescia said, the trust could work out a temporary refinancing of its loan with First Mariner, then as a nonprofit immediately begin fundraising with the help of the city and state to take it off of the bank’s books.

“The idea is to get everybody off the hook,” he said. “While we’d like the city and state involved, they need to be off the hook for the long term and we can’t burden our taxpayers.”

Susan McCarter, former executive director for the League of Historic American Theaters and now a Johns Hopkins University professor, said that most historic theaters that have survived have done so as a nonprofit. But the successful ones have been a marriage between community and government ideals.

“If you involve a community in some way in maintaining the theater, it has a chance of being healthy,” she said. “I think the problem arises when people who don’t have a local stake in it are making the decisions.”

And this...

As far as the Senator Theatre is concerned, there’s no lack of community and business interest; just one of time and agreement between two groups that believe they have the property’s best interests at heart.

“There is definitely a disconnect with the city’s way of trying to figure out a solution to this problem and our thinking,” said Brescia. “It’s a good indicator of intent that they established this task force — now we’re looking to bridge the gap between the community’s idea and what the city’s exploring.”

Food for thought.

Capricious Gods of the Senator’s Fate

Sarcasm is the last refuge of the frustrated citizen, and I’m afraid after a bit of up-front apology, this may devolve into a sarcastic post. I hope my friend and City Councilman Bill Henry will forgive me for my frustration, but it seems we differ, which I believe he already knows. Bill, if you’re reading this, it’s nothing personal. I know your job isn’t easy.

I gather that the fate of the Senator Theatre is already being decided behind closed doors by a mysterious steering committee, without seeking direct public input at this time. I understand they’ll seek public input after the future non-profit is formed, if that is the outcome. That outcome may not be guaranteed.

Bill Henry assures me that it is his job to represent all the various stakeholders in the 4th district, and that he cares deeply about the outcome not just as a councilman, but as a resident. I’m sure that’s true. He also assures me the unknown (to me, at least) members of the steering committee have the best interests of the community in mind. I guess we simply differ on the level of public involvement that should be there from the start.

Sometimes, you just have to trust the capricious gods of fate. I have little more to say at this time about the unknown future of the Senator, which may or may not be being decided right now by an unnamed committee in an undisclosed location. After all, without public meetings, I have limited information.

There are approximately four things I think I know for sure, though the situation is evolving:

1. Our intrepid City Councilman is on the case.


2. Some of the people I personally would consider key stakeholders, including leaders of some of the nearby neighborhood associations and the Senator’s devoted advocate and current owner, Tom Kiefaber, have apparently not been invited to be on the committee. (I suspected this last part, and Bill confirmed it.)


3. The public hasn’t been asked to give input, although we can certainly give indirect input through our city officials.


4. Whatever organization evolves from this, their mission, whatever it is exactly, won’t be easy. It’s abundantly clear there are huge challenges to making the Senator self-supporting.

Maybe I’ll just let the Senator speak for itself now.













The wise words of the Grateful Dead come to mind:

Abraham and Isaac sitting on a fence,
You’d get right to work if you had any sense,
You know the one thing we need is a left hand monkey wrench.

But then, I never knew quite what that meant. Something about the cruel whims of capricious gods, no doubt.

Thank you, Tom, for all your sacrifices and hard work.

11th hour angels, now is your cue. Frank Capra, if you’re sitting up there by God’s right or left hand, make this a good one.