The daily newspaper, Mayor Ashton Hayward and City Administrator Bill Reynolds want the public to believe the financial woes of the Maritime Park are solely the fault of the Community Maritime Park Associates Board of Trustees.
They conveniently overlook the under-performance of the city’s Neighborhood Services that was awarded last March the contract to run the park.
In its proposal, Neighborhood Services projected revenue of $285,000 from concerts, rentals, parking, kiosk sales and misc. sales at the park. It also told the CMPA board that it would need a first-year subsidy of $256,054 but “we expect the first-year subsidy to decrease over the contract period.†Read 030512 COW CMPA.
A year later, the CMPA revenues are woefully lacking. Concert revenue is only $2877, far below the projected $100,000; rentals $31,613 instead of $60,000; Kiosk sales a dismal $1,745 not the projected $25,000; and Misc. Sales $880, not $50,000. Read CMPA 2013 1ST QTR.
The only revenue ahead of projections is the one that Neighborhood Services has nothing to do with but collects off of others’ events—-Parking. They estimated last year the revenue would be $50,000. It’s over $214,130 since last spring.
Had the Neighborhood Services did as it was contracted to do—-book concerts and rentals and create kiosk and other misc. sales—the Maritime Park would need almost $200,000 less in subsidies from the taxpayers.
Clearly the financial problems are due as much as, if not more, to the failures of Neighborhood Services to deliver on its commitments than the politics of the CMPA board and Pensacola City Council.
The CMPA should fire Neighborhood Services and contract directly with SMG.
