The city council’s unanimous vote to award a contract to manage the city’s Knutzen Family Theatre to Centerstage (a loser play-acting group) should be a concern to all residents, taxpayers and voters in Federal Way.
This is backwards. The city’s general fund is spent on whatever frivolity this council deems we should choose for entertainment and recreation (Knutzen theater and the other loser, Federal Way Community Center, another unpopular, revenue drain). Whereas, funding for public safety (police) takes a backseat in city priority. It relies on variable funding via taxation on each of our household utilities.
This council obviously did not even impose a prerequisite minimum standard of demonstrable solvent business practice in this contract awarded to Centerstage, but determined that just being the hometown play-actors is sufficient criteria, even though this group receives annual bailouts for thousands of dollars due to their business failures and/or lack of popularity/patronage.
This is no different than the U.S. bailouts of GM and financial institutions on a local scale.
Longtime failing businesses should be allowed to fail, not be propped up — to come back for more bailouts later, every year.
Council member Dini Duclos saying that a city should never be in the business of running a commercial business is so right, but there’s not anything commercial about this theater business. The theater is owned by the city, operated at city expense and the very group that uses it the most, and now will be managing it as well, is heavily subsidized (bailed out) with taxpayer money every year. Tacoma Musical Playhouse, a recent competing bidder for this contract, is a private business. It’s sad they were treated so horribly by the hometown Centerstage that they withdrew.
Right then, the council should have withdrawn consideration of any contract award until first establishing some minimum standards required to enter the bid process for consideration, and luring more bidders to participate. This vote for the contract awarded appears sleazy — like a backroom deal, surely no demonstrated business acumen was even a consideration. The fact that the bid winner is a habitual deadbeat already indebted to the city held no sway in their unanimous decision. That’s preposterous!
The city got us into this theater business in 1998. It is not a commercial enterprise — has never been independent at all. We taxpayers have a right to expect prudent management of our assets, not to be locked into another predictable losing endeavor. At this point, all we can hope for as we watch this debacle of fiscal recklessness is that some good opposition candidates will give voters a chance to replace these bad decision makers the next time they’re facing re-election.
Two are up this fall; we can start soon with them. We that pay the bills deserve better decision makers and better policy regarding eligible bid considerations.
Responsible fiscal conservatives (not beholden to arts or any other group), please file to be on the ballot so we can begin to replace this council and have a say in the determination of priorities and a reprioritization of projects that we are obligated to fund far into the future.
It’s just no wonder why adjacent neighborhoods continually reject annexation into Federal Way. I’d like to annex out of this city.
Marie Adair, Federal Way
