AZCentral just announced the departure of Valerie Vadala Homer from the Scottsdale Public Art Program. [Update: I missed this article in the Phoenix New Times, in which I suppose I get some oblique credit as “…community questioning of management by Scottsdale Cultural Council…”]
What a shame. First Margaret Bruning, and now Valerie.
How many less well-known employees have been pushed out the door by the mismanagement of Bill Banchs and his Board of Trustees?
They don’t know the first thing about fiduciary responsibility or effective leadership (including Chamber of Commerce CEO Rick Kidder and Mike Miller from Scottsdale Insurance).
The Scottsdale Cultural Council is a private business that contracts with the City to “manage” taxpayer-owned facilities. These include the Public Art program, the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Cultural Council occupies those facilities rent-free. They charge admission and keep all of it. Plus they get more than $4 million in taxpayer subsidies every year. All this takes place under a no-bid, sole-source, 20-year “management services agreement” which has no deliverables whatsoever.
So much for “a businesslike approach to government.” Thank you Mayor Lane and City Council (including incumbent candidate Suzanne Klapp).
See also my earlier article, Culture of Fear.