Parkfest: Over budget and under planned

In a 20-0-2 vote, the University at Albany Student Association Senate passed a bill last Wednesday that proposes to freeze the 2009 Parkfest budget if the SA Programming Department fails to provide a finalized and complete version of the Parkfest 2009 plan by March 4.

As of last Wednesday, Programming Director Lily Garcia told the SA Rules and Operations Committee that the planning was about 80 percent done. The meeting was held to discuss Parkfest progress.

Parkfest is slated to occur on April 4, 40 days away from the day of the meeting.

Besides the planning issue, the Senate is also concerned with the amount of money spent on the event.

The budget for this year's concert is $125,000. However, Garcia, provided the contracts pass, plans to spend $156,000 on artists alone. She said she has the extra money in reserves left over from last semester. She also requested another $120,000 from the Board of Finance.

"I have two large concerns," said SA Senate Chairman Josh Sussman. "One is that we're spending $156,000 for artists when they were budgeted $125,000. They've known about this budget since before they were appointed. Two, the reserves are for an emergency, and Parkfest is not an emergency."

Sussman and other members of the SA called into question the fiscal responsibility of the planning department.

"I was heavily involved with Parkfest last year," Sussman said. "Everything

not-the-artist [other expenses] will cost a significant amount of money. This will put us well into the $200,000 range."

A few senators suggested cutting some of the acts in order to deter costs. The show will feature seven unannounced acts and will last about six hours in the SEFCU arena.

The Rules and Operations Committee held the special meeting because at a previous Senate meeting two weeks ago Garcia and SA President Dan Truchan were called to testify and give Parkfest details. Both refused to testify said Paul McCarthy, ranking member of the rules and operations committee.

After the first meeting "things started to move a little more quickly," McCarthy said of the Parkfest planning process.

Garcia and Truchan were again called before the Rules and Operations Committee last Wednesday.

"The Rules and Operations Committee basically has subpoena power," McCarthy said.

The Committee serves as an oversight body that examines if something in a student group or in the SA itself is not working correctly or needs looking at, Garcia said.

At the meeting, Garcia and Truchan were questioned extensively by SA senators regarding the planning of Parkfest. The Rules and Ops Committee went into executive session twice and heard over three hours of testimony regarding the spring concert.

The Committee concluded that "certain information provided to this body has been both ambiguous and, at times, misleading," stated the resolution.

"The Programming Department is not united as a unit, they're telling us different things," McCarthy said.

Garcia said the planning process is an extensive legal and administrative process, of which she is stuck in the middle.

"Right now, it's out of my hands," she told the committee.

Once Garcia contacts potential artists, the artists then have to send her contracts and riders. Riders, according to Marketing Director Jessica Wah, state specific requirements like equipment needed to perform, or requests for items in their dressing room.

As of last Wednesday, Garcia had received the contracts and sent them to SA's lawyers. Once the lawyers approve the contracts and riders, they are sent back to SA and the executives sign-off. The contracts are then sent to the administration to make sure the artists are safe and acceptable enough to be on campus.

Once the administration approves the artists, the contracts are sent back to the artists who, once again, give the go-ahead. After that process, the artists are secured to play Parkfest.

As of Feb. 23, Sussman said the SA lawyers only had one contract.

Sussman said the lawyer takes three to four hours to go through each contract and rider, and "well, he's kind of old."

Garcia also said for one lawyer Parkfest is not a "top priority" and she is doing what she can to move this along.

"The lawyers now have two business days to get back to us," said SA Sen. Anna Politano. "I don't think this is going to work out at all."

Garcia said in the Rules and Operations meeting that she was getting some extra money from other groups and sponsorships, and that will help lower the cost of the concert. The Graduate Student Association, for example, will either donate money or promotional items to the concert.

The university gave the Student Association until March 1 to secure the artists, and all of the event's logistics - lighting, security, catering, and wristbands - have to be planned and secured by March 13. Then, Wah can start marketing the concert less than a month before the event.

Wah plans to wait until the week after the approval to start marketing the concert because studies show that marketing an event in the middle of the week is more effective, she said.

The names of the artists will be held until that date in order to create buzz and hype for Parkfest. The artists were not discussed at the meeting.

The SA was also concerned about marketing the concert given the high price of its planning.

"I saved half, if not most of my budget for Parkfest," Wah said. "I have four business days to get the items here and that's very unrealistic. I calculated it - I would have $2,500 in rush fees alone. I'm very worried."

"I do believe this is feasible," Truchan said. "I promise you, it can get done."

Parkfest will occur the weekend before Spring Break and many senators have expressed concern about students skipping class on the following Monday and Tuesday in order to leave early for break.

However, Truchan feels that is not a problem as many students will remain because they have tests.

The potential ticket cost, which Garcia estimated at $20 to $35, is another concern for the Senate. Truchan said he hopes tickets will cost $10, if anything at all.

"I understand the ticket thing, believe me," he said.

In order to sell out the SEFCU, 3,000 students must be in attendance. Truchan said the best turnout at any Parkfest was in 2006 at the Times Union Center when the concert was open to the general public. Only 2,300 UAlbany students attended the concert that year.

"Parkfest is always a disappointment," Truchan said.

"We're damned if we do, damned if we don't," Sussman said.

"I do believe that this can happen," McCarthy said. "But at the end, we can't rely on personal belief. We can possibly squander $150,000 of students' money."

If the Parkfest budget is frozen, it is not yet known what would happen to the funds.

The joint Board of Finance and Rules and Operations meeting that will determine the fate of the spring concert will be held Wednesday.