With a possible marathon City Council meeting approaching for a final decision on the fate of Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts, a growing number of financial models have begun floating just days before the decision.
While many had previously considered the Overture focus model to be the go-to model for the new financial structure, City Council President Ald. Mark Clear, District 19, and Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, District 5, have both introduced their own models which would diverge from the focus model in which the city would assume physical operating costs of up to $800,000.
Under Clear’s model the facility would fall under complete private ownership with possible assistance from the city. He said he decided to propose the change with the possibility of deadlock in the City Council on the issue.
“[I had] a concern that the public-private model was not going to get through the council, and feeling that even if it did it would be close,” Clear said. “It would be a very divisive and very controversial decision, and that’s not a good environment in which to turn around and start making money.”
Clear said the cost of his model could be approximately $4 million over a four-year period.
In addition to Clear’s proposal and the focus model, Alds. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, District 5, and Chris Schmidt, District 11, have put forth a proposal which would, according to Bidar-Sielaff, give full ownership of the facility to the Madison Creative Arts District committee.
Bidar-Sielaff also said the proposal would ask for all current MCAD members to resign in what she called a “reboot” of the board to focus more on financial expertise. She added she was more inclined to propose the amendment after Clear’s amendment stepped outside of much of previous Overture-related discussion and offered new ideas.
“I think part of the challenge that we’ve seen over the last six months is we’ve kind of been told to vote up or down on the [focus] model and we haven’t really been given the opportunity to think outside the box,” Bidar-Sielaff said.
Members of Overture’s union leadership said they support Bidar-Sielaff and Schmidt’s model.
The council will meet Tuesday evening for what could be their final vote on Overture’s future, which Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said could possibly be referred to a December City Council meeting because of the proposal’s controversial nature which has consumed a great deal of time at city committees and commissions.
“It’s going to be, I think, quite a challenge for the council to absorb all of the information, particularly since much of it is coming in the last few days and even more is expected in the coming days,” Verveer said.
Verveer said he supports the focus, or public-private, model in which the city would assume the facility’s physical operating costs while a private board would execute Overture’s business-related expenses.
Before Tuesday’s council meeting, alders will hear the report of Philadelphia-based Dr. James Undercoffler, who the city hired earlier this month as a consultant to assess the financial viability of the focus model proposal.
Clear, Verveer and Bidar-Sielaff all agreed the council’s meeting this Tuesday will likely be a marathon, possibly beating the record set at May’s meeting to approve the new Edgewater hotel redevelopment, which lasted until almost 8 a.m.
