ABSTRACT: The Sunset Cultural Center, Inc. (SCC) Board of Trustees did not renew Executive Director Peter Lesnik’s contract; Lesnik was originally hired in January 2008 and will leave SCC at the beginning of 2011. Apparently, Peter Lesnik will be acting as an “advisor” to the next executive director and acting as a consultant booking acts for Performance Carmel. And according to reporting in Monterey County Weekly, SCC Board of Trustees believes SCC requires a new executive director to implement “a new strategy” which includes developing opportunities “beyond performances.,” based on a statement issued Wednesday, 8 December 2010, by SCC. QUESTIONS, COMMENT and ADDENDUM are presented.
Lesnik Sunset
Carmel's Sunset Center undergoes reorganization.
By Mary Duan, MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY, December 9, 2010
QUESTIONS: In reporting and commenting on the second SCC Executive Director to prematurely leave his position, will The Monterey County Herald, Monterey County Weekly and The Carmel Pine Cone satisfactorily address these questions, as follows: Why couldn’t the SCC Board of Trustees work with Executive Director Peter Lesnik to implement a “new strategy” for Sunset Center? Why was it necessary to search for a “new managing director?” When did the Board of Trustees decide to search for a new managing director and how long has it been since the Board of Trustees “identified a candidate” for executive director? What are the other “opportunities” which exist to “develop revenues and use of the facility beyond performances?”
COMMENT:
• Since 2001, under the auspices and arguably, at the instigation of Mayor Sue McCloud, many senior management city employees have prematurely retired from the City, including the Assistant City Administrator, Community and Cultural Director, Public Works Director, Financial Services Coordinator, Planning Director, Library Director, Executive Assistant, and Human Resources Manager. And since 2004, two SCC Executive Directors, namely Jack Globenfelt and Peter Lesnik, have departed from Sunset Cultural Center, Inc.
Questions: How has the loss of “institutional memory” and experience represented by these city employees and executive directors contributed to the instability, chaos and confusion that is currently the state of Carmel-by-the-Sea and city government? What does the high number of former members of the SCC Board of Trustees (12) compared to the present number of members (8) say about the management of the Sunset Center?
ADDENDUM:
Sunset Cultural Center, Inc. Board of Trustees
Jim Price - Chair
David S. Parker - Treasurer
Deanna R. Adolph - Secretary
Robert L. Oppenheim
Judith Profeta
Gerard Rose
Kurt Grasing
Sally Reed
Former Trustees
Demi Briscoe
Katherine Bucquet
Sarah W. Brown
Steven Hillyard
Karen D. Kadushin
Mara Kerr
Gary Luce
Michael L. McMahan
James Sanders
Fred O'Such
Perry L. Walker
Ron Wormser
NOTES: Sunset Cultural Center, Inc., a non-profit corporation, assumed management of Sunset Center in 2004. Since 2004, there have been twenty Trustees, including twelve former Trustees, more than the current number of eight Trustees on the Board today.
In 2007, SCC received 26 applications and interviewed seven finalists, according to board chairman Jim Price. “We wanted someone not only with theater experience, but with strong administrative and marketing know-how, and also someone who would work well in the community and with the city,” Price said. “There were a number of candidates who had excellent qualifications in some of those areas, but Peter has qualifications in all of those areas.” The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to hire Peter Lesnik.
(Source: Veteran theater exec, producer, director to head Sunset Center, MARY BROWNFIELD, The Carmel Pine Cone, November 23, 2007)
6 comments:
Only in retrospect did Carmelites come to realize SCC overpromised and under delivered. Mayor Sue McCloud and her SCC knew they had to promise big things to pacify a majority against taking the operations of the Sunset Center away from city control and delivering operations to an external, unaccountable non-profit group. And BIG they promised. Remember the Sunset Center was to be magically transformed into Lincoln Center West. They told us performers would be knocking incessantly at their door just to perform once in their careers in the fabulous renovated Sunset Center. Well, performers did not and then they figured they had to produce their own shows. Then executive director Jack Globenfelt told us most of the audience comes from about a 50 mile radius of Carmel. Then he told Sue Sunset Center was not a competitive venue for conferences. Then he was gone. Then Peter Lesnik has heralded and now he is gone. I have an idea. Why doesn’t SCC hire Sue McCloud as executive director and when her unrealistic expectations for Sunset Center do not materialize and the curtain is pulled back, voila, no one to blame all along but Sue McCloud.
Hmmm. SCC issued their statement about the departure of Peter Lesnik on December 8. The next day the Herald published a front page non-story about chickens in Carmel not being on an agenda, peppered liberally with quotes from Mayor Sue McCloud. Let me get this straight. The Herald has a bona fide story about Peter Lesnik leaving SCC and instead runs a non-story about chickens and Sue McCloud. And there have been zero stories on this matter to this day. And Paul Miller does not see urgency or newsworthiness in the story to publish last Friday. Monterey County Weekly was the only newspaper to publish it online the next day the SCC statement was released. Is there a pattern here? MCW has been the only media outlet to objectively report on Carmel, the good, the bad and the ugly, whereas the Herald and Pine Cone have been stenographers for Sue McCloud forever.
Carmel taxpayers have subsidized SCC to the tune of over five million dollars in 6 ½ years. SCC’s reserves alone could have gone a long way towards the renovation of the Scout House, Forest Theatre and Flanders Mansion. But no, Carmelites have had to indulge the fantasy of Mayor Sue McCloud. Everything has to be sacrificed for our “crown jewel, the Sunset Center. The bottom line is Sunset Center did not need to be managed by a non-profit organization to be what it is today, basically a community center, and it could have operated on a lot less taxpayer monies to achieve the same results and the other city entertainment assets would be in much better shape, such as, at least open to the public and user groups.
Whatever happened to good will and mutual respect? This rhetoric is parroted by Sue McCloud every election cycle. The Board’s good will could have been extended to executive director Peter Lesnik and mutual respect could have had the Board and Peter Lesnik moving forward together to execute the new strategy. What gives?
I bet to try and make people forget about the scandal at City Hall, Sue McCloud directs that Rich Guillen's love-bird, City Clerk Heidi Burch, take over at Sunset for Peter. This would be the ultimate insult to voters if it actually happens.
This sounds a lot like the situation in Pacific Grove with the museum of natural history. There is a lot of empty rhetoric about how the museum will become a major attraction and bring revenue to Pacific Grove.
In fact, Carmel's Jason Burnett, the president of the foundation that took over running the museum (after generations as a city-run entity)said last night at the PG council meeting that one of the city & foundation's goals is to make it a "major attraction" within 5 years.
This is nonsense & empty words. But Jason needed a resume builder to run for Carmel city council, so PG sold its museum down the river.
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