By Julie BUTCHER

At the conclusion of a small protest gathered outside Glendale City Hall on Tuesday afternoon in advance of a special meeting of the Glendale City Council to debate the future management of the Alex Theatre, Nina Crowe of Glendale Arts, the non-profit organization that has managed the theater since 2008, urged the council to sit back down at the bargaining table with Glendale Arts.

“We survived the toughest year we’ll ever have,” Crowe said. “We survived layoffs and shutdowns.”

Crowe replaces Elissa Glickman as Glendale Arts’ CEO on Aug. 1. She has worked for the organization for 12 years. She called into the meeting to address the councilmembers.

“Last year was a difficult year. One bright spot was winning the RFP [request for proposals issued by the city]. We were gratified to have won the city’s confidence and were looking forward to negotiating the details. And then things changed. We didn’t know the Council had set a $250,000 threshold. If this is a threshold, that was never communicated to us.

“We propose to restart the conversations with us exclusively so that we can have discussions in earnest about our management agreement, starting with our most recent proposal as a starting point in which we reduced the management fee to $250,000. Authorize city staff to report out from the closed session, as is considered best practice.

“I think we can agree that the Alex deserves preservation, a balanced program of local and commercial attractions, and an organization uniquely qualified to do both. This does not need to be complicated; it only needs to be communicated. If communication is what you want, we are ready to sit at the table with you. Please reverse your votes from your closed session,” Crowe concluded.

Mayor Paula Devine addressed the outpouring from the community at the beginning of the special council meeting.

“I want to assure everyone that it is of utmost concern that the Alex Theatre continues to thrive,” said Devine. “We have no intention of harming it or disbanding it or shutting its doors. We want it to be a community theater as it has [been] in the past.” 

Assistant director of Community Development Bradley Calvert reported to Council. After Council evaluated the three submittals the city received in response to its RFP to operate the Alex, Council instructed city staff to bargain exclusively with Glendale Arts. According to Calvert, the organization initially proposed $500,000 per year for 10 years, then modified its proposal to $385,000 per year, also for 10 years, and finally to $450,000 per year for the first two years of the agreement, then $250,000 per year for eight subsequent years. Approximately $1.5 million in capital improvements are at issue.

“We thought we’d reached an impasse,” Calvert told the Council. “It didn’t quite meet our goals.”

“I want to make it clear this does not have to be one or the other; we are not on exclusive negotiating terms. It gives us the opportunity to see what someone else might be able to offer. During this time, negotiations with Glendale Arts could continue – they would be able to revise their proposal and bring it back to us. This does not mean the closure of the Alex Theatre either. As acknowledged, this is a city-owned asset. This process is to find options to responsibly and successfully manage this asset,” Calvert said.

Devine added “the public is a little unaware.” She referenced concerns that the management fee proposed by Glendale Arts had not come down to a level with which she is comfortable and added concerns raised by the changes in leadership at the organization.

“Let’s just call it out,” Councilmember Ara Najarian interrupted. “When we say change in leadership, it’s my understanding that Elissa Glickman, who’s been the longtime director, is leaving and that information was not brought to us until the middle, perhaps the tail end, of our negotiating process.”

“Are you familiar with the word ‘renege’?” Najarian asked Calvert. “That you or your staff reneged in any way in the negotiating process?”

“It was clear in the RFP that Council’s goal was $250,000 per year and they came in at $385,000 and then raised it to $400,000,” Devine interjected. “I was a bit taken aback by a 20% hike in what we thought was the end point.”

Incoming chief of operations for Glendale Arts Maria Sahakian, “a lifelong, proud Glendale resident,” called in.

“In Glendale Arts, you have an organization custom built to operate not just any theater but the one and only historic Alex Theatre in Glendale, California. We have elevated the Alex to be one of the most sought-after venues in Los Angeles, cutting through the fierce competition in the entertainment capital of the world. You have a Glendale success story that remains operational and continues to deliver for the public and local businesses, against all odds in the past 16 months,” Sahakian said.

“We are treasured by our local community – and we treasure it right back.”

Jill Kerrigan called in to encourage the Council to look differently at the issue. She did a quick calculation and wondered if any Glendale resident objected to spending $2.50 for the Alex Theatre.

“Have you ever had a resident come to you and say I don’t want to pay for the Alex?” she asked. “Negotiating with a non-profit is different than buying a building. They’re not deciding how much profit I want; they’re saying what programs can we do, what restoration and preservation can do we, with this amount. There is no profit. It’s apples and oranges.”

“You need to reinstate exclusive negotiations because a for-profit company will never – not ever – serve your people the way a non-profit Glendale Arts will do,” Kerrigan concluded.

Elissa Glickman called in to explain her thinking and decision that “now the time is right.”

Throughout the pandemic, she recounted, she watched the grace and tenacity of those working in the organization and concluded those she was mentoring are ready to step up into leadership positions.

“This is not a hoodwink. This is not a bait-and-switch. This was the passing of the torch to people who are capable to lead,” she said. “And if the argument here today is transitions, coming in with a completely unknown, unproven entity has to be equally unacceptable. And we know it because the community has come out in support of what we offer. Give us a benchmark and we will hit it.”

Rick Lemmo called on behalf of the Downtown Glendale business association he leads, suggesting that city management include a Council member and local business representative on the city’s negotiating team.

Justin Eick also noted the changes he would make if indeed the Alex were under different management.

“I’ve been a resident of Glendale since 1998 and I own the Theatrical Education Group, which produces ‘Shakespearience’ every year at the Alex Theatre, the largest educational field trip in Los Angeles County. For the past two decades, we’ve brought over 100,000 students from all over Southern California to the Alex Theatre. Should the City of Glendale decide not to renew its agreement with Glendale Arts, we are sad to say we would be compelled to move ‘Shakespearience’ – and the next 100,000 students – to another venue. Given the current pandemic, there’s just too much economic risk to consider bringing our production back to the Alex under new management, regardless how much experience a new organization might bring,” Eick said when he called in.

Councilmember Vrej Agajanian weighed in, indicating that it was essential to consider “what’s best for the city. We are not cutting Glendale Arts. This is the way Council members should work, not just for the Alex Theatre, to look at the bigger picture.”

The city spent $16 million on the Alex Theatre between 2008 and 2016, Agajanian added.

Councilmember Dan Brotman responded.

“Best for the city? If my memory serves me well, we did an audit of Glendale Arts, then we spent $30,000 for a consultant to tell us what our options are. Then we issued an RFP, and we got a number of organizations offering to manage the Alex. We evaluated them; we had a Council meeting where we discussed three of them in detail. I don’t understand the point that you need to look at what’s best for the City – that’s what we just did,” he said.

“Mr. Calvert says there was back and forth in the negotiations with Glendale Arts,” Brotman added. “I think there was a lot of back and very little forth.”

“In their initial proposal, they proposed $5 million over 10 years and we said ‘Give us a better offer’ and they came back with $3.8 million and we said ‘Give us a better offer’ and they came down to $2.8 million. But we didn’t tell them what we wanted; we didn’t ever make a counteroffer. I hesitate to use the word ‘bad faith’ but this is not the way I would negotiate if I actually wanted to come to an agreement with an organization,” Brotman continued. “We say we reached an impasse. What kind of impasse? They’re offering $2.8 million – we’ve been kicking around $250,000 per year even though some councilmembers aren’t happy with that – that’s $2.5 million, so we’re $300,000 apart. I find it bizarre.

“One thing the consultant report made very clear is that if we want a theater that provides access to community groups – like the Film Festival and the Gay Men’s Chorus and the Glendale Youth Orchestra – it’s going to require a public subsidy at some level. There is no free lunch here. We don’t get to have a theater where we don’t pay for anything but we still have a theater that is accessible to the community.”

“I didn’t want this discussion to turn into any sort of criticism of Glendale Arts,” Councilmember Ara Najarian commented. He recounted some of the history. Years ago, he recalled, “we were giving subsidies around $300,000 per year and we implored them to tighten up management and reduce the subsidy the city needed to give them. And to their credit, they did. Each year, they got a little better. They increased bookings and the profit margin until 2018 when they were down to $150,000. It was going in the right direction and Council still said that we look forward to the day you’ll be self-sufficient or nearly self-sufficient. Then the pandemic came and everything was put on hold. And the opening bid we get is $500,000 – they went in the completely wrong way.

“Others made proposals during the RFP process that were completely cost neutral; they wouldn’t charge the city at all. How in good faith can we tell our residents that we’re going to bring in a company that costs whatever the final number turns out to be – hundreds of thousands of dollars – when there’s another outfit who is well-versed in running historic theaters and that didn’t want any money? And they had some great acts, too. We saw a list of their musical acts and performances; they were very exciting and very great.”

“This councilmember does not hate the arts. This councilmember does not hate Glendale Arts,” Najarian said, wrapping up his comments in the third person before proposing to open negotiations with all of the responders. “This Council member put his wife on the stage at a fundraiser for Glendale Arts at no cost to Glendale Arts.”

The highest ranked responder is SAS Entertainment Group, which operates the LA Orpheum and the Theatre at Ace Hotel. According to the group’s website, “engaging SAS to operate your venue will allow for leaner operational overhead, greater profitability, and less seasonal risk.”

Councilmember Ardy Kassakhian recalled having seen “Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade,” “Ghostbusters II” and “Over The Top” at the Alex Theatre.

“Over the Top is an arm-wrestling movie starring Sylvester Stallone. Speaking of Over The Top, some of the assertions that we are against the Alex Theatre are over the top. It’s not where I’m at. I do know that the people involved in operations of the Alex are from our community. We often talk about the uniqueness of this community.”

Devine recounted the priorities listed in the RFP. The first, she noted, is to “establish consistent financial stability for the Alex Theatre operations, minimizing the level of management fee provided by the city.”

“I base a lot of my decisions on fiscal responsibility,” Devine said. “During the discussions with Glendale Arts, we were shocked and surprised and dismayed when Elissa Glickman decided to leave the Alex Theatre. I’m looking at this situation now as an opportunity to vet the leadership, the new leadership, to give Nina Crowe a chance to be involved and work with us in negotiations, while we explore another option to give this other operator a chance to fully investigate. This could be a good thing for Glendale Arts to let them get into the weeds.”

The Council voted 3-2 to terminate exclusive negotiations with Glendale Arts and instead negotiate with all three proposers, with Kassakhian and Brotman voting no.

Kassakhian was unsuccessful in suggesting a member of Council join the city’s bargaining team for the talks.

The Council approved a three-month extension with Glendale Arts to continue to operate the theater.

  alex theatre, Elissa Glickman, Glendale Arts, Nina Crowe