Group is stiffed $5,000 from benefit concert that cost Jersey City $168G

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Group is stiffed $5,000 from benefit concert that cost Jersey City $168G

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Posted by Outraged!!!! on May 07, 2003 at 12:31:59:

Group is stiffed $5,000 from benefit concert that cost Jersey City $168G

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

By Jason Fink
Journal staff writer

The Patti LaBelle benefit concert held in Jersey City in January for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has so far turned over no money to the charity, Foundation officials said. The Jersey City Board of Education spent nearly $60,000 in federal funds on hundreds of tickets to the show, drawing criticism from some of its own board members.

Organizers of the concert, which cost $168,268 to put on, say the charity will soon receive $5,000, but as of yesterday, no check had arrived at the JDRF's East Brunswick office, which was to be the beneficiary of the event.

But even that contribution would be just 3 percent of the money raised through ticket sales, corporate sponsorships and donations. By contrast, when the Diabetes Foundation runs its own events - it was not involved in putting on the Patti LaBelle concert - its general guidelines call for contributing no less than 70 percent of the money raised directly to the charity.

One member of the Board of Education, former Mayor Anthony Cucci, was sharply critical of school officials for buying 692 tickets - for a total of $58,820 - the day before the twice-delayed Jan. 24 show with money a11ocated by the federally funded Jersey City Employment and Training Program.

"My opinion is that we bailed that show out," said Cucci.

The event organizer, Arthur Williams, who is the supervisor of the school board's Fifteen Together and PACE Parents Advisory - two programs that focus on at-risk youth and which sponsored the LaBelle show - disputed Cucci's account and denied that the concert was ever in financial trouble.

Williams is also chairman of the board of the city Housing Authority, whose Tenant Affairs Board was the concert's other sponsor.

Assuming the Diabetes Foundation receives the full $5,000 that Williams says it will, the amount still pales in comparison with the approximately $169,405 the concert raised in ticket sales and donations.

According to a 11/2-page balance sheet supplied by Williams:

$106,000 went to LaBelle and her management agency;

$3,920 for hors d'oeuvres;

$1,500 for limousine service;

$1,365 for dinner;

$6,960 for airfare;

$1,850 for "dressing room and amenities" and,

$2,300 for rooms at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, the new luxury hotel on the waterfront.

It is unclear whether all of these expenditures were exclusively for LaBelle and her entourage.

A written request for comment from LaBelle has not received a response, and her tour manager could not be reached.

More than half of the $5,000 that Williams says will go to the JDRF is expected to come from investment firm Goldman Sachs, which is building the state's tallest skyscraper on the Jersey City waterfront.

But the $3,250 check the company made out to the Diabetes Foundation and mailed to the event organizer's "committee headquarters," a post office box in Jersey City, was deposited into the account of the event organizer rather than being sent on to the charity.

The event organizer is listed on the fundraising letter sent to Goldman Sachs as "The Jersey City Housing Authority/Tenant Affairs Board/Jersey City Public Schools/ "fifteen together"/Pace Parent Advisory. Williams said the account for this joint entity is the one into which the check was deposited.

A spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, Chanda Gibson, said the company made the check out directly to the Diabetes Foundation so it could be considered a charitable donation. She was unaware that the event organizer had deposited the money into its own account, she said, until she realized the funds had been drawn but that the Diabetes Foundation had never received the check.

Williams declined to say who endorsed the check for deposit or which bank accepted it, but he called it a "clerical error" and said the check was "inadvertently deposited," but that the money would be sent to the JDRF.

An official at the Diabetes Foundation said the charity was told by Williams that the money donated by Goldman Sachs was on its way.

Williams declined to answer further questions on the matter.

Held at the historic Loew's Jersey Theater in Journal Square, the show was canceled twice - in November and December - before finally coming together on Jan. 24, a day after the school board bought the 692 tickets.

That money was part of a $126,000 a11ocation from the Employment and Training Program earmarked for the Fifteen Together and PACE programs.

Williams said those tickets were given to students and their parents and that some students - about a half a dozen - served as ushers at the show.

According to a letter sent to Superintendent of Schools Charles Epps Jr. by school board Chairman William DeRosa, several board members, including Cucci, have objected to the expenditure.

"I don't think this was proper," said Cucci. "We've been taken advantage of, and that means the public has been take advantage of."

After he learned about the expenditure several months ago, DeRosa said: "I'm not opposed to field trips . But I think they could have spread the money out so there could be more trips and more student participation."

The board was not asked to ratify the ticket purchase until about a month after the show, in late February. Though the board has no authority to withhold funds, board members are generally apprised of planned expenditures before they are made and asked to vote to approve or disapprove them.

"We owe the public an explanation in spending that amount of money," Cucci said. "Money that comes from taxpayers all over the country."

A spokeswoman for the Board of Education, Joanne Kenny, said Epps and school Business Administrator Joanne Gilman declined to comment.

Kenny said the school board itself was not a sponsor of the concert, only the two programs Williams runs. In contracts signed with the theater as well as other written agreements concerning the show, Williams consistently listed 346 Claremont Ave. - the school board's main office - as the address of the event organizer.

Ed Santiago, the executive director of the Employment and Training Program, said the $126,000 sent by his organization to the Board of Education was part of an annual a11ocation and that school officials decided to spend almost half of it on the concert.

"What they did with that money, that's up to the Board of Education," Santiago said.

A spokesman for the state Department of Labor, which controls the Employment and Training Program's funding, said it was "looking into the matter" to determine if buying the concert tickets was an acceptable use of the money.

"The standard for expenditures is whether they constitute a necessary and reasonable cost," said the spokesman, Peter Saharko, declining to speculate whether the money for the concert met that standard.

Williams said performers of Patti LaBelle's stature cost a lot of money and he reiterated that he intends to send the $5,000 to the charity.

"The goal was to raise as much as we could," he said.

Ticket prices at the 1,500-seat Loew's ranged from $55 to $125.

According to the document provided by Williams, exactly 1,500 tickets were sold, for a total of $126,650. Another $34,005 was raised in donations from unnamed individuals and corporations and $8,750 was generated by corporate "sponsorships," including the mistakenly deposited Goldman Sachs check.

The $125 tickets, which provided access to a pre-show ----party, did not include seat assignments, creating confusion when those who bought the most expensive tickets in some cases were unable to sit up front because those seats had already been sold and assigned, said theater director Colin Egan.

Williams said the concert was a success, enjoyed by children and adults.

"It was a family event for students and their parents," he said.

Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, along with Epps, Santiago, City Council President L. Harvey Smith and mayoral political advisers Bobby Jackson and Joseph Cardwell were listed as honorary chairmen.

In the contract signed with the Loew's Theater, Williams stated that the Mayor's Office had agreed to arrange security for the show and at one point Cunningham himself took the stage to sing along with Patti LaBelle.

A spokesman for the mayor, Stan H. Eason, declined to comment about the event.

%%source%%Journal staff writers%%endsource%% Earl Morgan and Jeff Theodore contributed to this report.

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Copyright 2003 The Jersey Journal. Used with permission.

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: Group is stiffed $5,000 from benefit concert that cost Jersey City $168G

: Wednesday, May 07, 2003

:
: By Jason Fink
: Journal staff writer

: The Patti LaBelle benefit concert held in Jersey City in January for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has so far turned over no money to the charity, Foundation officials said. The Jersey City Board of Education spent nearly $60,000 in federal funds on hundreds of tickets to the show, drawing criticism from some of its own board members.

: Organizers of the concert, which cost $168,268 to put on, say the charity will soon receive $5,000, but as of yesterday, no check had arrived at the JDRF's East Brunswick office, which was to be the beneficiary of the event.

:
: But even that contribution would be just 3 percent of the money raised through ticket sales, corporate sponsorships and donations. By contrast, when the Diabetes Foundation runs its own events - it was not involved in putting on the Patti LaBelle concert - its general guidelines call for contributing no less than 70 percent of the money raised directly to the charity.

: One member of the Board of Education, former Mayor Anthony Cucci, was sharply critical of school officials for buying 692 tickets - for a total of $58,820 - the day before the twice-delayed Jan. 24 show with money a11ocated by the federally funded Jersey City Employment and Training Program.

: "My opinion is that we bailed that show out," said Cucci.

: The event organizer, Arthur Williams, who is the supervisor of the school board's Fifteen Together and PACE Parents Advisory - two programs that focus on at-risk youth and which sponsored the LaBelle show - disputed Cucci's account and denied that the concert was ever in financial trouble.

: Williams is also chairman of the board of the city Housing Authority, whose Tenant Affairs Board was the concert's other sponsor.

: Assuming the Diabetes Foundation receives the full $5,000 that Williams says it will, the amount still pales in comparison with the approximately $169,405 the concert raised in ticket sales and donations.

: According to a 11/2-page balance sheet supplied by Williams:

: $106,000 went to LaBelle and her management agency;

: $3,920 for hors d'oeuvres;

: $1,500 for limousine service;

: $1,365 for dinner;

: $6,960 for airfare;

: $1,850 for "dressing room and amenities" and,

: $2,300 for rooms at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City, the new luxury hotel on the waterfront.

: It is unclear whether all of these expenditures were exclusively for LaBelle and her entourage.

: A written request for comment from LaBelle has not received a response, and her tour manager could not be reached.

: More than half of the $5,000 that Williams says will go to the JDRF is expected to come from investment firm Goldman Sachs, which is building the state's tallest skyscraper on the Jersey City waterfront.

: But the $3,250 check the company made out to the Diabetes Foundation and mailed to the event organizer's "committee headquarters," a post office box in Jersey City, was deposited into the account of the event organizer rather than being sent on to the charity.

: The event organizer is listed on the fundraising letter sent to Goldman Sachs as "The Jersey City Housing Authority/Tenant Affairs Board/Jersey City Public Schools/ "fifteen together"/Pace Parent Advisory. Williams said the account for this joint entity is the one into which the check was deposited.

: A spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, Chanda Gibson, said the company made the check out directly to the Diabetes Foundation so it could be considered a charitable donation. She was unaware that the event organizer had deposited the money into its own account, she said, until she realized the funds had been drawn but that the Diabetes Foundation had never received the check.

: Williams declined to say who endorsed the check for deposit or which bank accepted it, but he called it a "clerical error" and said the check was "inadvertently deposited," but that the money would be sent to the JDRF.

: An official at the Diabetes Foundation said the charity was told by Williams that the money donated by Goldman Sachs was on its way.

: Williams declined to answer further questions on the matter.

: Held at the historic Loew's Jersey Theater in Journal Square, the show was canceled twice - in November and December - before finally coming together on Jan. 24, a day after the school board bought the 692 tickets.

: That money was part of a $126,000 a11ocation from the Employment and Training Program earmarked for the Fifteen Together and PACE programs.

: Williams said those tickets were given to students and their parents and that some students - about a half a dozen - served as ushers at the show.

: According to a letter sent to Superintendent of Schools Charles Epps Jr. by school board Chairman William DeRosa, several board members, including Cucci, have objected to the expenditure.

: "I don't think this was proper," said Cucci. "We've been taken advantage of, and that means the public has been take advantage of."

: After he learned about the expenditure several months ago, DeRosa said: "I'm not opposed to field trips . But I think they could have spread the money out so there could be more trips and more student participation."

: The board was not asked to ratify the ticket purchase until about a month after the show, in late February. Though the board has no authority to withhold funds, board members are generally apprised of planned expenditures before they are made and asked to vote to approve or disapprove them.

: "We owe the public an explanation in spending that amount of money," Cucci said. "Money that comes from taxpayers all over the country."

: A spokeswoman for the Board of Education, Joanne Kenny, said Epps and school Business Administrator Joanne Gilman declined to comment.

: Kenny said the school board itself was not a sponsor of the concert, only the two programs Williams runs. In contracts signed with the theater as well as other written agreements concerning the show, Williams consistently listed 346 Claremont Ave. - the school board's main office - as the address of the event organizer.

: Ed Santiago, the executive director of the Employment and Training Program, said the $126,000 sent by his organization to the Board of Education was part of an annual a11ocation and that school officials decided to spend almost half of it on the concert.

: "What they did with that money, that's up to the Board of Education," Santiago said.

: A spokesman for the state Department of Labor, which controls the Employment and Training Program's funding, said it was "looking into the matter" to determine if buying the concert tickets was an acceptable use of the money.

: "The standard for expenditures is whether they constitute a necessary and reasonable cost," said the spokesman, Peter Saharko, declining to speculate whether the money for the concert met that standard.

: Williams said performers of Patti LaBelle's stature cost a lot of money and he reiterated that he intends to send the $5,000 to the charity.

: "The goal was to raise as much as we could," he said.

: Ticket prices at the 1,500-seat Loew's ranged from $55 to $125.

: According to the document provided by Williams, exactly 1,500 tickets were sold, for a total of $126,650. Another $34,005 was raised in donations from unnamed individuals and corporations and $8,750 was generated by corporate "sponsorships," including the mistakenly deposited Goldman Sachs check.

: The $125 tickets, which provided access to a pre-show ----party, did not include seat assignments, creating confusion when those who bought the most expensive tickets in some cases were unable to sit up front because those seats had already been sold and assigned, said theater director Colin Egan.

: Williams said the concert was a success, enjoyed by children and adults.

: "It was a family event for students and their parents," he said.

: Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham, along with Epps, Santiago, City Council President L. Harvey Smith and mayoral political advisers Bobby Jackson and Joseph Cardwell were listed as honorary chairmen.

: In the contract signed with the Loew's Theater, Williams stated that the Mayor's Office had agreed to arrange security for the show and at one point Cunningham himself took the stage to sing along with Patti LaBelle.

: A spokesman for the mayor, Stan H. Eason, declined to comment about the event.

: %%source%%Journal staff writers%%endsource%% Earl Morgan and Jeff Theodore contributed to this report.

:
: » Send This Page | » Print This Page
:
: Copyright 2003 The Jersey Journal. Used with permission.

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