San Antonio Symphony News and Archive

Finances shut down symphony's offices




from the San Antonio Express News 9/26/98

by Mike Greenberg



Citing lack of funds and deadlocked negotiations with its musicians, the San Antonio Symphony said it would close its administrative offices starting Monday - the same day contract talks go to mediation.

The symphony, whose 60th anniversary season has been on hold since Sept. 11, also announced Friday that concerts scheduled for Oct. 2 and 3 have been canceled.

The announcement came in a news release faxed to the San Antonio Express-News on Friday after a symphony board meeting in the downtown offices of BankOne.

Board Chairman Charlie Lutz, the sole spokesman for the symphony management and board, did not return phone calls from the Express-News.

The news release quoted him as saying, "We (the board) regret having to close down the symphony offices, but we don't have the money to pay the administrative staff. Their continued efforts during this crisis are greatly appreciated, but we can't ask them to work for free."

On Sept. 18, Lutz told the Express-News Editorial Board that the symphony was "on the brink of bankruptcy," having only $7,000 in the bank and a debt of $2.1 million.

Express-News Publisher and CEO W. Lawrence Walker Jr. is on the symphony board and is a past chairman.

Contract talks between the symphony and its musicians are moving into mediation.

Each side has accepted the other's designated mediator, and the two are expected to arrive in San Antonio on Sunday, according to Jean Robinson, chairman of the musicians' negotiating committee.

The musicians picked Fred Zenone, a cellist with the National Symphony in Washington to be their mediator.

Nick Webster, former executive director of the New York Philharmonic, was selected by management, Robinson said.

"We are very encouraged by their designee," Robinson said early Friday afternoon. "We feel an experienced and successful orchestra manager can only bring good advice and solid reasoning to this process."

The two mediators are expected to begin their fact-finding Monday and start the mediation sessions Tuesday. She said they were both experienced mediators.

The bargaining process defined in the musicians' contract calls for a third mediator, as well, but Robinson said both sides agreed to use only two mediators in the interest of time.

The symphony's governing board has asked the musicians to accept cuts in pay and personnel to bring the budget down to $6.4 million from last season's $6.8 million.

The budget for this season had been projected to rise to $7.1 million before rising debt forced cost- cutting measures.

During the 1997-98 season, the symphony had about 20 administrative personnel, though it recently has been operating with a smaller staff.

The symphony was consistently late meeting payroll obligations during the second half of the 1997- 98 season. Most of the revenue from advance season ticket sales for this season were used to pay last season's operating expenses.

The Kronkosky Charitable Foundation and a group of unidentified local businesses - collectively called "the stakeholders" - have offered the symphony $5 million over five years to retire its debt and rebuild its endowment, but only if the budget is balanced.

Reached late Friday, Robinson said of the office shutdown: "Our staff has been laid off just as we have been able to come together for mediation meetings. Our health insurance has been canceled without warning, leaving us no opportunity to transfer to alternative coverage.

"These destructive moves make us feel like hostages."

"We are told that abundant funds will be available as soon as we give in and agree to accept $400,000 in annual cuts to the orchestra. The (symphony) society's proposed cuts of $400,000 would make the orchestra by far the largest stakeholder. Each individual's contribution of $5,200 would rank that player 10th among the stakeholders.

Meanwhile, the musicians have been taking their case directly to the stakeholders.

"We've had several meetings with stakeholders," Robinson said earlier Friday. "Sometimes we hear encouraging things, but it's always on the condition that we sign the agreement."

The musicians, however, are in no mood to capitulate.

"We are extremely united. I have never seen the orchestra this united," Robinson said.



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