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Fort Worth's arts funding task force focuses on gas revenues, hotel tax

Fort Worth’s arts funding task force zeroed in on gas well revenues and the hotel tax as potential sources for arts grants, pared in the city’s tight budgets, during their second meeting Thursday.

Task force members, noting the city’s Will Rogers Memorial Center parking fees have hurt museums in the area, also asked city staff members for information on whether it was possible for the city to reduce that impact. The city last fall struck a deal with the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to rent it a parking lot and let it set its own rates and keep the revenue.

Staff members also suggested the committee could consider proposing a challenge grant connected to receiving gas well revenues. But several task force members were cool to the idea.

“I think we need to challenge the city first,” Lori Thomson, a task force member and co-owner of the Firehouse Pottery and Gallery in Fort Worth, said, characterizing this year’s $799,691 city allocation for grants funding to the Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County as “such a small amount” compared to the $583 million general fund budget.

The Fort Worth investor and benefactor Robert Bass, another task force member, worried about the continued “crowding out” of the arts grant funding from the city’s budget.

City funding to the Arts Council, which uses the city money to make grants to local arts organizations, has fallen from a $1.3 million peak in 2010 and was cut by $266,564 in the 2013 budget.

Greg Ibanez, task force member, architect and a Fort Worth Art Commission member, said a challenge grant would only serve to “divide the pie” differently.

Staff members told the task force that the city’s gas well revenues were a source they could consider. The city is in the process of moving $6.7 million of unencumbered gas revenues into a trust fund designed to throw off interest that could be spent in the future.

The money must be used for capital outlays under current city council policy, but the council is free to change that policy if it wishes, Susan Alanis, assistant city manager, told the task force.

Bass suggested the gas revenues continue to go to capital needs, which would  “free up other funds for the arts.”

Johnny Campbell, president of Sundance Square and a task force member, told the task force the challenge grant idea, raised by Alanis, should be “fully considered.”

Task force members have been examining the city’s culture and tourism fund, budgeted at $33.4 million in 2013 revenue and funded in part by the hotel tax, as a potential landing spot for arts funding.

Arts grants were in the fund until 2010, when the city council moved it into the general operations fund. The culture and tourism fund is now focused on the Will Rogers Memorial Center, Fort Worth Convention Center, and Fort Worth and Convention and Visitors Bureau.

City officials estimate Will Rogers and the Convention Center have an estimated $26.3 million in capital needs over the next five years, and those funds must come from the culture and tourism fund, which also shoulders debt service on the Convention Center, operations for public events, facility maintenance, and the CVB.

“That fund is upside down today, and it’s probably more upside down than it looks,” given that the facilities’ utility bills come from the general fund, Campbell said.

Kirk Slaughter, the city’s public events director, who manages the culture and tourism fund, said the city badly needs to make improvements to Will Rogers to draw more horse shows and keep it competitive with facilities in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The Convention Center’s old north section, often used by conventions, needs a makeover, too, he said.

The state’s Republican Party held meetings at the center last summer and has re-upped for 2014, although it was reluctant because of the aging facility, Slaughter said.

The city is budgeted this year to receive $20 million from the 9 percent hotel tax. Two points of that goes to pay down Convention Center expansion debt, leaving $15 million.

Staff members told the task force that the hotel tax is a viable revenue source for arts grant funding, so long as the council finds those grants help generate hotel stays.

“We do think there are some that fall under that category, and then it’s a prioritization for the council,” Alanis told the task force.

Mayor Betsy Price, who formed the task force to seek alternative funding sources for the arts and Fort Worth Sister Cities, whose city allocation was cut to zero this year, said in an interview earlier this week “I am not real comfortable (culture and tourism is) a very stable fund for the arts.

“It’s just like the general fund,” she said. “It has its ups and downs. Not everything in it is eligible to be used (for arts grants). They have to be able to prove they put heads in beds, and there are a lot of things (the Arts Council funds) that we’re not sure puts heads in beds.”

Arts backers point to a study released last year by Americans for the Arts in Washington, D.C., that said arts groups generated at least $84.4 million in economic activity, including hotel stays, for Fort Worth in 2010. The survey was based on responses from 40 of 99 arts organizations that responded, and included no assumptions for ones that didn’t, Americans for the Arts said.

Task force members have been in general agreement that the arts generate hotel stays. Robert Benda, the task force chairman and CEO of Westwood Contractors in Fort Worth, said the committee has to create an economic rationale in any argument for city support.

“For the taxpayers who aren’t focused on the arts, there has to be a rationale for the city to make the investment beyond the aesthetic,” he said.

Thomson told the task force it shouldn’t ignore arts organizations that don’t generate hotel stays, citing Imagination Celebration, the Fort Worth nonprofit that backs programs such as Invention Convention.

“It doesn’t generate room nights, but it helps children,” she said.

Bass raised the issue of Will Rogers parking fees, which the city instituted to pay down debt on the new parking garage it built.

“One thing we shouldn’t lose sight of is that the parking fees at Will Rogers have impacted the museums significantly,” he said. “The city is impairing the health further.”

Noting last year’s Science Museum parking lot deal, Benda said the task force should “explore the possibility of additional in-kind provision of facilities such as parking that perhaps would not have an equivalent cost to the city.”

“If the city’s looking for private matching, may I point out the businesses downtown provide free parking to the arts after 6 o’oclock,” Bass said.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Fort Worth, Arlington incumbents begin filing for re-election; two Fort Worth challengers so far

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price kicked off her campaign for a second two-year term, noting achievements in public engagement, community partnerships such as the one that’s repairing the old Forest Park Pool, lower crime, transportation, and a move to contain the city’s employee pension liability.

Looking ahead, Price, 63, said she wants to deliver commuter rail, continue the city’s major push to improve infrastructure, deepen the city’s partnership with local schools, bring new development and jobs, and work to get more people interested in local government.

"We still have work to do, and that’s why I’m announcing I’m running again," Price said to applause during a news conference at the Brighter Outlook Community Center, a nonprofit center in southeast Fort Worth’s Stop Six neighborhood. "I want to give every one of our neighborhoods a chance to succeed."

Filing for the May 11 city elections in the area opened Wednesday, and closes March 1.

There will be at least two contested Fort Worth city races. Councilman Danny Scarth, who represents part of the East and North sides, drew a challenge from Paul Gardner, an Autobahn Porsche salesman and member of the city’s Board of Adjustment. And Councilman Frank Moss, who represents part of the east and southeast sides, drew a contest from John Tunmire, a real estate broker.

In Arlington, District 4 incumbent Kathryn Wilemon was the only person to file Wednesday. Wilemon, 75, is seeking her sixth term to represent west Arlington.

"I think I’ve always filed on the first day," Wilemon said.

Mayor Robert Cluck, District 3 representative Robert Rivera, District 5 representative Lana Wolff and District 8 representative Michael Glaspie have all said they will file for re-election.

Price, whose announcement was attended by several city council members and community leaders, joked about her packed schedule, saying staffers have started taking multivitamins to keep up, her husband "has started to wonder if I exist," and their daughter has said "we gained a great mayor but lost a babysitter."

Asked how much money she’ll need to run the race, Price said that’ll depend on whether she draws a challenger. She said she has about $100,000 in her warchest, with a fundraiser coming up Feb. 13.

Other Fort Worth incumbents filing re-election papers Wednesday were Mayor Pro Tem W.B. "Zim" Zimmerman, Jungus Jordan, Dennis Shingleton, Kelly Allen Gray, and Joel Burns. Sal Espino, who represents the North Side and has said he hasn’t decided whether he’ll seek re-election, is the only remaining incumbent who hasn’t yet filed.

Fort Worth council members are campaigning in newly drawn districts, with the most changes in far North Fort Worth, where Espino’s large District 2 was pared and portions of the far North sent to Shingleton’s District 7 and Danny Scarth’s District 4.

Gardner, 31, who lives in the Heritage Trace area in the fast-growing Alliance Corridor, was named to the Board of Adjustment by Scarth last year.

Gardner, who said he hasn’t sought the backing of any interest groups yet, called himself a conservative who wants to deliver "efficient and responsive" government. Like many residents in the fast-growing far North Fort Worth, he said the city hasn’t kept up with providing services to new neighborhoods.

Gardner attempted to draw no distinctions between himself and Scarth.

"At this point, we’re focusing on getting out there and knocking on doors," he said. "We’re going to have plenty of time to discuss differences."

Gardner, who named his wife Lindsey campaign treasurer, said he doesn’t have a sense yet of how much money he’ll attempt to raise or will need.

Scarth, 51, who is now running his fifth election campaign and has drawn at least one opponent every race, touted the city’s progress in road and street construction, public transportation, and economic development.

And "one of the things I enjoy about having some seniority around the Metroplex " is representing Fort Worth on various boards and committees, such as the North Central Texas Council of Governments executive board and the city’s Passenger Rail Working Group, he said.

Scarth, who runs a video production and media company, estimated his campaign typically will spend $45,000 or $50,000 on a race and is able to contain costs using his background.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

- Susan Schrock, Star-Telegram Arlington City Hall reporter

Fort Worth's Betsy Price kicks off mayoral re-election campaign; one incumbent draws challenge

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price kicked off her campaign for a second two-year term, noting achievements in public engagement, community partnerships such as the one that’s repairing the old Forest Park Pool, lower crime, transportation, and a move to contain the city’s employee pension liability.

Looking ahead, Price, 63, said she wants to deliver commuter rail, continue the city’s major push to improve infrastructure, deepen the city’s partnership with local schools, bring new development and jobs, and work to get more people interested in local government.

"We still have work to do, and that’s why I’m announcing I’m running again," Price said to applause during a news conference at the Brighter Outlook Community Center, a nonprofit center in southeast Fort Worth’s Stop Six neighborhood. "I want to give every one of our neighborhoods a chance to succeed."

Price, whose announcement was attended by several city council members and community leaders, joked about her packed schedule, saying staffers have started taking multivitamins to keep up, her husband "has started to wonder if I exist," and their daughter has said "we gained a great mayor but lost a babysitter."

On public transportation, she told the crowd, "you will see major changes in the focus on rail. Council has picked the ball up on rail, and we will get it delivered."

Asked how much money she’ll need to run the race, Price said that’ll depend on whether she draws a challenger. She said she has about $100,000 in her warchest, with a fundraiser coming up Feb. 13.

Filing for the May 11 city elections opened Wednesday, and closes March 1.

Incumbent Fort Worth council members W.B. "Zim" Zimmerman, Jungus Jordan, Dennis Shingleton, Kelly Allen Gray, and Joel Burns filed their re-election paperwork.

Fort Worth council members are campaigning in newly drawn districts, with the most changes in far North Fort Worth, where Sal Espino’s large District 2 was pared and portions of the far North sent to Shingleton’s District 7 and Danny Scarth’s District 4.

Scarth, who represents part the east and north sides and has announced he’ll seek re-election, drew an opponent Wednesday in Paul Gardner, 31, an Autobahn Porsche salesman who lives in the Heritage Trace area in the fast-growing Alliance Corridor.

Gardner, who said he hasn’t sought the backing of any interest groups yet, called himself a conservative who wants to deliver "efficient and responsive" government. Like many residents in the fast-growing far North Fort Worth, he said the city hasn’t kept up with providing services to new neighborhoods.

"I think the city of Fort Worth can do a better job of providing us better services," said Gardner, whose home was moved into Scarth’s district from District 2 in the city’s redraw.

Gardner attempted to draw no distinctions between himself and Scarth.

"At this point, we’re focusing on getting out there and knocking on doors," he said. "We’re going to have plenty of time to discuss differences."

Gardner, who named his wife Lindsey campaign treasurer, said he doesn’t have a sense yet of how much money he’ll attempt to raise or will need.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

A Cornyn primary challenge?

Sen. Minority Whip John Cornyn has barely settled into his new job as the Number 2 Senate Republican and already there's a report that he should start looking over his shoulder.

Roll Call reports today that the senior Texas senator is likely to draw a primary opponent, only it's not at all clear who that might be. The story quotes Dean Wright, a tea party activist, as saying that there will be a challenger and mentioned one possibility, Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, who has made no secret of his hopes to be governor.

Here's the link:

http://atr.rollcall.com/conservatives-expect-cornyn-primary-challenger/

-- Maria Recio

Fort Worth promotes city budget officer Horatio Porter to CFO

The city today combined its budget and financial management services units and promoted Horatio Porter, the budget officer, to be chief financial officer over the new department.

The new financial management services department combines budget, capital projects, treasury, purchasing, risk management, accounting and financial systems.

Lena Ellis, who had been chief financial officer, is no longer with the city, Bill Begley, a city spokesman, said.

Porter, the city’s budget officer since 2009, has won accolades from Mayor Betsy Price and city council members for steering tight budgets and building a five-year financial forecast.

"It’s an excellent change, and I think it’ll be beneficial to all of us," Price said, of Porter’s promotion and the departmental restructuring, during a morning council meeting today.

"I think this is a solid change, and something we can all look forward to," Councilman Dennis Shingleton said.

Porter, who had reported to City Manager Tom Higgins, now reports to Assistant City Manager Susan Alanis, who had oversight for the old financial managerment services unit.

Alanis said it made sense to combine the units.

"That’s the way the CFO operates with most other organizations," she said. "It’s all under one umbrella."

Porter, a certified public accountant and TCU graduate, has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and MBA in finance.

"Horatio has been an excellent resource and leader during the yearly budget process and has displayed the skills needed to address today’s challenges and provide the long-term planning needed to address challenges in the future," Higgins said.

"He has done an excellent job as budget officer and has the skills and knowledge to be an excellent chief financial officer."

City officials declined to discuss the reasons for Ellis’ departure, citing confidentiallity of personnel matters.

Alanis said only "there was a personnel decision in that department" that created a management void and opportunity, and "we responded to it."

The confirmation of Ellis’ departure came after a holiday payroll snafu in which a payroll wasn’t processed on time, causing some city employees to have to wait a weekend to get access to their funds. The city has since announced several changes in the payroll process.

Ellis, reached last week, declined to comment directly on her departure, saying "I hope we can work things out."

"I love the city of Fort Worth and I don’t want to disparage the city and I certainly don’t want to see my name disparaged," Ellis said.

Ellis, a CPA, has a lengthy resume that includes working for the cities of San Antonio; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix; and Corpus Christi; and D/FW Airport.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Arlington mayor plans to run for 6th term

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck tells the Star-Telegram today that he does plan to seek his sixth two-year term.

Filing for the May 11 Arlington City Council election, which also includes the District 3, District 4, District 5 and District 8 seats, runs from Jan. 30 to March 1.

All council incumbents in those seats say they will seek re-election.

Cluck works in the morning four days a week at Texas Health Resources Arlington Memorial Hospital, where he is vice president for medical affairs, before turning his attention to his mayoral duties.

He served two terms on the council before running for mayor in 2003. There's no term limit for mayor.

All incumbents in for Fort Worth's May 11 city elections? Filing opens Wednesday

Fort Worth’s city election season kicks off Wednesday, when filing opens for the May 11 ballot.

Mayor Betsy Price is holding a campaign kickoff and fundraiser Feb. 13.

Mayor Pro Tem W.B. "Zim" Zimmerman and council members Danny Scarth, Frank Moss, Jungus Jordan, Dennis Shingleton, Kelly Allen Gray, and Joel Burns said in interviews they plan to seek re-election, or had already announced their plans.

"There’s a lot of things going on in southwest Fort Worth, and I want to be part of it," Jordan, whose Wedgwood-Candleridge district includes the Chisholm Trail corridor, said.

Burns said he’s raised more than $35,000 in the last three to four weeks.

"I am happy with that momentum and look forward to the coming two years," he said.

Gray said she told constituents in October that she planned to seek re-election.

Councilman Sal Espino, who represents the North Side, said he hasn’t decided whether to run again.

"After four terms and eight years of public service, I am visiting with famly and friends to detemrine whether we want to commit to another re-election campaign," he said. "We will make a decision in the next week."

Filing begins Wednesday and ends March 1 for the two-year terms. No announced opponents have emerged yet for any of the incumbents.

Price's fundraiser is 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Firestone & Robertson Distilling Co., 901 W. Vickery Blvd. Suggested minimum donation is $25.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Price kicking off mayoral re-election campaign with Feb. 13 fundraiser

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price plans to kick off her re-election campaign with a Wednesday evening fundfaiser at Firestone & Robertson Distilling Company on West Vickery Boulevard. - Scott Nishimura

Scarth announces he'll seek re-election to Fort Worth's District 4 city council seat

Fort Worth City Councilman Danny Scarth announced he’s seeking re-election in District 4 on the city’s East and Northeast sides.

Scarth was elected to fulfill a partial term in 2006 and re-elected in 2007, 2009 and 2011.  He was elected mayor pro tem in 2009 and 2010.  He sits on the executive board of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and serves on the Regional Transportation Council and Passenger Rail Working Group.

“Gaining the confidence of my Council colleagues and other elected officials means a great deal to me and to the citizens of District 4,”  Scarth said in a release.

Scarth owns Hope Media, a video production and media provider. He moved to Fort Worth in 1966 and graduated from TCU in 1983. He and his wife Lucretia have two sons.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter

Fort Worth finds a better way to manage its animal crap

It's Fort Worth. There was bound to be a better way to manage our animal dung.

Under Fort Worth’s new contract with Republic Waste Services to collect recyclable material from city facilities, Republic will haul off tons of animal bedding and manure collected annually during shows at the Will Rogers Memorial Center.

The contract covers all animal shows except the Fort Worth Stock Show, which maintains province over its own droppings. Republic will haul the city’s material to compost instead of to the Southeast landfill, where it’s gone previously.

Not that dung is necessarily bad for a landfill, compared to some of what Fort Worth’s human residents toss. But it saves the city space in the landfill, about seven to 10 tons per load, Val Familo, a Fort Worth contract services administrator, said.

"It’s a shame when there’s other uses for that product besides throwing it in a landfill," Kevin Kemp, the city’s assistant director over public events.

The new contract is part of a broader city review of how Fort Worth residents and businesses dispose of their trash. Mayor Betsy Price touted the manure program Wednesday night during a local sustainability conference, headlined by former Austin Mayor Will Wynn.

A secondary benefit to the new contract: it will cost Fort Worth $195 to have Republic pick up a 30-cubic-yard, open-top, roll-off container full of trash. But compost debris: $165.

If a horse show generates 45 pickups, that’s a savings of $1,350, Familo estimated.

"We’re more concerned with keeping material out of the landfill," she said.

How much material? The city’s not sure yet.

City employees shovel the manure for the Stock Show, which has a contract with a hauler to take it off. For 2011’s 23-day Stock Show, the city diverted 1,576 tons of recycling and compost from the landfill, Kemp said.

For the National Cutting Horse Association shows, three times a year at Will Rogers at 23 days per show, the city has hauled between 35 and 45 30-cubic-yard containers to the landfill per show, Kemp estimated. And that’s just waste generated from the cattle pens, he said.

City workers will handle the recycling process the same way they handle the Stock Show’s, picking up trash first, then shovelling bedding and manure into containers for pickup. The challenge will be to make sure the manure isn’t contaminated by trash, Kemp said.

- Scott Nishimura, Star-Telegram Fort Worth City Hall reporter