Photo By Una-Kariim Cross

Clifton resident Andrea Rosenthal is concerned that grant money left to Cincinnati Parks to pay for music in Burnet Woods instead is being used for projects throughout the city.

Clifton musician Andrea Rosenthal launched the Summer Sounds Series of concerts in Burnet Woods in 2001 with $500 of her own money, volunteer support and the blessing of the Cincinnati Parks Department. She'd never heard of the Groesbeck Fund.

At the time, the park wasn't especially popular with families, according to Rosenthal. To avoid discarded condoms and other unpleasantries, Clifton area parents instead took their kids to Fairview Park or Mount Storm Park.

But Rosenthal was determined to make Burnet Woods a viable destination again.

Now that the concert series is an annual success, she's been left behind, and instead of supporting the neighborhood initiative that started the program the park board has hired a professional promoter. In response, Rosenthal and Melanie DelGado, who helped her launch the concert series, question how money left to the park board to support music in Burnet Woods is being spent.

Necessary secrets?
In 1875, Judge William S. Groesbeck bequeathed $50,000 to the city of Cincinnati "that the interest thereon shall be applied yearly to furnish music for the people" in Burnet Woods.

When Rosenthal learned there were funds specifically set aside for music in Burnet Woods, she started asking the Parks Department about the Groesbeck Fund.

"The more specific and aggressive I got, I could feel people not wanting to talk about it," she says.

After much agitation, the Parks Department granted $5,000 for the 2002 Summer Sounds Series.

"I stupidly took the bird in the hand and acted really grateful," Rosenthal says.

She used the money for "beautiful promotion," better bands -- including The Simpletons -- and a cookout. She didn't know it then, but the grant was only half of the $10,000 in interest the Groesbeck Fund generates yearly.

But Rosenthal kept digging. The Parks Department finally revealed that $10,000 was available for music at Burnet Woods but said it would have to issue a request for proposals (RFP) and accept bids for how to spend it. Rosenthal says she was led to believe the process was a formality.

"They said, 'Don't worry, we'll sculpt the RFP. You'll win because your fee is lowest,' " she says.

No RFP could have carried a lower fee, because Rosenthal charged no fee at all.

But at a meeting in 2003, park officials made it clear they preferred to assign the department's entire series of summer parks events to a single promoter.

"We were saying, 'Hey, we're doing this for nothing. Why would you want to pay a promoter when we're willing to work for free for our neighborhood?' " DelGado says.

Frustrated, the two Clifton women didn't submit a proposal at all.

"It was just obvious it was going to be a big old waste of time," Rosenthal says.

The contract instead went to Johnny Schott Talent & Events; Schott had been producing parks department events for about six years. A second series was subsequently added to Burnet Woods to offer Jazz concerts at Diggs Plaza at the corner of Clifton and Ludlow avenues.

What Rosenthal wants to know now is how Schott is spending the Groesbeck grant money on those music series.

In a letter last year, Parks Director Willie Carden told Rosenthal that Schott didn't have to disclose the details of his expenditures, such as the cost of the sound system and talent.

"Park administrative staff has agreed not to request the contractor to disclose this information, recognizing that such disclosure might jeopardize the working relationships between (Johnny Schott) and (his) subcontractors and obstruct the ability of Johnny Schott to provide quality programming at a reasonable cost to Cincinnati Parks," the letter said.

Schott, who has been in the music promotion business for 35 years, says there's a good reason not to disclose what he pays bands.

"It jeopardizes their ability to get the kind of dollars they normally get if somebody finds out they're playing for less," he says.

The judge's wishes
But that explanation doesn't hold, according to Bill Donabedian, co-founder of the MidPoint Music Festival. When he got a city grant, he had to account for every detail down to the serial number, he says. So did Rosenthal.

"I think it's kind of strange that, if you are providing someone a fee to do something -- obviously they're hoping to make a profit, which they should, no problem there -- it gives that individual a lot of wiggle room," Donabedian says.

Musicians whose low fees get revealed can explain they're performing a public service, he adds.

Schott disagrees.

"When you're working for a bar or another community, they don't care why the reason is you played for less," he says. "You agreed to play for less (and) you set a precedent that is very difficult for you to break."

He also says it's none of the Parks Department's business how he creates the service they buy from him.

"Frankly, if Parks hires a printing company," Schott says, "I don't really expect that the printing company has to provide for them how much they paid for ink and how much they paid for paper and did they use old stock or new stock. That's really inconsequential."

He thinks the real reason Rosenthal wants an itemized breakdown of his costs is so she can learn how to do what he does as an events producer.

Rosenthal, frontwoman for Venus Mission, says she isn't interested.

"I have two kids," she says. "I'm recently divorced. I've got a Rock band. I'm not dying to spend hours and hours sitting around planning concerts."

What she's really grieving is the loss of community buy-in, she says.

But Schott says there's nothing to stop Rosenthal from promoting the Burnet Woods concert series just as aggressively as she did when she started it.

As for the intentions of the late Judge Groesbeck, the Parks Department has already admitted that the money wasn't always spent as instructed. In his letter last year, Carden conceded the point to Rosenthal.

"You will note, as previously disclosed, that Groesbeck Funds were used in 2000 and 2001 to fund public free concerts in parks other than Burnet Woods," Carden wrote.

Rosenthal thinks the Parks Department continues to violate the terms of Groesbeck's bequeathal by not demanding a breakdown of how Schott spends the money. She says she only wants to ensure it's going toward music in Burnet Woods.

"I want this cloudiness taken off it so I can go to people in the community and really, with a straight face, say, 'Let's get behind this,' " Rosenthal says. "If it can't be done economically and honestly, let's return (the Summer Sounds Series) to community ownership." ©