‘Catastrophic move.’ OS severs contract with Friends of Mary C. after closed-door meeting
After meeting behind closed doors, the city of Ocean Springs severed its contract with a group that has for more than 20 years managed and built up The Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center of Arts and Education on Government Street.
The nonprofit group, The Friends of the Mary C. , had no notice, said board chair Elizabeth Feder-Hosey. She said a 10-year volunteer opened the letter from the city and “devastation” followed.
At the meeting of the board of aldermen Tuesday evening, Alderman Ken Papania made a motion for the board to hold a call with the Friends of the Mary C. to “discuss the direction” of the organization. But no one seconded Papania’s motion. Alderman Rickey Authement, who was acting as mayor pro tem because Mayor Shea Dobson was not present, was ineligible to second any motion.
“It’s my understanding that meetings have already been held,” one board member said just before the motion officially died.
Feder-Hosey said that claim is inaccurate. The organization did have one meeting with the mayor and several aldermen, she said, but the Friends were allowed to bring only three people. The meeting, held after the aldermen’s vote to take over management of the building, was vague and limited to discussion of the claim in the city’s letter that the Parks and Recreation Department was being expanded to include arts and culture.
“No details were fleshed out whatsoever,” Feder-Hosey said. “Our organization includes hundreds of people. Restricting this to three is not right.”
Dobson said the city wants to free up Friends of the Mary C. from building maintenance and administration, giving them more time to work on content and programming for the arts and cultural hub.
He said the city plans to hire a coordinator for the building who will work under a recently hired Parks and Recreation Department director. The coordinator will be charged with expanding arts and education offerings at the two-story, historic brick building.
“We’re actually expanding arts and culture throughout the city,” Dobson said. “We’re looking to have an even bigger scope than we have now.”
Friends of Mary C. says move ‘catastrophic’
Friends of the Mary C. does not see it that way, Feder-Hosey said. She said Friends of the Mary C. has an operating budget of around $400,000 a year and is in its best financial shape ever. She doesn’t know what will happen with the grants, endowments, contributions and other funding Friends of the Mary C. pulls in when the city takes over.
The aldermen voted after the closed session July 7 to end the city’s contract with Friends of the Mary C. in 90 days.
“This is just a catastrophic move on the city’s part,” Feder-Hosey said. “I mean, financially, public relations-wise. There’s so many things the city could be investing in right now, especially in the time of COVID.
“I think it’s about control and a misguided approach to improving arts and culture. The infrastructure of arts and culture already exists. It’s already in place. Private individuals have poured millions of dollars into that place. It belongs to the city on paper, but the people built it.”
Dobson said the city wants to work with Friends of the Mary C., the Historic Ocean Springs Association and the Ocean Springs Art Association on programming and content for the center’s gallery, professional kitchen, theater, museum and other programs. HOSA and OSAA now work with Friends of the Mary C.
But Dobson said the city also wants to expand beyond Ocean Springs to work with groups across the Coast as Ocean Springs builds its reputation as an arts and cultural center.
“I’m working on some stuff now,” Dobson said. “I’m talking to a lot of organizations and people who are going to be involved. I’m really excited about the new direction.”
If the city wants to work with Friends of the Mary C., Feder-Hosey says, it has taken an odd approach.
“We got no warning,” Feder-Hosey said. “There was no conversation about this.”
She added, “For a fraction of the cost, they could grow programming through the organizations that are already there.”
She said Dobson personally delivered to her house a second letter: “They want to understand our programming and how we execute it. I think they want to replicate our programming, but I don’t think they understand how much it costs.
“If they wanted to grow programming in that building, they could invest more in Friends of Mary C. and the organizations that are already there.”
How will Ocean Springs fund the Mary C.?
Feder-Hosey said the city now contributes $20,000 a year to the Mary C. and has a building maintenance budget of around $10,000.
She did not understand why the city talked about the Mary C.’s future behind closed doors. The city used an exemption to the opening meetings law, potential litigation, to discuss the Mary C.’s takeover in secret.
Dobson said “potential litigation” prevented him from saying what was discussed.
“The city is the one that keeps sending us letters on legal letterhead,” Feder-Hosey said. “We have no desire to sue anybody over anything. We are trying to do arts and culture programming, that’s it.
“The whole circumstance of it all is questionable. If the city really genuinely wanted to be our partners, there would have been meetings.”
At least one alderman, Rickey Authement, disagreed with the decision, but said the closed session prevents him from talking about the reasoning behind it. The vote to end the contract was unanimous, but Authement recused himself because his wife is on the board of directors of the Mary C.
“I can’t tell you the nuts and bolts of it,” he told the Sun Herald. “I don’t think it’s well thought out.”
Feder-Hosey is hoping the board will reconsider and hold a public meeting to discuss the Mary C.’s future, especially because resident patrons, she said, have invested so much in the center.
Her family’s foundation, for example, has pledged $50,000 to the Mary C. to support Becky’s Kitchen, named after her mother, Becky Feder, who passed away. She is unsure how the foundation could pledge that money to a city.
The Mary C. was recently awarded one of three top operating grants from the Mississippi Commission Arts Commission. The city, she said, would not be eligible for the $19,400 grant.
Friends employs an executive director for the center, plus it has contracts for marketing, and arts and culinary instruction, and has two full-time volunteers.
“This has been really hard for a lot of people,” Feder-Hosey said. “I wish the city had considered that when they did this.
“Our identity is tied up in the building. If we don’t have a building, that will affect our funding, which will affect our programming.”
Feder-Hosey said Friends of Mary C. has no legal recourse and hopes the community will speak up.
“All we can do is try to convince the city that this is a bad idea. And the community also has to tell the city,” she said, “because the legacy of this place is from decades and generations of Ocean Springs residents.”
Dobson said the city has undertaken cost-saving initiatives and intends to use in-house resources to fund expenses such as accounting, for example.
“Our budget is better than it has been in 20 years, even with COVID,” he said.
“We’re looking at different options, but we’re confident we will be able to fund it.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the alderman who spoke in response to Alderman Ken Papania’s motion to meet with the Friends of the Mary C.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 4:59 PM.
