City names interim BCPA director
Carl St. Clair, a VenuWorks vice president of operations and projects before retiring in 2011, was named interim director on Tuesday.
St. Clair will begin his duties on April 13. He fills the vacancy left by the sudden death of former director Tina Salamone on March 5.
“VenuWorks already provides the city with management services at the Coliseum, and there is great synergy to be realized between the two facilities at this time when it comes to event booking, technical support and so on,” said City Manager David Hales.
“Plus, our relationship with VenuWorks is allowing us to get a professional interim director in place at the BCPA very quickly.”
The arrangement does not signify a commitment with the city for VenuWorks to provide booking of events for the BCPA on a long-term basis, noted VenuWorks President Steve Peters.
St. Clair, of Oklahoma City, is not interested in becoming the BCPA’s permanent director, Peters said.
“This is just an interim general manager that we had available,” said Peters. “It’s an expedient solution on a short-term basis.”
“In this case, when the BCPA executive director passed away suddenly, the city inquired about our ability to help them in the interim because they knew it would take a while, several months probably, to do a full-scale search for new manager there,” Peters added.
The city will begin the search process in the near future for a permanent BCPA director.
The city’s contract with VenuWorks for interim management of the BCPA is effective through July 29, or until either party provides notice specifying a termination date at least 30 days from the date of notice. The term may be extended by mutual agreement.
The city will pay VenuWorks $8,500 monthly. Of that, St. Clair will receive a monthly contractor’s fee of $7,500, which also will cover his expenses while he is Bloomington, said Peters.
The remaining $1,000 will cover VenuWork’s expense for “offering additional support, particularly on-going booking in the theater,” said Peters.
“Mr. St. Clair has an impressive background, and the city is fortunate that he will be assisting us during this time of transition,” said Hales.
St. Clair’s 50 years of experience includes managing convention centers, arenas, performing arts centers, auditoriums, stadiums and fairgrounds facilities. He is an active consultant to VenuWorks regarding new business and venue oversight.
Other past positions include being executive director of the Pine Bluff, Ark. Convention Center; executive director of the RiverCenter and Adler Theatre in Davenport, Iowa; executive director of the Verizon Wireless Arena in Mankato, Minn. and assistant director of the Oklahoma City Public Events Facilities Department – Myriad Convention Center, Civic Center Music Hall.
Follow Dan Craft on Twitter: @pg_dcraft
