Arts board makes no decision on project's future

The board of directors for the Arts Center of North Texas held its first meeting in three months Thursday afternoon, but the future of the project is still as cloudy as ever.

Interim Executive Director Mary Vail-Grube presented the board with a report from the three owner cities, but it shed little light on whether the project will be spun-off into a separate nonprofit, or whether it will be dissolved with the assets split among the cities.

"The cities have directed the three city attorneys to review the agreements and provide an opinion to the city managers and city councils with regard to this matter," Vail-Grube wrote in her report. "In turn, the city attorneys have retained outside legal counsel to provide advice with regard to this issue."

Earlier this month, the three cities agreed to hire the law firm of Bourland, Wall & Wenzel to help answer questions regarding the project. Some of these questions include whether the land, valued at about $22 million, must be returned to the donor or whether it can be sold, with the profits split among the cities. They will also help determine whether the assets will be subject to any restrictions will be placed on the assets, if and when they are split.

"Our legal counsel has not been directly involved with this process but we have received periodic updates from Diane Wetherbee (attorney for the city of Plano) ... and expect that it will be at least a month before they receive the opinion," Vail-Grube wrote. "Until we have some response from the cities there is no further action for the board to take on this issue."

Officials from the city of Frisco are on record saying they wish to split up the assets in order to reimburse taxpayers for the money spent on the project over the last decade, while Allen officials still support the construction of the project. Meanwhile, Plano leaders have been careful to not publicly take sides, other than to say the project doesn't seem feasible as currently designed and financed.

Vail-Grube said no donations have been accepted since February, when the board initially made its recommendation that the project be spun off. This idea was immediately killed, when the Frisco City Council rejected proposal. She did say that she has still been working to line up potential private partners, discussions which have also included Allen City Manager Peter Vargas and the land's donor.

The board also tabled a decision to accept a yearly financial audit administered by Weaver and Tidwell. While the audit was not accepted, a draft version shows that the project has $33 million in assets, with $2.7 million unrestricted and ready for use by the corporation in meeting its obligations to creditors.

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