After a long history of controversy, contention and debate on whether to build the Performing Arts and Conference Center, city officials hired Theresa Yvonne to take the $32 million project by the helm.

But some citizens don’t believe the recently hired executive director has what it takes to run a self-sustaining arts center in Federal Way.

Mayor Jim Ferrell appointed Yvonne following a nationwide search, praising her management skills, performing arts experience and passion to make Federal Way’s performing arts center a “regional success story.”

However, Yvonne’s six-year experience running the Lancaster Performing Arts Center in southern California has raised concerns locally.

“The director we’d like to hire is someone who has a proven record of running one of these facilities without city funds and that’s obviously not what they selected,” said Byron Hiller, a Federal Way resident, who noted he doesn’t believe the performing arts center will ever operate without city funds.

In Lancaster, Yvonne’s bookings and shows at the center generated ticket sales with revenue fluctuating between $683,750 to $787,877 in the last three years, but expenditures have decreased by approximately $300,000 in recent years, according to city of Lancaster records. 

Yet, the Lancaster Performing Arts Center’s 2014-2015 budget projects the facility’s operational budget will be at a negative balance of $608,011 at the end of June, despite having $772,750 in revenues and being given $699,960 from the city’s general fund.

In fact, the 25-year-old facility has operated at a net loss since 2005, as far back as the city of Lancaster’s website outlined. As of June 30, 2014, the ending balance was negative $708,011 for the 2013-14 biennium and $533,177 in the hole for the 2012-13 biennium, according to city budget records.

Each budget cycle, the taxpayers of Lancaster paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep Lancaster’s 794-seat center running, according to city documents.

The Federal Way mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel of experts he convened to determine whether a performing arts center was feasible in Federal Way concluded that a strong, experienced executive director will be critical to the project’s startup and success. Yvonne will be tasked with managing the center’s income and expenses to achieve “reasonable net operating revenue and expenses, while maintaining the city’s same level of contributions” — up to $200,000 annually, according to the panel’s report.

“[The city of Lancaster] made a policy decision decades ago that this facility is a benefit to the community and they have never had a 100 percent cost recovery model,” Ferrell said. “Their model is to serve the community who might not be able to get to Los Angeles and bring in top quality acts.”

The city of Federal Way’s business model is, however, to create a self-sustaining performing arts center in the future, Ferrell confirmed.

“I think it’s important to note that we’re not hearing from Lancaster folks that there was a hole in the bottom of the bucket, that this was a losing venture,” he said. “What I’ve expressed to [Yvonne] is after a few years up and running, three or four years, the idea in the long-term is cost recovery.”

Ferrell said he checked the city of Lancaster’s books, their comprehensive annual financial report and the Lancaster newspapers for any indication that the Lancaster Performing Arts Center was not “hitting the mark.” And there wasn’t any, he said.

After speaking to Yvonne about the facility’s budget, Ferrell determined, “What you’ve got here is this is a facility that is run in an incredible manner.”

Although Ferrell said he looked into the “whispers” about the Lancaster center’s need for city fund transfers, he admits he didn’t see the city’s 2014-2015 budget, nor did he know the city of Lancaster had allocated close to $700,000 to the Lancaster Performing Arts Center before he hired her.

“I looked through the report and understood they had a different model,” he said. “I didn’t know it was that exact number but it matters not.”

Yvonne did not return the Mirror’s many requests for comments. Federal Way city spokesman Chris Carrel initially attempted to facilitate a phone interview between the Mirror and Yvonne, however, after he insisted to be part of the interview due to city policy, the Mirror declined based on the newspaper’s editorial standards. The mayor concluded that Yvonne is still a city of Lancaster employee and turned the matter back over to Lancaster.

The Mirror attempted to contact Lancaster’s communications manager Joe Cabral, who also did not return several requests for comments.

Lancaster City Manager Mark Bozigian said the arts center was hit by the recession but over the last two to three years ticket sales have improved and they were more successful covering cost.

He said the initial controversy for the Lancaster Performing Arts Center wasn’t on whether to build one but where it should be built.

Having chosen the downtown area, Bozigian said the center has since been “wildly successful” after their council voted on it in 1989.

“By having it there, we were able to get some public investment in a county library, we redid the entire boulevard and it’s brought in 55 new businesses and 900-1,000 jobs,” Bozigian said. “Having it there helped the current council vote on a museum.”

Although the Lancaster facility’s current lineup includes smaller acts this season, Bozigian said world renown acts such as Willy Nelson and Jackson Brown have graced its stage.

“[Yvonne] is a very imaginative and effective person and she’ll do a good job,” he said.

Yvonne was not only the director for the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, but she apparently helped start a theater in another city in California as well.

“What struck a chord with me was after she started the one in Tracy, she would go back because she still felt ownership with that performing arts center,” Ferrell said.

The Mirror confirmed Yvonne worked as the arts program manager with the city of Tracy from Jan. 17, 2006 to Nov. 15, 2009 and managed the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts — a 37,000-square-foot visual and performing arts center with a 560-seat theater, a 110 seat studio theater, a dance studio, music studios and ceramics studio.  The theatre reopened in 2007 and in its first year relied on $1.5 million of city funds.