In January this year a new board of five members was voted in, replacing the previous system of a sole president, Don Mamouney, running the centre. The new management immediately addressed discrepancies in lease rates, established a fair booking system of the Great Hall and meetings for community feedback.
ARC General Manager, Rosanna Barbara, says: “The members are basically tired of this (old) system of favouritism, of non transparency, of bullying … we are saying it’s time there has to be some equality here.”
Under past management certain members were benefiting from better lease contracts. Addison Road Art Gallery was rented at a monthly levy of $717.14 for 500 square metres whereas Greek Theatre for 507 square metres was paying $1,749.55. A new levy system has now been introduced which is categorised fairly according to size.
The art gallery curator, Terry Cutcliffe, has been asked to leave as he has not fulfilled his lease requirement of a minimum of 12 exhibitions a year. He was also subletting the space to private businesses, which was in breach of his contract.
The Great Hall was previously monopolised by one group only, Aerialize. False allegations were made that the group was unfairly evicted. “We were asking them to go from exclusive use of the Great Hall to shared use. We were sorry to lose them but it wasn’t going to work for them. We wanted to have a variety of uses in there … an asset to the whole centre,” said Debby Kilan, ARC Board Member.
One group that now has access to the hall is charity group LearningLinks, providing services for children with learning difficulties. CEO, Warren Johnson, says: “We are pleased that we have come to an arrangement that sees us in a wonderful venue, the Great Hall, also in the context of a really important community site but then the knock-on effect of being an enabler of making improvements to ensure the long-term sustainability of the site because it is something that we just don’t want to lose.”
The new board has been supported by the community at meetings endorsing the new direction. Yet it has not had a smooth run.
The latest anonymous damaging behaviour was concrete poured down the sewerage pipes of the Great Hall backing up pipes after hours on Friday September 21.
A member director of The Bower, John Bartholomew, says: “It’s got deliberateness written all over it. This is not acceptable behaviour. I am told that this latest one will cost more than $11,000 to fix and there is still more work to do. The centre is going in a positive direction but this is yet another attempt to hold it back.”
The community is frustrated by the few disgruntled people behind the sabotage and damage to property who are trying to roadblock development.
Reverse Garbage CEO, Narelle Mantle, says: “I’ve been personally bullied, had threatening text messages, abused and called corrupt. This is the best board that has been here and the most transparent. We are going to stick it out no matter how many threats we get.”
