Financial questions circling the Mumford concert

Historic City News became aware of recent financial questions circling around the relationship between the City of St Augustine and AC Entertainment, the concert promoter who produced the Mumford and Sons two-day Gentlemen of the Road stopover held September 13, and concluding September 14, 2013.

We found that the City of St Augustine is keeping an accounting of 300 Mumford and Sons tickets that are worth $32,700.  Rumors started earlier this week concerning the disposition of those tickets and the cash or in-kind exchange for their use.

“The city bought and paid for 300 tickets as soon as the deal was made because we knew the concert was going to sell out, and we were right — the tickets were all gone the first weekend,” city comptroller Mark Litzinger told Historic City News editor, Michael Gold, in an interview this afternoon.  “We wrote a check to AC Entertainment, Inc. for $32,700.”

Because of that purchase by the city, 45 people were able to purchase a total of 166 tickets that otherwise would have gone without.  The city finance department receipted $109 for each of the 166 tickets.  The city recovered the entire $18,094 paid for those tickets, according to the accounting provided by Litzinger.

But what about the remaining 134 tickets that were not resold?

In a separate accounting, Litzinger itemized the names of 29 city employees and volunteers who worked at the two day event; assisting with everything from vendor coordination to providing directions to the port-o-lets.

“With a couple of exceptions who earned overtime that was charged to the cost of operating the event, the remaining city officials, commissioners, and others were offered a total of 55 tickets; less than 2-tickets per concert worker,” Litzinger added.

The final 79 tickets were distributed to 10 people, in lieu of cash, to negotiate additional, unexpected expenses, unexpected V.I.P. visitors, and generally to pay for last minute costs or for vendors who provided additional services that were not planned.

Litzinger clarified that both he (17) and City Manager John Regan (28) had extra tickets with them as they walked the venue.  He told Historic City News that it was simply not possible to pay for expenses in cash at the concert and that they found people willing to accept concert tickets as compensation.  For example, Litzinger said 8 tickets were traded to Barnacle Bills restaurant on West Castillo Drive that faces the venue.  He said they had a substantial loss to their business since they were landlocked and customers could not use their parking lot.  The tickets were negotiated as a “peace offering” and Litzinger said they were satisfied.