Family pictures topped desks which held phones, computers and outboxes full of important looking papers. Towering shelves overflowed with video cameras, tripods and dozens of specialized gadgets sprouting countless wires.
It looked like the laid off Mendocino Coast Television staff would be right back instead of never.
Background
Footlighters Little Theatre, which has won its building back in a lawsuit, found out last Thursday they got much more. About 20 Footlighters attended their public board meeting that night, one day after taking back the building. Many were amazed that MCTV had left literally everything behind.
In May, Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Jeanine Nadel ordered MCTV to give back the Footlighters building on Laurel Street in Fort Bragg and pay the play company $36,315.
The two nonprofits had battled in court since 2009 over a decision made in 2006 to give the building away. Footlighters formed in 1957 and had used the building from 1967 to 2006, when then-Footlighters board president Bud Farley canceled that season”s production and decided to give the building to MCTV.
The judge found that Farley had illegally transferred the building in 2007. The backdated title signed by Farley, came with scratch outs. MCTV couldn”t buy title insurance for such a transaction but the deed was recorded by the County.
Although MCTV has dissolved itself and returned the building to Footlighters, the long saga of this odd lawsuit is far from complete.
Fort Bragg attorney John Ruprecht, who won the lawsuit for his client Footlighters, says the very idea of an organization dissolving while it still had debts is a sham. MCTV said they sought legal counsel and that dissolution worked because they had so few assets and because bankruptcy would cost more than it would have been worth.
Court documents
Ruprecht feels the 19th century-themed play company has suffered unfair losses in the court of public opinion since the verdict. Part of the reason for that is Ruprecht forbade his clients from speaking to the press on several occasions.
“I don”t try my cases in the media,” the Stanford graduate said.
But after he saw an MCTV broadcast of Executive Director Elizabeth Swenson talking about what happened being looped on the channel in its last hours, Ruprecht and Footlighters President Junice Gleason said they must respond.
“Elizabeth Swenson is trying to completely rewrite what happened at the trial. It”s shocking,” said Ruprecht.
Ruprecht presented documents that showed Footlighters and MCTV had entered mediation and come to a tentative agreement prior to trial. The agreement had the two groups sharing the building and the title and paying their own court costs for the suit, a filing by MCTV lawyer Michael Saunders shows. Saunders represented MCTV for free, as part of in pro per community service.
The sharing agreement by the two sides was something new for the quarreling narrative. MCTV has steadily maintained that it never considered sharing the building, while Footlighters have said they expected to have use of the building after MCTV took over in 2007.
Both sides now blame the other for mediation breaking down.
No official document from MCTV about why the mediation broke down could be located or produced by either side.
Ruprecht says the fact that Footlighters twice sought mediation shows they wanted to co-use the building, not fight a lengthy lawsuit.
The content of mediation is not considered by the court and mediation documents are not part of the court files.
Abandoned property
“MCTV does not believe it has any claims to what is left in the building because these are assets that will be applied to the money judgment against us,” said Swenson when asked about the stuff MCTV left behind.
“In terms of who owns the equipment, Ruprecht and our dissolution lawyer, Richard Sax, still have to work that out. Very little of the equipment belongs to the city; the bulk of it was purchased using facilities and equipment grants from Comcast. I don”t believe the grant money can be considered city money because the city cannot use it for anything except PEG [public access television] equipment and facilities. In other words, they cannot put it in the general fund as they do with franchise fee income,” Swenson said.
Some Footlighters at the meeting wanted to sell the merchandise as soon as possible. Most said they did not want to accept the property as any kind of payment on the money owed to the court settlement.
“We can”t become camera dealers. That”s just not what we do,” said Gleason.
Swenson”s position is that the property belongs to the debtors of the former MCTV primarily the Footlighters.
Gleason was adamant that the electronics should be given to an organization that will put public TV back on the air. Footlighters is still willing to share the building with any such entity.
Some of the equipment belongs to the City of Fort Bragg. Gleason has a meeting set with City Manager Linda Ruffing next week and hopes the City can help Footlighters figure out what to do with all the electronics and video equipment.
City of Fort Bragg
Swenson said nobody from the City ever contacted MCTV after the verdict, except the people responsible for putting on the TV broadcasts of council meetings. The City then elected to “broadcast” its meetings on the Internet, with the help of Mendocino Television, which has a studio in the Company Store. Gleason is hopeful the City will now step up with some solutions for cable subscribers.
The City actually gains financially from the demise of MCTV. Many similar-sized cities with smaller budgets than Fort Bragg do not provide public access TV. Fort Bragg has used the franchise fee that some small cities pocket to fund MCTV. Cities and counties with larger budgets normally use the cable franchise fees to provide public access channels.
Money matters
Ruprecht said Saunders offered a $2,000 payment from MCTV to settle the money damages after the trial. Ruprecht didn”t respond to that offer, now saying it wasn”t a legitimate number.
After that, MCTV dissolved.
“What we offered was very low as we couldn”t offer much and still survive,” said Swenson.
“We offered to rent the building for a couple of months for $800 a month and after moving out within two months to rent the playback room for $200 a month for a minimum of six months and possibly longer. So it adds up to a little more than $2,000,” Swenson said.
“When the MCTV board tried to figure out what we could offer, we realized we couldn”t come anywhere near what they wanted. That is why we offered to have them review our financial reports and bank balance so they could see we weren”t making it up that we didn”t have money. When Ruprecht said our offer wasn”t truly an offer and he didn”t want to bother with reviewing our finances, and to turn over keys quickly and move out ASAP, it was all over for us,” Swenson said.
Ruprecht pointed out that Judge Nadel found that MCTV would not have to dissolve in her judgment, citing $330,000 in cable grant money MCTV received. Ruprecht says “the public” should demand an audit of what happened to the money, that apparently went to the City of Fort Bragg, then to MCTV. But he presented no evidence that any money now exists.
MCTV board members and Swenson say their bank accounts are an open book and there is no money.
“The figure of $330,000 is roughly the total we received over seven years,” Swenson said. “This money has all been spent either on the building or on equipment, including the purchase and repairs of equipment and related stuff like software, DVDs, etc. over this seven-year period.”
MCTV recently paid its overdue $4,300 property tax bill plus penalties.
Cash strapped
The trial transcript shows both organizations had very little in the way of liquid or solid assets other than the building. At last Thursday”s meeting, Footlighters” board heard that their bank balance was $586.87.
Can Footlighters pay taxes and other costs for the building? Footlighters hopes the legal clock can be turned back to the time before MCTV came in, negating the more than quadrupling of the assessed value and other matters that could influence the cost of the building and how it is used. Otherwise it might have to go through a lengthy and expensive process to get the building used as public performance space.
Was the building ever really transferred? Footlighters don”t think so and the judge”s ruling seems to say so. But does that mean that regulatory agencies will allow the building to go in a legal time machine back to 2006?
Even for civil court, with its arcane practices and often counter-intuitive maneuverings, this is a very odd case.
The spectacle of the building being left full is the latest twist in a ferocious and highly unusual legal battle. One nonprofit rarely sues another, especially small ones. This is partly because individuals cannot gain or lose financially from lawsuits involving nonprofit corporations.
Another unusual aspect of the case is that a recorded title was successfully challenged. Not purchasing title insurance for a commercial building is equally odd.
Footlighters puts on an annual show that features 19th century costumes and story-lines. Footlighters is currently having shows every Wednesday and Saturday night at the Motel 6/Tradewinds Convention Center on Main Street in Fort Bragg until Labor Day. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Footlighters has public meetings the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m.
MCTV and its quasi-government predecessor, MCCET, provided an array of government programming as well as special events and shows for the community. MCTV had four or five employees most of the time over the years. The broadcasts, often carried live, were available to anyone with a cable TV hookup.
MCTV has ceased to broadcast its material on television. Comcast is now playing classical arts TV on channel 3. There was nothing but a test pattern on channels 64 and 65 this week. Videotapes of past meetings and programs are available on MCTV”s website, which is still active.
“[Comcast] said they would put up a note saying that channels 64 and 65 are off the air until further notice or something like that I saw Classic Arts last time I checked and no note,” Swenson said.
Although both organizations are nonprofits, MCTV is/was a 501(c)(3) community benefit nonprofit, meaning it owes no income taxes. Footlighters is a mutual benefit nonprofit membership corporation, meaning it is not exempt from income taxes. Both organizations can accept tax deductible contributions.
The current board of Footlighters is President Gleason, Ric Martin, Julie Smith and Suzie Gibson. There are two other committees, with a total of six more people on them. Since 2006, Footlighters membership rolls have shown about 25 to 30 people.
Editor”s note: Coverage of the future of public access television, including Footlighters” meeting with the City, is ongoing.
