HUTTO — Bad feelings between the city and The Directors of Chaos, a venue management firm, seem to have healed with the approval of a new contract at the March 7 City Council meeting.
Hutto previously issued a notice of termination in December.
“I think you guys did a whole lot better and genuinely listened to concerns. In my mind you’ve given what I was hoping for,” Mayor Mike Snyder told Chris Stone and Tim Pioppo, partners in the DOC.
“That’s what we’re trying to structure here, giving Hutto freedom to work with whomever and put whatever they want in here, and we’re here to help for a nominal fee. And on the other side of it is for us to be able to continue to work on evergreen programming that you would be getting a larger split of than you would from somebody else,” Pioppo said via video connection.
Snyder had been one of the biggest critics of the original contract and had voted against hiring the duo to manage events at Brushy Creek Amphitheater, 1001 County Road 137, based mainly on their relative inexperience and small staff.
DOC arranged three concerts for 2023. Two were canceled and the other operated at a loss due to low ticket sales. Meanwhile, the city was obligated to give the company a split of proceeds from events the city brought in without them. The city gave DOC an ultimatum to come back with a new contract.
Kristi Barnes, community outreach and programs manager, said she had met extensively with DOC directors, with city staff and the legal department to help craft a contract that was more beneficial to the city.
Execution of the contract was on the mind of other council members as well, with both Randal Clarke and Dan Thornton suggesting an easy-out clause allowing the city to terminate the contract with just two weeks’ notice if DOC doesn’t deliver this time.
“Your track record’s not real good and you promised like a whole bunch of events,” the mayor told Stone. “So, if you’re promising it’s going to be up to eight events and you only do one or two and we gave you the exclusive rights, what’s the penalty for only doing two since we could have gone with someone else that maybe could have brought us eight?”
“The only real penalty would be a termination clause after a certain amount of time,” Pioppo said, while Stone assured the mayor they would be in greater contact with the city and would communicate if they were falling behind in their goals.
Highlights of the new contract include:
• DOC will aim for eight events at lower capacities, focusing on family friendly and community acts.
• The city can put on any event it chooses and seek sponsorships, and keep 100% of the profits.
• For events DOC creates, DOC will get 85% of the net profits and the city will get 15%.
• On DOC-generated sponsorships, DOC will get 80% of the net profits and the city will get 20%.
• DOC will get 70% of the net profits from any concessions they operate.
The city approved the new contract unanimously with the addition of the two-week termination clause if the duo does not deliver at least five events in 2023 and the stipulation that city regulations will be followed for events.
City Council also directed staff to update the special event permitting code with new limits on noise levels and maximum capacities, which will be in effect for future city and DOC events.
