H'ville Lightning: Finance officer will report to Marini, not Playhouse board

A report in the Hendersonville Lightning on the village of Flat Rock's donation of $100,000 to the Flat Rock Playhouse:

The financial officer that the Flat Rock Playhouse plans to hire will report to producing director Vincent Marini and not the board, the Playhouse president said.

During the deliberation of the Flat Rock Village Council before it voted to give the theater $100,000, Councilman Jimmy Chandler asked Playhouse president Bill McKibbin about the reporting arrangement.

The new financial officer will report to Marini, who reports to the board. McKibbin defended the arrangement as Marini is accountable to the board. There was no further discussion of the hierarchy, and the council voted to unanimously to award the Playhouse $100,000 provided it passed the money along to United Community Bank to pay off part of its $2 million debt....

Playhouse board members and supporters applauded when the council unanimously approved the grant, which came from contingency funds and a budgeted community support account, not from the village's hefty $4.8 million reserves, said Councilman Dave Bucher, who is also the council's financial officer.

On Dec. 3, the council heard a longer presentation from McKibbin, Marini and development director Lynn Penny and heard from Flat Rock residents and a group of business leaders who strongly urged the council to help the struggling theater. The council's action Thursday by contrast came in a tightly scripted move that lasted less than 20 minutes....

County commissioners have called for the financial officer arrangement, and Commissioner Larry Young made it a condition of an agreement to give the Playhouse the remaining $50,000 of a 2012-13 commitment of $100,000. Other business leaders who support the Playhouse have suggested confidence can't be fully restored unless a CEO is put in place over Marini....

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