In a Save Austin Music e-newsletter sent March 26, SAM founder Troy Dillinger blasted the city of Austin for not yet creating a music department. In an article headlined “The Passive Attack on Our Industry & Why Words Aren’t Working,” Dillinger blamed the delay on “our fellow creatives,” City Manager Marc Ott, Austin arts organizations, and the city’s Cultural Arts Division – “a strong contingency within the City government that has built a firm power structure.” Dillinger’s allegations were not substantiated in the article; when contacted by phone, he declined to cite sources.
In response to the diatribe, four Live Music Task Force members immediately resigned from SAM’s board of advisers – Bobby Garza, Paul Oveisi, Rose Reyes, and Don Pitts. In a letter to Dillinger, they wrote, “Your allegations in the email have threatened to damage the relationships that we’ve been able to foster within city government.” Over the past 18 months, the task force has conducted careful alliance-building – among musicians, club owners, other local music-industry sectors, neighborhoods, city staff and management, the mayor, and council – in support of its recommendations to council, notably: “Establish a central Music Department within the City of Austin government structure … independent of the existing Cultural Arts Division.” In mid-January, City Council voted unanimously to support the recommendation, asking the city manager and staff to come back Feb. 26 with a range of options for structuring a new department dedicated to Austin’s live music industry.
In a Feb. 20 letter to the mayor and council, Ott said that much progress had been made toward the evaluation, but “due to the focus on our current economic challenges, we have not had time to complete our analysis” by Feb. 26. He said he planned to report to council by May 7.
While Dillinger sees the delay as an effort to derail the music office, such slow movement on the city’s part doesn’t appear unusual. “Troy doesn’t get the politics of it; he’s just pushing way too hard,” said Garza, who is also a council aide to Mike Martinez.
Dillinger specifically pointed the finger at Ott. Among his allegations: “Our new City Manager has given strong indications that he won’t create a Music Office,” and “he is stalling until after the elections.” (Mayor Will Wynn, who championed the Live Music Task Force on council, will leave office June 20.) But Ott said those accusations were unfounded. He said he fully supports live music in Austin, that his staff is actively researching the budgetary and other implications of creating both a new arts and culture department and a music department, and that the process is completely unrelated to election politics.
Stated the task force members’ letter of resignation: “While the progress is not at the speed with which we would prefer, we know that there are myriad functions that must be considered, and this is a large undertaking on a number of levels. … We have every indication that the City Manager has heard us loud and clear, and we firmly believe that we must give him time to prove to us that he has heard our community through an actionable plan for Council consideration.”
Dillinger did have one good piece of advice for the Austin music community: “Register and vote on May 9th. … You need to start speaking up and letting the candidates know that music is important to Austin and so is this Music Office.”
[Editor’s note: The original version of this article had a misleading title, “Disharmony at the LMTF.” In fact, the article is about controversy within the Save Austin Music foundation, not the Live Music Task Force.]
This article appears in April 3 • 2009.