SAN ANTONIO – City emails obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders show the organizer of a local music festival asked the city for $150,000 days before he was forced to cancel the event.
Records also show the city agreed to a rent out part of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center for the three-day LaborFest music and art festival, even after learning organizer Larry Williams owed the city more than $4,700 in unpaid fees from the 2015 festival.
"We learned about it. We did address it with him and he did represent an attention to pay that," said Convention, Sports and Entertainment Facilities director Michael Sawaya, when asked why the city agreed to rent out an exhibit hall to someone who owed the city money.
Sawaya told the Defenders the $4,733 debt was owed to the city's Parks and Recreation Department, since the festival was held at Sunken Garden Theater last year, and was not discovered until months after the convention center agreed to rent Williams an exhibit hall for the 2016 event.
Counting the $90,800 in unpaid fees for the failed 2016 LaborFest, Williams now owes the city more than $95,000, according to city records.
Sawaya said late last month the city will do everything in its power to recover that money.
"I think they had good intentions. They had had several years of having a good event. They tried to grow it a little bit larger than it had been in the past, took some risks on that, but it certainly didn't work out this year," said Sawaya.
Festival-goers, some of whom paid up to $425 per person for the event, have complained for weeks that Williams refuses to provide refunds.
"His name is mud," said festival-goer Kenneth Harrison, referring to Williams.
Harrison told the Defenders he and his family spent more than $2,000 on VIP wristbands, hotel rooms and other travel expenses for the event, only to see it canceled less than halfway through.
"We found out the O'Jays wasn't getting paid, so that's why they didn't perform," added Harrison, who said he could see members of the famed R&B group backstage Sept. 3 shortly before Williams announced the performance was canceled.
Williams, who blamed the failed event on "unforeseen circumstances" in a Facebook post, originally agreed to speak with the Defenders late last month, before then ignoring repeated phone calls and text messages.
The business address on record for Williams' entertainment company has a new name outside the office and a large lock covering the door knob.
Sawaya said the approximately 800 fans who purchased tickets through Ticketmaster are eligible for a refund.
The approximately 1,200 fans who purchased tickets through Williams' vendor appear to be at the organizer's mercy as far as a refund goes.
Harrison said he has called a number provided for Williams for weeks, but has not heard back.
Williams' request for $150,000, which he said would be used to help pay performers' fees, was denied by the city because it would have violated rules pertaining to public funds.
An email from Sawaya to San Antonio City Manager Sheryl Sculley summarizing the failed event pointed out his staff lowered the convention center rental fee, released $25,000 in ticket sales revenue to provide the festival with operating funds, and reduced the amount of required liability insurance and the performance bond for clean-up.
The city also provided LaborFest outdoor space on the convention center grounds free of charge for carnival rides, according to Sawaya.
City emails show one week before the start of the festival, Williams had failed to pick a company for clean up and had failed to even acknowledge estimates for rigging, food and beverage costs and costs for off-duty SAPD officers to provide security for the event.
Expressing frustration over his ticket vendor and Ticketmaster both being used for the event, Williams told Sawaya on the eve of the festival via email, "this will be total chaos."
Williams issued a statement to KSAT on Monday night that said:
The staff at Laborfest is currently working expeditiously with the City of San Antonio to address all concerns and refunds to our most valued patrons and supporters. We Thank you for your patience and prayers
The head of the convention center, Michael Sawaya, said he's had no contact with Williams since the festival was canceled, however.
LaborFest Memo September, 7 2016
