DEFAULT IS NOT IN OUR STARS, BUT IN OURSELVES: Part 2 — Bay City State Theatre…Home of the “Whopper”

December 22, 2023 UPDATE: Tracy Teich, the Bay City State Theatre’s Interim Chief Operating Officer, has “stepped down weeks after her predecessor was removed from the position amid financial turmoil.”

More revelations about Bay City, Michigan’s grinning backslappers — with their hands in each others pockets.

In case you didn’t read the first installment in this small town crime saga, here’s a summary: Mike Bacigalupo is a public official with a sweet tooth for privacy…and money…and privacy about money.

In the past couple years, he’s managed to burn through millions dollars for his “passion project”: the redevelopment of Bay City’s Wenonah Park.

In March of 2020, Bacigalupo was overseeing the construction of a $1.3 million bandshell project, and happily burbling to anyone who’d listen the project was using no tax dollars.

In fact, Bacigalupo was quoted in the local fish wrapper stating the project was using “no tax dollars”.

So if the project was fully-funded, why did Bacigalupo need an $800,000 financial transfusion from the Bay County Growth Alliance less than four months later?

I’m unable to answer that question at the present time, but it wasn’t the first time the boasting Bacigalupo went (hat in hand) to milk a public teat.

In 2018, Bacigalupo was faced with a $250,867 “budget shortfall” for a project he pitched during a public meeting held on March 13, 2017 by the City of Bay City’s “Finance/Policy Committee” as having “Funds In-Hand”.

An excerpt from the official meeting agenda is shown below.

During the June 13, 2018 meeting of the Bay City Downtown Development Authority, Bacigalupo learned he would be the recipient of the DDA’s largesse. Its chair, David Green, requested “utilizing $60,000 from the DDA Unrestricted Funds Account” as a Bacigalupo bailout.

However, at its August 8, 2018 meeting, Bacigalupo learned the largesse just got larger: “the city of Bay City to pay the balance of $129,232 with the agreement that the State Theatre will reimburse the $129,232 by the end of August”.

It appears from the minutes below that Bacigalupo “submitted a check for $80,000 from the Theatre’s fund to the amount owed, leaving a balance of $49,232.”

IFUNDUM: Donating To Yourself Is A Great Way To Plump Up Your Balance Sheets!

In March 2023, the State Theatre (then under Bacigalupo’s purview) participated in the Bay Community Foundation’s “Give Local Bay”.

Well, boy howdy — at the end of the event, the State Theatre sat at the top of the “24-hour online giving campaign”.

Here’s the kicker: $9,100 of the $11,460 raised on behalf of the State was donated by Michael Bacigalupo. (An official with the Bay Community Foundation confirmed to me in an email that Bacigalupo’s pledged amount was actually donated.)

Did it go to plug a hole, or was it quickly moved from the State Theatre’s bank account?

I will be back after Christmas with more exclusive information.

Have a ho-ho-holiday, everyone!