Friends of The Senator

Friends of The Senator will be using this site to inform the public about the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) plan for the future of The Senator - "The People's Theatre" - now owned by the citizens of Baltimore. The Timeline, Documents, and Video pages currently contain the majority of the information.

We also plan to add information about The Senator's rich history, as our research process continues. The site is currently under construction.

Please visit our blog at www.friendsofthesenator.org and join us on Facebook at www.friendsofthesenator.com.

Cusack RFP Plan Revealed

For the first time, Friends of The Senator has made the actual contents of the BDC's recommended RFP plan for the future of The Senator available to the public. The BDC says these are "confidential" documents, but they involve major investment of taxpayer funds. Any legitimately proprietary financial information has been redacted.

RFP Proposal from Charles Theater operator James "Buzz" Cusack
Here it is. Charles Theater operator Buzz Cusack's proposal to lease The Senator from Baltimore City for $1 a year, which BDC doesn't want you to see.

Advisory Panel Q&A with Cusack RFP team
There were two sets of questions and answers given to the advisory panel. These are the non-financial ones. The questions were submitted by advisory panel members and answered by Buzz Cusack and his daughter, Kathleen Cusack. The BDC did not want these released to the public. Please note that there are many factual errors in the responses given, and a critique of these answers is on our to do list.

Cusack Demolition Plan for The Senator
We have added more accurate labels to these architectural drawings, which Cusack presented to the public in the January 5, 2010 RFP proposal meeting. The drawings show the original portions of The Senator's interior that Cusack plans to demolish.

Expert Input from John Bell, Executive Director of Tampa Theatre
At the end of January 2010, the BDC solicited this set of responses to questions posed by the citizen advisory panel from League of Historic American Theatre (LHAT) board member and Tampa Theatre Executive Director John Bell, a film exhibition expert. Mr. Bell was not allowed to see the RFP proposals he was asked to evaluate, but had to rely on the set of questions posed.

This was one of only two expert opinions the BDC received from film exhibition experts or historic theatre experts. The BDC suppressed the second expert opinion they received from another LHAT board member, reportedly even more critical than this one of the Cusack RFP plan. They emailed this expert opinion to most of the advisory panel members (except the FOTS representative), but did not want it made public.