Orchestra’s Business Chief Quits, Denies Friction

The business manager of the Pacific Symphony has resigned amid persistent reports that the orchestra is facing an increasingly troubled financial future as it prepares for its 1988-89 season.

Millicent C. Alexander, the orchestra’s chief financial administrator for a year, denied that she is leaving because of the orchestra’s financial condition and declined to discuss reports that she did not get along with the executive director, Louis G. Spisto.

“I’m going to another job and making more money,” Alexander said. Her resignation, submitted last week, is effective Oct. 7.

“I will not discuss financial details about the orchestra because that is against my principles,” Alexander added.

But she said that today or Wednesday, she plans to submit a detailed report of the orchestra’s current financial status to Thomas J. Kelley, the Pacific Symphony board member responsible for monitoring financial operations. Kelley is a partner at the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co.

“He will have a full report from me,” she said.

Alexander said she is delivering the report to Kelley, who serves on the volunteer board, rather than to Spisto, the chief administrator of the orchestra and the man who hired her, because: “Tom Kelley is who I report to. . . . I will only answer to somebody who I think is competent to understand what I do.”

Pressed to elaborate in a later interview, Alexander said: “I always give my financial information to Mr. Kelley. It has nothing to do with anybody’s competence.”

W. Andrew Powell, the orchestra’s director of marketing and public relations, said Alexander reports to Spisto. Powell said Spisto was busy with orchestra business Monday and was not available for comment. Kelley also could not be reached for comment Monday.

Alexander was reportedly a highly respected member of the orchestra’s staff. One source familiar with the orchestra’s management said: “She is a really solid person who is recognized to have had a real mastery with numbers and the books and to be very straightforward in reporting the orchestra’s situation to the administration and the board.”

Alexander is the second key member of the orchestra’s staff to leave in two weeks. Bob Peterson, for seven years its personnel director, resigned Sept. 12, saying a cooling relationship with Spisto was partly to blame.

Spisto later denied that there is friction, saying he “never had any dispute” with Peterson.

Peterson was allied with Keith Clark, the embattled founding music director of the orchestra, whose contract was not renewed last winter. Clark, who worked closely with Peterson, is stepping down at the end of the 1988-89 season. Alexander was not associated with Clark.

The orchestra’s financial state has been a source of concern to musicians, some board and staff members in the last year. Last month, the orchestra announced that it finished its 1987-88 season with the largest deficit of any county arts group: $250,127.

While other orchestras have managed well with higher deficits, some orchestra insiders say that the $250,127 figure reflects only the audit cycle ending May 31 and that the orchestra has incurred substantial debt since then, because of increasing marketing and administrative costs.