Posted Thursday, July 2, 2015 2:26 am

Though the third installment of One Spark is in the books, it’s looking like the success may have been more semblance than substance (see “App-ocalypse”, April 15, by Matthew B. Shaw). Rumors of poor spending, falsified attendance numbers, and a lack of transparent leadership are starting to emerge.

Last Monday, the majority of One Spark staffers were unexpectedly informed their last day in its employ would be Friday, July 26. Six of the 10 One Spark employees were laid off and one – Community & Public Relations Director Meredith Johnson – resigned the week prior. To make matters worse, One Spark’s Board of directors (Michael Munz, Peter Rummell, Jim Stallings) as well as the One Spark Inc. board (Abel Harding, Pam Rual, Rena Coughlin) unanimously voted against performance-based bonuses, even though most had reportedly met their benchmarks for the 2015 festival. Those bonuses were set to be 10 percent of the employee’s salary.

Folio Weekly reached out to several discharged employees who confirmed little more than their departures before directing our questions to One Spark CEO Elton Rivas and board member Michael Munz.

“One Spark is going through a reorganization process after conducting interviews and surveys with a variety of stakeholders involved,” Munz told us the morning after the layoffs. “Part of that reorganization involved trimming staff from 11 to four during the festival’s off-season. We will be announcing One Spark 2.0 in the coming weeks. One Spark will continue next April in Jacksonville.”

Rivas has not responded to Folio Weekly’s requests for comment, but did address the mounting hardships in a letter posted on the company’s blog.

“Startups are hard. Change is hard,” Rivas wrote. “We’re committed to doing the best we can for Creators and are focused on accomplishing that in our hometown of Jacksonville as we get One Spark to sustainability.”

The sustainability of the festival would appear to be the cause for the mounting concern. Rivas, in the past, made it clear One Spark was actively seeking long-term funding — not unlike the creator projects participating in the festival. Up until now, One Spark has been funded, in large part, by board member Peter Rummell. For the inaugural festival, Rummell contributed $1.3 million of the $1.5 million budget. In 2014, though the festival’s budget grew to $1.8 million, Rummell’s contribution dropped to $850,000.

Worried about jeopardizing future job prospects, former One Spark employees who spoke to Folio Weekly agreed only to do so anonymously. Some questioned Rivas’ leadership, as well as his loyalty. A former associate of One Spark told Folio Weekly to “look at the spending” for evidence.

Aside from Rummell’s investment, the inaugural One Spark also drew heavy support from Jaguars owner Shad Khan, who would go on to provide $1.1 million in capital investments to One Spark associated group KYN. Khan cut ties and KYN folded last year after it was discovered that less than 12 percent of Khan’s money found its way to KYN “supported” startups, while many top employees and advisors of the accelerator were heavily compensated.

Despite the bumps, the third installment of One Spark was considered the most successful yet. Attendance reportedly exceeded 300,000 over the five-day festival and monetary contributions from investors to creators neared the six-figure mark, according to One Spark press releases following the festival.

However, a closer look at the startups’ financials from previous years shows this may have been a make-or-break year for One Spark. For the 2013-2014 fiscal year — which would have included the 2014 festival — the company had a total revenue of $988,163, while expenses totaled $1,863,082. Those expenses include the top five employees for the company being paid a total of $255,000, advertising costs of $262,018, IT costs of $123,941, event costs of $639,949, and cash awards of $310,998.

According to the Florida Times-Union, Munz has promised 2015’s financials

are forthcoming.

This year, the company also received monetary support from the Downtown Investment Authority — a move that seemed to validate the festival’s ability to bring people to the city’s urban core. During a recent meeting of incoming mayor Lenny Curry’s budget review board, Sam Mousa — now the mayor-elect’s chief administrative officer — raised questions about the allocation of those DIA funds. A 2014 study by the University of North Florida (UNF) determined One Spark’s economic impact on the city of Jacksonville to be $1.8 million from about 250,000 attendees.

When compared to the economic impact of other major festivals hosted here in 2014, One Spark doesn’t even make the top three.

Here’s that list:

• Jacksonville Jazz Fest had an economic impact of $2.3 million from an estimated 150,000 attendees.

• Welcome to Rockville festival had an economic impact of $10.3 million from an estimated 40,000 attendees.

• Florida Country Superfest had an economic impact of $23 million from about 75,000 attendees.

One of the employees who spoke to us said they believe the organization lost sight of their initial goals and that the reasoning behind the reorganization is good-intentioned. The opening act, known as One Spark 1.0, has been scrapped. In his online statement, Elton Rivas wrote the 2.0 version will be better equipped to help “great ideas turn into successful organizations by connecting [them] with what they need to succeed.” In their effort to reorganize, those remaining with One Spark will have to look inward to first accomplish that goal for themselves.