Cape May Jazz Festival Founders Say They Were Forced Out of Organization

CAPE MAY — It’s like a long popular tune that suddenly is played with a sour note.
The founders of the Cape May Jazz Festival Carol Stone and Woody Woodland resigned from the organization in June.
Woodland told the Herald they were forced out of the organization they founded.
“The group that took it over seemingly want to discredit us for the 17 years of success that we’ve had,” he said.
Woodland said their photos were removed from the Cape May Jazz Festival website by the board of directors. He said he believed the board began to resent Stone and himself.
“They just got sick and tired of Woody and Carol getting the credit for this,” said Woodland. “We gave them more credit than they deserved because they didn’t do anything.”
“I can give our volunteers more credit than the board,” he continued.
Board meetings were called in secret when Woodland and Stone were out of the country on vacation, he said.
Woodland said board members treated Stone with a great deal of disrespect and meetings were punctuated by angry outbursts. Anything Stone suggested was shot down by the board, said Woodland.
He said he believed racism and sexism was involved with their ousting from the organization. At some point, he and Stone would have retired from the festival and helped with a smooth succession but now that won’t happen, said Woodland.
He said he feels the board is “trashing our legacy.”
“I was the cause of thousands of people coming here spending millions of dollars here,” said Woodland.
He said Stone had the expertise to handle many details while he publicized the event. Woodland said they visited other jazz festivals, clubs and churches in other cities to attract an audience to Cape May.
Woodland said the board turned the festival staff against them.
“We gave them their jobs and got them health insurance and they literally turned them against us,” he said.
Stone said it was decided at an April board meeting, the jazz festival’s headlining band would play at the Grand Hotel of Cape May in November rather than bus the audience to the auditorium at Lower Cape May Regional High School. She said the new board members have since moved the headlining show to the gymnasium of Star of the Sea School in Cape May.
Woodland said Cape May Jazz Festival President Gene Boyd admitted to another newspaper a conspiracy was in place to remove them from the board.
Jazz Festival Board member Lois Smith told the Herald the board wanted to give Woodland and Stone “the privilege of being advisors but step back and let the board make some decisions.”
“We had nothing to say and as a result our funding was falling,” she said.
Smith said funding sources were aware how well the festival had operated but said some adjustments were needed and they preferred to work with a “board-generated operation.”
Smith said Woodland and Stone made the decision to resign, “nobody told them to get out.”
She said their names are still in brochures for the festival as founders.
Jazz Festival Executive Director Sal Riggi said when he took office two years ago, he made it clear there had to be a transition of the organization from “founder run to board run.” He said an attempt to remove Woodland and Stone in 2008 when they were out of the country, by a previous executive director, was done in an inappropriate manner. He said the bottom line was most sponsors do not want to see an organization run by founders after about 10 years of operation.
Riggi said when he became director, Stone and Woodland were agreeable to a change.
“After about a year they began sending signals that they did not believe a transition was necessary,” he said.
Riggi said he made a lot of changes in fiscal practices. He said Stone was conducting business without consulting the board and was resistant to changes being implemented.
Riggi said he wrote a financial stabilization plan when he served as treasurer to strengthen the organization. He said sponsors and the state raved about the plan, which included a transition over a two-year period.
“Carol and Woody did a great job putting this organization together, it is their baby,” said Riggi. “The hardest transition is going from founder to board run.”
He said the board made it clear after the April festival the transition would be completed at the June reorganization meeting. Riggi said Woodland and Stone fought the matter.
Riggi said he has their letter of resignation. He said the plan was Woodland and Stone would step down from the board and have emeritus status and be honored at the November jazz festival.
Riggi said Woodland and Stone sent letters to sponsors, the state and musicians saying they were forced out of the organization and accused the board of being racist. He said the matter may be turned over to attorneys if it continues.
Riggi said state and corporate sponsorship of the festival has increased recently.
“Long term, we’re going to come out much stronger,” he said.
Jazz Festival President Gene Boyd said Stone and Woodland did not want to live with new financial procedures being put in place and resigned.
“It was kind of run like a sole proprietorship and it really can’t be because it is not a sole proprietorship, it is a not-for-profit 501C3 corporation, so there are things we need to adhere to,” he said.
He said Stone and Woodland gave the organization a great foundation to build on.
“We’re not opposed to them having a jazz festival but we know it will never reach the magnitude which we established,” said Woodland.