The board of the McCormack Center, whose 25-year lease on the Strand ends June 30, appointed Victoria Jones as executive director two years ago.

Since then, the Strand has racked up thousands of dollars in debts and key producers have left in frustration as management changed the terms of their contracts and did not pay them what they said they were owed.

The Strand first came under scrutiny when the Banner published a series of exposés beginning in February. The articles detailed the Strand’s poor financial management. The Banner found that a $15,000 check to a producer had bounced and Victoria Jones’ daughter Lisa accepted a “commission” for $300 that went against the theater’s practices and was not mentioned in any contract.

Producers who have used the theater sometimes complain they do not receive the money they believe they are owed.

“Unfortunately, in a lot of situations like this you have to weigh the financial costs of recovering the money,” said former Strand Theater Director Emerson Kington. “Some producers say, ‘I’ll take 70 percent without the headache.’”

Kington, who was let go in October of 2002, says that he and other employees or former employees are still owed money by the Strand.

“A lot of people are trying to collect on lost wages,” he said.

Tony Williams, who heads the group BalletRox which puts on the popular Urban Nutcracker each year, plans to move to a new venue after the Strand sent him a late check for $15,000 — less money than he thought he was owed — that ultimately bounced.

The Strand ran in the blue under long-time Director Geri Guardino throughout most of the 1990s.

But those days are over. In recent weeks city investigators have turned up tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid fire and utility bills owed by the theater.

Victoria Jones blames the Strand’s rocky financial straits on the poor economy and under-funding for the arts.

But observers have questioned the competence and integrity of the theater’s management.

First Choice Limousine CEO Charles Muhammad says that Lisa Jones asked him to make a check out to her for $300 — a fee which was not part of Muhammad’s $3,000 contract with the theater and is not mentioned in any rental brochures or standard contracts.

“I thought this was how they got paid there,” said Muhammad.

But when he approached then Technical Director Brian “Sideshow” Isaacs, Muhammad was told that commissions were not a Strand practice. Isaacs said, however, that Lisa had been collecting commissions.

“I kind of knew Lisa was [collecting commissions], but I’d never been brought face to face with it until Muhammad,” said Isaacs.

Isaacs soon quit after being harassed by management.

“I quit because I have a relationship with BalletRox,” he said. “They didn’t want me talking to people who were about to sue them. I met with Victoria and she said, ‘We can’t have white people working here. White people don’t understand how this stuff is done.’”

Meanwhile Muhammad, whose C. C. Sounds will produce a Classic R & B concert at the Strand May 9, was recently told by management that he should sell his own tickets, which would require an addendum to the contract he had already signed which called for the Strand to handle the tickets. Muhammad was informed of the changes after word had leaked out about the $300 check.

Victoria and Lisa Jones, and McCormack Board Chairman Juan Evereteze, could not be reached for comment for this article.