Board election changes IPA’s focus

With the election last week of a union executive to lead the Illinois Production Alliance, the six-year old trade organization has signaled its intention to focus on the Illinois filmmaker’s tax incentive.

In its annual election, 13 IPA board members unanimously elected Jeff Crabtree, a political director and lobbyist for Teamsters Joint Council 25, as president.

Crabtree joined the IPA in 2008 when he assumed the Teamsters seat on the board, shortly after he had joined the Teamsters organization from the Illinois Senate, where he worked as a budget analyst.

His move to the Teamsters was “a result of the Teamsters’ interest in having a bigger presence [in Springfield] for labor-friendly legislation,” said a Teamsters’ spokesperson.

In the 2008 election that followed his joining the IPA board, Crabtree was voted second vice president and was welcomed on the all-important Legislative Committee, which deals with issues pertaining to the increasingly critical tax credit.

“When he’s not pushing for labor friendly legislation in Springfield, [Crabtree] will be lobbying for union members in a new town: Hollywood,” noted the Teamsters’ website in announcing Crabtree’s new assignment.

The Teamster succeeds Lars Ullberg, a production executive, who served one term.

A board member notified Ullberg two days before the election that Crabtree would run for the presidency, with the support of the labor interests on the board.

Ullberg, who did not contest the board’s decision, said he was “not entirely surprised by its action.”

For the past year as president, he tried to hold a middle ground in the internal debate as to what the IPA’s current mission should be. Nor could he resolve that division.

The tax credit is completely IPA’s baby, and it is intertwined with politics, labor and jobs. The IPA initiated the tax credit in 2003, and has solely funded Springfield lobbyists so the legislature would not lose sight of the incentives’ importance.

“IPA’s job, to make sure jobs come to Chicago, blurs the lines between union and IPA work,” said Eileen Willenborg, SAG/AFTRA executive director, who was IPA president from 2004 to 2007.

One faction has always wanted the IPA to essentially become a Political Action Committee, with tax credit vigilance and improvement as it sole objective, and funded as such.

The credit faces new challenges, as Illinois is now considered a “second tier” incentives state. It must fight states, like Michigan, which is considered “first tier” for offering above- and below-the-line incentives to attract Hollywood business.

The other faction within the board believes the IPA should promote the visual media business as a whole, in an effort to increase new business opportunities, above and beyond Hollywood movies, and in addition to the tax credit.

While Ullberg said he favors “streamlining the IPA as the guardian on the wall to watch over the tax credit,” he also believes the IPA is Chicago’s only film trade organization with the wherewithal to serve the entire film industry in other beneficial ways.

“When your economic health is threatened, you don’t just create incentives,” he added. “You also mobilize the entire community to find ways to improve the economic potential for everyone.”

Sally Fletcher, IPA member and treasurer since 2005 understands both positions. She supports the tax credit, of course, but she also favors the work of IPA’s business development committee.

“We want to push forward programs that help make this an indigenous industry, with roots, and not just wheels like the tax credit,” she said.

Elected to the 15-member IPA board were new members: Scott Erlinder, professor, DePaul University; actress Kate Henley and UPM Richard Lederer.

Re-elected to the board were Jeff Crabtree, Teamsters; Sally Fletcher, Fletcher Camera; Mark Kogan, Local 476; Sharon King, Sharon King Casting; Wayne Kubacki, Essanay Studio & Lighting; actress Grace McPhillips; Dan Moore, DGA; Claire Simon, Claire Simon Casting; Kent Smith, AICP; Lars Ullberg, Entertainment Labs, and Eileen Willenborg, SAG/AFTRA.