Monetary gloom appears to have accrued for quite some time in the board room of the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Ga. A recent examination of the local non-profit’s tax records revealed a cumulative net loss of more than $1.13 million from 2014 to 2019. 

The seven-figure deficit began to accrue well before the pandemic, appearing to have been greatly exacerbated by the 2015 hiring of their current executive director, Norman S. Easterbrook.

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Easterbrook began his stent as the RiverCenter executive director during the organization’s 2014 fiscal year, reporting  a net loss of $213,257 on the organization’s Form 990; a document required by the Internal Revenue Service for non-profit organizations to disclose their financial information to the public. 

The following year of 2015 was far worse than the prior, with Easterbrook admitting a net loss of $435,249. 

The problem continued to snowball. Easterbrook reported a net loss of $186,375 for 2016, and another loss of $159,193 for 2017. 

In fact, the only year that Easterbrook has produced positive net revenue for the RiverCenter was in 2018, reporting a net gain of $200,569. 

This single-year uptick revealed to have been fluke, as Easterbrook again reported a net loss of $334,668 for 2019 — completely underpinning the slight gains made the year prior. 

Additional Form 990s from 2020 to 2021 have not yet been made easily  available for review. 

All-in-all, the RiverCenter has reported a cumulative net loss of $1,138,155 from 2014 to 2019, all occurring during Easterbrook’s tenure.

The resignation of multiple staff members in recent years may give further  light to the culture and environment Easterbrook has fostered under his charge at the RiverCenter. 

No less than five female employees have quit, several of them without having secured future employment, citing the hostile workplace created by Easterbrook.

According to several past employees whose identities we have chosen to redact for privacy reasons, numerous formal complaints of a hostile work environment have been filed against Easterbrook. The employees went on to describe how none of those complaints were ever investigated conclusively by the RiverCenter nor its board of directors and went largely ignored. 

As a result, the employees walked out one by one.

Various sources close to the Muckraker, whose identities have again been redacted due to privacy concerns, have reported troubling experiences in working with Easterbrook. 

One such source has stated they are positive that the RiverCenter’s financial troubles are caused almost entirely by Easterbrook. 

The claim seems to match the actions of the RiverCenter’s board of directors, who last year voted to conduct a financial investigation of the organization’s accounting practices.

While the results of that investigation have not been independently confirmed by the Muckraker, there is reason to believe that they were conclusive enough to warrant a deeper and more stringent level of formal investigation.

An additional local source close to the RiverCenter, whose identity we have chosen to redact due to privacy concerns, has disclosed to the Muckraker that the RiverCenter may currently be under investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labor (DOL).

Easterbrook was not approached for comment prior to this article’s publication in order to prevent retaliation upon current RiverCenter employees by their employer. 

Muscogee Muckraker will continue to report on these investigations as more information is able to be confirmed.

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