Filmmaker Criticizes CR Mayor Over Newbo Evolve Comments

Filmmaker John Waters, a speaker at the Newbo Evolve festival this summer, is criticizing Cedar Rapids Mayor Brad Hart for comments made about his contract and money owed to him. The 72-year-old Waters is among the vendors owed $800,000 in unpaid fees from the festival.

Waters took issue with what Cedar Rapids mayor said during an interview with KCRG TV 9. The mayor said, "My understanding was he was paid $30,000 and received half of that up front. I hope if I am ever in his position - I never will be - that I would not drag an entire city down over $15,000." Waters fired back yesterday in an interview with the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Waters stated, "I see the mayor continues to get information wrong from his own city. The amount he hears is owed to me is incorrect. He can't even get that right. Only a clueless politician would think $15,000 was a small amount of money." Waters went on to categorize the comments as "amazingly entitled." 

Waters went on to say that mayor Hart should have never tried to reveal portions of his contract that were supposed to be kept confidential. He also said that people who work in his office had been "ripped off too" because they would have gotten a percentage of his contracted fees.

In his interview with KCRG, Hart stated that "it reflects poorly on our city, but it was not our city that did this." GO Cedar Rapids HAD been given $1 million a year by the city to market tourism, but the officials have insisted that the two are separate and they are not responsible for the festival's demise.

[via Gazette]