DALLAS — Board members for Fair Park First, the nonprofit that manages Fair Park, earlier this week approved a resolution to place Fair Park First CEO Brian Luallen on a 45-day paid leave of absence and will conduct a performance evaluation.
Fair Park First Chief Impact Officer Alyssa Arnold is serving as acting CEO in the meantime.
“Mr. Luallen remains CEO of Fair Park First,” Fair Park First board president Darren James said. “We are united in the belief that this is the right step for our organization.”
James said a governance committee of the board was appointed to conduct Luallen’s performance evaluation, and the results of the evaluation will be presented to the board for review and consideration.
“While we cannot share more details at this time considering the sensitive nature of a personnel matter, the board of Fair Park First is proud of the organization’s accomplishments to date,” James’ statement said.
Among the accomplishments James cited were increasing the park’s annual attendance to more than 6 million visitors and raising more than $44 million for Fair Park and its community park project.
“Our highest priority is to ensure Fair Park continues to operate as normal and planned construction, such as the Community Park and the exciting improvements at the Cotton Bowl, move forward on schedule,” James said.
The city privatized Fair Park and handed over management of it to Fair Park First in 2019. At that time, Fair Park First contracted with Spectra, a venue management company, to manage day-to-day operations of the park. Spectra was bought by Oak View Group’s division specializing in sports, live entertainment and hospitality, OVG360, in 2021.
The Fair Park First Board's meeting this week came about a month after Luallen issued a statement alleging Oak View Group may have "inaccurately, and we hope inadvertently, allocated and utilized restricted funds raised by Fair Park First for daily park operations."
Oak View Group denied the allegations.
"We are confident – and have documentation to support – that all uses of donated funds were with the full knowledge and approval of Mr. Luallen, acting on behalf of Fair Park First,” Oak View Group’s letter at the time said.
Neither group -- nor the city -- provided information about how much money may have been misappropriated.
