Approval of a Blanket PO in FY 2026 for Complete Resource Productions for Monthly Rental of Audio and Light Equipment for the Sunrise Theatre in an amount not to exceed $230,000.

The Sunrise Theatre began renting lighting equipment in January 2025 as the equipment that had been used previously became inoperable. The Sunrise Theatre has an ongoing legal conflict with a previous contracted employee. The former staff member installed lighting and audio equipment without the consent of the Executive Director at the time. In December 2024, the former employee arrived at the Sunrise Theatre to retrieve his equipment that our venue was still using. Due to the change in leadership, the current staff of the Sunrise Theatre were unaware of the legal procedures they should have taken when the owner of said equipment arrived to uninstall it and pick it up. Enough of the equipment was obtained by its original owner that it left our lighting and audio system inoperable. The previous equipment owned by the Sunrise Theatre, that was uninstalled in early 2021 by this former employee, is outdated and does not serve the needs of the events booked at the Sunrise Theatre for the 25-26 Season. It is important that the Sunrise Theatre maintains the lighting system that we are renting and currently have installed, as we are contractually obligated to have this specific equipment for upcoming events booked.

In the long term, having this equipment saves the Sunrise Theatre money as we no longer have to rent as much lighting and audio gear on a per-show basis. Due to RFP No. 2025-017 for the Sunrise Theatre Operations Concession, the option for lease-to-own has not been looked into, and we have been advised to continue to rent the equipment. The Sunrise Theatre currently has a month-to-month rental agreement with Complete Production Resources for lighting and sound equipment. As noted on our monthly invoice, Complete Production Resources offers us more than a 50% discount on the lighting rental as we have worked with their company for years. The actual cost of renting this equipment, without a discount, is about $20,000 a month. The monthly cost of the lighting rental is $9,000 and the monthly cost of the audio rental is $8,490.

During FY 2025, the POs for the lighting and audio rental had to be extended and the City of Fort Pierce Commissioners voted to continue the rental process until RFP No. 2025-017 was complete. The sound equipment was originally rented from Jack Hammer Audio. In April 2025, Jack Hammer Audio offered Sunrise Theatre a lease-to-own agreement for the equipment that was already installed for $105,200. However, the Sunrise Theatre was unable to make that financial commitment due to the anticipated transition in management and the vendor pulled their equipment from the Sunrise Theatre in September 2025. 

Complete Production Resources was able to provide comparable audio equipment and match the monthly cost of Jack Hammer Audio. Complete Production Resources is already an established vendor as we rent our monthly lighting equipment from them, as well as extraneous backline items on a per-show basis. At the advice of the Director of Finance and the City Manager, the Sunrise Theatre is looking to open a PO for Complete Production Resources for the duration of FY 2026 to cover the cost of the rental equipment, totaling $17490 a month plus the installation fee of the sound equipment. Both the lighting and sound systems are already installed as the Sunrise Theatre already established this PO during FY 2025, brought the expenditure to the City's Commission, and is looking to open one for FY 2026 under the same terms. 

Approve the PO for FY 2026.

Deny the rental equipment, which is necessary to operate the facility.

Marisa Quijano, Interim Executive Director

Johnna Morris, Finance
Richard Chess, City Manager