Falfas vs. Kinzel: Court Documents Released

[bkroz]

I didn't see a topic about this anywhere else, and since Terpy has been diving into discussion elsewhere, perhaps it hasn't been brought up.

Via The Sandusky Register (whose employees I believe Mr. Terp refers to as the "crack staff").

You can read both Mr. Kinzel and Mr. Falfas testimony concerning some disputed phone calls between the two by loading some PDFs linked at the very bottom of the article. I haven't the foresight or intelligence of The Interpreter in these matters, so I'll quote only two sections that I find most interesting.

Kinzel is scheduled to retire in January, and the company is expected to announce a new CEO soon.

The court documents, only recently unsealed, show that on June 2, 2010 -- just days before Falfas' departure -- Kinzel sent a memo to Cedar Fair's board explaining he had reorganized the company's management team to shore up the plan to make Falfas the new CEO.

Falfas is weak on financial skills but strong in operations, Kinzel explained.

Promoting Peter Crage to executive vice president and David Hoffman to vice president of finance and corporate tax would allow Falfas to concentrate on operations, the memo said.

But the relationship between Kinzel and Falfas soured days later.

Kinzel was unhappy about the Rock Band show's $1.6 million price tag, particularly the $275,000 licensing fee Cedar Fair paid MTV.

The two men discussed the matter in a phone call and email.

Testimony also shows Falfas opposed the decision to sell Cedar Fair to Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm. The deal collapsed after investors revolted.

During the arbitration hearing, Kinzel said he never sought to get rid of Falfas.

"I mean, I've used the words that if I need it from Jack, it was on the other side of that wall, he would go through that wall to get it for me," Kinzel said. "That's how much confidence I had in Jack."

(Emphasis added)

[CoastersRZ]

Already brought up and discussed here: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23087&st=320