Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bay Area Reporter - December 15, 2005
Matthew S. Bajko, m.bajko@ebar.com
"I am very, very relieved," said an elated Jones Tuesday, December 13. "It is over and done. They are bound to the settlement, and if they don't abide to the settlement, they can be sued."
Charles L. Thompson IV, the project's attorney, said last month that the project had decided to walk away from the settlement talks due to Jones's "unreasonable" demands. In an e-mail Tuesday, Thompson wrote, "The Names Project Foundation agreed to cooperate with the initial settlement of the case once Mr. Jones withdrew demands that Names did not believe were part of the original agreement. Had he stuck with the original agreement, there would not have been a delay in returning more Quilt to San Francisco." Thompson declined to disclose what demands the project found objectionable.
But on Monday, December 12 Thompson filed a motion of non-opposition to Jones's November 28 request with San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren that he force the Names Project to adhere to the settlement agreement. In what will be an early Christmas gift for Jones, Warren is now expected to approve the settlement agreement on December 23.
"Their efforts to weasel out of it are over," said Jones.
Jones and Names Project officials came to loggerheads in 2003 over fundraising concerns and disagreements over the display of the quilt. By December of that year the board had fired Jones from his $41,500-a-year position as its spokesman and "founder for life." In January 2004 Jones sued the project for wrongful termination, breach of contract, and emotional distress.
In the spring of this year the court threw out Jones's first two claims but allowed his claim of emotional distress to proceed. To end the legal dispute, both sides entered into settlement talks over the summer, and Jones believed the matter had been settled in September until he read media reports last month about the collapse in the settlement talks.
"I am still angry with the Names Project but I think, at least for us in San Francisco, we will be able to see a portion of the quilt and start using the quilt again for education. That is my top priority. I have met so many young people in their 20s in the past few months who have seroconverted. It is just very, very important that we continue to aggressively educate our young people," said Jones.
Under the settlement, the Names Project will send Jones 35 blocks of the AIDS quilt to be overseen by a new group called the San Francisco Friends of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Each block is comprised of eight quilt panels, and among those being shipped from Atlanta will be the very first quilt Jones stitched in 1987 for his friend Marvin Feldman. Jones will not have to pay a rental fee for the quilts, only the cost of shipping and insuring it.
Jones also will nominate two people to sit on the Names Project's board, and for every five additional board seats that may be created in the future Jones has the right to select a person for one of the new seats. Project officials must also include a link on their Web site to the San Francisco friends group's Web site.
Jones said he would begin the process of filing for nonprofit status next month. As for the news that San Franciscan Mike Smith, the co-founder of the quilt and director of the AIDS Emergency Fund, had recently joined the Name Project's board and agreed to work on housing a portion of it in San Francisco, Jones said, "I don't think I have a comment on that yet."
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