By Matthew Hirsch

The organization that controls the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum is refusing to release documents related to a disputed food-service contract, reflecting an essential problem with public-private partnerships, which are becoming increasingly common in city government.

Harry Parker, the museum's director and head of the Corporation of Fine Arts Museums, told the Bay Guardian he wouldn't release the request for proposals, the bid responses, or the criteria used for awarding a lucrative contract to Wolfgang Puck and Bon Appétit Management Co., a subsidiary of the world's largest catering company, Compass Group.

The decision ended 16 years of food service at the museum by Taste Catering, a local company.

"What the Fine Arts Museums has chosen is to go with a company that does not have its roots in San Francisco," Taste Catering co-owner Janet Griggs told us. "They have the performance halls, and now they have the museums. Is this a trend, and is this where things are going?"

One of the big factors, Parker told us, was the financial package Bon Appétit offered the museum. Institutional caterers typically pay for the rights to sell food in a facility with a percentage of revenues, and Taste offered less than Bon Appétit, he said.

"They participated in a fair contest, they were unable to match the financial terms that Bon Appétit offered, and we elected to go with Bon Appétit," Parker said. "We have to do what's right for the museum."

Parker declined to say how much of its sales revenue Bon Appétit offered to share with the museum, but he estimated the concessions contract will generate less than 3 percent of overall museum revenue.

And if money was indeed the deciding factor, the difference between the two bids was pretty tiny: Parker said that compared to Taste's offer, Bon Appétit's proposal would increase the museum's overall revenue by less than 1 percent.

Of course, neither Griggs nor members of the public can find out exactly what the financial differences were or determine whether the bidding was fair. Although the de Young is being rebuilt on public land in Golden Gate Park and it continues to get funding through the Fine Arts Museums, Parker insisted he has no obligation to release documents that would normally be public in a government agency.

"We're not going to give you the documents, because they are not documents of the public entity that has jurisdiction over the museum," he told us.

When the de Young was closed in 2000 to deal with building damages caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake, the city put the public-private museum organization in charge of the reconstruction effort. Together the publicly appointed trustees and the Corporation of Fine Arts Museums raised more than $175 million to refurbish the de Young, which is set to reopen in October.

Museum critics said the secrecy is typical of what they've faced with the public-private outfit.

"They can't have it both ways," Alliance for Golden Gate Park member Chris Duderstadt told us. "They get millions from the city, [so] they have to open their books. Sadly, you'll have to take this to the sunshine task force."

E-mail Matthew Hirsch