Restructuring the Alerus Center commission

Grand Forks City Council Mike McNamara said today at the finance committee that he'd like to get rid of the commission structure at the Alerus Center and have the city run the building the way it runs any other department.

Council member Terry Bjerke, who's a frequent ally of Mac, emphasized that it should be something the council considers, but didn't outright say he favored the idea.

Most other council members at the meeting -- only Art Bakken was absent -- didn't care much for the idea.

Council President Hal Gershman said it's just not a good idea to let a political body run that kind of a facility. The council used to run the airport and finally had to give it to a commission because it couldn't focus enough on the airport. Actually Hal said when he became the first airport commission chairman years ago, the FAA was within six months of shutting down commercial flights out of GFK.

"The idea of a commission is to remove the politics from the process," he said. Fargo's city commission doesn't need to run the Fargodome and that building runs just fine.

"I would gladly trade politics for transparency," Mac said.

The transparency issue, which I'll cover more in depth tomorrow, is somewhat mentioned in this blog post and this one.

It seems like Mac is of the opinion that the commission structure just can't help but not be transparent. I'm not sure that's a fair assessment.

• Imagine if there were a brand new commission -- new members, new structures -- and that commission were fully briefed about open meetings and open records laws.

 (Let me mention here something I heard today at the events center Executive Committee meeting during which we talked about the disputed Alerus Center contract. I forgot about it until I replayed the recording. Commission Chairman Curt Kreun said that he doesn't always get the contract, that's why the commission's got VenuWorks President Steve Peters and Alerus Center Executive Director Steve Hyman, who's also with VenuWorks, to help figure it out. I was speechless for a second. What, him? I said. Then Curt said after they do their interpretation, the commission sends the contract to the council and City Attorney Howard Swanson interprets it some other way, as in some other way that Curt disagrees with. Read the paragraph again if you didn't notice something wrong. Dude. The reason you negotiate with them is they're not on your side. The commission works for the city not for VenuWorks. This bunker mentality has gone too far!)

• Imagine if the public could understand exactly how the commission makes its decisions, given the structure of committees it has. (Right now, it sounds like the commission just lets the Executive Committee make decisions on its own, which is contrary to the committee structure of most city bodies.)
• Imagine if the financial data were less confusing such that any member of the public could understand exactly:
  • How much money the Alerus Center lost or earned, including how much came out of the concert and contingency fund.
  • How the finances affect the way VenuWorks' management fee is determined.
  • How much sales taxes the Alerus Center paid through its activities.
  • How much sales taxes it generated citywide as part of its economic impact.
  • How much total economic impact it had and how that formula was determined, including how attendance determines impact.
  • How many events there were at the Alerus Center and how many attended each event. (Some of this is already available.)

 Now, imagine what could happen if the Alerus Center were politicized so that seven politicians have to sign off on deals with concert promoters. Imagine what could happen if one or two politicians misspoke and said the Alerus Center is a lousy place to hold a concert or that a certain conference organizer really gypped the city.

I think the difference between the Alerus Center and any other business-like department in the city is that the Alerus Center is a lot more dependent on good relations with its customers. The city has a monopoly on utilities so it never has to fear losing those customers. It has a monopoly on street cleaning. It has a near monopoly on downtown parking. It has a near monopoly on public transportation. It doesn't have a monopoly on industrial buildings, but it can offer low-interest loans and tax exemptions like no other landlord.

I'm not saying anyone on the council now will do anything foolish to endanger the Alerus Center's reputation as a business partner, but that's no guarantee future politicians wouldn't take advantage.

Posted by: Tu-Uyen on 11/04/2009 at 10:36 PM | Comments (5) | Permalink

Tags: alerus center, budgets and taxes, economic development, gf and egf, gf city council