By:  Diane Benjamin

On August 31st I posted the Coliseum timeline to show how long I have been trying to bring problems at the Coliseum to the City’s attention.  https://blnnews.com/2016/08/31/coliseum-the-timeline/

Today I found another piece to the puzzle that I had forgotten.

The City Council meeting where hockey was changed from professional to junior was held in April of 2014.  At that time Alderwoman Judy Stearns was promised a review of concessions in 60 days.

Note:  The entire Coliseum contract could have been renegotiated since this change violated the original contract.  The City could have said “YES” to the change, but only if a totally new contract is drawn.  They didn’t.  The losses continued.  The taxpayer bailouts continued.

When the 60 days was getting close, Stearns asked about the promised review during aldermen comments – June 23, 2014.  The video below shows Hales again promising it’s almost ready and will be brought to the Council soon.  He also claimed CIAM was underpaying themselves on Commissions.  For new readers, CIAM paid themselves a 4% Management Fee on Sales Tax!  No proof was ever offered showing they didn’t receive commissions they were entitled to, and no mention was ever made about management fees taken on non-qualifying items.  Sales tax wasn’t the only item that wasn’t Coliseum Revenue they paid themselves a percentage of.

Watch the video – nothing Hales says ever happened.

I wrote another story on July 27, 2014:  https://blnnews.com/2014/07/27/what-happened-to-the-promised-coliseum-review/

I spelled out NUMEROUS problems – the City under David Hales and Tari Renner didn’t address any of them.

Keep in mind:

• Taxpayers were told the Coliseum would never cost you a dime
• Revenues were suppose to be $7 Million a year – it’s never been close to that
• Net Income was supposed to be more than $2 Million a year – it’s never been close to that
• The Coliseum was supposed to pay the bonds taken out to build – it doesn’t

Then, when problems were identified, Hales and Renner buried them.  Maybe both are complicit!

Now you know why I filed the lawsuit!

Hales and Renner are masters of burying items they want to forget.  It’s up to citizens to not allow concession accounting to be buried again.

The City may try to claim my reported difference isn’t correct because some of the teams that played at the Coliseum got 10% of gross concessions.  If it’s true – it won’t come close to $447,318!  More deflecting.