So will the naming rights agreement add up to $600,000 a year for 20 years

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We got the shocking news today that Sanford and FP will be the title sponsor. Let’s see if it adds up . . .

Superlative suggested to the city that they have a starting point of $600,000 a year for 20 years. STARTING POINT.

But here is an interesting twist;

Sanford’s strategy, along with First Premier, was to set up an “endowment” that will be used to offset annual operating costs for the facility, helping to ensure that it does not lose money.

“We looked at it as an investment, not a bid,” Krabbenhoft said. “The city’s goal was to try to defray operating costs, so we sat down and figured out how much that was going to be, and we set up an endowment. That fund will create a dividend income every year to go toward paying off annual operating costs.”

In other words, there will not be a ‘set’ amount for a number of years, the title sponsorship is more like a rich uncle throwing you a few bucks each year in case you get in a bind. I wonder how many other companies proposed such a deal? I think we know the answer.

Also, if you saw yesterday’s budget hearing, Tracy Turbak told the Council that they want an additional $180,000 for Legends in 2013 and they are calling it OPERATING EXPENSES! AND THE PLACE HAS NOT EVEN OPENED YET!

Posted in: Event Center, Sioux Falls

Naming rights and Reindeer Games

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As I reported about a month ago, there were changes in the naming rights game. But I did leave out a few details, we will get to those in a moment . . .

I asked a city councilor last week when he thought the naming rights would be announced, and he suspected right before the ground breaking in August, I guess, to keep that element of intrigue and surprise with the public. Heck he doesn’t even know, but let’s just say him and the mayor are not real ‘close’.

I am just not sure how ‘surprised’ the public will be when they hear the ‘S’ word for the the 1,000th time. Christ, what some people will do to buy their way into heaven or at least into the pocket books of the sick and dying.

Now, back to the naming rights.

As I reported on June 16, there was a little switcheroo on the naming rights contract. The city decided to terminate their contract with Superlative and hire Legends to help with the naming rights. Which seems odd since the company(s) that want to put their name(s) on the building may have already been chosen.

What I did not tell you is on June 15 I had a very ‘colorful’ talk with Myles Gallagher, owner of Superlative. We had an intriguing 45 minute phone conversation about Sioux Falls, the Events Center, and his ‘disagreements’ with Darrin Smith and Mike Huether. While I would love to share most of the conversation with my South DaCola readers, I cannot.

I can say this, it seems two companies are possibly vying for a naming rights deal in a quasi-partnership.

But does the city have other competitors? Even if they were still going to go with the ‘S’ word in partnership with the ‘F’ word. Wouldn’t it help to drive up the bid?

Is this why Superlative was dropped over Legends? Did Superlative give advice that would be beneficial to the taxpayers? I guess we will have to see if ‘S’ & ‘F’ come in first place and if their offer is golden, that will be tell tale heart.

I’m pretty sure this will not come up at the groundbreaking ceremony, but I’m sure there will be several punch bowls of kool-aid being served.

Posted in: Darrin Smith, Event Center, Mayor Hubris, Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Mike Huether, Sioux Falls

Why is the city switching consultants on naming rights for the EC?

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And what happened to the $60,000 we gave to the Superlative Group (FF to 54:00)? PDF of Presentation: naming

And still, the grand mystery of naming rights;

The city council will also have to make a multi-million dollar decision involving naming rights for the facility.

The city isn’t saying much about that process, only that progress to secure a sponsor is being made.  They hope to have something in place by August, ahead of the groundbreaking.

Like I said above, what happened to Superlative, why are we using Legends now? Kermit asked about the Superlative agreement, and Smith said that they were similiar, but all Superlative did was ‘evaluate’ if our opportunities for naming rights was there – then Legends moves forward on the naming rights.

Huh? As Kermit said, Why not just use Superlative to do the naming rights since they did the evaluation? Darrin said they changed their minds and chose another firm. Then Erpenbach accused Staggers of ‘asking too many questions.’ WTH? Then she said he asked four questions and no one else asked any questions, then nobody does, except Rolfing making a statement and Jamison making a few comments.

I guess someone overheard Erpenbach telling Staggers after the meeting there is a procedural rule that limits them to two questions. I hope Staggers looks into this, because that is a load of crap.

The best part of the meeting was when Huether came up and told Staggers that he basically needed to play catchup and he could question any of the directors anytime he wanted to (in other words, not in a public meeting). Kermit responded that he felt it was a very good meeting with lots of interaction (in other words, we need to ask these questions in public.)

Posted in: Event Center, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Who is handling the naming rights of the Events Center?

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As you can see from these three documents, the city hired Superlative to handle the naming rights of the Events Center; superlative, nr-report, proposal

But are they handling it? I think we paid them around $60,000 to do this for us.

I’ve been told by a source that the Superlative Group was told to only work on naming rights in the interior of the building and the Economic Development office would handle the name on the side of the building. Not sure if this is true, but if it is, it could be why the naming rights search is so secretive.

We were told by Darrin Smith and the Mayor that we had to hire Superlative for their ‘expertise’. So why are we not using these experts?

How is the Economic Development office doing with their search? Rumor in the business community is ‘not so good’.

They may have already disenfranchised one applicant and there may only be one other one on the table, and that table is a little wobbly. I hope this is all rumors and speculation, I would hope we could garner more then just ONE applicant. How do you have a ‘bidding war’ when there is only one country fighting the war? True or not, the bigger question is why so few applicants?

I would like to know;

1) Is Superlative handling the negotiations or is the Economic Development office handling them?

2) And if Superlative is not, WHY!?

 

Posted in: Darrin Smith, Event Center, Sioux Falls

Bologna! (Updated with letter)

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pot_hole_jeep

I find it ironic that just one day after I send a letter to the editor of the Gargoyle Leader about how inefficient our public works department is, the same paper comes out with an editorial praising them and KELO does a story on the Capital improvement money being spent on infrastructure, finally. Do I think it is a conspiracy? Not at all, just a funny coincidence. I can’t post my letter here until it prints, but I pretty much talk about how the Public Works department wastes a lot of time filling the same holes instead of just fixing them correctly the first time;

That’s why it would be fairly easy to miss that Sioux Falls’ Public Works Department has been handling ongoing maintenance fairly well.

Bologna! Seriously! Filling a hole one day with blacktop, then tearing it up the next day and filling it with concrete is f’king assinine. It’s time the AL Ed Board pulls their heads out of the city’s ass.

UPDATE (This is a letter to the editor I sent to the Gargoyle on Monday, I haven’t heard a response from them, so I’m sure the trashed it, so you can read it here):

As a heedful follower of Sioux Falls city politics I had to laugh when city hall boasted to the media we were in superb financial shape. That’s an easy assertion when you only audit half of the city’s finances (an internal city audit only included the operational fund not the capital improvement). It would be like a mechanic informing you your car is road worthy even though two of your tires are flat.  It’s good to see our city bureaucrats have a glass half full mentality, even though that glass is nearly empty and has a crack down the side that is leaking badly. The truth is Sioux Falls is between eighty to hundred million behind on road construction infrastructure and with constant fee, retail, and property tax hikes you wonder who they are fooling with their myths of great fiscal responsibility. If we are in such superlative financial shape why do we keep escalating taxes and fees at such a high inflationary rate? And why aren’t we driving on streets of gold?

Well it doesn’t take the Wizard of Oz to figure that out.

On my way to work each day I drive past the intersection of 41st and Cliff Avenue. This winter a water main broke at that intersection and public works had to fix it. After the repair they filled the hole with gravel and poured black top over it instead of filling it with cement like the original road surface. Since then they have poured black top over the spot and refilled it at least seven times. They tore it up today and started digging an even deeper hole. I suspect though that this may be the final repair because a private contractor was working on it. We can only hope.

I’m starting to think that if this is how we fix all of our roads in Sioux Falls it’s no wonder we are overdue on road maintenance. It takes a great deal of resources to fill a hole seven times instead just fixing it correctly the first time, and God only knows what this is costing us.

It’s time the Sioux Falls public works department takes a course in efficiency and while they are at it, maybe the finance department can share the classroom with them.

Posted in: Public Works, Sioux Falls