COLUMBUS CIVIC CENTER ADVISORY BOARD MINUTES
January 18, 2006
Board Members
Present: Sam Wetzel, Sharon Pierce, Julius Arrington, Mike Corradino,
Brian McCluskey, Robert Anderson, Wane Hailes,
Absent: C.L. Moffit, Virgil Thompson, Wanda Jenkins
Civic Center Director: Dale Hester
Others: Jennifer McVay, Alfonzo Moore, Greg Coates, Rae McConnell
Aramark: Randy Krautter
Meeting called to order at 10:30am.
Minutes approved for November
Open Remarks: Sam Wetzel
I would like to ask who gets a copy of the minutes. I would like for them to go
to the Isaiah Hugley and Lisa Goodwin. Rae, when you send out your notices put
Civic Center Board meeting in subject line.
Finance: Jennifer McVay
Everyone has a copy of December?s financial report.
Our profit loss for December is $4500, are revenue is $15,000.00 over.
Everything is not posted yet we do run about a month behind. We do have some
big events coming up. Dale-Are goal for the fist six months of the year is to
break even. We have about a $90,000.00 increase in salaries and about
$200,000.00 increases in water and electricity over last year. By having a
break even in the first six months we feel like we are really ahead.
Sam- Jennifer can you walk us through with details
Starting with the revenue you can see it is broken down by Hockey, football and
other events. Mike- when does your physical year begin? Jennifer July 1.
We monitor real close. It is at mid-point now and we have only spent half our
budget.
Marketing: Dale Hester
I will report for Robin, she is at an appointment.
Marketing right now is in one of the busiest stages. You may have noticed there
are adds about the Civic Center with something coming up whenever you turn on
the TV or radio or pick up a paper. With Toby Keith, PBR, Monster Trucks, The
Blue Man Group coming up. Robin is really having fun with the Blue Man Group.
She is very busy and on top of things. Sam- I understand that with the Hockey
that the Florida team has went out of business. Do we have a revised Hockey
schedule? Dale- we have not lost any games that one game has rescheduled to
February 27th. What is this youth conference? Dale- it is a youth conference by
Auburn Heights for teenagers. They are bringing in speakers and entertainment.
Who is Fantasia? Dale-She is from American Idol.
Operations: Greg Coates
We are in the Middle of our second dirt show; we had PBR last weekend and
Monster Trucks this weekend. They are moving in now. We have brought in 60
truckloads of dirt and will be taking out about 65 and you will be able to Ice
skate on Monday.
The marquee out front is in the process of being fixed. We are replacing the
bulbs and panels. As soon as we can we need to get the new one in I feel in two
or three months we will be back to where it is now. I am spending about
$4,000.00 to fix it. Sam- what is the problem? Greg- I believe the installation
was not done properly. Dale- the city wired it but Dectronics over saw the
work. They say we keep getting lighting strikes on it. We are looking at it
right now we are trying to get a match for $150,000.00. Do you have Capitol for
that? Dale- we have an endowment. When the building was built there was five
million dollars given to help build the civic center. Two million was use for
building and three million was put in an endowment for the up keep of the Civic
Center down the road. I am trying to find out how much is in the fund now. We
are no longer under the general fund so if we do not have the money we can?t do
capitol improvements.
The capitol improvement that are needed:
Carpet extractor
Portal Curtains
Ice Skates
Additional staging equipment
Riding Scrvbbec
Golf Carts
Metal Shelves
Mondo Flooring
Mike- is it the role of the Advisory Board to make recommendations on things
like this. Sam- Absolutely
Sam is it the recommendation of the board that the endowment fund be used to
replace the marquee? Mike- If that would be the correct source of funding,
unless there is a reserve account that has been funded over the years for
marquee replacement or renovations, which it doesn?t sound like there is. I?m
assuming the endowment that started at three million has grown with interest.
What is the balance of the endowment right now? Dale-I can?t give an answer I
am checking on this. Robert- can we get a sponsor? Dale- no one is doing it
right now. We can sale the advertising around the board.
Sam- Its the since of the board that the marquee be replaced and the Director
of the Civic Center is ask to come up with a solution in replacing it. It needs
to be replaced. Sharon- is that on the list of things on the Operations list
that needs to be done? Is it at the top of the list? Dale- yes it is at the top
of the list. There are a lot of things that need to be done but that is at the
top. Sam- is everyone in agreement? Everyone replied yes.
The cooling towers are being repaired right now. A sample of replacement steel
was shown.
On controlling the air system let me tell you where we are on that. As
operations manager I get it from everyone, Dale?s office may be to cold where
Alfonzo may be to hot. This building is either hot or cold and the reason is
because the system that controls the building doesn?t work. The company that
installed it has come back to the city; they are currently at the Government
Center revamping the software that was put in to control the building
temperature. I spoke with Facilities Maintenance Manager Jerry Chandler, he
said when they are done at the Government Center they will come over here to
fix ours.
Speaking on the report I did with Georgia Power you ask what the horsepower was
on the cooling tower and it is twenty-five horsepower. The representative of
Georgia Power does not want to give me detail information in terms of what
buildings he is talking about. He did tell me it was buildings comparable in
size to us through out the state and our kilowatt rate was better.
Box Office: Alfonzo Moore
Lisa could not be here today; she is at home with two sick children. As you can
see we have a lot going on right now. We have several events on sale. I was
just thinking that I have been here about a year and eight months and this is
the most we have had on sale at one time and there are several events to come
to add to this. To give you some numbers right now the Monster Trucks that is
coming up tickets sales are $1200.00 there are roughly 500 tickets sold for
Fridays show and 750 for Saturday show. I spoke to the promoter and he is
expecting a huge walk up for both shows.
The Toby Keith show Right now is over 5000 tickets sold; we don?t have many
seats left. They are in the process of looking at the tickets that are on hold.
Twenty-six were released yesterday and as soon as they were released they were
gone. Sam- when you do a show like Toby Keith I think the normal capacity is
7500 what is the capacity for his lay out? Alfonzo- roughly 8,000, some are on
the floor some on lower level and telescopic. Sharon-what is the maximum
capacity? Dale- 10,000. Greg- shows like this that sale themselves we can push
the stage back as far as it will go to sell more seats. The event Vision 2007
is at 353 tickets sold and Fantasia at 69 sold that?s without marketing. Globe
Trotters 105 and Blue Man Group goes on sale this weekend but they have had two
pre sales and have sold 213.
With the changes being made with the city and implementations with the monies
we have made some changes in the Box Office. We have re-keyed the vault. The
drawers that the ticket seller?s use has been re-keyed and we are making
changes on how we issue the money to the sellers.
Lisa is currently working on building a few shows. Disney on Ice is coming and
she is busy building that. She is working on the Circus.
The Lipizzaner did real well. PBR did real well and Hockey is doing good.
Sam- Dale and I had a meeting with the Mayor and the City Manager. There was a
concern about cash handling procedures. One concern was about the promoters
getting cash advances. It was explained to them well and I believe he
understands. I think the meeting went very well. The Mayor is happy with what
is going on down here he said keep it tight. Alfonzo are the cash handling
procedures going well? Alfonzo- yes.
Aramark: Randy Krautter
Randy Introduced him self. Randy has been with Aramark for 12 years. I recently
came from Tucson Arizona.
I am really excited about this first half of this year 2007 the second half of
the building?s physical year. Just seeing that business gets on the books.
Trying to rebuild some things and build new things. Making sure we are not
leaving money on the table as they say. I believe Dale and I have recognized
some places where that currently happening and hopefully we can make it stop
happening. For an example there is a graduation weekend where there are eight
graduations back to back. Nothing has ever been open, of course they are not
going to eat a lot of chicken wings and pizza but they will have sodas and
water for sure to the tune of about $2000.00 per graduation. That?s about
$16000.00 in one weekend that we haven?t planned for.
I am excited about being part of the building. I?m still getting my feet wet
learning a lot of new faces hopefully we will all become very comfortable with
each other. Sam-are you adding new food Items? Yes we are trying new things.
Last week at PBR we tried a carving station and baked potato bar it went very
well. Something I think we will take over to the new hockey season and have on
a regular basis. I have been reading over Alicia?s notes from where they had
fruit bowls that they did at the cheerleading competition. I think for the
youth conference that is coming up this will do well.
Our contract is in the process of being signed right now on our end and we will
being submitting to Dale and the City next week. What I would like to do with
the capitol investment is take the pizza stand in the corner and incorporate it
into both the stands in the middle so we will have pizza on both sides and make
that one another gourmet grill.
Director: Dale Hester
We were talking about the box office a few minutes ago and I like to ad we have
two more events coming and that is Sugarland and Brad Paisley. On the 27th of
this month it is Richard Petty night. They are looking for a large crowd. He is
going to drop the puck and be in the building meeting people.
The cottonmouths have a blood drive, it will be on the 12th of February.
We bailed out one of the high schools for their blood drive they were turned
down by one of the churches. It was a marketing conference and two weeks before
they were told they couldn?t do it there so we are helping them out.
We are starting to plan the festival in May. We had are first meeting this week
and we will start meeting every two weeks and then every week and we will keep
you up dated on that.
We have been instructed to do a strategic action plan and go out as far as
2014. It is basically a wish list; we put it down and see what we can do with
it.
This is a couple things we (the staff) got together and looked at, updating our
security system, new marquee, additional storage for the building, a climate
control dehumidifier, closed circuit TV?s in the concession areas so we can
show what is going on while the patron are buying. The Ice Rink that is going
to continue to go. Skyboxes are a dream of ours. Ticket booths out side.
Additional staffing with the increasing events. That is are strategic plan,
when I am finished with it I will get everyone a copy.
We have talked about cash handling procedures; we have a meeting with Pam Hodge
Friday. There are still some thins they are asking and we have to sit down with
them to figure out how they want it done. Sharon- can you use Brinks. Dale-Yes
for pick-ups but not to cash checks for us. It?s how we do the cash advances.
We already wire them their profit after settlement.
We met with the Lions and there staff. There are five local owners of the team.
This is great! We will be meeting with them regularly and then weekly during
game time like we do with the hockey team. I am looking forward to it.
The Aramark contract is being signed by their group, and then it will be
coming to us. They are giving up the softball complex. They have turned it
over to parks and rec. and the sports council is going to take it over and I
believe they will contract it out to country?s BBQ. But I?m not sure.
Once we sign the contract we get a check for $250,000.00 for capitol
improvements in the concession food area. We can do what we really need to do.
We are going to update the commissary, change some items, and update the look
upstairs. Randy and I will get together as a team and decide what we need to
do. Randy said Aramark is taking steps to reduce the amount Trans fat in or
culinary production. They are trying to have this done by March 2007.
I have a letter that was sent by the City Manager to all Department Heads. It
basically says every department head is to have the highest level of
performance and accountability. We are going to do what it takes to get the job
done. The staff is doing an excellent job, my hats off to them.
Closing Remarks: Sam Wetzel
I like to complement the staff on the hard work your doing on getting all these
events in here.
For the Board I encourage you to visit as many events as you can even just to
see what?s going on.
Meeting adjourned: 11:30am
Minutes prepared by: Rae McConnell
Next meeting: February 15, 2006
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