Bond Community Relationships to Pay Town Toyota Center Debt, Eventually
This week bond attorneys plan to meet with Town Toyota Center and Wenatchee officials to refinance arena debt before the December 2011 deadline. A plan will take time, patience and leadership, but keep in mind the solution is simple.
Getting agreement is difficult because of mistakes. Wenatchee Mayor Dennis Johnson built a juggernaut to sell it. And he personally promised municipal representatives that if the debt weren’t covered, Wenatchee would cover it.
He was wrong, but he still blames business conditions, telling the Wenatchee World recently, “All the data at the time said, “Yes, this is going to work.”
The data said, “Beware,” creating a deadlocked council. When half the council voted no, the proposal died. But the mayor decided to cast the winning vote.That vote may have exceeded his authority under Washington State Law governing Wenatchee’s Council-Mayor form of government. State law RCW 35A.12.100 reads: “The mayor shall preside over all meetings of the city council, but shall have a vote only in the case of a tie in the votes of the council members with respect to matters other than the passage … of any resolution for the payment of money.”
Wenatchee paid money, $1.6 million in 2011, and promises to pay millions more.
Johnson’s refusal to admit his mistakes is making it harder to accept the simple solution at hand. But he courageously became mayor when the city was in turmoil and has a list of impressive accomplishments. And as I was reminded yesterday, he supported the arena to boost every community in the valley. He made mistakes, but who hasn’t?
As community leaders we can’t make the mistake of making it personal.
The debt is not a crisis in my mind. For the next few years Wenatchee is committed to guarantee the debt. Meanwhile others can help build revenue streams.
The PFD appears to have an effective general manager in Mark Miller, but he needs board members to resolve the debt while he generates traffic to justify the hundreds of thousands of dollars Town Toyota pays for naming rights.
Board members should bond people in local communities into a love affair with the center. The community ice arena is working well. Venom fans and Wild Fans enjoy it. My family enjoys it.
Municipalities need to appoint courageous, positive board members and build support in their comments and actions. Elected officials should help the center succeed for their citizens and let personal issues fade. When the time is right, councils could approve a measure for taxpayer approval to pay $15-20 per household per year for the debt.
In my mind, municipal leaders are partly culpable. After all, at least some knew the numbers were unrealistic, and their resistance forced Wenatchee to agree to cover shortfalls. It sounds like, “If Wenatchee’s dumb enough to make that promise, who are we to stand in your way?”
One leader from one municipality who required a proposal with realistic numbers could have prevented this issue. A bad deal for one local municipality is a bad deal for every local municipality. Municipalities need interagency agreements to cooperate. If Wenatchee suffers, all citizens and municipalities suffer. Somebody could have said, should have said, “Propose something more reasonable.
Eventually a band of debtors and owners should coalesce to convince everyone to solve it. A solution might even include State support, but legislators should require increased tax support from municipalities.
Until then we should bond every citizen into a strong relationship with the center and prepare to support our arena at a modest cost. It is our public facility.
Posted by JSR at 3/10/2011 1:48 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: towntoyotacentermayordennisjohnsoncityofwenatcheepublicfacilitiesdebt
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: towntoyotacentermayordennisjohnsoncityofwenatcheepublicfacilitiesdebt
A wise and constructive piece of advice. I hope the citizens and communities involved can be as reasonable and positive in their responses as you are.
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And I thought that Cheyenne, Wyoming which bought a Taco John Event Center it could not pay for and then could not make pay was the only city with such a track record of failure. It seems our elected officials believe that the whole world (and city) is as well off as they.
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