07-11-05 Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETINGJULY 11, 2005 make that conclusion. The South Bend Tribune Editorial that was published today about thth the 20 or 30 one that they have printing trying to flag that broken down horse (CFHF) The article was misleading and ill-informed. Mr. Cierzniak pointed out a few of the reasons. The Hall has not quite lived up to the expectations heaped upon it. The word quite, that fits the White Sox game yesterday, they came from behind but they couldn’t quite make it, they lost by a run. No so with the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame between 1996 and 2003 was supposed to raise and profit by 2.8 million dollars. During that time period it lost 7.5 million dollars. The situation was no better and the Hall was supposed to bring in 550,000 in revenue and income, it lost about 1.1 million dollars. Never quite lived up to expectations, oh how close it came! Then redevelopment business brought in and they believed that the hall has been critical catalyst in helping to redevelop downtown. Chocolate Café, The Vine Restaurant and LePeeP Restaurant are all three brought in by the Hall of Fame. That was the Tribune’s thought in their article. Mr. Cierzniak advised that that would wonderful news to the owners of those businesses to realize that it was the Hall of Fame that made it possible for them to succeed in South Bend. Then the editorial writer goes on to say that the City of South Bend has bent over backwards to accommodate the hall. Sorry they got that wrong, we bent over forwards and have been in that position for quite some time. Lastly, the mayor said that before any new contract is entered into, it must be explained what the long term prognosis of the contract for the hall is and what it will mean to taxpayers. Mr. Cierzniak stated that he can explain that right now. The entire contract is not being renegotiated, we are under a general agreement which is for forty years, ten of which have elapsed, so for the next thirty years, we are basically under a contract, that says the City of South Bend will carry all the responsibility for the financing and operation of the Hall of Fame. Now, when will people understand that? That is not being negotiated, the only thing that we can have negotiations on is that if the NFF would suddenly say “You know we have got you over a barrel, this is the most unequal type of contract and we gonna let you out of it and we are going to come up with something fair.” They are not going to do that, of course! We know how the NFF operates, so the idea that somehow we are really negotiating from any kind of situation of strength is just not right. We are tied to the general agreement and what it comes down to is and it has been said before that the NFF has two choices here and it is their choice it is not the City’s. The first choice is that the City goes back to the general agreement and the City takes over the hall and runs it once again. That is a formula for a million dollars of lose each year in operations, or the NFF can takes its operation and go elsewhere, take all of its exhibits pay the City a $1.00 for that and in the process we will owe them about 1.9 million dollars which they have loaned us! That is the other alternative which the NFF has. The City of South Bend has no real bargaining position in this negotiation and for the South Bend Tribune to imply that the City’s does is simply wrong! ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Council, President Pfeifer adjourned the meeting at 7:45 p.m. ATTEST: ATTEST: _____________________________ _________________________ John Voorde, City Clerk Charlotte D. Pfeifer, President 15