More budget woes for Hemming

[Murder_me_Rachel]

http://jacksonville.com/news/2015-07-27/story/city-freezes-payment-friends-hemming-park-dispute-over-what-constitutes

[Downtown Osprey]

So damn frustrating to read stuff like this. When I first moved downtown 2 years ago the park was in god awful shape. they really have transformed that place. Hope they get this all figured out asap. 

[Crabernacle]

It's things like this that really make it so hard for me to support the Jaguars.  Projects like this-- that truly benefit, and can reach, the entirecity rather than small subset who can afford tickets/parking/concessions-- suffer, but we always have enough to throw at a billionaire who doesn't need it.

MMR, did we read the same article? The one I read made no mention of the perfidious Jaguars strong arming the council to choke off funding for Hemming.

[BennyKrik]

1. It was reported Times U donated 800 thousand to Friends of Hemming
- that single donation  is larger than than the reported 600k from all sponsors

2. Does the 94k in consession sales represent month to date or year to date amount?

[UNFurbanist]

This happened last month right? Why is this just now a big deal? I'm sure the new city council and Mayor won't be so harsh on FOH.

[BennyKrik]

schellemberg is not my representative but I'm opposed to lack of transparency in finances  of non profits funded with public money
Wherein the young people in charge couldn't get a job in the private sector.

[CCMjax]

It's things like this that really make it so hard for me to support the Jaguars.  Projects like this-- that truly benefit, and can reach, the entirecity rather than small subset who can afford tickets/parking/concessions-- suffer, but we always have enough to throw at a billionaire who doesn't need it.

MMR, did we read the same article? The one I read made no mention of the perfidious Jaguars strong arming the council to choke off funding for Hemming.

I think the city is trying desperately to not lose the Jags so they have become Shad's bitch, no?

Are we sharing the same definition of reading-comprehension? One-tenth of what the city gives to the Jags could operate Hemming.

[BennyKrik]

whatever  they do, they do it for a paycheck

[TheCat]

It's things like this that really make it so hard for me to support the Jaguars.  Projects like this-- that truly benefit, and can reach, the entirecity rather than small subset who can afford tickets/parking/concessions-- suffer, but we always have enough to throw at a billionaire who doesn't need it.

MMR, did we read the same article? The one I read made no mention of the perfidious Jaguars strong arming the council to choke off funding for Hemming.

Are we sharing the same definition of reading-comprehension? One-tenth of what the city gives to the Jags could operate Hemming.

+1

[comncense]

Ah, the Shad Khan hate seems to be at an all time high these days. The Jaguars seem to come up in just about so many unrelated posts on here these days.

[jph]

It may be time to ask for the Censure of Matt Schellenberg over his continuing bad faith actions in the Hemming Park contract.  There is a requirement for good faith in these things and this type of behavior is literally the opposite of good faith.

At the very least, he should probably be disallowed from any further discussion or debate on the issue.

I don't know any of the particulars on either side of the story, but why do you think he's acting in bad faith? If the contract says that they have to raise $X and they don't raise it, it seems totally reasonable to not release the funds as the contract states.

Presumably a big part of the reason that park management was put out to bid to a private group was that they could do a better job of raising funds and so provide a better experience. This isn't just a technicality in the contract - if they aren't actually raising funds, why should it be privatized at all?

[mtraininjax]

This year's budget is all about public safety, vehicles and fixing roads, bridges and failing infrastructure. This is a lollipop of a deal as it will have a hard time finding funds in the Mayor's budget. Better to come from a councilman, and its just a shame that the issue could not have been resolved in the last administration, but.........

that is why we have a new administration, to clean up issues from the prior one.

[whyisjohngalt]

Were there other groups that offered to manage Hemming?  If you win a RFP based on certain metrics - then fail to meet those metrics, then the solution isn't to change the metrics.  Eventually, they will run out of reasons why they didn't meet the "quota".

Even though it seems semantical to argue whether "fundraising" includes concession sales or not, when initially presented in the winning bid it was a unique ability of this group.  If the last quarter includes One Spark HQ and Art Walk HQ - as promoted by DVI - then every group would've got that concession revenue.  Especially with $XXX,000 public funds to clean and manage with.  Shouldn't this group be held accountable to their promises?

If you include concessions, then it becomes possible to purchase their own concessions - with previous city payments - to qualify for the next payment.  Excluding concessions seems reasonable.

They failed to meet their own goals and thus failed to earn the next city payment. 

[vicupstate]

Were there other groups that offered to manage Hemming?  If you win a RFP based on certain metrics - then fail to meet those metrics, then the solution isn't to change the metrics.  Eventually, they will run out of reasons why they didn't meet the "quota".

Even though it seems semantical to argue whether "fundraising" includes concession sales or not, when initially presented in the winning bid it was a unique ability of this group.  If the last quarter includes One Spark HQ and Art Walk HQ - as promoted by DVI - then every group would've got that concession revenue.  Especially with $XXX,000 public funds to clean and manage with.  Shouldn't this group be held accountable to their promises?

If you include concessions, then it becomes possible to purchase their own concessions - with previous city payments - to qualify for the next payment.  Excluding concessions seems reasonable.

They failed to meet their own goals and thus failed to earn the next city payment. 

It all comes down to what is in the contract. Does the contract say that fundraising does NOT include concessions?  if it doesn't, then they kept their part of the deal. Frankly, concessions would seem to be a natural expectation for a revenue source.   If the city didn't want it included, it should have specified that.

If they spent city funds to buy concessions from itself, that would be a different story.  Do you have an indication that happened? 

[ben america]

The contract, the terms and the benchmarks are all a matter of public record.

Look it up and check the benchmarks. Look to see how revenue is defined. Until you understand the language used, any statement that FOHP didn't hit their benchmarks is uneducated.