What I hope to accomplish with my posts on Super Bowl 2012 is to get the City of Indianapolis to divulge all that it has committed to do for that event, what they have committed to spend on that event, and what laws they have agreed to suspend, bend, or overrule through the Superbowl ordinance that just passed. The public has an inherent right to know what their elected officials have contracted for - even if it is accomplished through shell companies. Then, with full disclosure, the public can decide if it is worth it or not.
Last week I noted that there is a contract between Our 2012 SB, Inc, also known as the Indianapolis 2012 Super Bowl Host Committee and the City of Indianapolis' Department of Public Works (see "Super Bowl Host Committee Got To Design Georgia Street - Taxpayers Get To Pay For It"). The contract calls on DPW to expend $1.6 million to pay for the design work that originally was part of a contract between design firms and Our 2012 SB, Inc. The contracts call the project the "Super Bowl Village/Georgia Street" project. One of the more interesting, some might say frivolous, design changes noted in the initial round of contracts, subsequently taken over by DPW to pay, was to heat Georgia Street. Yes, the street and sidewalks will be heated from underneath with forced steam pipes. The cost estimate was another $1 million. Now, just how useful will that be beyond the Superbowl??? Come on. This clearly is a case of what sorts of things you spend money on, when you are spending someone else's money. Its just like the retractable roof on Lucas Oil Stadium, that rarely is retracted when the sun shines, but I hear, often leaks when it rains.
This brings me to the oft repeated promise that the superbowl would not cost taxpayers any money. The Host Committee would raise $25 million in private donations. Well, so far we have $600,000 of the City's budget allocated to creating free WiFi for superbowl visitors to the mile square - posted in the budget two years ago. We found out a week ago that IMPD spent $500,000 on superbowl expenses in the first 7 months of this year alone. We found the DPW contract for $1.6 million. The "Super Bowl Village/Georgia Street" project will cost taxpayers some $12 million. How much of that amount is specifically for the super bowl is not readily available. [edited to add: Mayor Ballard's 2012 budget calls for a one time $4 million donation to the City from the CIB to pay for IMPD efforts during the super bowl. This has not yet been approved]
One way to find more information would be to review the tax returns for the Host Committee. If you are not familiar, http://www.guidestar.org/ is a website that catalogues all tax returns for non-profits. One thing leading to another, I finally found the tax returns under the corporate name Our 2012 SB, Inc. From the tax returns I found that the former name was Indianapolis 2011, Inc. This was the Host Committee's formal name when it first attempted to land the superbowl, during the Peterson administration.
guidestar.org has 3 tax returns, covering the calendar years 2007, 2008, and 2009. The 2007 return was filed under the old corporate name.
In 2007, Indianapolis 2011, Inc., took in $400,772 and spent $377,184, apparently on the superbowl bid presentation. They reported no paid staff. The Board of Directors was co-chaired by Mitch Daniels, Bart Peterson, Jim Irsay, and Tony George.
In 2008, Our 2012 SB, Inc, took in $4,436,907 and spent $3,896,082. Towards the end of the year they hired a President/CEO, Allison Melangton. They paid her $57,622.00 salary plus benefits for those unspecified months of employment.
'Bid materials & expenses' accounted for $303,266. If anyone is interested in the articles of incorporation, they are included in the second half of this tax return.
In 2009, Our 2012 SB, Inc, took in $5,216,249 and spent $4,284,206. Melangton was paid $232,822.00 in salary plus benefits for the entire calendar year.
So, from 2007 through 2009, the Host Committee took in just over $10 million of the promised $25 million.
What we have on our hands is government officials using an intermediate company to keep pertinent documents from the public. Whether this was one of the initial reasons for setting up the Host Committee or a lucky accident, I cannot say. But, given that getting information from the Ballard administration regarding promise made to the NFL is like pulling teeth, I have to conclude they like it this way.
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Mark Small posted a blog post
8 hours ago
11 comments:
How is that a non governmental entity, our SB2012 committee, can request design work from the DPW? Can any other 501c make a request to DPW? Would the DPW even listen to a request from a 501c?
Does the 501c exist strictly to obfuscate who spends what and where for SB 2012? It certainly smells like that.
Don't forget that half the $12 million for Boondoggle Boulevard aka Georgia Street is federal money. And we all know they have even more money to burn than the local wastrels. Just listen to the presses run off the inflationary dollars.
Jon, the contract reads that INDOT was working with Our 2012 SB, Inc. INDOT would contribute $4 million in federal dollars to the project (I thing construction, not design). Our 2012 SB, Inc., negotiated a contract with a design firm that sub'ed some work to other firms. DPW then entered into a contract with Our 2012 SB, Inc., to reimburse that organization for the design costs and assume the rest of the construction contracts. I think DPW was always going to fund and let the construction piece - aided with INDOT/federal dollars.
I do not know if this path was a way to allow the NFL, through Our 2012 SB, Inc., to call all design shots - or - that Our 2012 SB, Inc., was supposed to pay for the design phase but doesn't have enough money and DPW bailed them out of the cost.
Fred, I do not have any information on what the local/INDOT/fed ratios are for this project.
think, not thing -- sorry for poor typing/proofing
HEI, perhaps the most galling aspect of this fiasco is best summed up by the SB 2012 statement;
"Under the supervision of the National Football League, Our 2012SB will centralize the planning and the execution of the 2012 Super Bowl to ensure coordination of all efforts and community resources. Our 2012 SB will serve as an extension to the National Football League in the local community,"
Is the tail wagging the dog here, is the NFL calling the shots and the 2012 SB just following orders? Under the supervision of the NFL... as an extension of the NFL... Doesn't sound to me like anyone in Indy gets a say about SB 2012.
Jon, we don't know if Indy gets any say. We don't know what was promised. They are shielding the facts from disclosure to the public. If we know what was promised, there is a chance we'd say it was reasonable. If we didn't think it was reasonable, then we have the right to say so.
I keep repeating : the public has an inherent right to know what was promised.
Georgia, or whatever it ends up being called, is being re-purposed as an 'event' street that will be used for decades of future Indy events, and should generate some nice tax bucks therefrom.
anon - its easy to wave one's hands in the air and make statements that are unproven. How about we get an independent analysis of how much money the super bowl village/georgia street project is costing Indianapolis (lets even forget totally about the state and fed costs). The analysis should also cover how much additional business will flow to the area, and how much additional COIT money will go to the City. Part of the restaurant tax goes to the CIB. Any increase in assessed value due to these improvements will generate additional property tax dollars that will flow to the Consolidated Downtown TIF.
So, how long will it take for the City to recoup its investment through increased COIT revenues?
Let's stop guessing and start looking at solid analyses.
Did some quick browsing on contract 8667 among the interesting things I found; most of the initial design work was planned in February and March of 2010 but the contract 8667 have a start date of 03/2011. I don't read construction contracts on a regular basis so I don't know if this is unusual or not.
The project grew from 4 million to over 10 million in less then six months, pages 66-67. The initial 4 million was from federal highway dollars, wonder where the other 6+ million will come from. There is some mention of steam heated sidewalks and that alone is 1+ million dollars.
Somewhere in attachment D the total "Optional" cost is over 13 million dollars; part of those costs, bicycle racks $13,882.50, ornamental rails $85,000.00, rain gardens $16,056.00, trees (8")$150,000.00, trees (6") $60,000.00, trees (4") $20,000.00 and radiant heat items, intersections $243,000.00, on Georgia Street $791,610.00 and vault for radiant heat $120,000.00.
No wonder they don't want anyone to see what is really going on!
Thanks Jon !! That's a lot of work to pull all of that out of such a long document. Most interesting.
Contract #8131, 10/18/2010, for 10 million for Georgia St. Project, 8 million fed and 2 million local. Is this contract also part of the SB update? I can't tell there aren't a lot of spefifics in the document.
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