It has been 17 years and 158 days since the city’s pledge to build the West Branch Library.
At 6 PM on Wednesday, June 10, 2015 the Glendale city council will meet to consider and vote upon an action to cancel the current Lease Management Agreement with IceArizona. Here is the only item on the agenda:
“DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO DIRECT THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY TO CANCEL THE PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES AND ARENA LEASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF GLENDALE AND ICEARIZONA MANAGER CO., LLC AND ICEARIZONA HOCKEY CO., LLC, PURSUANT TO ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES § 38-511, AND TO PURSUE ANY AND ALL OTHER LEGAL ACTIONS AND REMEDIES NECESSARY TO EFFECTUATE CANCELLATION OR TERMINATION OF THE AGREEMENT.”
There are rumors flying furiously on Twitter, Facebook, etc. speculating on the reason for the possible cancellation. That’s all they are…rumors. I can affirm that the reason has nothing to do with the infamous audit or the brough ha ha over naming rights. I have agreed to not say anything further until after the council meeting.
Don’t expect Councilmember Sherwood to be at this meeting or call in. Apparently he will be in Salt Lake City tomorrow. How convenient especially if the deal he brokered blows up. His pals (Chavira and Aldama), or as all three call themselves, the “Tres Amigos” (I like Three Stooges better), will have to vote without their “jefe” to keep them in line. Oh oh…
Bring your seat cushions for tomorrow night’s meeting folks. Expect it to be a long one with every possible Coyote fan in attendance reiterating over and over again how stupid this council is. Has it occurred to anyone that they couldn’t be that stupid if they have discovered a way out of the current contract?
You will see the agenda item makes specific reference to Arizona Revised Statutes § 38-511. I suggest anyone that is interested in this issue take the time to read it.
© Joyce Clark, 2015
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Joyce, Its simple. The COGs point is that Tindall was working for the Yotes after working for the COG. Its a obsolete state law. One issue. Tindall didnt work for the COG when the deal was finalized. Just a heads up for you. Bettman and the NHL willl support the Yotes. they will BURY Glendale.
http://archive.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/20130823former-glendale-attorney-hired-by-coyotes.html
So I guess the question is, who was on their payroll? I have a few guesses, but let the speculation begin…
Fact is..the COG council is stupid..look at the money Joyce. Glendale has an annual budget of $640 million. Their payment to the coyotes is $15 million which is 1.5% of their budget. Which the coyotes pay Glendale $17 million. There’s your numbers there. They Dont lie!
Your facts are incorrect.
I agree with Joyce.
IA only returned about $8M to Glendale.
Also in addition to the $15M arena management contract, you have bond debt payments on the arena’s construction (Joyce could supply those numbers.) So it’s definitely more than 1.5% of Glendale’s budget.
Warren, the Yotes are said to be returning $7.5M when the fiscal year is complete.
And…Ed Beasley is about to be named the new city manager in Ferguson, Missouri!!! What is this world coming to?
Blog coming on that topic!
I can’t wait for this one!!!! LOL
IF, and that’s a BIG IF the City finds a way out of this and all the lawsuits that will follow, who will manage the arena, The PHoenix Monarch Group? They would be better off finding out how much it would cost to convert it to a parking garage since no concerts larger than say, Neil Sedaka will be booking there.
If the City were as smart as they think they are, sell the building, and out from under debt.
Now why didn’t I think of that; oh wait, I did, and campaigned on it. Lots of good that did.
Well, I read the law that the COG is hanging its hat on. I hope they have more than that. Tindall resigned in Feb 2013. Effective April 1, 2013. he remained as an advisor for 6 months.
The law says that the person in question has to be the person responsible for the deal. Since Tindall resigned April 1st, and the negotiations between IceArizona and the COG didnt begin until JUNE, seems Tindall wasnt the main person responsible for the deal.
One other point. What message does this potential action send to any business or company that wants to do business with Glendale. it says very clear……..Sorry but if a new council doesnt like what the one before the did, we will just void the deal. Thats a real slippery slope that a city with the reputation of Glendale has to do.
Between the Super Bowl stuff, the Sherwood recall and this………….the COG looks like class clowns to the outside world. When does the nonsense stop?
Tindall resigned april 1st, but remained a city employee until October 1st. Tindall looked over and provided city employees suggestions for modification of the current lease in it’s final stages. Tindall became employed by the Coyotes in August… so there was a time in which he was both an employee of the coyotes and the city… so to me… the city has a definite case to use AS38-511 to terminate the contract.
Also, when investing… would financial responsibility not be the biggest draw for growth? I’d say the looming bankruptcy this deal is likely to cause is more damaging than the city rightfully using the law to protect their interests.
It will be interesting to see what evidence they would have to show Tindall’s hands in the contract preparation, whether it be very preliminary work before things really got going, or if already written general existing language by him was copied and pasted into this agreement. (by either side) You would hope from their perspective (and the taxpayers) that the COG has already approached their counsels before taking this step and believe they could win this thing. To waste more tax dollars on a please please leap of faith would obviously be irresponsible. I say only half in jest, I sure hope one of his wayward emails doesn’t show the violation they are talking about and that it got sent inadvertently to the opposition. No, that has never happened has it?
I also found Leblanc’s quoting of numbers saying they are below the 6.5M that would have been budgeted with no hockey team disingenous at best. He used everything in the book for that calculation including returns of sales taxes from Westgate etc. But he doesn’t mention that while those returns would be much smaller without the hockey team, there would still be some returns on whatever events would be held there, and that the COG may get all parking, concessions, surcharges etc so the 6.5.M number would show some returns to the taxpayers as well thereby lowering that number.
JIm..you are right that this of course could damage the COG’s reputation further (if thats possible, lol) but in reality the COG probably won’t be building any mass edifaces for private business in the near future anyway given all these years of debacle after debacle. So there wouldn’t be similar contracts the city woud want to void and businesses would know that, in my opinion.
Whatever happens at this meeting can put a bad light on Glendale forever, as far as contracts and agreements. The future businesses and sports groups will look at Glendale as a poor partner to invest their future in. There are so many Coyote fans and the naysayers are naysayers about every single issue that Glendale is involved with. Yes, there have been bad times but aren’t we proud to have a sports arena like the Coyotes for bragging rights to family and friends all over. I’ve lived here a long time and some Council members and other individuals will come up with something shady on every thing that we are involved with. But Council members now all have their own agenda and there are enough of the negative groups to egg it all on. I have no intention of ever moving away, but if I was moving to a new area I would think twice about settling here. The “of the people, for the people and by the people” here only consists of the people in power and their followers.
The conflict of interest for Mr. Tindall stems from his representation of the City in the negotiations with Ice Arizona. As council for the city he had inside information regarding negotiations but, now represents the other party in the contract. It may or may not be a legal conflict however, the circumstances may present an ethical conflict under the Bar Association Code of Attorney Conduct.
To avoid even the appearance of a conflict, Mr. Tindall should recuse himself from representing Ice Arizona in all legal actions regarding the contract with Glendale that he participated in negotiating.
Attorneys are ethically bound by the Code of Conduct and even the illusion of impropriety should be avoided. Ethics and conflicts of interest are a very complicated and deep subject in law school. Law students spend an entire semester studying the subject and reviewing the many circumstances that may lead to a conflict. This may be one of them.
Just maybe COG is doing Andrew Barroway a favor. A hockey team in the NE would be indeed a celebration since there is a huge fan base. Not so much here in PHX. Plus Coyotes had a horrible season here, ending in 29th place and 28th in attendance. Per news media Coyotes will be getting new team members because of their poor performance. Might just be good timing for Barroway. I for one hope so. COG is a mid size city of 236k citizens. We do not have the tax base to subsidize sports teams. We are not NY, LA,Toronto etc.COG needs their taxes spent on infrastructure,roads,libraries, parks and recreation, in other words basic quality of life amenities that makes up a great city
I hope every other city considering sports deals sees what happened here. Sports are no more worthy a venture than any other private business. It’s one thing to provide concessions like a TIF district or to build out infrastructure that’s going to be needed eventually anyways. Entirely another to write a check to the team for $15 million every year. The economics of this would change in a heartbeat if the public sector started refusing to build these palaces for sports franchises.
Glendale votes to terminate the Hockey contract, it gets sued, Glendale pays legal fees to the Hockey team and its hired lawyers, Phx takes the team builds Suns and Hockey venue.
I find it interesting that Nick Wood best line is the city is trying to “renege on a valid contract that was negotiated fairly and in good faith.” I just have to wonder if he still remember the rest of the promises he made to the city throughout the years just to mention a few from that same contract “the city will make more that $15m per year if they keep the coyotes at the arena.” He took out the option for the city to renegotiate the contract if they did not deliver the revenues as promised. The Jameson deal had in minimum concert performance levels this one did not. If the team leaves little or no liquidating damages for the city however if the city wants them out big buyout fees.
His big problem today is that he did not expect the former city attorney to go and work for the team and his worst nightmare he did not expect the council to be smart enough to discover thus seldom used law to void the contract.
Agree totally with Bernadette B. Glendale isn’t the fast moving, progressive type city that LA, Toronto etc..is….It is laughable.
I came from a town of 600 that had parks and libraries.
Our city of Fayetteville through the Lions Club just got through building a little league park for kids.
Glendale is just an oversized version of Podunk Illinois or Gobblers Knob Kentucky, they are entirely out of their league when comparing themselves to the great towns she mentioned.
That being said, I do agree that the city of Glendale has every right to do what they are doing…and I support their stand.
Major League teams? Symphony Orchestra’s, things like that? Ha..no way..
Stick to parks, chocolate festivals and libraries..
And maybe ask Gobblers Knob Kentucky if they’d like to be your sister city!
I apologize for the above post…Gotta stop posting things when you Im angry..This has been one contentious subject over the years….
Sorry about the snarky reply..I am the poster of the above snark.
I do back the city in their concerns and hope the Coyotes can move downtown where they can more easily succeed and hope they leave the city with all parties satisfied that all bills are paid up and they can shake hands and move on….
glioblastomarunner