I suspect by now everyone has learned of Mayor Weiers’ idea of splitting
the lease management agreement for Jobing.com Arena into 4 separate management agreements. One would be for “entertainment”. I assume it means non-hockey events. The second would be hockey. The third would be “education”. Your guess is as good as mine as to exactly what that means. The fourth would be “cleaning”.
So now the arena would have 4 managers…er, czars. Lots of generals and very few, if any, soldiers. Picture this. Hockey plays on a defined schedule. The entertainment czar has a dispute with the hockey czar or education czar because there is a conflict as to who gets what night. Or there’s a
conflict between the entertainment czar and the cleaning czar because the floors are sticky from soda residue or the restrooms are not spiffy. Does the NHL reschedule the Detroit Red Wings or others until the 3 other czars have reached resolution of the disputed issue?
What to do? Call in a mediator? My goodness it could take weeks, possibly even months to settle disputes. In the meantime, the place gets dingier and nights go unused by anyone. Is this any way to run a business? And of course, the larger question is – to what purpose?
This situation calls for a czar over all the czars and the creation of yet another layer as a manager to manage the four managers would then be needed. So now Glendale would have 5 contracts to award rather than just one. Spreading the largess in a greater…well…arena, so to speak. Remember what Anthony LeBlanc said to the media not too long ago? He said the deal to be attractive to a potential buyer would have to be very similar to the deal that has been on the table. Sounds to me as if he’s referring to the Jamison deal.
Why 4 separate management contracts? The speculation abounds. One theory is that it is a means of courting more councilmember support for a deal. The award of an education contract may satisfy Councilmember Chavira who is big on education. So big he ran on improving education not realizing the City of Glendale is separate from Glendale school districts and has no control over them. Remember his campaign pledge to work to “fully fund Head Start,” a federal program? Having educational opportunities at Jobing.com arena might assuage that embarrassment and do the trick. Although Glendale taxpayers are probably not in the mood to fund yet another city fiscal responsibility not specified in the City Charter.
Then there’s the entertainment contract award. Remember the Phoenix Monarch Group (PMG)? Councilwoman Alvarez brokered a meeting between them and the former Mayor Scruggs and Former Councilmember Lieberman. Opening the door for them to bid may cause Alvarez to move away from her staunchly negative position on any deal for the arena.
There may be a certain appeal to the idea of offering 4 arena management contracts for the Mayor. For during his election campaign just a short 3 months ago his position was that the only way the team could stay was if it didn’t cost the taxpayers of Glendale. He’s made it quite clear that he thinks the Jamison deal was bad for Glendale taxpayers and the only good deal is one that doesn’t hurt them. He’s put himself in a position making it difficult for him to support Mr. LeBlanc’s assertion that any new deal that works would have to be very similar to the Jamison deal. Or by way of another theory, perhaps it’s his way of signaling to all that he is, indeed, in charge. After all, he needs to place his imprint on some issue to demonstrate that he is king…er…president…er…chief. Well, at the very least that he is the boss.
This entire scheme appears to be unorthodox… in fact, quite bizarre…but who knows? Stranger things have happened in Glendale.
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Ever since former City Manager Ed Beasley left, and perhaps before then…who
knows?…there had been polite distain between Interim City Manager Horatio Skeete and City Attorney Craig Tindall. It came to a head when both men were considered for Interim City Manager. Each had their supporters among the then sitting Council but it was Skeete who prevailed and captured the assignment. As a former councilmember I had opportunity to see the divisiveness first hand.
timely action often languished on a desk denying one or the other an opportunity to take action. Some say these actions, if occurring, are designed to make one or the other “look bad” and to destroy the current Council’s reliance and confidence in one or the other. It may have also provided an opportunity for certain people, within and without the organization, to use this circumstance to further their own agendas. These men need to visit the woodshed and be made to understand that such actions are unprofessional at the very least.
City Council relies upon their work for information in their decision making processes. If two of the City’s most important managers are unable to work as a unit it creates confusion for everyone.
