Keys Steal Home

George Wenschhof

The owners of The Frederick Keys out lasted and out maneuvered The City of Frederick as they secured a favorable long term extension for the use of Harry Grove Stadium as their home field ball park.

Watching the video broadcast of the mayor and board workshop held last week, it became apparent, the mayor and a majority of the aldermen were content to move forward to ratify a less than satisfactory lease.

The perfunctory vote will take place during the September 15 mayor and board meeting.

Unless, legal action is pursued, questions raised by the competing team for the use of the stadium will never be answered.

Frederick Atlantic LLC Managing Member John Lavoie’s email which contained his concerns over the award process and subsequent lease negotiations with The Keys was read into the minutes as Lavoie requested, but his questions were never answered.

In addition, during the workshop held last week, Alderman Shelley Aloi methodically compared the proposed lease by The Keys to their existing lease, pointing out the new proposed lease was not an improvement.

The financial analysis from Alderman Karen Young which showed the city stood to lose money over the term of the lease also had little sway on the mayor and remaining aldermen.

All of which signals the deal is done and The Keys are staying put.

Congratulations are in order for The Keys negotiating team who secured their support among the aldermen prior to when the Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued by the mayor.

Being a lifelong Baltimore Oriole fan, I am pleased to see their single-a affiliated team remain in The City of Frederick. Albeit, with terms less than desirable for The City of Frederick and the stadium lease agreement stubbornly reached after much wrangling by The Keys.

As one who was raised in The City of Frederick, it was embarrassing to watch the sloppy manner in which the RFP process transpired; much of which resulted due to lack of communication.

McClement earned my kudos for issuing a RFP after lease extension negotiations broke down with The Keys earlier this year.

However, a thumbs down now goes to Republican Mayor Randy McClement and city administrator Josh Russin for their repeated stumbles throughout the RFP process.

All of which has shed light on an even bigger problem at city hall.

Since becoming mayor, McClement; a self proclaimed student of the city’s charter, has often pointed out to questioning aldermen, the mayor is the elected administrator and the board of aldermen is the elected legislative body.

It was the same three aldermen who questioned the mayor’s unilateral issuance of the RFP for the use of the stadium, who will most likely vote to ratify the lease with the Keys on September 15.

While, the mayor is technically correct as to the roles of the elected city officials, it was The Keys negotiating team who showed they knew how to count to three.

This lack of communication by the mayor with the aldermen will continue to plague city residents who want issues dealt with in a timely and effective manner.

Whether it is the ratification of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) contract, what to do with the boondoggle property the former administration purchased for use as a Park, or how to redevelop the neglected and rapidly deteriorating west end of the city, communication has been lacking as well as a lack of clarity of the action to be taken on each issue.

Without, a theme or "vision" for The City of Frederick promoted by the McClement administration, a lackluster and seemingly adrift city government has been the result over the first twenty months since the all new mayor and board took office.

New city administrator Josh Russin informed me that after recent discussions with the mayor, he will begin to schedule regular meetings between the aldermen and the mayor to facilitate communication.

Let’s hope the young man has better success with this effort than he did in negotiating the stadium lease.

In these challenging times, city residents deserve better from their elected officials.

Stay Tuned…..

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Harry Grove Stadium Lease Saga Continues

George Wenschhof

In my column last Wednesday, I wrote about how the Request for Proposals (RFP) and award process for the lease of Harry Grove Stadium by The City of Frederick reminded me of the famous comedic routine by Abbott and Costello; "Who's on first".

Noticing the City of Frederick had the lease of the stadium as an agenda item for this coming Wednesday city workshop, I emailed city administrator Josh Russin for specifics to be discussed.

He replied indicating the city lease negotiating team will present to the mayor and board of aldermen a draft lease which does not include any additional revenue sources (dropping parking revenue) and requires The Keys to pay utilities. You can read my email to Mr. Russin and his reply here.

Interestingly, five months after the lease is finally ratified, Russin indicates the city and The Keys will negotiate terms for additional revenue sources such as parking, advertising and naming rights.

Why the additional revenue could not be agreed upon over the last several months of negotiations remains a mystery. One sticking point had been the Keys offer to receive the first $125,000 (later reduced to $115,000) of parking revenues before splitting revenues with the city. This was to offset their annual cost of utilities.

The upcoming five months from October through February are not baseball playing months in our area of the country so one would assume the utility fees will not be significant during this time.

The other team to respond to the RFP was Frederick Atlantic LLC. Monday, Managing Member Jack Lavoie, sent a detailed email to the mayor and board expressing his dissatisfaction with the award process. Mr. Lavoie added he will be unable to attend the workshop on Wednesday and asked for his email be read into the record.

Lavoie points out what I mentioned in my last column, The Keys did not offer to pay utilities in their RFP submission, stating in his email "The proposed Lease does not comply with competitive bids & the RFP terms tendered under a sealed bid by the Keys. This results smacks of collusion and "back-room" dealing."

In a column published on 8-21-2011, I proposed a series of four steps, which if taken, were intended to result in a fair outcome to both bidders and the city.

One of the steps involved a discussion by the mayor and board on what additional revenue sources, if any, were acceptable.

Updated (in bold) 8-30-2011 8:45 AM ET

Another one of the steps I suggested was for the mayor and board to agree on and use a projected expense cost to the city for the stadium. This would then be used to compare to the offers received.

This morning, I received from Alderman Karen Young a financial spreadsheet showing the bid received from Frederick Atlantic LLC, far exceeds in revenue to the city, what was bid by The Keys. You can read it here.

At the end of the first year, Alderman Young's financial projections show The Keys offer resulted in a net loss to the city of $62,948 and Frederick Atlantic LLC was a plus $83,852. Over the ten year period, her projections show a loss of $629,480 from The Keys offer and a plus $148,520 from the Frederick Atlantic LLC offer.

It is not too late for the city to discuss and reconsider their awkward award process to date and see if there is a better way to finalize the Harry Grove Stadium lease.

Stay Tuned...

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Harry Grove Stadium Lease Act ll

George Wenschhof

In what is playing out in a similar manner as the famous Abbott and Costello classic baseball comedic routine of “Who’s on first”, the already muddied and confusing Request For Proposals (RFP) process has taken yet another turn.

Months after the city announced The Frederick Keys had won the RFP and a city lease negotiation team announced, the city remains without a ratified lease for the use of Harry Grove Stadium.

City of Frederick Mayor Randy McClement has now announced the city is dropping the negotiation with The Keys over revenue splits of parking revenue. Instead, the mayor says he now wants to go back to what was in the original RFP.

Seems, new city administrator Josh Russin, who was leading the city negotiating team was not having any better success in dealing with The Keys than his predecessor, Rick Weldon.

Interestingly, it was the failure by former city administrator Rick Weldon and the city to negotiate a satisfactory extension of the existing lease with The Frederick Keys which led Mayor McClement to issue the RFP.

The 120 day period the bids were require to stay in effect per the RFP, has now expired, making one wonder what the mayor is referring to when he says he wants to go back to the original RFP. Why were lease negotiations taking place outside of the RFP is another good question.

When I informed John Lavoie, Managing Member of Frederick Atlantic LLC of the latest development he said the following in an email I received last evening; “saw the new Gazette article today ..

If that is all recent info from the Mayor, the City's pending course of action is possibly illegal and confusing at best. If taken at face value, this will now totally ensure that the proposed Keys Lease does NOT comply with their RFP submission and that the Mayor and Aldermen are all active and knowing participants who have orchestrated this flawed RFP, engineered a closed process and concluded a one-sided auction in concert with one of the bidders- The Keys club.”

In a follow up phone conversation with Mr. Lavoie, he indicated it was fine for me to publish verbatim what he had stated in his email.

The announcement by the mayor comes after The Keys negotiated terms with the city which had them receiving the first $150,000 in parking revenue to reimburse them for the estimated annual cost of utilities at the stadium. This was later dropped to $125,000, before the mayor announced, at the last minute, he was pulling the discussion of the Harry Grove Stadium lease from the scheduled workshop last week.

Next, to appear was a financial analysis from Aldermen Karen Young which indicated the city’s financial cost to operate the stadium was not covered by the offer made by The Keys and showed Frederick Atlantic LLC offered a better deal for the city.

What followed was a motion by Aldermen Carol Krimm, which was unanimously approved, at the mayor and board meeting the next day, to release minutes of the private mayor and board meetings pertaining to the stadium lease.

What was the startling disclosure that resulted from this action? – The Keys were to receive extra points in the evaluation of their proposal due to their affiliation with a major league baseball team. The person who suggested the added weight to be given to The Frederick Keys was Alderman Karen Young.

Hardly a surprise, as this was clearly spelled out in the RFP evaluation criteria which was provided to the bidders.

In addition, over the last six months, gossip was spread around town by supporters of both teams. One, persistent rumor had The Frederick Keys for sale and/or leaving town.

The responding rumor involved original owner of The Keys; Peter Kirk, who is now affiliated with Opening Day Partners who has a strong relationship with Frederick Atlantic LLC. Kirk had a past relationship with former City of Frederick Mayor Ron Young, with the rumor suggesting this would make his current wife; Alderman Karen Young a supporter of Frederick Atlantic LLC. I wrote about both rumors in a column dated 4-20-2011.

Casting aside all of the smoke and mirrors one has to ask; where do all these theatrics leave the city?

According to the side-by-side comparison (prepared by John Lavoie; Managing Member of Frederick Atlantic LLC) of the two bids received by the city; The Frederick Keys did not offer to pay for utilities and Frederick Atlantic LLC offered to pay 100%.

So, with the recent announcement from the mayor, do the mayor and board of aldermen now intend to accept an offer from The Keys that does not include payment of utilities? Or, do they intend to alter the bid received from The Keys and include payment for utilities? Is this a fair approach in the RFP award process?

Where does this leave the city in regard to additional revenue streams? Clearly, one of the purposes of issuing the RFP was to see what reasonable additional revenues could be utilized for the benefit of the city.

Meanwhile, the question remains as to whether the city will receive enough money from the lease to pay for their operating expenses of the stadium.

Another unanswered question which remains is how did the secretive RFP review committee come up with their evaluation of the two proposals in the first place?

No request was made by the committee to have representatives of the two bidders give an oral presentation (allowed under the guidelines of the issued RFP) to them.

This oral presentation would have allowed the committee to get all their questions answered in regard to additional revenue streams and to also make sure they were comparing “apples to apples” when evaluating what was arguably a difficult RFP to rank.

A presentation from the review committee to the mayor and board in a workshop also never took place which would have allowed a clear picture to unfold. If, the aldermen or mayor had questions, they could have been answered at that time.

Whether what has transpired to date with the RFP process has been legal or not is best left for lawyers to decide. Let's hope it does not come to that.

In my column published on Sunday, I presented a series of steps which, if taken, were intended to result in a fair outcome to both bidders and the city.

Instead, city taxpayers are left wondering, Who’s on first?

Stay Tuned…

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