KCAL.CA News, Articles and Recent Changes

Updated: reports from the courthouse

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:23:09 GMT

New: Today the Whig Standard runs this story about yesterday's proceedings.

Which beats the pants off the transcript of CKWS-TV's report from outside the courtroom.

Conflict allegation to be heard by judge

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:00:36 GMT

Today is the first time EVER that the Whig has reported on the apparent web of influence involving Harvey Rosen, Martin Skolnick, and John Wright, the owner of both KROCK and Kingston Marina, the original proposed site of the LVEC.

What's also embarassing is, despite being a major player in all this, neither Mr Skolnick's name nor the name of the real-estate firm where he works appear on the list of donors to the LVEC. That list hasn't been updated since May 7th, and at that time the fundraising campaign was over $700,000 short of its meagre nominal target.

863 Princess street

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:13:43 GMT

Here are pictures of The Rosen Building at 863 Princess Street.

Below are its roadside sign and the directory inside.

Related: Rick Downes steps-up on Mayor Rosen's apparent conflict of interest about Anglin Bay.

Anglin Bay was supposed to be the LVEC's location between March 2004 and November 2005. That property is directly connected to the owner of the K-ROCK radio station.

Rick Downes steps-up on Mayor Rosen's apparent conflict of interest

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:35:58 GMT

Today The Whig finally reports on Rick Downes' 3-week old legal action: "Legal challenge calls for mayor's job" is the Whig's headline which is somewhat misleading.

Related: The Mayor, KROCK, John Wright, and Anglin Bay - a pecuniary interest? from February 11th 2008.

The decline of the Kingston Whig-Standard

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:28:54 GMT

Jamie Swift has written an insightful piece titled The decline of the Kingston Whig-Standard, with the subheading "New Editor also serves on the Kingston Chamber of Commerce".

The Whig's publisher is Ron Laurin. And reporters have even been told by the publisher how to compose their stories. A case in point: On November 28, 2007 Laurin sent a memo to then-editor Christina Spencer instructing his underlings how to describe Kingston's controversial downtown arena, a pet project of the city's business elite.
"We need to discontinue our practice of referring to our City's new Kingston Regional Sports and Entertainment Centre as an arena," wrote Laurin.
This is an ad man's perspective. It's all about branding. Understandable, if you see a local paper simply as a promotional vehicle for pet projects of the booster boys. But troublesome if you're a journalist who values the integrity of your craft.

Read the whole thing, originally published by The Straight Goods.

Michael Davies' edifice complex

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 09:22:22 GMT

Spot the cluster. Now add the Downtown Action Plan that systematically pumps millions into the Downtown, year after year, with no effective end in sight.

Looking ahead, Pin 7 "Police station" conveniently vacates public land next to the LVEC. How do you expect that to go?

Also in the near-term: Marinas, specifically Confed. Who, we wonder, is potentially first-in-line for that? More focus downtown.

And downtown Kingston? nearly zero money down, and not stepping-up to its responsibilities because, with Harvey Rosen for Mayor, they don't have to.

Remember this whenever you hear Ed Smith or Harvey Rosen (also here) play the "parochial" card, and when you hear some people praise the Mayor.

Michael Davies, very evidently, has an edifice complex.

I will go on record that Rosen's performance as mayor is unparalleled for the last 50 years.

Now read this sharp retort from former Kingston mayor Isabel Turner.

Judge for yourself.

While we are on the subject, here's a backgrounder on Michael Davies relating to Harvey Rosen and the LVEC:

It would appear that Mr Davies is a double-dip donor to Harvey Rosen's 2006 Election Campaign. He's listed personally ($250) and through Nenny Limited ($750), itemized on Rosen campaign disclosure documents at the same residential address. Follow the money.
Michael Davies was front-and-centre in the list of the so-called "Friends of the Entertainment Centre" who wanted the LVEC built on Anglin Bay, thereby forcing the closure and/or relocation of a marina and MetalCraft Marine, Kingston's very successful, high-tech high-speed boat manufacturer that employs 70 skilled workers.
Michael Davies was among the prominent participants of the Imagine Kingston lunch, which was hastily convened in mid-May 2006 to manufacture the pretense of public support for in advance of a crucial LVEC-related council vote. Once the Council vote passed on May 30th 2006, nothing much was heard again from this particular group.

This exercise in political manipulation by Mr Davies and the Downtown Kingston power network was, in the end, scandalously hollow, and has left subsequent councils, and taxpayers, to pick-up the pieces. This aspect is shamefully misrepresented by Michael Davies in his most recent letter.

Related: We've lamented Kingston's edifice complex before.

"K-ROCK Centre woes continue" -- Promoter

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 16:03:36 GMT

Here's an interesting article by a concert promoter describing the exasperation involved in trying to book the K-Rock Centre (LVEC). It's apparently not just the LVEC, but other Kingston venues too.

He was trying to book Faber Drive, a 2008 Juno-award nominated band from Mission BC, one of Much Music's most-aired Canadian bands during the past couple of years. The band has recently performed in Cornwall and Brockville.

The fact that they are not answering requests should be very disturbing for the taxpayers of Kingston, considering every paid event at the K-Rock Centre is an important part of the arena's financing plan. Continuous rental of the facility for shows and sporting events means councilors won't have to dip into city reserves to pay the mortgage on the $46.5-million centre, or possibly even raise taxes. The City of Kingston better make some changes, and quickly, if this facility is going to be self-sustaining.

Updated: Check out the related comments online while you still can.

It's official: Engelbert's not coming

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:00:08 GMT

Today the Whig reports that Engelbert Humperdinck has cancelled.

Expect our docile Council to just smile and nod

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:28:45 GMT

Above: what City Staff is reporting this week.

Above: The deal with KAP is over 40-years, with ZERO up-front.

Above: KAP and its LVEC deals: apparently "in" so long as they don't arbitrarily decide to disband.

There's another LVEC Report from Staff in this week's Council package.

This isn't the first time we read in a report from City Staff that private-sector LVEC fundraising is apparently close to the 90% mark. That's because the contributions from the Downtown Kingston BIA and the Kingston Accommodation Partners are presented (and lauded) by City Staff at full face-value even though these contributors have, in fact, paid next-to-nothing so far for the LVEC even though the building is fully built.

For example, here's a link to the May 20 2006 agreement between The City of Kingston and Kingston Accommodation Partners for $3M in LVEC funding. The agreement covers a period of 40-years (!) with KAP paying absolutely nothing up-front. In fact, it amounts to Kingston Taxpayers shouldering an unsecured 40-year loan on behalf of KAP.

KAP Payments so far: $38,620 in principal, and $360,932 in interest.

Understand that $38,620 is just 1.29% of $3 Million. KAP still owes over $2.96 million, and that's completely unsecured.

Also, understand this about KAP:

KAP is simply a very loose affiliation of some (but not all) of Kingston's hotelliers.
KAP could be dissolved in short order on any pretext.
The agreement does not prescribe LVEC liability to individual KAP members.

Yet City Staff presents this at full face-value when, evaluated objectively in financial securities' terms, it's probably below "junk" status except that, with a junk bond, you get a premium interest rate, which isn't what taxpayers are getting here.

It's certainly obnoxious that Kingston's hotelliers are constantly given credit for $3M for the LVEC when, in fact, they've paid just 1.29% of that so far even though the building is already built.

We emphasise: KAP contributed no money up-front, and the agreement KAP negotiated for itself using its systemic political-insider status puts NONE of the LVEC's financial risk on KAP. Kingston taxpayers don't even get a premium for shouldering all the risk on KAP's $3M promise.

It's basically a similar story with the Downtown Kingston BIA:

The BIA has a long-term deal with zero money up-front resulting from its systemic policy-insider position.
BIA LVEC payments are back-end loaded, so the BIA has paid even less than the measly $38,000 in principal that KAP has paid so far.
There is evidently NO formal mechanism in place to ensure that taxpayers don't eventually pay for all the other things the BIA should, according to the Municipal Act, be paying for in the future.

So in reality LVEC fundraising is nowhere near "the $8M goal outlined in the financing portion of the (LVEC) business plan". Sub-junk grade securities are being presented at full-face value to Council by City Staff grown accustomed to developing and reporting without oversight or consequence to docile Councils.

Despite the clear mandate granted at the November 2006 municipal election, this council has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to remedy the LVEC's financial risk profile, and has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to sanction Staff for these blatant face-value misrepresentations of the LVEC to the citizens of Kingston. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Above: KAP's payment schedule. Total so far: just $38,620 in principal, and $360,932 in interest on its debt, which is carried without any risk premium by municipal taxpayers.

Remembering Deri Fairman

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:46:01 GMT

Deri (Frederick) Fairman, Professor Emeritus at Queen's University, co-founder of Citizens for Responsible Development in Kingston, and a pioneer in using of the internet for protest movements in Kingston, passed away on February 26th. He was 72-years old.

Our tribute.

Where is Engelbert playing?

Sat, 8 Mar 2008 17:11:14 GMT

Apparently Engelbert Humperdinck's people aren't quite sure which arena in Kingston he's supposed to be playing, what it's called, or where it's located.

It's a good thing Kingston has professionals like Arcturus SMG managing, booking, and promoting the LVEC / K-Rock Centre.

Still many names missing from the LVEC's fundraising donor list

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 07:03:09 GMT

There are still many notable names AWOL from the LVEC's fundraising donor list, and several of those listed, including hockey team owners, parking lot owners, hotel owners, and some restaurant and bar operators are apparently in for peanuts relative to the taxpayer subsidy of their businesses that the LVEC represents.

The fundraising campaign is still over $800,000 short of its wholly unspectacular nominal target.

Two LVEC / K-Rock Centre concerts cancelled

Thu, 6 Mar 2008 16:13:03 GMT

Here are stories from CKWS-TV News and The Whig about two of the K-Rock Centre's upcoming concerts being cancelled for lack of interest. Englebert may soon be cancelled as well.

What does this mean, in practical terms?

Total number of K-Rock Centre concerts in its first two full-months of operation whose artists grew-up outside a 40 km radius of Kingston: 0.

So much for all the great acts passing-us-by on the 401.

Apparently those who bought tickets online are on-the-hook for the service charges. That will go-over well.

Back in December 2006, KCAL issued a news item titled LVEC red-flag: The LVEC / KRSEC brand in peril about how Mayor Harvey Rosen had completely screwed-up the building's image long before it opened.

The Mayor recently had the temerity to publicly blame the LVEC's marketing woes on the Kingston Frontenacs, which tells us plenty about what kind of person the Mayor is.

The non-refundable service charges for cancelled events just makes marketing the K-Rock Centre harder because it frustrates many of the building's few remaining believers. How dumb is that?

Photos of the LVEC / K-Rock Centre logistics-zoo on Flickr

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 18:48:04 GMT

We've just updated the KCAL page on Flickr with photos of the trucks from Disney's High School Musical festooning the streets all around the LVEC.

We've also preserved screen-shots of various LVEC-related websites on Flickr so we can compare, in the future, what City Staff were saying in the light of what the LVEC is actually turning out to be. KCAL's home page is included in this set of screen captures.

KCAL's page on Flickr is a good place to look if, for whatever reason, you need LVEC-related photos and diagrams.

CKWS-TV News: blatant dishonesty in local media

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 17:55:45 GMT

On March 3rd 2008, CKWS-TV news broadcast this news item (transcript) that claims:

... HOCKEY FANS APPEAR TO BE FILLING THE SEATS.
THE O-H-L TEAM SOLD JUST OVER 4-THOUSAND TICKETS FOR BOTH HOME GAMES, ON FRIDAY AND SUNDAY, AT THE DOWNTOWN KINGSTON SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE.
IT'S AN ENCOURAGING SIGN -- SINCE THE TEAM LIKELY WON'T MAKE THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR, AND THE CITY IS COUNTING ON HOCKEY GAME REVENUES TO HELP PAY DOWN THE ARENA'S DEBT.
JEFF STILLWELL
"WE ARE OVER 17 THOUSAND FANS IN 4 HOME GAMES.

But everyone tuning-in on COGECO-TV 13 could clearly see the sea of empty seats for both those home games.

It's one thing to parrot a number of tickets distributed or sold, a number supplied by the Kingston Frontenacs. It's quite another to mislead the public into believing there was anywhere close to that number actually in attendance, or that money is flowing-in from ticket sales. It's tickets sold and bums-in-seats that generate the revenues that are critical to the LVEC business plan.

Here's what a long-time season-ticket holder had to say about Friday night's game:

When the attendance was announced everyone laughed and started to look around.

I know that the 8 guys sitting in front of me didn't pay for their tickets, they made it clear "no we didn't pay for these."

My niece and her husband and the 4 that were with them also got free tickets they were at Fanatics (old Shoeless Joes) eating supper and were offered them, PLUS tickets for Sunday.

Now they are advertising buy a ticket for Sunday and get the rescheduled Oshawa game for half price.

Makes you feel good for those that actually paid to get in.

CKWS-TV should be ashamed. They are not alone; CFLY-FM has been parotting the same thing on-air.

Related: Julie Brown: powder puff.

It's official: the LVEC / K-Rock Centre logistics are a zoo (Updated)

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 15:17:38 GMT

No surprise here. The westsport blog reports on the awful state of affairs outside the LVEC yesterday.

Yesterday, there were 7 trailers parked on the streets around the LVEC, either unhitched or waiting (idling) with their tractors. Unhitched trailers were/are in the on-street spots on Place d' Armes at the corner of Wellington, on both sides of King Street between Queen and Barrack, on Barrack Street in front of the Food Basics, across the main Barrack Street doors of the LVEC, on the north side of the facility (where the team buses have been idling for extended periods of time).
To access the building's unloading area, these 18 wheelers drive into the stub of King Street north of Place d'Armes; they idle there till a worker comes from the lvec to "direct" them as they back into the building. As they back into the building, traffic coming off the Causeway piles up past Fort Frontenac toward the bridge.

That's only one snippet. Read the whole thing.

Updated:: CKWS-TV News covered the story.

Impact World Tour: 4-nights in April

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 01:23:47 GMT

Here's a show that won't "pass-us-by" on the 401. The Impact World Tour is booked into the LVEC for 4-nights in early April for 4 free shows.

Here's a link to the Impact World Tour media release.

All of the IWT teams are made up of volunteer Christian performers from across the world, sharing a positive message of hope and destiny with their audiences.
Teams will also be going into schools and detention centres to challenge young people with their anti-drug and alcohol messages and encouraging them to live their lives to their full potential.

Hands-up if you think Kingston will be getting the $2 per ticket which it is due under the LVEC's business plan.

Summary of the the LVEC / K-Rock Centre's first week in mainstream print media

Mon, 3 Mar 2008 22:50:34 GMT

Here are links to stories from the past week.

On Feb 26, The Whig's editorial lauds Rob Baker. The Tragically hip played just one show, not several that they could have sold-out, and it was a fundraiser for pet-charities, not fundraising for Rob Baker's LVEC.
Also on Feb 26, according the Whig: Councillors not concerned by low attendance at Frontenacs' game. The Frontenacs drew just 2,283 fans to their second game in the LVEC, on a Sunday afternoon.
Feb 27 letter in The Whig by Chris Morris: Parking doesn't seem scarce.
Feb 27 a construction worker who was imported from Oakville writes: Your K-Rock Centre is no longer in my care. Thanks.
Feb 28 letter to the Whig Editor: Show some respect for the M-Centre.
Feb 28 letter to the Whig Editor: Expect more empty seats.
Feb 28 Whig column by L.W. Oakley: Our new centre was rocking.
On February 29th in The Whig: Fronts taken to task over marketing; Mayor says club's promotion efforts 'amateurish' in nature". Nevermind that this problem has been evident for years and the Mayor was fully aware of it. The LVEC's process railroad completely ignored this risk. Prior to the closing-game of the Memorial Centre, the Frontenacs had sold-out just once in seven years.
March 3rd letter to The Whig Editor: Frontenacs longtime fans abandoned, partly in response to L.W. Oakley's Feb 29 column "Our new centre was rocking".
March 3rd Whig Editorial: Hockey team feeling the heat, again the this problem has been evident for years and The Whig systematically ignored it through the LVEC's railroading process.

Observations from a long-time season ticket holder

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:24:45 GMT

A long-time season-ticket holder chimes-in:

I have been to 2 hockey games so far and yes the arena is nice a new but there sure are some issues.

The notion of the public choosing the seat type (a link back to January 2007) was pure BS. They went with the cheapest narrowest seating they could find. They are not that comfortable and a couple of large lads I know say the seat sags forward thus making them slip forward. It is very cramped sitting next to anyone plus there is absolutely no leg room, even for the vertically challenged.

The club seats are chained-off. That means the club seat people do not have egress or access to and from the tunnels. The people sitting below have to use the tunnels and cannot go up to the top of the stairs. I sure hope there isn't a fire, when I worked in my manufacturing days this type off blockage would be condemned by the ministry of labour. I guess paying citizens are expendable

Also you cannot get from one side of the arena to the other so forget about socializing with your friends on the other side of the building.

Rapport with the team: We used to be able to talk to the Frontenac players before and after the game as they were accessible, now they are hidden away, I haven't the foggiest idea on how to make contact with them.

Policing: Who is paying for this? I have seen more police inside that building in 2 days then I have seen in the last 15 years in the old M-Centre, plus there are a whole bunch of them outside before and after the game.

Yes there are some good things about the arena but right now the place is sterile, there is no"our" feel to it. The atmosphere is not there. There was absolutely no fan energy in that place Sunday it was DEAD in there. But hey we have a nice shiny new building where we can coif beers back for only $6 for a 20 oz draft.

Seat selection: I loved my seat so much that I was running around opening night to find out how to change it. It was a horror show for me. I am in the process of doing it now. I'm not the only one there are many people not satisfied with their seating, so much so there was a line up at the old Frontenacs office on Monday morning. This is what you get when you pick blind like all the season ticket holders did.

Bruce Todd's report from Friday night's LVEC-opening Frontenacs game

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:11:10 GMT

This letter is from Bruce Todd about the LVEC's opening-night hockey game on February 22 2008.

From: Bruce Todd

To: KCAL@yahoogroups.com

CC: PNichols@cityofkingston.ca, "Morris, Malcolm", "Laubenstein, Glen", "Hurdle, Lanie", Deanna Green, Chris Sleeth, Councillor M Gerretsen, Councillor B Glover, Councillor D Hector, Councillor R Hutchison, Councillor J MacLeod-Kane, Councillor R Matheson, Councillor L Osanic, Councillor S Meers, Councillor E Smith, Mayor H Rosen, Councillor L Foster, Councillor S Garrison, Councillor V Schmolka, "Beach, Cynthia"

Subject: February 22 LVEC observations

Date: 25 February 2008, 02:04:30

I went downtown around 5:30 p.m. last Friday night and observed the downtown before and after the OHL game that drew a crowd of 5,700. There were opening ceremonies at 6:00 p.m. and people were lined up along Barrack Street from the entrance westerly to the Food Basics parking lot. Signs were erected at public parking lots indicating the LVEC parking rates came into force at 5:30 p.m. I asked the Anglin Lot parking attendant how they were handling those cars/people who were still parked in the lot from prior to 5:30 p.m. They said that they didn't know. I assume there is some lost revenue here.

On-street parking was fully utilized at 6:00 p.m., although there were a few cars that pulled away, leaving the parking spot to be quickly taken again. I am sure there had to be an economically detrimental effect on other downtown businesses whose customers could not find on-street parking.

I noticed a lot of "illegal" on-street parking in signed no-parking zones. I understand from others that tow trucks were kept busy. I witnessed a tow from the Tim Horton's parking lot on Ontario Street around 6:30 p.m.

Many people took advantage of the on-street parking through the residential area north of Barrack Street and west of Rideau Street. In fact, cars were parked on both sides of Bay Street west of Rideau Street, and therefore there was not enough room for opposing vehicles to pass each other. Vehicles had to back up out of Bay Street onto Rideau Street in order to continue their journey, and I held my breath as many cars backed out into the very busy intersection of Rideau and Bay. Fortunately, the snow banks had been cleared from many of these streets.

Traffic was tied up on Barrack Street at the entrance to the Liquor Store as the store's parking lot could not handle the inbound flow of traffic, so people sat on the street with their turn signals blinking, and through traffic was blocked in both directions. I am assuming that this situation occurred because there was no on-street parking available, and Liquor Store patrons were not going to pull into a public parking lot and pay a hefty parking fee.

I assumed that most people who were going to the game would be parked by 7:00 p.m. because of the opening ceremonies at 6:00 p.m. So, at 6:55 p.m., I checked out the parking at the Hanson Garage. There were approximately 175 vehicles in the garage, about 100 more than normal according to the attendant. One gentleman said he had been parked in the garage since 2:00 p.m., and was told that if he waited until just after 10:30 p.m. to leave, it would only cost him $3.00 for all that time, as the attendant would have left at 10:30 p.m. More parking revenue losses.

I then checked the Chown Garage at 7:00 p.m. and found that there were only about 80 vehicles parked in the garage, which is normal at that time. Therefore, virtually no one chose to park at the Chown Garage and walk to the LVEC, as I have said all along.

I parked at the corner of Place D'Armes and Wellington Street at 9:45 p.m. to witness the movement of people leaving the LVEC and proceeding northerly and westerly. People who were headed for the Anglin Parking Lot crossed Place D'Armes in the general vicinity of King Street and the Food Basics parking lot entrance, just as I indicated they would do in my report to the city and to IBI consultants. Any people who came up to the Wellington Street traffic signal were headed for Rideau Street and points northerly and westerly, and many of these people sauntered across the length of Place D'Armes, interfering with westbound traffic that had come from the Causeway.

I observed one motor vehicle accident at the corner of Bagot and Brock Street. Judging from the front-end damage, it looked like at least one of the vehicles was a writeoff.

The City and the event-goers were fortunate that there was enough time to clear snowbanks from streets, and that it was a relatively mild evening.

I was very surprised at the attendance of 2,283 people at the Sunday OHL game, virtually no increase from previous years. I had thought perhaps 3,000 to 3,500 people would be in attendance. Let the speculation begin!

Bruce.

Sunday Frontenacs attendance: 2283 (updated)

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:14:42 GMT

According to the OHL game summary, Sunday afternoon's Frontenacs LVEC attendance, their second match in the LVEC, was just 2,283. That's only 130 more than the average of the previous games played at the Memorial Centre this year.

It probably didn't help that Doug Graham, Whig Standard sports reporter, wrote on Friday that the second match was a sellout (scroll to the very botton).

Update: Some interesting comments on Fronts talk

Friday night had a lot of people that are not hockey fans that were there for the hype and to say they were there. That is a one time crowd.

Also, on the changing dynamic for the Frontenacs' owners:

I am to one point ecstatic that the Fronts have the new arena. NOW THEY CANNOT BLAME facilities for the lack of fans or the players that say they don't want to come here.

Who's lording over you now?

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:17:28 GMT

In March 2007, nearly a year ago, the LVEC's luxury suites were sold-off. Here's another look at who'll be lording over the regular folks.

It's a who's-who of Rosen-family businesses, tenants of Rosen Family properties, overt Harvey Rosen election backers, companies that do a lot of business with City Hall (including several members of the Kingston Home Builders Association and the Kingston Construction Association), and the usual mainstream media outfits.

All these folks will be hob-nobbing together in suites largely paid-for with tax-deductible expenses, with special parking, a private entrance, private concessions, and priority access to non-box event tickets whose leftovers will then be sold to the general public. More here on the LVEC's perks for the those in this class.

Note that John Wright, owner of K-Rock, apparently controls three suites.

1000 Islands Cruises (Same owners as K-Rock)
1203157 Ontario Limited
J.E. Agnew Food Services Ltd. (Tim Hortons)
Braebury Homes Corporation
Canadian Tire - Cataraqui
CHUM Radio Kingston (FLY-FM)
CIBC Wood Gundy
Cruickshank Construction Limited and Rosen Heating Cooling
Empire Life Insurance Company
Gananoque Chevrolet Cadillac
JKL Micro
Kingston Financial Centre Inc.
Kingston MRI
Kimco Steel Sales Limited (owned in the Rosen family) and Kingston Truck Centre
The Kingston Frontenacs (owned by the Springer family)
The Kingston Whig-Standard
Kingston Young Entrepreneurs
KPMG LLP
K-Rock (Complimentary suite for naming rights holder)
Len Corcoran Excavating Ltd.
Melo Hotels
RBC WAGG
CaraCo Development Corporation and Taggart Investments
The Radio Group (K-Rock &KIX FM)
Thomson Jemmett Vogelzang o/b The Insurance Centre Inc.
Waste Management

Kingston and District Labour Council media release

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:01:00 GMT

Here's the Kingston and District Labour Council Media Release from yesterday.

(KINGSTON) The Kingston &District will hold a media conference on the steps of the new arena prior to its official opening to discuss problems with the arena operator and to support picketing workers. The media conference will include a number of speakers on hand to support local workers, members of International Alliance of Theatre and Stage Employees (IATSE), Local 471 who will not get a chance to bid or work locally on events in the building.
WHAT: Press Conference and speakers.
WHEN: Friday February 22 at 11:00 A.M.
WHERE: Outside the main entrance to the entertainment centre.

Read the whole thing.

Bogus artificial deadlines: obvious tactical mistakes made 14-months ago

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:58:53 GMT

While the LVEC project is today in pre-opening confusion and doubt, 14-months ago, back in December 2006, KCAL wrote this:

What's unsaid in recent LVEC discussions is the agreement between the City of Kingston and the Kingston Frontenacs is not silent about a delay in the LVEC's opening.

Translation: As far as obligations to the Frontenacs are concerned, the project can slide. That's covered. In short, the current agreement for the Frontenacs to play at the Memorial Centre is extended. End of story.
Question: why hasn't this option to moderate the pace of the project been presented to the new Council? Under current circumstances, explain why the blind following of artificial imagined "timelines" because of arbitrary and arguably bogus "deadlines" is a good idea. Why wasn't a single project timeline or Gantt chart presented to Council on Monday night?
Recommendation: that staff proceed with extreme caution, and advise council, prior to considering any bookings for the LVEC.
On current trends, it would be par for the course if staff were to let the operator book the LVEC for December 2007 ASAP, thus further tieing the hands of City Council.

The thinking at the time was: don't book the LVEC prematurely because it limits your options, and that can be expensive.

Today a lot of money is being squandered, corners are being cut, work is being rushed, all because our City Hall civil servants know little about managing quality projects.

Who could have prevented this?

Our current gutless Council balked at the opportunity for independent project oversight. Council had the chance to appoint a Council advocate to the project cabinet but Mark Gerretsen, BIA board member, withdrew his long-delayed motion in April 2007.

So we have a City staff who clearly can't manage projects -- KPMG told us that twice (1-2) -- and a Council that's clearly not into overseeing incompetent Staff. These projects have multi-million-dollar stakes. Mark Gerretsen, thank you very much.

How much would a bulldog have cost since April 2007? $150,000 maybe? We could have been reading project progress reports from the bulldog, not the pap we've been reading from Lanie Hurdle since then.

Bruce Todd slams City Hall for deceptive advertising

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:48:27 GMT

Bruce Todd has penned a scathing letter to Council and Senior Staff, copies to The Whig, about apparently deceptive communications from The City of Kingston Growth and Sustainability Group and published in The Whig.

Read the whole thing.

Therein:

The special section produced by the Kingston Whig Standard last Friday, February 15, 2008, entitled "It's Show Time" included on page 10 an article on "Ample Parking Available for Event Goers". It paints a picture of parking availability as if no cars are ever on-street or in parking lots on a Friday evening. It gives a detailed number of parking spaces as if these are all waiting to be used by LVEC event-goers. What a deception! What an utter falsehood for those who might not be familiar with Kingston's downtown on a Friday evening in particular.
The article states that "more than 550 on-street parking spaces are located within 600m of the Centre and will be free for use during evening and Sunday events".
To state that all these parking spaces are "free for use" is an extremely deceptive statement.
I have repeatedly surveyed the parking situation in the downtown on a Friday evening around 6:30 to 7:00 p.m., as Consultants should have done for their reports to the City, and, consistently, the on-street parking has been fully utilized except for 30 to 50 spots, and parking lots have been half full or more at that time. I have reported this on many occasions to the city and to LVEC management, but all reports have been consistently ignored.

In St. John's: Big acts, big losses

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:01:26 GMT

From Sunday's Telegram in St. John's: the more acts they book at the Mile One Centre, the more money they tend to lose.

Looking at some of the LVEC's upcoming events, it's hard to imagine this isn't already happening here.

A year ago in KCAL: February 2007

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:34:42 GMT

Looking back to last February, in 2007. This is old news.

Last year on February 1st 2007 CKWS-TV reported that Kingston's major construction projects were not much benefiting local labour.

On February 12th 2007, the BIA cemented its 30-year, $3-million, back-end loaded, 4.57% credit from taxpayers for the LVEC. Today there is evidently no solid plan, no formal channel of public accountability, to ensure this will ever be repaid.

A prediction: over the next 29-years the proximate offices, daily lunches, systematic committee face-time, and LVEC-luxury-suite hob-nobbing virtually guarantees that little of that BIA money will ever really materialize. If it does, there's no watchdog at the back-door ensuring that downtown beautification and the "Downtown Action Plan" doesn't fractionally accrue to taxpayers instead, reimbursing the BIA for its LVEC payments.

On February 14th 2007 City Staff dropped 14 major LVEC documents on Council just hours prior to key Council votes on the project. Therein was a " Risk Management Plan" that pegged the risk of "insufficient project funding from fundraising and grants" at a "4" on a scale to "1" to "9". Remember, all of Harvey Rosen's other projects (Market Square and The Grand Theatre) were, and remain, in concurrent public fundraising crisis and everybody, like now, knew it then too.

On February 16th, KCAL published the details behind the LVEC's funding, where the money was really coming from, including an Excel spreadsheet you can still download.

About that: most Kingstonians still seem unaware that the LVEC has funneled-away $7M that should have been for recreational infrastructure for all of amalgamated Kingston. That's
- $3M from "development charges" that were previously earmarked for recreational infrastructure by prior councils, plus
- $4M from the Ontario Ministry of Health promotion, an embarassing grant that still isn't acknowledged on the ministry website. Kingston has not fetched much else from the Ministry of Health Promotion, and that's a crying shame. It's fair to say that several years of Kingston's provincial "Health Promotion" allocation basically went into the LVEC.
  See for yourself:

On February 20th, The Whig Standard published several LVEC-related stories riddled with grievous errors about the sums involved in the LVEC project.

This was also the time when it was clear that the second covered-up KPMG Report festered on Council.

Then on February 26th Councillor Vicki Schmolka was mugged on K-Rock's airwaves and K-Rock's Shadoe Davis was being obnoxious in The Whig. You can listen to MP3-format recordings here (Schmolka, Wong, and Davis), and here ("G" and rock-star Rob Baker).

Meanwhile project proponents like Ken Wong and Jeff Garrah get to repeatedly field softballs from CKWS-TV's Julie Brown on KEDCO-funded TV-COGECO programmes.

On February 27th 2007, KCAL's list of apparent LVEC cost omissions.

By the end of February 2007, everybody on Council knew that ALL of the LVEC's financial risks were going to be assumed by taxpayers. Everybody on Council knew the LVEC was a rigged-deal from a taxpayer's perspective.

So what changed? Nothing.

In the end this gutless Council even balked at the opportunity for independent project oversight. Council had the chance, and certainly had the votes, to appoint a Council advocate to the project cabinet but Mark Gerretsen, BIA board member, withdrew the long-delayed motion in April 2007.

Thus Mayor Harvey Rosen and his acolytes were free to continue the unfettered bullying of the LVEC project clear through to the end.

Union busting becomes so Tragically Hip (UPDATED)

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:55:58 GMT

When you hire an out-of-town company to run the LVEC, what do you get? How about an out-of-province non-union labour provider for staging services.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 471 (Ottawa/Kingston) is pissed about this, and rightly so.

Update: As it turns out, the facility operator, Arcturus SMG, is bringing-in non-union labour from out-of-town for both staging and for event security for the LVEC's opening concert by The Tragically Hip.

Back in May 2006, rock-star Rob Baker was front-and-centre in a $50,000 ad campaign that featured logos from KEDCO, The Chamber of Commerce, Kingston Accomodation Partners, and local construction associations.

The ad, which ran in all the local papers and on a now-defunct website named WatchKingstonGrow.com, promised "New Employment Opportunities: 750 Construction and 450 post-construction jobs".

At the time, the ad was designed to influence Council for critical LVEC-related votes in May 2006. The website went dark after just one year on April 11 2007. Evidently the LVECs drum-beaters didn't have the $10 and the stones required to keep "Watch Kingston Grow" in the public eye.

So let's recap what's actually happened so far, shall we?

The LVEC was railroaded through on false premises such as this with the help of several supine out-of-town consultants and using out-of-town project management support. It was designed by out-of-town architects, then built by an out-of-town general contractor, using significant amounts of out-of-town construction labour. The arena is being operated by an out-of-town management company that's bringing-in out-of-town non-union labour provider for event-related services. Of course, the vast majority of the acts coming to into the LVEC will be from out-of-town, and most of the box-office will be leaving with them on the bus.

Where's the mayor? He's out-of-town, on holidays, between February 12th to the 20th, while the LVEC fundraising campaign he chairs is $1M short. Harvey Rosen: Vision, Courage, Results.

Celebrate THIS! #4: For nearly a year now, Google ranks the City of Kingston #1 for the keywords "dispersed parking"

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:20:04 GMT

Friday The Whig Standard distributed a special advertising section to "Celebrate the Opening" of the LVEC. Therein, on page 10 of the supplemental section, is this claim:

London's John Labatt Centre has it, so does Toronto's Air Canada Centre, so does New York's Madison Square Gardens. Like these successful downtown venues, the Kingston Regional Sports and Entertainment Centre takes advantage of a dispersed parking model.

Whoever wrote this in The Whig Standard is ignorant.

For the record, so there is no Whig-Standard-induced confusion here:

The parking story around the John Labatt Centre is nothing like Kingston's North Block. This has been known, on the record, since April 2005. See all the "P" symbols around the JLC in the City of London map at the very bottom of this item.
Toronto's Air Canada Centre is adjacent to the busiest train station in Canada and, of course, the Toronto Subway. From the arena lobby vast areas of downtown Toronto are accessible in heated underground passageways (link to PATH, a diagram of downtown Toronto's underground walkway that links 27 kilometres of shopping, services and entertainment in weatherproof comfort, including the Air Canada Centre).
Madison Square Garden in Manhattan is directly upstairs above Penn Station, which serves 600,000 people per day, and is the busiest passenger transportation facility in the United States and by far the busiest train station in North America. No fewer than 14 different subway lines go under or within a block of Madison Square Garden and it's all accessible via heated underground passageways.

But nevermind hyperbole courtesy of our Whig. Let's examine "dispersed parking", shall we?

If you execute a Google search for the term "dispersed parking" you'll get results similar to those pictured at left.

Look who ranks in the top-two spots.

Scroll the list, and look for something else, anything, comparable and related to parking for the LVEC. You won't find it.

This isn't new; it's been this way for nearly a year (a link to our item from April 11 2007).

But it goes back further still: back in mid-September 2006, 17-months ago, Council and our local mainstream media were informed that THE CONCEPT "DISPERSED" PARKING IS NOT EVEN RECOGNIZED IN MAINSTREAM TRAFFIC ENGINEERING.

In other words, "dispersed parking" is homespun crap. Those who have perpetrated this blatant fabrication, and who have built this arena with such contempt for the arena's customers and the taxpayers of Kingston won't be forgotten.

Another false statement by The Whig on Page 10 of the supplement is the number of parking spots available for people on-street and at various lots. They say:

Also, more than 550 on-street parking spaces are located within 600m of the Centre and will be free for use during evening and Sunday events.

KCAL's Friday night counts around 6:30-7:00 p.m., on the public record beginning May 25 2005, have consistently show only about 30-40 empty parking spots on-street. The Kingston Whig Standard has slept through this whole boondoggle.

But here's where things get really weird for Harvey Rosen, the Springers, City CAO Laubenstein and senior City Staff.

If you search google for the exact phrase "dispersed parking model" (with quotes) just one document is returned. A well-formed query which returns a single Google result, which is extremely rare.

It's a story from the Berkley Daily Planet, written in 2006, and it's about a grocery store with serious parking issues.

Now how bizarre is that?

Parking lots surrounding the John Labatt Centre in London.

The Mayor, KROCK, John Wright, and Anglin Bay - a pecuniary interest?

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:30:08 GMT

Consider this:

Last Tuesday evening Council awarded the LVEC's naming rights to CIKR-FM, a local radio station commonly known as KROCK.
KROCK is owed by John Wright, and the station's website lists John Wright as its General Manager.
Just prior to Tuesday's deliberations, Mayor Rosen suddenly recused himself, declaring a conflict of interest because of ownership of 863 Princess St, which is also where KROCK and John Wright lease offices.
Archive.org confirms that John Wright and KROCK have been tenants at 863 Princess since March 30 2003 at least, and quite possibly earlier.
Between late March 2004 and September 2005 the LVEC was supposed to be built on waterfront, on Kingston's Inner Harbor, Kingston Marina: land owned by John Wright.

One question arising is: If Mayor Rosen, via his holdings, has had a long-standing and ongoing business relationship with John Wright, under the same roof, then how come Mayor Rosen didn't disclose this apparent pecuniary interest when deliberating the Anglin-Bay LVEC which was supposed to be built on land owned by John Wright?

Kingston's naming rights agreement

Tue, 5 Feb 2008 00:49:49 GMT

Here's a link to the proposed LVEC naming rights agreement which the city has put online.

The name of the company hasn't been revealed. Reading the agreement, it's evidently a media company.

The deal has an interesting twist: the Sponsor explicitly becomes the preferred supplier for spending on promoting events.

So it appears that the Sponsor:

pays $150k/year for name branding (as expected);
provides a $150k/yr discount on the promotion services (the sweetener);
but the Sponsor gets the cream of the event promotion pie.

The event promotion pie could be worth $600,000 per year. At that level of media purchasing, you might expect a 25% discount ($150,000) in any case. If so, staff might be drastically over-selling this deal to Council.

How ironic would it be for K-ROCK to be on the outside looking-in at the LVEC's promotional expenditures for the next 10-years?

Then again, if the Sponsor is a local consortium, which presumably would include KROCK, that would re-connect some interesting dots.

Either way it looks to be a coup for the Sponsor, and it shows the poor negotiating position of the City.

See, the deal is not just for the naming rights. It's also for 10-years of event advertising and promotion business. That business is guaranteed, in the short-term, because heavily promoting the LVEC is imperative.

The business also flows 2-ways, as the Sponsor can curry the favour of its advertisers inside the building.

There's more: if aggregate attendance is below a yet-to-be-specified threshhold the Sponsor can just walk away. No Hershey Centre scenarios for these folks! If ticket sales are "poor" the shortfalls will be borne by Kingston's taxpayers as the agreement provides specific bail-out clauses for the Sponsor.

More to the point, if there's over-allocation to event advertising and promotion, leading to more funneled through the Sponsor and corresponding lower than expected operational profits, the regrettable shortfalls will be picked-up by taxpayers.

Notice the continuing theme: Once again, Council is being asked to quickly approve a complex long-term LVEC-related deal with information provided at the very last possible moment. That's how staff at senior levels in this city continue to operate.

Naming rights in Sault Ste. Marie going sour

Sun, 3 Feb 2008 19:48:06 GMT

There's an interesting article in Sunday's Soo News about how their LVEC's naming rights deal has gone sour. The brewery (Steelback) sponsoring the arena is in bankruptcy protection and their last cheque for $67,500 was NSF.

See this article in the December 17th Globe and Mail Report on Business for more details on the $120 million owed to more than 400 creditors.

A citizen's petition is in circulation demanding that the arena's name be changed to include "Sault Memorial Gardens".

Expect Kingston-City Staff to present the Soo's naming-rights deal to Kingston City Council without any mention of the Soo's current predicament! Troubles in Sault Ste. Marie have been well known since November 2007, but protecting the interests of Kingston Taxpayers, and honesty in accounting never counted for much here.

Celebrate THIS! #3: Joe deMora and the "silent majority"

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:00:34 GMT

The Whig Standard has been running this advertisement for a special advertising section to "Celebrate the Opening" of the LVEC to be published on February 15th.

Until then, KCAL will be featuring many items you probably won't be reading in whatever The Kingston Whig-Standard prints about its pet-project.

#3. Joe deMora's "silent majority"

Flashback:

December 16, 2003: At Council, Mayor Rosen announces the formation of a "Large Venue Entertainment Centre" (LVEC) Task Force, and KGH CEO Joe deMora is on it. The normal process for selecting individuals to serve on Council committees is to invite applications through public advertising, with individuals selected on the basis of a council vote. However, in this instance, there is no attempt at any public process accountable to elected city representatives. Instead, the Task Force consisted of members hand-picked by the mayor.

March 21, 2004: The Mayor's Task Force releases its Report to the Mayor, which calls for, among other things, an LVEC to be built on Anglin Bay waterfront, in the current location of Kingston Marina.

May 18th, 2004: The Whig reports the Mayor's Task-Force is in full-sell mode on TV, and quotes Joe deMora as saying:

"It's time for the silent majority to be a little less silent," he said.

On April 29 2005, Joe deMora is a member of the the KEDCO Board of Directors when KEDCO publishes a document titled "Economic Benefits of the LVEC", which is released just 4-days prior to a critial LVEC-related Council vote on May 3 2005.

August 2005: Joe deMora lists himself as a Friend of the Entertainment Centre. Indeed.

September 22, 2005: KCAL petition bearing over 3,700 names drops on Council. Instead of re-assessing all that is fundamentally wrong with the project, a backroom deal with swing-councillors just prior to the Council meeting moves the project off waterfront, to the North Block.
See also Joe deMora in Who's Who in the Proposed North Block LVEC Project.

November 2006: None of the LVEC's swing-councillors is re-elected.

End of January 2008: Nine months into the LVEC's public fundraising campaign, with less than a month to go, Joe deMora is not on the public list of donors to the LVEC, and the campaign is still $1M short of its target.

Combined LVEC calendars of Mississauga, Oshawa, Guelph, and Sault Ste-Marie for Q1 2008

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:53:56 GMT

You are looking at the combined published calendars for January, February, and March 2008 for LVECs in Mississauga, Oshawa, Guelph, and Sault Ste-Marie.

Four comparable buildings to Kingston's LVEC, over a full three months. We've circled the non-OHL hockey events to get a sense of what else these buildings draw.

You are looking at just 17 non-hockey events in a possible 364 event-days. This includes:

At the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, there are no publicly calendared "events" other than OHL hockey. The facility operator there is Arcturus SMG.
In Oshawa, one concert in January, 3-days of Skate Canada synchro-skating, 3-days for the Durham region Golf Show, and one Old Timers' game in February, and one concert in March.
Nothing is currently scheduled at the 5,100-seat Sleeman Centre in Guelph other than Guelph Storm hockey games.
In Sault Ste. Marie, it's OHL hockey plus two concerts in January, two concerts and two-days of OHL All-Star Celebrations and "Boo Soo 2008 opening festivities" in February, and one day for Monster-Truck Madness in March.

The Whig: Rosen must step-up, and Market Square fundraising runs dry

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:03:07 GMT

Recently in the Whig: on January 25th an LVEC-related editorial titled Mayor must step it up, and today (January 29th), an article on Market Square's fundraising failure titled The well has run dry, group finds.

If we've learned anything, it's "fundraising" should never be taken at face-value.

There's more: apparently Mayor Rosen is due to fly South for a holiday shortly, just as the LVEC fundraising campaign is supposed to be winding-up.

Another question: Do "Buy Local" invocations from Kingston merchants apply to holidays, or just to other people's spending?