People With No Names Come Forward To Help Secure A Fistful Of Dollars

There were some tiny steps to avoid stepping on glass as Council decided to put a deal they had agreed to on hold.

At their June 27th meeting Council had agreed to award the contract to secure the naming rights of what is presently called Mosaic Place to Professional Sponsorship Group (PSG). The contract would have seen the City pay PSG upfront $29,000 plus an additional 20 percent of the value of the final contract they secured.

The need to hire PSG came after the Mosaic Company declined to further extend the contract to have their name on the events centre that conceptually started its life as the Multi-Plex.

The Mosaic Company had agreed to allow their name to remain on the building until August 31st, 2022 - a full year after the original ten year naming rights contract expired.

The Mosaic Company had been paying $150,000 annually for the naming rights but now want to use the money to fund other community priorities such as food and water security.

Introducing the report about an offer from unknown people who had stepped up to assist with the naming rights search City Manager Jim Puffalt explained the genesis of the internal naming rights committee.

“We established an internal Naming Rights Committee last June or May to talk about how we go about how to sell the naming rights to the facility,” Puffalt said, adding “This was an internal committee and established and reported to Council on June 14th (2021) and quite obviously it was multi-year, large amount negotiation it is not something you do in public and that is why you do it in Committee of the Whole.”

Puffalt claimed it was well known that the City was looking for someone other than the Mosaic Company to assume naming rights for Mosaic Place.

“It was mentioned in the public reports, it was publicly advertised so everybody knew we were looking and then in January we asked Councilor (Jamey) Logan to give us a hand due to his extensive business contacts in the community,” he said.

At the June 13th Council meeting Councillor Dawn Luihning said only when the proposal to hire PSG was brought to Council that she learnt about the existence of the naming rights committee.

“I did not recall there was a group working behind the scenes working on this,” Councillor Luhning said at the June 13, 2022 meeting.

It should be noted Council nor Executive Committee held public discussions or voted on establishing a naming rights committee and who would sit on it. The committee was established internally.

City manager Puffalt said once it was public knowledge the City was set to hire an outside firm to secure naming rights a group came forward offering to help potentially meaning the City would not have to pay PSG a 20 percent commission.

“We did receive inquiries from people who wanted to give us a hand with that and so we talked to Performance Sponsors Group and they (PSG) were absolutely fine with holding or signing the agreement in abeyance until the local group could do some work with us. So the committee met with them on June 21st and we believe that we give that opportunity to everybody local that has stepped up to give us a hand,” he said.

Mayor Clive Tolley, who joined the naming rights committee automatically as Mayor, with his bi-election win said he had been approached by unnamed individuals who had worked on the Multi-Plex’s original fundraising campaign.

“When we came here two weeks ago we said maybe we should hire some professionals to do it. When that hit the news some of the people involved in some of the original fundraising for the original Mosaic Place they called and said are you sure, do we have to give a share of this to get naming rights. Maybe we could help.” Mayor Tolley said.

The Mayor did not identify the names of the individuals who came forward and met with the City. At the post Council news conference he declined to identify the individuals who had approached the City offering to help.

“I would like to just keep that confidential. Let us just say they are concerned about just how much we have to contribute to a private company to secure naming rights. They thought perhaps they could help,” the Mayor responded when asked by the media in the post Council press conference if he could better identify who had stepped forward offering to help the City.

Mayor Tolley had earlier explained to Council what had occured.

“They looked at our hit list of people to approach and provided some ideas so we said let’s take another run at this before we sign this contract and give away a percentage of the income that would come with the naming rights,” he said.

Giving the unnamed individuals and the naming rights committee more time would save the City the 20 percent commission originally headed to PSG.

“The committee with a couple of people assisting are going to try and do that. Of course if we can get naming rights by ourselves with the use of this committee we won’t be paying a company the 20 percent commission they would be requiring,” Mayor Tolley told Council.

It needs to be noted at the June 13, 2020 Council meeting Councillor Kim Robinson had asked and was told the 20 percent commission to PSG would be in addition to the $1.5 million sought for 10 year naming rights.

At the June 13th meeting Councillor Kim Robinson, the lone voice of dissent had stated if no company was willing to pay $1.5 million over 10 years how could PSG find a firm willing to pay $1.8 million?

Councillor Logan Asks For Clarification

Councillor Jamey Logan took time to explain his role on the naming rights committee and asking if he should not be approved by Council as a member.

“Seeing my name on this I certainly wasn’t looking to offend any other councillors when I jumped on this committee. Last week it was brought up you know maybe we didn’t go down the way we should have. I am wondering if we should vote to see what Council member should be on this committee?” Councillor Logan asked.

At the June 13th, 2022 meeting Councillor Luhning had expressed concerns she was not only unaware of the naming rights committee’s existence but that one of her fellow councillors was a member.

“I don’t want to do this improperly, I certainly didn’t intend that. I was just hoping to help out and be on the committee and make as many (phone) calls as I could,” he said.

Councillor Doug Blanc said he had no concerns with Councillor Logan sitting on the committee because Councillor Logan had more extensive business contacts than most.

“Councillor Logan has more extended reaches. So I don’t have a problem that. I worry about selecting someone else for the committee would disrupt it and just hold it back a little bit while somebody gets up to speed,” Councillor Blanc said.

Councillor Blanc said his real concerns was the high percentage being paid to PSG.

“I had some concerns about the 20 percent, not the $29,000 it is a lot of money, will this come back to Council before an agreement is signed again” Blanc asked.

Puffalt said it would.

“Our intent would be to see where we are at the end of the summer and provide an update to Council,” he said.

Councillor Crystal Froese said the new report was a good example of bringing new information forward to make a better decision.

“This is a really good example of how when you have new information you can make new motions and kind of change course. I’m kind of not surprised by this as there is such a large support for the event’s centre and that the broader spectrum of people did not kind of know kind of where we are at with this process,” Councillor Froese said.

Froese said she was OK with Councillor Logan being on the committee.

“I do believe it was (former) Mayor (Fraser) Tolmie that invited you onto that committee on this. Even before this was not coming before us every week the committee was working very hard and very diligently to try and find a new naming sponsor. And I appreciate all of the work the staff and community were doing on it,” she said.

It needs to be noted Administration’s report to Council states Councillor Logan was asked to join the committee in January 2022 while former Mayor Fraser Tolmie resigned all of his responsibilities to the City at a special Council meeting on August 17, 2021.

Councillor Heather Eby said she would like to thank all of the citizens who stepped forward.

“Instead of being unhappy with a decision of Council they came forward and offered a solution, an offer to help and they could have taken it in a different direction. I appreciate they came back to the plate and wanted to help out again,” Councillor Eby said.

In a unanimous decision Council agreed to give the naming rights committee until the end of August to secure a naming rights sponsor for what is until then Mosaic Place.