ARENA PROJECT Officials agree on roles

By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The cold war has thawed. The proposed downtown civic center project appears to be moving along.
Arena board members and city officials unveiled what they call a "new level of cooperation and understanding" Thursday after months of arguing over control.
"It appears we are moving forward," said Leonard Schiavone, the board chairman.
Little, however, has seemingly changed from before.
The city remains answerable to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the project as a whole. The arena board will be responsible for designing, building and managing the project. That insulates the city from direct financial liability.
The only difference now is that both sides agree on their respective roles.
Moving forward: City council has hesitated for months to grant the board authority to move ahead. Councilmen have been mulling questions of responsibility.
"We're finally agreeing to do what we agreed to do in the first place," said Robert VanSickle, the board vice chairman.
The two sides are working on a contract that will spell out their roles, subject to HUD approval, said Jay Williams, director of the city Community Development Agency.
CDA administers the city's federal money. Williams will be the city official working with the board to access $26.8 million federal dollars secured so far for the project.
Council also plans to advance the board money so it can start its work, he said. The board wants $100,000 to hire its own lawyer to negotiate the contract, open an office in the city-owned Wick building, and buy director's insurance to protect its members from liability.
The board will return any money not used once the contract is signed. The hope is to accomplish all that by early June.
Liaison: Williams is a key player, Van Sickle said. His involvement shows council is willing to release its grip on administering the project, he said.
"Now we have a liaison, not politics," Van Sickle said.
Council members have argued for nearly a year that they weren't clear about whether they were on the hook for any misspending.
HUD rules: A March 13 meeting in Washington with HUD's director of special projects division seems to have eased their minds.
This is what HUD told council members Artis Gillam Sr., D-1st, Richard Atkinson, R-3rd, James E. Fortune Sr., D-6th, and John R. Swierz, D-7th.
Standard administrative and environmental rules apply, and the money must be used for a civic center. The city can delegate spending to a development corporation like the arena board.
The city has five years to spend all the money from September 2000, when it accepted the grant money.
The city remains responsible for proper use of the funds and meeting federal requirements. HUD expects to give prior approval to any contracts. The project is a top candidate for HUD audits.
Making peace: Council members then met Monday with the arena board's executive committee.
The tone was pleasant and rhetoric completely different than the past few months, arena board members said. The two sides talked about how each envisioned their roles, and there was no disagreement.
Council members couldn't be reached Thursday night to comment.
The pair of meetings, with HUD and the board's committee, produced more progress than all the talk of the past months, said Rev. Edward P. Noga, the board's secretary.