It's a case of the missing checkbook

The checkbook was not visible in the picture that ran on the front page of the March 24 edition of The Vindicator, but given the size of the photograph, it could easily have been missed. So Vindicator Chief Photographer Robert K. Yosay was asked to make an enlargement.
But even with the picture blown up to 17 inches wide and 11 inches deep, the checkbook was still not visible. (Yosay, with a veteran shooter's eye, noted that there were 13 individuals in the picture, the same number as in the illustration of the Last Supper. A message from the Almighty?)
Did the checkbook accidentally fall under the table while Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey and Rick Kozuback, president of International Coliseums Co., were busy signing contracts?
Did Kozuback quickly pocket it after he had made out a check to the city for $25 million to match the $25 million federal grant that is being used to build the so-called sports arena?
Did Kozuback simply forget to bring the checkbook to the March 24 contract signing ceremony and promise that the $25 million will be in the mail in the very near future?
The answers to those three questions are as follows: no, no and no.
McKelvey's flip
There was no checkbook because International Coliseums Co. isn't paying the city anything close to what the mayor had long demanded as a condition for any company's securing the contract to develop, build and operate the sports arena. Indeed, of the $41.25 million project cost, the company is required to make only $1.1 million in deposits at some point.
Where's the rest of the money coming from? Most of it from the taxpayers, of course. In addition to the $25 million federal Economic Development Initiative grant -- that's the money former Congressman James A. Traficant Jr. secured for Youngstown without the assistance or the involvement of the mayor and city council -- $4.8 million is being sought from the state; and $2 million worth of water and sewer work will be paid for by the city through the water and sewer departments. There is also a $550,000 energy efficiency grant the city has had for five years.
The developer, International Coliseums of Phoenix, Ariz., will borrow $6 million in a complex deal involving the arena's heating, ventilation and cooling system. And, it will have $1.1 million deposited in the bank.
Don't you dare remind the mayor about his public contention over the past year or so that the absence of significant investment by the private sector in the sports arena project would send a clear message that the project does not make good business sense.
McKelvey is right when he says that the contracts signed will be sweet deals -- but not for the city of Youngstown. Don't forget that the arena will be built by International Coliseums on land bought by the city for $1.5 million. That money was part of the $26.8 million grant secured by Traficant.
And, not to belabor the point of how sweet the deal is for the Arizona company, it will receive a $750,000 fee for its work, with $102,000 paid at the beginning of this month and the rest over 20 months.
Profits?
What's the city of Youngstown getting? Finance Director David Bozanich pointed out that the operations contract guarantees that International Coliseums, and not the city, will absorb any costs in the future. If there are profits -- Bozanich talked in terms of $600,000 to $1.1 million a year -- the city will receive the first $300,000 and then 80 percent of the profits after that. Oh, not to be picky, the Arizona company will receive 4 percent of the gross revenues annually.
But the intriguing aspects of this deal don't end there. International Coliseums is a subsidiary of Global Entertainment Corp., which owns a professional hockey minor league. Global intends for one of its hockey teams to be the main tenant of the arena in downtown Youngstown. For that, it gets to sell the arena's naming rights, which could bring in more than $250,000 for the company.
What's wrong with this picture? Nothing, according to the mayor and members of city council, led by Artis Gillam Sr., D-1st, and Kozuback, who gushed about the benefits Youngstown will derive from the arena.
Look at Hidalgo, Texas, where International Coliseums has built a facility, the company president said.
But is Hidalgo Youngstown? Are most of its residents on welfare or on retirement? Does it have a failing school system? Are its neighborhoods crumbling? Is major crime a problem?