Resident Jennifer Jackson questioned the DuBois City Council, at its work session last Thursday, about revenue coming into the city from DuBois sporting events.
“Matt Checchio (of Magnus Marketing) runs DuBois sports?”
“Yes,” said interim city Manager Chris Nasuti.
“So, all of the money that all these fields are getting, is DuBois sports using the city’s tax (ID)?” asked Jackson.
Nasuti said DuBois sports has its own tax ID.
Jackson asked if the city receives a breakdown of what DuBois sports is making on the ballfields with each game and with On Deck DuBois, managed by Magnus Sports, a division of Magnus Marketing.
“I know the city gave them money to buy On Deck,” said Jackson.
Councilman Pat Reasinger said the Redevelopment Authority gave them the money.
“But redevelopment got the money from the city,” said Jackson.
“I’m not 100 percent sure on that,” said Reasinger. “It could have been redevelopment money. We talked about that. I’m not 100 percent sure on that.”
“How do we know what we’re getting, and is it a straight across the board? I don’t understand why the city is using somebody else to manage the fields at this point. Why don’t we have a parks and recreation job?” said Jackson.
Jackson said she has been going through the budgets for the past few years with the fields and the cost of the new fields.
“But I just wanted to do a little bit of background going through all the websites for DuBois sports and On Deck, what they charge,” said Jackson. “I didn’t see a lot of that coming into the city. I saw where (Denny) Heindl gave $100,000 up front. Is that what is in that account to maintain? Is that that special account we have for park….”
Nasuti said part of that is in that.
“So we have made a change, probably back around the (Small College) World Series time, (in) May,” said Nasuti. “Instead of the money going to Checchio and Checchio paying the city, the city now collects the money, and we pay Matt.”
“So how do we know all the fields being booked? I have the email that Matt Checchio had sent out to somebody on the field, and the end of the last paragraph was a little strange,” said Jackson.
Jackson read the email from Checchio, which stated, “Please do not broadcast or openly discuss this discounted rate with other organizations. The public isn’t aware of all the resources and operations, yada yada. If our organization feels there is too much chatter and gossip, (I guess I’m chattering right now), local discounts or special dispensations would cease.”
It was noted that the email was dated December of 2022.
“But I still wanted, if they’re doing different rates, if we’re spending all this money for a ball field, which the budget part I’ll talk about, but we need to be maintaining them,” said Jackson.
“But these fields should be for local people and if we’re getting charged astronomically locally to use these fields or they’re getting bumped out for all of these traveling teams, I feel it defeats the purpose of taking out a loan for more (fields), we can’t maintain what we have now,” said Jackson.
“We need somewhere to get the money to maintain these down the road,” said Jackson. “If I’m reading the budget right, we’ll be talking (about) Monday, there’s some issues in there. I do not see why we are doing this when we can’t maintain what we have now.”
She noted that the council hasn’t raised taxes in about 10 years.
“This council has never voted for a tax increase, it’s scary,” said Jackson.
“Are you saying we can’t maintain our fields?” said Nasuti.
“Where we’re at, we’re at what, 80 percent of the (general) budget this year and we’re only at the end of August,” said Jackson.
“I think that’s a little misleading,” said Nasuti. “I’m going to say there’s grant monies that are capital group projects in there.”
“But I mean, we don’t really have a whole lot in savings from the millions that the city used to,” said Jackson. “Our savings just isn’t there. And I don’t want to touch much on this today. I know it’s going to be a topic on Monday, but you say there’s all this money in these funds, we still have a heck of a lot of bills to pay through the end of the year. I understand their capital projects, but from what the daily expense sheet is, we’re like at 80 percent.”
Nasuti said he does not believe that is correct and that he would get Jackson the accurate numbers.
City Finance Officer DeLean Shepherd said, “what she (Jackson) is looking at is out of the financial system, which isn’t the new budget that we came up with, not spending money that would’ve been spent.”
“We’re not talking the same budgets,” said Nasuti. “I don’t know what you’re looking at, but the one I looked at, at the end of July, we were still forecasted revenues, expenses to be able to cover everything.”
Nasuti said the city has a contract with Magnus Marketing.
“I just want to make sure that we’re maintaining all the fields, and now all the income from those tournaments or whatever is coming in through the city,” said Jackson.
The council will hold its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Monday (today) at the municipal meeting at 16 W. Scribner Ave., downtown DuBois. Some of the items listed on the agenda include: Downtown DuBois Parking Study Report – Downtown DuBois, Inc. – Julie Stewart; tabulation and recommendation (Coke Hill area water distribution main replacement project, paving, house demolitions); Oklahoma-Salem waterline; financial director; and manager’s position.
Source: The Courier Express