ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Newfoundland Growlers hockey team owner Dean MacDonald said he’s very upset that changes were made to the initial consultant’s report on Mile One Centre before it was released publicly last year.
As reported Thursday, The Telegram obtained St. John’s Sports and Entertainment (SJSE) board minutes from 2018 and 2019, as well as city emails, which showed the KPMG report underwent multiple modifications at the request of SJSE over an eight-month period before it was released publicly in November last year.
MacDonald said he’s upset because during that period the city backed out of its memorandum of understanding with the Growlers and St. John’s Edge that could have seen the teams take over management of Mile One Centre and the St. John’s Convention Centre.
“They sat on the report and didn’t release (it) until after they backed out of the management agreement. They knew full well that when the public read the report they would have pressure to honour the report.”
The report pointed to the lack of a clear mandate for SJSE and the lack of a business plan, and the highest arena subsidy of all the municipalities compared in the report.
MacDonald said city staff and the board shouldn’t have been involved in what SJSE CEO Sheena McCrate described as reviewing factual inaccuracies in the draft report.
“It is a horrible record of corporate governance,” said MacDonald.
“The people that would be affected by us managing the facility, or owning the facility, are actually having a hand in the report. It’s absolutely terrible independence. They shouldn’t have been involved in any way, shape or form. It’s a big mistake. … Let the independent, third party write the report. Let the public judge if there’s inaccuracies.”
Anger over CEO bonus
Board minutes also showed that McCrate received a year-end bonus for 2017 worth 12 per cent of her salary, and that the board approved the bonus without using a performance metric.
MacDonald said there’s no other business in the world that would reward a CEO during the same year that more than $58,000 inexplicably went missing from Mile One Centre, when operational expenses exceeded the operating subsidy from the city every year from 2012-18, and when, in his opinion, the service at the arena isn’t up to industry standard.
“That’s being bonused? Man, I’m telling you, that really pisses me off,” he said.
“People have got to start asking council to start taking the spending of their dollars seriously. They can’t plow the streets, but they can reward management with bonuses when they’re not performing. It is unconscionable.”
MacDonald was alluding to last month’s city council decision not to immediately increase funds for sidewalk snowclearing.
He said he remains committed to his desire to purchase Mile One Centre.
“Now it gives me even more resolve of how things can be improved down there, (and) why it needs to change, because it’s clearly not working in the interest of taxpayers.”
Coun. Jamie Korab told The Telegram the most recently contracted KPMG report looking at the possible sale of Mile One Centre could also be changed if there are factual inaccuracies, but MacDonald said he’s not worried about this report because it’s being overseen by an independent subcommittee of the SJSE board made up of people who are not affiliated with or employed by the city.
“That gives me great confidence that those people don’t have an axe to grind,” he said.
That report is due by early December, according to a city news release last week. The report is estimated to cost $35,000.
