Editorial: Rocky deal

The final bill for infrastructure at Rock Chalk Park is delivering yet another blow to residents’ confidence in the way this project was handled.

It’s easy to understand why Lawrence city commissioners would want to pay the final bill on the Rock Chalk Park infrastructure and try to put this controversial deal behind them. However, approving final payment on this project with the information they now have at hand would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer money.

The figures released as part of tonight’s City Commission agenda will not make people who have been unhappy about this unusual financial deal any happier. The new numbers say the cost of all the shared roads, parking lots, utility improvements and other infrastructure at the sports complex totaled $11.59 million. The final bill calls for city taxpayers to pay $10.45 million or 90 percent of that “shared” expense. Kansas University Coach Bill Self’s Assists Foundation will pay $1 million, and Bliss Sports II, the private company led by Thomas Fritzel, will pay $145,835. That’s right, Bliss Sports II will pay just 1.26 percent of the infrastructure costs.

This is a vastly different picture than was painted at the beginning of this project. The actual value of the new recreation center and infrastructure, Fritzel said, would be about $33 million but he offered the city “a deal” by guaranteeing it wouldn’t pay more than $25 million. The other $8 million, he said, would constitute his company’s philanthropy to the city.

In the meantime, city officials decided to bid the recreation center project separately, and Bliss submitted the low bid (just $280,000 lower than the next bidder) of $10.5 million. Suddenly the city had a lot of money to spend on infrastructure before hitting its $25 million cap. After some quick negotiations, the city agreed to a new, slightly lower, cap of $22.5 million, which is reflected in the bills released Friday.

The city also agreed — at the insistence of the KU Endowment Association — to proceed with a no-bid contract on the infrastructure. They also promised, however, to do a line-by-line review of the submitted construction costs to make sure those costs were in line with market rates. KU Endowment had planned to do an audit of the Rock Chalk Park expenses, and city officials had asked KU to share that audit. Unfortunately, Endowment didn’t do an audit. Without that audit the city can’t fully examine whether the infrastructure costs it is being asked to pay are reasonable.

The agreement also requires the city to pay the interest and fees on a loan Bliss Sports obtained from Emprise Bank for the project. The city has been told the interest and fees will cost $607,725, but it hasn’t been told the loan amount on which that calculation is based.

At this point, it seems like both the city’s “partners” in this project are taking advantage of city taxpayers. City officials are being asked to write a check for construction costs they can’t fully examine, as well as interest and fees on a loan, the amount of which they don’t even know.

The Rock Chalk Park deal never smelled right to many Lawrence taxpayers, but it is becoming even more rank. City commissioners have a duty to taxpayers to insist on a detailed accounting of the costs they are being asked to approve before finalizing the final payment on this project.