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HomeMy WebLinkAbout6.24.25 LEPFA Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes LANSING ENTERTAINMENT & PUBLIC FACILITIES AUTHORITY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING MINUTES June 24, 2025 At 8:07 a.m. Chairwoman Maureen McNulty-Saxton called the monthly meeting of the LEPFA Board of Commissioners to order in the Governor’s Room located at the Lansing Center; 333 East Michigan Avenue; Lansing, Michigan 48933. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Danielle Lenz, Charles Mickens, Maureen McNulty-Saxton, Dustin Howard and Rawley Van Fossen (Ex-Officio). (Larry Leatherwood entered meeting at 8:14am) COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Paul Collins, Kenric Hall, Crystal Thomas OTHERS PRESENT: Mindy Biladeau, Heidi Brown, Kirby Doidge, Paul Ntoko, Ryan Tess, Tristan Wright, and Donna Roy - Lansing Entertainment & Public Facilities Authority; Sherrie Boak- City of Lansing (City Council) Julie Pingston- Choose Lansing; Jake Brower – City of Lansing and Greg Venker (City Attorney) ;Bryan Crowe – ASM Global; Tracie Kent – Residence Inn; Aaron Matthews – AOM Legal and Jack Alexander- Public. I. CALL TO ORDER: Chair Saxton called the LEPFA Board meeting to start at 8:07AM. ll. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AGENDA: There were changes to the agenda due to the lack of quorum. Items that did not require a vote were presented first. Once a quorum was established then item(s) needed a vote proceeded. APPROVAL OF THE CHANGED AGENDA FOR JUNE 24, 2025, LEPFA BOARD MEETING Motion was made to change the agenda due to the lack of quorum. MOTION Commissioner Leatherwood, SECOND by Commissioner Lenz, MOTION CARRIED Ill. PUBLIC COMMENT: Julie Pingston, Choose Lansing – President & CEO report on behalf of the Director of Sales for the Lansing Center, shared information regarding the calendar FY and for LEPFA, sale was busy in locking in long term contracts and repeat events such as Mid-West Reps who signed for three (3) consecutive events in 2026. Termain Dance has been booked until 2030, and number of things booked in 2027. Choose Lansing is taking the opportunity to book at year end to push things through. There were twelve (12) of them in the month of June. Update on hospitality and tourism market through May. Choose Lansing waits until after MSU graduation to report on occupancy and data because it pushes Choose Lansing over the top for the first half of the year. Occupancy for the hotel industry is 53.9%, which is up 2.2% over last year, which is very good number. Hotel have been flat for the last two (2) years. There has been a jump between now and May. Michigan up 1.5% U.S. down .4%, U.S. data related to international travel the uncertainty right now, the tariffs in Canada and the loss of market share for the country. Detroit is seeing that they are down 1% through May and Grand Rapids is up .2% our 2.2% is a strong indicator in the Mid-West region especially in Michigan. Also, through May the demand for hotel rooms is up 1.9% and is now matching occupancy. There used to be a discrepancy for the last couple of years because there were so many rooms built during the pandemic of about 800 rooms that came in the market in the last five years so now, they are seeing the gap shrinking between demand and occupancy. The hotels are seeing more people through the doors related to the leveling out of the market for this part of the year. LEPFA Board of Commissioners Meeting June 24, 2025 P a g e | 2 Choose Lansing continues to watch for the rest of the year lot of strong things coming and looking forward to maybe a good football season, Choose Lansing will see where that take them. lV. APPROVAL OF THE May 20, 2025, MINUTES: Motion was made to approve the meeting minutes for May 20, 2025, meeting as presented. MOTION: Commissioner Lenz SECOND: Commissioner MicKens MOTIONED CARRIED V. REPORTS: A. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT: Chairwoman Saxton noted items for today’s meeting 1. May 2025 Financials Review and Approval 2. Presentation and Approval of FY 26 LEPFA Board Officers 3. Presentation and Approval of New ASM Global Directors 4. ASM Global Transition Update and the introduction of the Interim General Manager, Tony Waston 5. Personnel Committee Update 6. Strategic Committee Update B. FINANCE COMMITTEE- Commissioner Lenz represented the Finance committee in the absence of Committee Chair Paul Collins, Commissioner Lenz deferred to Kirby Doidge to report on the May 2025 Financials as follows: 1. Financial Review: a. Lansing Center - Revenue- Month of May revenue was $649,082. We were a head our budgeted revenue amount of $538,304 by $110,777. Year to date we were ahead by anticipated revenue by $17,811. Key accounts, building revenue, $107,414 under budget by $2586 for the month and ($52,316) YTD. Food and Beverage $358,541 beat budget by $77,270 for the moth and $87,242 YTD. Equipment Rental $133,741 beat budget by $35,191 and ($59,440) YTD. Labor Service $41,891 beat budget by $6,967 and $19,507 YTD Expenses- In May at the Lansing Center expenses were $623,360 we were over budget by $31,634. Year To Date beating budget by $208,045. Utilities were $89,226, which is back to normal budget amounts for this time of year. YTD we are still over budget by $69,717. Will continue to investigate and monitor utility cost and usage. Events expense of $85,211 is under our anticipated expense for the month and is still under budget by $80,623 YTD. Food and Beverage $166,944 under the anticipated budget for the month by ($3,824). Salaries should start to fall in line, there were some retirement, and personnel leave as well as vacation that was paid out. Overall we were beating our anticipated budget by $112, 995 and YTD we were under our anticipated budget by $119,855 We had a good month of May at the Lansing Center. We did cut into the deficit a significant amount and are beating our revenue for the first time this year. As stated last month, we knew the last few months would give us a great for budget. With the need to spend the allocated capital improvement dollars, we will see the positive budget variance decrease. At 8:12 a.m. Larry Leatherwood entered the meeting. LEPFA Board of Commissioners Meeting June 24, 2025 P a g e | 3 b. Groesbeck Golf Course- Revenue: Groesbeck Golf Course revenue was $87,118, under budget by $27,66. YTD beat budget by $99,651. Greens fees beat anticipated revenue by $2,018. Power cart rental is under anticipated revenue by $9,667. Leagues/Simulator beat budget by $1,716 total. Expenses: Salaries and Wages are over budget by $292.93 for the month and YTD over by $47,198 which is largely hourly staff and the season picking up. and is attributed to simulator staffing. Rents and leases are up due to lease maintenance agreement and cart payments. Month of May over expenses budget by $15,281.00. YTD over expense budget by $78,217. c. Jackson Field- Month of May expenses $83,090.59 which is over the anticipated monthly budget by $37,384.00. YTD we are now over $86,109.00. This is largely due to the HVAC projects that we were working on. These item are being reimbursed by the city until the MEDC grant comes through. Salary: There is built in expenses for geƫng the stadium ready for play so we will see the salary line uƟlized in the coming month. UƟliƟes: we are in full swing of the season, but over budget and has kicked us over budget YTD by 34384. Motion was made to accept the May financials as presented. MOTION: Commissioner Leatherwood SECOND: Commissioner Howard MOTION CARRIED. C. PERSONNEL COMMITTEE- Chair Saxton deferred to Commissioner Howard to report on the joint meeting with the Strategic Committee. Personnel & Strategic met on June 12 & 19 to discuss the transition from LEPFA to ASM Global and how this would affect the employees. There was discussion on the potential cost increase of health benefits for employees moving from LEPFA to ASM. Discussion about UAW extended their contract by sixty days (60). Chair Saxton asked the President & CEO (Tristan Wright) to discuss the pension manager and the board duties in relation to the retirement plan. Kyle Brunner of Brunner & Van Gorder Financial met with the LEPFA staff on June 23, 2025, to provide an overview of the staff’s options for their retirement plan. Chair Saxton inquired about the dissolution of the retirement plan and what role and what were some of the board options with regards to the dissolution of the retirement fund. D. PRESIDENT & CEO REPORT- President & CEO Tristan Wright indicated she had no report. E. VICE PRESIDENT/STAFF REPORTS LEPFA Board of Commissioners Meeting June 24, 2025 P a g e | 4 1. Mindy Biladeau: Sales & Services- Mindy noted that May was a sold month. Noted the positive rental revenue for FY 26. Mindy noted bringing back Grand Concerts Series, it starts on July 17, 2025 and will run through September 4, 2025, there are various artist that will be performing in the gazebo area. 2. Tristan Wright: Administration- Reference the Administrative Report. 3. Paul Ntoko: Foodservice- Paul Ntoko indicated his report is in the Administrative Report. Paul mentioned the progress of the golf course and the hard work of the staff. The golf course is fully open after it was closed due to storm damage about three weeks ago. Extend the summer rates just one week. Rounds were down this past weekend due to the Greater Lansing Amateur Golf Association (GLAGA) Tournament. This tournament was rescheduled due to the storm the week of June 6, 2025. Record Father’s Day outing/promotion. 4. Ryan Tess: Operations- Ryan Tess stated his report is in the Administrative report and would be happy to address questions. Touched on Jackson Field struggling with HVAC issues and that there will be some significant repairs needed. Chair Saxton asked the age of the units, there are units from the range of 27 + to 10 years in age. Chair Saxton asked what the cost of repairs for the units were. Ryan Tess shared a capital budget was created about five years ago; the replacement cost was $1.5 million. Tristan reported that the renovation of the hydraulic irrigation system on holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 at Groesbeck has been completed. Discussion about the process of the irrigation system and overcoming various challenges. 5. Kirby Doidge: Finance-. No report. Vl. COMMISSIONERS AND STAFF COMMENTS: Commissioner Leatherwood: Acknowledge that LEPFA has gone into an agreement with ASM, however asked why a change in operations and the President & CEO even though LEPFA has been effective in its operations of the various facilities. Chair Saxton response to Commissioner Leatherwood referring to ASM as the employer. Chair Saxton explains that LEPFA is a governing board. Commissioner Leatherwood states as a governing board, LEPFA has the right to raise questions about the various changes. Chair Saxton notes that ASM is the manager and has the right to do the search for a new General Manager for the Lansing Complexes and has the right to make offers to employees. Commissioner Leatherwood expressed his concern over the changes and the unknow future of LEPFA’s current President & CEO. President & CEO: Reported that Lolo Robison (CATA) has been appointed to the LEPFA Board. She will be attending the July 22, 2025, board meeting. Chair Saxton: Shared that there will be a July board meeting. VIl. OLD BUSINESS: No Old Business VIIl. NEW BUSINESS: Presentation of the FY 26 LEPFA Board of Commissioners, Chair- Maureen Saxton, Vice Chair-Daneille Lenz, Secretary/Treasurer-Paul Collins, Chair of Personnel LEPFA Board of Commissioners Meeting June 24, 2025 P a g e | 5 Committee-Dustin Howard, Chair of Strategic Committee- Charles Mickens. Motion was made to accept the FY 26 slate of LEPFA Board officers as presented. MOTION: Commissioner Mickens SECOND: Commissioner Lenz MOTION CARRIED. 1. Bryan Crowe, Regional Vice President, ASM Global notes it’s been a very excited four weeks held a kickoff meeting on May 20, 2025, with the staff after the LEPFA Board meeting. Has had various meeting with some sub committees, held a Town Hall with the staff on June 17th to go over health benefits with the staff. Schedule to have open enrollment for the employees later this week. Share details about some of the plans employees can choice from. Noted the overall out of pocket cost to employees with is an Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield nationwide plan, estimated that it should cost most employees about $1,000.00 a year less than their current out of pocket is currently. There are different options available. When ASM compared their value plan which is the lowest out of pocket plan against the UofM Health plan which LEPFA employee have now. People’s payment may range between $1,000 to $1,700 less out of pocket. ASM is also negotiating with Anthem to help employees that have certain out-of-pocket expenses already through the first six months of the year. There was concern it would zero out, because of new employer new plan it will capture that out-of-pocket expenses. Extended verbal offers to all the Directors that ASM proposed. Did get the board’s acknowledgement of the Directors. Mentioned open enrollment later this week for non-represented employees. Noted LEPFA has agreed to UAW request to extend their CBA another 60 days, July 1- August 30, 2025. Had some dialogue with IASTE, it was IASTE intent to do an extension. The extension would allow for negations to take place after the transition on July 1. Tony Waston is ASM’s transition Manager and Interim General Manager. He is a tenured employee with ASM Global. He currently works out of ASMs Irving Texas, Irving Convention Center in Texas. He has been at the Lansing Center a couple of times met with the staff and did an overall site evaluation for ASM and the onboarding team. He will be onsite person for the day-to-day beginning July 1 while ASM is running the recruitment for the permanent General Manager. While meeting with the strategic and personnel committee, ASM was asked to put a tentative timeline for recruitment together, which was presented in the packet Bryan from ASM shared with the LEPFA board. Bryan noted that ASM is hoping to onboard a General Manager selection in August and onboard beginning October 1, 2025. This will depend on the response that ASM sees regarding recruitment. ASM did post the position May 20th shortly after the contract was agreed to not only ASM website but on a number of industry boards. ASM is seeing applications from internally as well as externally from non ASM Global employees. ASM is hopeful of being able to get a great pool of qualified candidates and be able to have an interview process and then invite folks to Lansing. ASMs intent is to have a stakeholders committee being part of some interviews which include members of LEPFA, Choose Lansing, ASM, could include City of Lansing. This is something that can be further discussed and how the LEPFA board would like to see the committee assembled. ASM wants great input from the key folks who will be involved in managing the account. The Lugnuts could be an option, stakeholders who could work closely with the General Manager, helping ASM make the selection. Next in the packet is the proposed slate of Directors. Organizational LEPFA has Vice Presidents. ASM Global is similar but a little different that level to ASM is classified as Directors, what was the LEPFA President & CEO is classified as General Manager. The individuals on page (2) have all agreed to the role of Director and tentative offers for the first five. The biggest change was the retirement of the Vice President of Administration, so ASM does not have that position carrying over. After evaluating the LEPFA Board of Commissioners Meeting June 24, 2025 P a g e | 6 organizational structure and talking with stakeholders ASM decided to propose to separate the Sales Service Marketing role into two lead roles. There will be a Director of Marketing and Special Events in which Mindy will fill that role. In partnership with Choose Lansing Kristy Doak would oversee Sales and Event Services. Kristy Doak would remain a Choose Lansing employee. ASM would work in partnership, so all Sale and Event Service is under one team. This won’t take place on July 1, there will be a transition for this process between probably July into August and September. ASM is working with Mindy and Kristy to transition things over. ASMs top priorities are the employees first, the clients, events, activities, to take place and the facilities. ASM start on July 1, they are sensitive to the transition. Bryan also included a high-level overview of what the organization looks like. He notes it very similar to what the LEPFA board would see today and if they have any questions. Also in the packet is the addendum to the liquor license. LEPFA will need to have discussion with their legal counsel. ASM has submitted a addendum related to the food and beverage specifically to the alcohol sales and the license that’s handled through the state. There are a number of documents that pair up the entity that ASM owns that holds the license in Michigan and how it ties back to ASM the entity who LEPFA contracted with as well as how it ties back to LEPFA who holds one license, and the City of Lansing holds the other. The process is complicated around the liquor license. 2. Chair Saxton asked if Kristy would report to choose Lansing or report to both. Bryan with ASM responded Kristy will have a dual reported role she remains a Choose Lansing employee for the purpose of employment management relationship with Choose Lansing, but she'll work directly under the General Manager and would be part of the executive management team as one of the directors. ASM will have an employee in the HR role that technically we'll have a report to the general manager but for day-to-day the event service department will report to Kristy we are still working on some details. This was discussed with choose Lansing that was the general support for this approach ASM thinks this is a dynamic relationship that can be revisited in months ahead to see how it's working and how it might need to be tweaked or could be long term, but this was a starting point for a shift that ASM wanted to see as the transition begins. 3. Commissioner Mickens asked if email addresses would change. Bryan with ASM stated right now no ASM is basically stepping into LEPFA shoes the approaches that LE PFA entities the bank accounts e-mail addresses ASM will manage. ASM will be reviewing things, for example IT e-mail hosted websites all of the different tools software and run those through ASM's best practices and priority or proprietary best practices and make some recommendations for some changes or improvements of things. It is very common for individual accounts sites to operate in their own environment. Sometimes there are savings to join the corporate environment sometimes it's better to remain independent depending on the configuration and what the cost would look like. The biggest thing ASMR will be focusing on is IT. There is a lot of phishing fraud temps through emails ASM wants to look at how the IT is set up from a safety standpoint. Leadership from ASM will be focusing on the IT environment evaluating all systems Wi-Fi in the coming months ASM will come with some recommendations. 4. Commissioner Leatherwood asked Bryan the same question proposed to Chair Saxton with regards to the President and CEO. How is ASM taking into consideration LEPFA's existing position as president compared to ASM's recruiting a new general manager how was ASM separating the two. Bryan with ASM noted ASM is running a recruitment for the General LEPFA Board of Commissioners Meeting June 24, 2025 P a g e | 7 Manager existing president and CEO can be an applicant for that and would be part of the evaluation process. ASM looks at all applications received ASM will identify all those who have skills, qualifications work history that match the role that ASM needs to fill as General Manager. ASM would then hold phone screenings, interviews, then panel interviews with the stakeholders. Then the person who could be the selected General Manager would be up against other candidates in the pool considered for this position. Commissioner Leatherwood stated to Bryan with ASM is that LEPFA has an existing president who is operationally qualified to run the current operations and will that person be considered a strong candidate for the General Manager position since ASM is doing a recruitment and considering those individuals who have the highest amount of qualification for the position if there is already in the position who has the qualifications both educational operational and years of service. Mr. Leatherwood stated he's not sure what else ASM is looking for. Bryan with ASM stated the person ASM is look for to fill the General Manager role having qualifications and experiences running the Lancing complexes is certainly a core component of the position however, ASM is looking for a person who can match up against the strategy that ASM has for the goals and objectives that LEPFA has set in the management agreement so ASM needs to identify a person that can manage according to the management agreement be able to drive revenue, control expenditures as well as implement ASM's national best practices policies and procedures, that is a component of it but just having experience running the Lansing complex isn't necessarily the only evaluation criteria that ASM would consider. Without question Tristan is a qualified candidate for the role of general manager she has the education and background for it. ASM anticipates seeing other people that operate facilities as the same that will also be candidates for this position. Bryan noted that he has seen about nine different applications that applied for the General Manager’s role. ASM is hopeful that ASM has options for the stakeholders to consider in terms of making a selection to lead as the general manager going forward. 5. Chair Saxton asked when the application window closes. Bryan with ASM stated there is not a hard date but it's based on getting a good number of high qualified candidates ASM wants to make sure collectively ASM has the opportunity to really evaluate multiple options to find the best fit for the day-to-day, the culture and what ASM is trying to achieve it's a process. Chair Saxton asked about a general timeline. Bryan with ASM stated that the goal is to identify this person in August end of August. Bryan noted that ASM tends to see that this time of the year is challenging for recruitment due to summer break. In reviewing candidates and engaging with the LEPFA stakeholders if LEPFA wants to wait or slow the process down that is an option. 6. Commissioner Leatherwood asked Bryan to share the job posting for the General Manager position. 7. Commissioner Mickens asked Bryan how many candidates ASM see in a market size like this? How many finalists do ASM select? Bryan with ASM stated 3 to 5 that ends up as the high qualified that are in the final stages if there are less than 3 then ASM would wait to get more in the pipeline. It's not uncommon to see 20 to 30 general applications that come that can turn into three to five qualified applicants it depends on the market and the time of the year. ASM is seeing that it's challenging for people to relocate and jobs pre pandemic. People love remote jobs, this is not one of those jobs, this has been a big shift. Bryan noted that ASM is fortunate as a company that manages over 350 different venues worldwide. LEPFA Board of Commissioners Meeting June 24, 2025 P a g e | 8 ASM has seen some interest from other internal candidates, which is great, that is the strength of ASM. The job is posted on a number of different industry job boards. ASM is hopeful through these boards will get enough general applications which can be narrowed down to a great slate of highly qualified candidates for ASM to have on-site interviews and engage with the stakeholders that will help to lead the Lansing operations. 8. Chair Saxton notes the addendum agreement Pertaining to the liquor license which the board has not had an opportunity to look at. They will need to consult with their attorney. 9. Chair Saxton notes the update on the director’s five offers were made and ASM has a verbal acceptance except Kristy, she is not an ASM employee however Christie has agreed to the role. 10. Brian from ASM stated the way the management agreement is set up the LEPFA board has to approve the directors for ASM. Motion to approve the slate of the directors as present by Byran (ASM). MOTION: Commissioner Howard SECOND: Commissioner Lenz MOTION CARRIED 11. Chair Saxton Congrats to the new directors of ASM. Chair Saxton noted the uncertainty that who will be handling the board's portal responsibilities, she also notes the importance of the board information and how it needs to be put together. 12. Commissioner Van Fossen notes about Jake offering administrative support from the city of Lansing and Commissioner Van Fossen’s offered some assistance from his office to ensure board business will continue to move forward. IX. AJOURNMENT: Motion was made to adjourn the meeting MOTION: Commissioner Saxton SECOND: None MOTION CARRIED At 9:12 a.m. the regular monthly meeting was adjourned. THE NEXT MONTHLY MEETING IS SCHEDULED FOR: TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2025 8:00 a.m. LOCATION: Lansing Center- Room 201 Respectfully submitted, Tristan Wright, Recording Secretary