The grossness of GROSFC
Here's a fascinating stat: Frontier Field owes Monroe County more than $16 million in unpaid taxes.
Well, a stadium can't owe anyone money. But the public agency that OWNS Frontier Field, the Greater Rochester Outdoor Sports Facility Corporation, hasn't paid taxes in years.
You now something else GROSFC doesn't pay for? The $1.8-million annual debt service on the bonds it floated to build the baseball stadium 15 years ago.
And without the burden of those two expenditures, GROSFC is STILL scheduled to lose roughly $1.7 million this year. Your tax dollars at work, folks.
So what is GROSFC? It's a local development corporation created to finance the construction of and own Frontier Field. Who created this LDC? The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency, or COMIDA. What's COMIDA? Yet another public agency, this one created by New York State ostensibly for the purpose of fostering economic growth and job development in Monroe County.
But the problem is that the COMIDA board of directors is stocked with political flunkies of whoever serves as county executive at any given time. Currently, that means the COMIDA board is comprised of toadies who swear allegiance to Maggie Brooks.
Right now, the six members of the COMIDA board are Ann Burr, Lauren Doyle, Bob Hurlbut, Theresa Mazzullo, Steve Moore and Hank Stuart. How did these fine men and women get appointed to COMIDA?
Oh, I don't know, maybe money? Over the last few years, Hurlbut has given $6,500 to Maggie Brooks' campaign coffers and another $1,000 to the Monroe County Republican Committee. Burr has donated $3,000 to Maggie, and Mazzullo's husband, Donald, has given $3,700. (To be fair, a lot of the COMIDA members have also given beaucoup bucks to Democrats like Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy and Assemblyman Joe Morelle.)
As a group, the COMIDA board doles out millions of dollars in tax breaks and other benefits to local companies (or national companies with projects in Monroe County). That sounds good in theory, but COMIDA has taken a lot of heat lately for allegedly conducting business behind closed doors, stiffing local labor and giving breaks to politically-connected companies.
The local development corporations (LDCs) that operate from COMIDA's offices have also been criticized for similar transgressions. Last year, Democratic County Legislator Ted O'Brien filed a proposal to make local LDCs more open and accountable to the public, but the Lej's Republicans voted it down.
So why is any of this relevant to the local sports scene? Because GROSFC, the agency that owns Frontier Field, is one of those politically-connected LDCs that O'Brien and others have cited as requiring more oversight. And who's on the GROSFC board of directors? The six members of the COMIDA board!
In addition, Gary Larder of Rochester Community Baseball, i.e. the Red Wings, is the seventh GROSFC member, and the Red Wings/Rochester Community Baseball have also given thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Brooks and other local Republicans. (Again, to be fair, Duffy and other Dems have also benefited from the Wings' largesse.)
In essence, the fate of Rochester's baseball stadium rests in the hands of seven politically-connected people who may or may not be simply carrying out Maggie Brooks' marching orders. These are seven people who have combined to owe more than $16 million in taxes and allow county taxpayers to subsidize an annual $1.8-million debt service.
But, as I've discussed before, the situation at Frontier Field is even more complicated than that, thanks to the existence of the Greater Rochester Sports Authority — yet another public agency, this one originally created to study the possibility of a soccer stadium but that has since, after recommending AGAINST a soccer stadium, been charged with operating Frontier Field.
(To be truthful, at this point it's hard to tell exactly which board — GROSFC or GRSA — is responsible for what in terms of running Frontier Field. Some people — including O'Brien and, believe it or not, the Democratic member of the GRSA board itself, Tom Frey — believe the Sports Authority should be abolished because there's no need in having two government agencies doing the same thing, i.e. operating the stadium.)
However, the patronage doesn't end there. As I've written previously, GROSFC and GRSA pay Jim LeBeau and his company to manage Frontier Field, and — surprise, surprise — LeBeau is a major GOP donor. LeBeau gets about $241,000 a year to run Frontier Field.
And actually, many observers think the Red Wings have also become part of this big political money machine. As stated above, Rochester Community Baseball has given tens of thousands of dollars to various local candidates, including Brooks and Duffy, and its lease arrangement with GRSA/GROSFC/LeBeau is sweet enough to allow the Wings to make roughly $293,000 in profit in 2007 and stash away $5.7 million in assets.
But it all begins with GROSFC. They built the baseball stadium, and they own it. As a result, every time you go to a Wings game, everything is ultimately controlled by seven Monroe County politicos. So play ball!
Well, a stadium can't owe anyone money. But the public agency that OWNS Frontier Field, the Greater Rochester Outdoor Sports Facility Corporation, hasn't paid taxes in years.
You now something else GROSFC doesn't pay for? The $1.8-million annual debt service on the bonds it floated to build the baseball stadium 15 years ago.
And without the burden of those two expenditures, GROSFC is STILL scheduled to lose roughly $1.7 million this year. Your tax dollars at work, folks.
So what is GROSFC? It's a local development corporation created to finance the construction of and own Frontier Field. Who created this LDC? The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency, or COMIDA. What's COMIDA? Yet another public agency, this one created by New York State ostensibly for the purpose of fostering economic growth and job development in Monroe County.
But the problem is that the COMIDA board of directors is stocked with political flunkies of whoever serves as county executive at any given time. Currently, that means the COMIDA board is comprised of toadies who swear allegiance to Maggie Brooks.
Right now, the six members of the COMIDA board are Ann Burr, Lauren Doyle, Bob Hurlbut, Theresa Mazzullo, Steve Moore and Hank Stuart. How did these fine men and women get appointed to COMIDA?
Oh, I don't know, maybe money? Over the last few years, Hurlbut has given $6,500 to Maggie Brooks' campaign coffers and another $1,000 to the Monroe County Republican Committee. Burr has donated $3,000 to Maggie, and Mazzullo's husband, Donald, has given $3,700. (To be fair, a lot of the COMIDA members have also given beaucoup bucks to Democrats like Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy and Assemblyman Joe Morelle.)
As a group, the COMIDA board doles out millions of dollars in tax breaks and other benefits to local companies (or national companies with projects in Monroe County). That sounds good in theory, but COMIDA has taken a lot of heat lately for allegedly conducting business behind closed doors, stiffing local labor and giving breaks to politically-connected companies.
The local development corporations (LDCs) that operate from COMIDA's offices have also been criticized for similar transgressions. Last year, Democratic County Legislator Ted O'Brien filed a proposal to make local LDCs more open and accountable to the public, but the Lej's Republicans voted it down.
So why is any of this relevant to the local sports scene? Because GROSFC, the agency that owns Frontier Field, is one of those politically-connected LDCs that O'Brien and others have cited as requiring more oversight. And who's on the GROSFC board of directors? The six members of the COMIDA board!
In addition, Gary Larder of Rochester Community Baseball, i.e. the Red Wings, is the seventh GROSFC member, and the Red Wings/Rochester Community Baseball have also given thousands of dollars in campaign cash to Brooks and other local Republicans. (Again, to be fair, Duffy and other Dems have also benefited from the Wings' largesse.)
In essence, the fate of Rochester's baseball stadium rests in the hands of seven politically-connected people who may or may not be simply carrying out Maggie Brooks' marching orders. These are seven people who have combined to owe more than $16 million in taxes and allow county taxpayers to subsidize an annual $1.8-million debt service.
But, as I've discussed before, the situation at Frontier Field is even more complicated than that, thanks to the existence of the Greater Rochester Sports Authority — yet another public agency, this one originally created to study the possibility of a soccer stadium but that has since, after recommending AGAINST a soccer stadium, been charged with operating Frontier Field.
(To be truthful, at this point it's hard to tell exactly which board — GROSFC or GRSA — is responsible for what in terms of running Frontier Field. Some people — including O'Brien and, believe it or not, the Democratic member of the GRSA board itself, Tom Frey — believe the Sports Authority should be abolished because there's no need in having two government agencies doing the same thing, i.e. operating the stadium.)
However, the patronage doesn't end there. As I've written previously, GROSFC and GRSA pay Jim LeBeau and his company to manage Frontier Field, and — surprise, surprise — LeBeau is a major GOP donor. LeBeau gets about $241,000 a year to run Frontier Field.
And actually, many observers think the Red Wings have also become part of this big political money machine. As stated above, Rochester Community Baseball has given tens of thousands of dollars to various local candidates, including Brooks and Duffy, and its lease arrangement with GRSA/GROSFC/LeBeau is sweet enough to allow the Wings to make roughly $293,000 in profit in 2007 and stash away $5.7 million in assets.
But it all begins with GROSFC. They built the baseball stadium, and they own it. As a result, every time you go to a Wings game, everything is ultimately controlled by seven Monroe County politicos. So play ball!
posted by Ryan Whirty at
1:47 PM
7 Comments:
TREMENDOUS WORK! Now to get your buddies in the news paper and the media to turn up the heat on all these characters. They are the ones ultimately responsible for the financial mess we are in not just in New York State but the entire nation. We allowed ourselves to actually believe there are such things as free stadiums.
By
Anonymous, at 4:33 AM
Great article.
My question now is, where does the money go? They're not paying the bonds, or taxes. They certainly draw a fair number of fans for a alot of games.
The whole process of these development groups needs investigated. Something stinks here.
By
Anonymous, at 9:14 AM
While the info here does need to come to light so all the public can be made aware and more can be doen to look into it.....Mark my words....The D&C will NEVER open this can of worms and investigate. The D&C is also part of this political mess and will never rock the boat this much in local politics. I do not think the TV will ever pick this uo as the story is too big and has too much info for the short segments TV does.
About the only paper that may work on this is the off beat Villiage Voice or waht ever it is called, but too few many read that paper fto make a difference.
I truley believe this is a story the people of County of Monroe will never know
By
Anonymous, at 3:14 PM
Actually, I've pitched a story on all of this to City Newspaper, Rochester's alternative weekly, and they've declined to assign me the story. I don't really blame them — the story would take A LOT of legwork, and they couldn't pay me enough to fairly compensate me for my time. It's not just daily newspapers that have to tighten their belts — all print media are facing such challenges these days, including alt-weeklies.
Actually, City has been great to me, and I enjoy writing the stories I DO write for them. I actually have one coming up next week on the local synchronized skating team, so check it out. I like doing feature-type articles -- it's a nice break from all the dirty stuff, which can really wear on a reporter after a while.
Anyway, it's hard to tell exactly why the D&C has failed to address the whole Frontier Field/Sports Authority/GROSFC situation. (The paper hasn't discussed the situation at the ESL Centre, either, and I don't know why.)
One reason, I think, why the D&C hasn't touched Frontier Field is because, despite all the political patronage, things are run very well at the baseball stadium. The Red Wings make money and provide a good product, and Jim LeBeau does a good job managing the facility.
But, on the other hand, neither the Wings nor LeBeau are directly responsible for GROSFC's massive tax debt or the $1.8-million in annual debt service. The culprits there are the politicians and the cronies they choose for the Authority and GROSFC.
That, I think, is what makes the Frontier Field situation different from PAETEC Park and the Rhinos. With the Rhinos, the D&C is going after private businessmen. But with Frontier Field, the paper would be going after powerful politicians, and I just don't think the D&C has the stomach for that.
In general, the D&C always gives local politicians free passes. The paper simply refuses to adequately do its job as a government watchdog. And that goes for politicians from both parties, and for the city and the county and the state — the D&C lets them all slide.
I mean, Bill Johnson should have been savaged for the whole fast ferry fiasco, but he really wasn't. And county Republicans should be severely criticized for running their own little Tammany Hall.
But they aren't, at least not from the daily newspaper.
By
Ryan Whirty, at 9:16 PM
again: And isn't THAT (ESL) another Donner-ism?
This has got to start moving a few heads over at the decrepit and unused old news-folks home at Exchange and Broad Sts. (Gannett boys, are you even awake?) Where the hell is Bruno Sniders and Frank Cardon when we need them?
What the heel is going on downtown?
Yet another Grady farce, paid for and donated by you know who...
By
Anonymous, at 9:13 AM
To the previous commentator: Get a brain! Ryan's whole blog is about the county political flunkies on COMIDA and you blame the former mayor of the city for everything. Next time before you write, try reading the blog and making an attempt to understand it, OK?
By
Anonymous, at 4:40 PM
OK DOPE:
So what is GROSFC? It's a local development corporation created to finance the construction of and own Frontier Field. Who created this LDC? The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency, or COMIDA. What's COMIDA? Yet another public agency, this one created by New York State ostensibly for the purpose of fostering economic growth and job development in Monroe County.
But the problem is that the COMIDA board of directors is stocked with political flunkies of whoever serves as county executive at any given time. Currently, that means the COMIDA board is comprised of toadies who swear allegiance to Maggie Brooks.
Right now, the six members of the COMIDA board are Ann Burr, Lauren Doyle, Bob Hurlbut, Theresa Mazzullo, Steve Moore and Hank Stuart. How did these fine men and women get appointed to COMIDA?
So, maybe Grady wasn't in THAT one, his fingers were into enough crap, and who are you Grady's great white savior? It's all tainted by his admin and/or croines anyway, do you dispute that, Mensa?
By
Anonymous, at 11:55 AM
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