Agenda 05-07-24; 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 1 retaliation by management as a possibility. She said that this is a distraction. She said the 2 SportsPlex motto is family, fun, fitness. She said in her family they teach that they can do what 3 they can to make things right. She asked the commissioners to consider if the SportsPlex values 4 still align with the values of families in Orange County. 5 Mark Bedell said he is a board member for the Hillsborough Hogs. He said youth hockey 6 is a growing sport and the Hogs have guaranteed that any child, regardless of income and ability, 7 would have access to the sport. He said that RFP manages the Sportsplex and said that the Hogs 8 will not have access to the ice. He said that RFP does not have the staff to manage that program 9 and they are seeking volunteers but there is already an organization that runs youth hockey 10 without paid staff. He said that the Hogs have already been using scheduled time from the RFP 11 and all they are asking for is the ability to run the same program as last season. 12 Abby Ambrozic said she is 16 years old and has played hockey for the Hogs since she 13 was 8 years old. She said that she is confident, brave, and strong because of her experience with 14 the Hogs. She said that Hogs hockey is like a family. She said having the option of affordable 15 hockey so close to home is something she is grateful for. She said they are asking for support to 16 help keep Hogs hockey a lively organization. She thanked all of the families and said that she 17 hopes they can play another season together. 18 Mary Lawrence read a letter from the Collins Creek/Bingham Woods/Orange Grove 19 community thanking the Board for taking the time to visit their community and listen to their 20 concerns. She said the community was happy to hear that the OWASA property was no longer 21 under consideration by the county to be used for a recycling center. She gave copies of the letter 22 to the Clerk to the Board for distribution to the Board of Commissioners. 23 24 Commissioner McKee arrived at 7:24 p.m. 25 26 Leslie Grother showed the Board a picture her son drew in support of the Hillsborough 27 Hogs. She read a portion of a letter/e-mail from Kristin Burrows, which had previously been sent 28 to the Board of Commissioners: 29 "1 hope you will consider whether RFP's statements can be trusted and will question what their 30 motivations are. 31 As one example, the Amendment adds that RFP shall offer travel level youth sports leagues, but 32 also that those travel youth leagues/team shall not supplant OR REDUCE ACCESS by house/rec 33 level youth leagues or team. It would be hard to accomplish both of those requirements when 34 adding a new travel hockey program (unless other ice programs or activities are reduced). The 35 Carolina Thunder travel hockey program did, in fact, reduce access to ice time for the Hogs. Yet, 36 in an effort to work with RFP and the Carolina Thunder, the Hogs proposed ways to accommodate 37 ice time for both programs by reducing some of their ice time requests for the coming season. 38 John Stock and RFP then used that good-faith compromise proposal against the Hogs without 39 proper context, and implied and misrepresented that the Hogs were creating issues of access to 40 the sport; these statements were made to the Board in an email dated March 6, 2024, trying to 41 justify their actions. A public-private partnership requires trust and, in my opinion, cannot and 42 should not survive such a shameful display of dishonesty... 43 1 have reviewed the contract and know you will need the opinion of the County Attorney and 44 possibly outside attorneys, but there is certainly an argument that there's a distinction between 45 the "day-to-day operations" of scheduling ice time (or pool time or court time) for various groups 46 and customers and suddenly telling a local non-profit youth organization, who has been a long- 47 time customer interwoven in the history of the Sportsplex, that they will be proactively and 48 explicitly denied access to their community facility. How does RFP's ousting of the Hogs fulfill the 49 contract's stated purposes of managing the facility'in the county's best interest'and the`cultivation 50 of broad community support?'