Sydney Rainwater
The Classic Center Authority faced pushback Tuesday afternoon from student journalists during the authority meeting. Classic Center President Paul Cramer announced before the executive session a Classic Center Arena Letter of Intent was signed that day and the ELEVATE Campaign surpassed its fundraising goal of $5.5 million.
The authority signed documentation to go into executive session to discuss a potential real estate deal and ushered the 12 students and three professors out of the meeting room at 4:58 p.m., but they did not take a vote, as required by the Open Meetings Act of Georgia’s Sunshine Laws. The meeting resumed at 6:18 p.m.
Executive session is an exemption to the act. These closed meetings must be to discuss personnel or real estate, and they must be preceded by, “a majority vote of those agency members present,” according to the Georgia Sunshine Laws.
The journalists showed the board the Sunshine Laws when the meeting was reopened, and the CCA insisted they took a vote.
“We voted to go into executive session,” Treasurer Tres Small said “(Ms. Taylor) read it, I thought.”
“I know we intended to vote,” Cramer said.
The students and professors explained they were all recording video and audio and did not observe a suitable vote.
Executive assistant Melanie Taylor showed the attendees the affidavit the chairman signed, and said that was all they were required to do.
“Is there anybody that would have objected to going into Executive Session?” President Cramer asked the board. “Let the record show that everyone was willfully going into executive session, and that we are now out of Executive Session.”
What was discussed:
Arena Letter of Intent
Cramer announced the Letter of Intent between the Classic Center and the developer, Mallory & Evans, for the upcoming Classic Center Arena was finalized and signed by all parties.
The signed LOI allows for the Classic Center to develop all of the property surrounding the arena to “create an entertainment district,” generate long-term leases with the developer and help pay for the construction of the building, Cramer said.
The 150′ x 358′ arena will be able to house as many as 8,500 guests. Cramer said it will come with 1,000 parking spaces located off of Hickory Street.
Granite Dispute
The authority discussed negotiations with JE Dunn, the major contractor for the Classic Center Arena. Cramer said the contractor requested an additional $11 million from the Classic Center because they had to extract an unexpected amount of granite and soil from the site. The CCA has two engineering firms evaluating the claim to see if they agree with JE Dunn’s assessment before agreeing to pay the $11 million.
ELEVATE Campaign
The president also reported that the CCA has surpassed its fundraising goal of $5.5 million for the ELEVATE Campaign, an initiative to broaden the Classic Center’s music, entertainment and education programming and bring more jobs to Athens.
He announced they’ve raised $5.63 million. Cramer said he hopes the CCA can keep raising money by not disclosing that they’ve met their goal.
“If everybody knows that I hit the goal, then you’ll hear the checkbooks close from everywhere,” Cramer said.
He said the CCA hired a professional fundraising company and made campaign videos and brochures to attract donors.
Spring Graduation
The CCA confirmed that many of UGA’s graduation ceremonies will be held in the Classic Center this May due to Stegeman Coliseum’s recent closure. Stegeman was closed until further notice after a piece of the ceiling fell on March 1, the university announced.
“The volume of people that we are gonna put through this building is staggering,” the president said.
Cramer said the increase of events scheduled in May has made meetings with the police department and traffic engineers necessary to consider the logistics of hosting more people than expected.
Why I Wrote the Story:
This story taught me the importance of keeping people in positions of power in check. The Classic Center Authority members were hesitant to speak on certain topics because they had an audience. Writing this story encouraged me to be bold and persistent.