City Is  Responsible ForThunderbolts Financial Losses For The 2016-2017 Hockey Season
City Is Also Paying All The Utilities Bills A t The Ford Center
Attached below is the e-mail that Scott A Schoenike the Executive Director of the Ford Center sent Pastor Steve Ary over a year ago concerning the utilities at the Ford Center and acquisition contracts between VenuWorks and the City of Evansville. Mr. Schoenike answered the questions that we have been asking for a couple of years concerning the Ford Center utilities and Thunderbolts acquisition contracts between VenuWorks and the City of Evansville.
We are puzzled why this information wasn’t provided to Pastor Steve Ary, City County Observer or the general public by then City Council Finance Chairman Dan McGinn (R), or by City Controller Russ Lloyd  Jr.
We also wonder why our friends with the local main stream media won’t inform their readers and viewers that the taxpayers of Evansville are responsible for all theThunderbolts financial losses for the 2016-2017 and the 2017 a-2018 hockey seasons?  We also wonder if they will  ever report that the City of Evansville are paying all the utilities bills at the Ford Center?  …we predict that they won’t touch this story because they will consider this to be “FAKE NEWS”!
ATTACHED BELOW IS MR. SCHOENIKE’S Â E-MAIL SENT TO PASTOR STEVE ARY VIE DEPUTY CITY CLERK OF EVANSVILLE Speaks FOR ITSELF.
Mr. Ary,
Please find the information below in response to your questions from Monday night. These answers are provided by Scott Schoenike.
Thank you,
Ashten Stenftenagel
Deputy City Clerk
Office of the City Clerk, City of Evansville
Utilities 2015:Â Â $610,828.14
Utilities 2016Â Â Â $614,363.52
The City ultimately ends of paying the utility bill. The process is a little complex but this is the way Harding Shymanski recommended after our annual audit for the city in all years of operation (2011-2016). Since we don’t control the maintenance or operation of the utilities at the Ford Center by contract utilities are not suppose to be paid by VenuWorks. For simplicity VenuWorks pays the utility bills throughout the year, at the end of the year we bill back the city the annual total paid for utilities and then give the city the cash to pay us back. On the line item city budget Fund 0474 and 0408 Arena this adjustment is taken into account and includes utilities being paid in the approximate $1million paid to the city.
In regards to the question if the hockey team loses money who pays. It would be paid out of the Ford Center Operating budget which is city funds. The big picture would be the loss of hockey would negatively affect the bottom line of the Ford Center. So the way I look at it is the $1 million operating revenue budgeted for VenuWorks in the City Budget does not change even though hockey operations are now indirectly part of the Ford Center budget. Without hockey at the Ford Center the budgeted $1 million operating revenue would not be possible.
 Thanks
Scott A Schoenike
Executive Director
www.thefordcenter.com
www.victorytheatre.com
Managed by VenuWorks of Evansville, LLC
