New Fresno Convention Center contract is bad for local business, vendors say
The Fresno City Council extended a contract with the manager of the Fresno Convention Center for six months in an attempt to work out a long-term deal that will keep local vendors employed.
Mayor Lee Brand’s administration initially recommended a five-year contract with ASM Global, a management company that formed with the merger of AEG and the center’s previous management company, SMG. Under the contract, ASM Global would use its own vendors for services like catering and production.
A council chamber full of local vendors and business owners on Thursday said the proposed contract would squeeze them and their employees out of a significant part of their business.
The council approved the shorter-termed six-month contract 6-1. Councilmember Garry Bredefeld cast the single ”no” vote, saying he’s had a long discomfort with the city doing business at all with the company that also manages the Save Mart Center.
Brand said the convention center hemorrhages $8 million a year, and the city needs to find a better way to run the venue. That loss is covered by the general fund, which pays for police, firefighters and other day-to-day needs in Fresno.
“We have an obligation as public servants to at least explore,” he said.
Representatives for ASM did not return a request for comment on Thursday.
Longtime vendors who organize and carry out events at Selland Arena, Saroyan Theater and other buildings at the center said the contract needed to carve space for them to continue to work there.
Jim Pardini speaks out
Jim Pardini, whose family business caters and organizes events, said Pardini’s Catering has worked under contract for more than 20 years at the convention center. A less formal relationship existed before that.
“We stuck it out all these years to try to make the city of Fresno a better place,” he said.
Some of the vendors likened the convention center to a public park, which brings value to the community and shouldn’t be seen as a money-making venture.
Mario Viramontes’ company, Expo Rentals, often supplies equipment for events. He said ASM Global had already begun to push him out of the center before the contract was approved.
He has dozens of employees who could be affected, he said. “We have been building and investing in our business for 35 years,” he said.
Another local vendor, Rusty Rocca, said he preferred when the city ran the center.
Brand said the city isn’t in the right position to take over the management of the center, which employs some 500 people.
Close it down?
The administration also looked at what would happen if the city shuttered the convention center altogether. Assistant City Manager Jane Sumpter said the city would still need to cover about $7.4 million in debt service related to the center, and the building would become another eyesore in downtown.
Along with city staffers negotiating again with ASM Global, city leaders said they are exploring a naming rights deal with a corporation to help bring down the annual losses seen at the center.
Councilmember Esmeralda Soria said the contract needed to be renegotiated to allow local vendors to work in the center.
“We do see the value of the dollars recycled in our community,” Soria said. “The convention (center) is a public facility and we see a lot of value in it.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
