Originally published Saturday, 9/1
Highlighted and Bolded Text is indicative of added/modified material since original publication.
Note: The entire video of Friday's session (unedited) is located in the Appendix to this blog.
POSTED VIDEOS
(a SCPR exclusive)
(a SCPR exclusive)
HOW? WHY DID SCPR GET ACCESS TO THE MEETING?
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PFHOF CFO BRIAN PARISI PLAYS KEY ROLE IN RESOLVING DISPUTE
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QUALITY CARE CONSTRUCTION VP NEIL STEVENS
OUTLINES THE DIRE FINANCIAL CONDITION THAT
SLOW PAYMENTS HAS PLACED QUALITY CARE IN JEOPARDY
"Quality Care on the Verge of Going Belly Up!"
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SUNDAY PUBLISHED VIDEOS
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FINGER POINTING AT WELTY/IRG AS BEING THE PROBLEM
A MUST SEE VIDEO
TO CAPTURE DESPERATION OF QUALITY CARE
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QUALITY CARE CONFRONTS WELTY, IRG & HOF WITH
"THOSE PEOPLE" COMMENT
----------------------------
THANK GOD! FOR BRIAN PARISI
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WHO IS NOT COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY?
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FELLOW BLACK CONTRACTOR TO QUALITY CARE
SUPPORTS NEIL STEVENS' BOTTOM LINE
THE UNCERTAIN FINANCING OF THE HOF VP
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SUNDAY PUBLISHED VIDEOS
--------------------------
FINGER POINTING AT WELTY/IRG AS BEING THE PROBLEM
A MUST SEE VIDEO
TO CAPTURE DESPERATION OF QUALITY CARE
----------------------------
QUALITY CARE CONFRONTS WELTY, IRG & HOF WITH
"THOSE PEOPLE" COMMENT
----------------------------
THANK GOD! FOR BRIAN PARISI
----------------------------
WHO IS NOT COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY?
----------------------------
FELLOW BLACK CONTRACTOR TO QUALITY CARE
SUPPORTS NEIL STEVENS' BOTTOM LINE
THE UNCERTAIN FINANCING OF THE HOF VP
----------------------------
ANOTHER INSTANCE OF PFHOF CFO BRIAN PARISI
SEEING THE MERITS OF QUALITY CARE'S PLEA
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2018
THE CONTROVERSY GOES AWAY?
SEEING THE MERITS OF QUALITY CARE'S PLEA
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2018
THE CONTROVERSY GOES AWAY?
Back in May, 2017 The Stark County Political Report (SCPR, The Report) blogged on a call for a boycott of the 2017 Enshrinement activity by a group called the Black Contractors Association because the group believed that the National Football Museum, Inc. and IRG combined effort (HOF Village LLC [60% reportedly owned by IRG, 40% by the National Football Museum dba as the Professional Football Hall of Fame]) had not made an adequate effort to recruit minority contractors to work on the 2014 conceived Pro Football Hall of Fame expansion project (HOF-VP) that is now thought to have nearly $1 billion in work to contract out in building the project.
Little did minority contractors dream that landing HOF-VP contracts proved to be one thing; getting paid has been quite another.
On June 15, 2018 in a SCPR "Breaking News" story, it was revealed that the minority contractors "walked-off-the-job" because they thought they had not been adequately paid for work done to date which at that time seemed to place completion of the parking lot project close by Tom Benson Stadium in jeopardy of being completed in time for the 2018 annual Pro Football HOF Enshrinement Event and first of the new National Football League year exhibition football game, to wit (as of June 15th):
Enough money was cobbled together to get the contractors back on the job and the parking lot was "largely" completed for Pro Football festivities during the first week of this month.
Now that the HOF folks have gotten by this year's event, it appears that they have resumed "foot-dragging" on making some remaining $200,000 to-be-paid on an original $700,000 (according to one of the owners) contract.
Obviously, the contractors (lead contractor being Quality Care Construction, Neil Stevens: vice president) now only have the leverage of "negative public relations" for the HOF-VP as a bargaining factor in getting paid.
So it was an interesting turn of events that one of the contractors telephoned the SCPR last evening to invite The Report to be present at a HOF VP facility on Clearview St NW in Canton at 10:15 a.m. today to cover the face to face negotiations between the minority contractors (and their staffs and attorney) and representatives from IRG and Welty Construction (the managing general contractor employed by HOF Village LLC).
Readers of the SCPR know that this blogger as the "only" Stark County media critic of:
- the planning for the HOF expansion project,
- the obtaining of adequate public and private financing of the project,
- the implementation of what plan there has been,
- the accountability for the taxpayer portion of money put into the project, and
- the lack of transparency on the issue of the viability of the project, and,
- whether or not the public monies invested will one day, in fact, make an productive "return on investment for public monies put into the project
In the view of the SCPR, The Repository compromised its integrity in reporting (as monitored and controlled by the editors and the publisher; not the work of the reporters themselves) and editorializing on the project in working out an agreement whereby Stark County's only countywide newspaper became "the official newspaper of the Pro Football Hall of Fame."
To make matters even worse, during the 2018 HOF festivities, Repository publisher James Porter was named to the National Museum Inc. dba Professional Football Hall of Fame) board of trustees.
Officers
Chairman - Randall C. Hunt, Attorney, Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffiths & Dougherty Co., LPA
Vice Chairman - Dennis Nash, Executive Chairman of the Board, Kenan Advantage Group
Secretary - Joseph Halter, President, Solmet Technologies, Inc.
Treasurer - Roger A. Bettis, President, Green Lines Transportation, Inc.
Assistant Treasurer - Gary R. Smith, Retired Executive
Trustees
Brian J. Barker, Founder & Chairman, AFS Logistics & Limited Partner, Atlanta Falcons
Brian S. Belden, Vice President Sales & Marketing, The Belden Brick Co.
William H. Belden, Jr., Retired Chairman of the Board, The Belden Brick Co.
Barbara Bennett, Director of Administrative Services, Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District
Todd Blackledge, Lead Analyst, ESPN
Ronald W. Dougherty, Attorney, Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffiths & Dougherty Co., LPA
Roger Goodell, Commissioner, National Football League
Stephen Gregory, CEO,Gregory Industries
Jimmy Haslam, Owner, Cleveland Browns
Donald E. Jakeway, President & CEO, Jakeway & Associates LLC
Jerry Jones, Owner/President/General Manager, Dallas Cowboys/Pro Football Hall of Fame member
George McCaskey, Chairman of Board, Chicago Bears
Bernard McRae, Jr., CEO/President, Main Street Lighting
Frank J. Monaco, Partner, 415 Group, Inc.
Warren Moon, Pres.& Founder, Sports 1 Marketing; Pro Football Hall of Fame member
Anthony Muñoz, Executive Director, Anthony Muñoz Foundation; Pro Football Hall of Fame member
George R. Oliver, Chairman & CEO, Johnson Controls
James A. Porter, Publisher, The Canton Repository and GateHouse Ohio Media
Renée Powell, PGA/LPGA Pro, GM at Clearview Golf Club
Ed Roth, President & CEO, Aultman Hospital
Stephen Harold Schott, Managing Partner, CapTrust
John A. Sirpilla, Founder, Encourage LLC
Dan Snyder, Owner, Washington Redskins
Amy Adams Strunk, Controlling Owner, Tennessee Titans
W.R. Timken Jr., Former US Ambassador to Germany, Retired Chairman of the Board and CEO of The Timken Co.
Denise DeBartolo York, Co-Chairman, San Francisco 49ers
Robert A. Zmudka, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Rail North America, GATX
The question clearly is: Who does The Repository under the leadership of James Porter owe a duty of trust to?
- Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) and other directly connected to the NFL personalities which staff the HOF Board of Trustees,
- C. David Baker, president and CEO of the Professional Football Hall of Fame?
Accordingly, the SCPR thinks that Stark Countians cannot trust The Rep to thoroughly investigate and weigh-in on things like the black contractors being treated the way they are in getting timely and prompt payments for the work they have done.
One reader of this blog has had this to say to the SCPR:
****.****@gmail.com Today at 8:31 AM
To: Martin Olson
Nice job on today's post...YOU got called!
Says something doesn't it?
An old retired guy in Uniontown armed only w a camera seems to be the only tool for the little guy seeking justice! Clayton Horn and Don Millett must be spinning in their graves.
This thought: billion dollar project and these guys can't pay a$200,000 tab
. Where are these big time New York financiers???
One reader of this blog has had this to say to the SCPR:
****.****@gmail.com Today at 8:31 AM
To: Martin Olson
Nice job on today's post...YOU got called!
Says something doesn't it?
An old retired guy in Uniontown armed only w a camera seems to be the only tool for the little guy seeking justice! Clayton Horn and Don Millett must be spinning in their graves.
This thought: billion dollar project and these guys can't pay a$200,000 tab
. Where are these big time New York financiers???
Another reader observation:
*****@neo.rr.com> Today at 12:48 PM
To: Martin Olson
Great job Martin!
There is no better coverage on this project than what you are doing.
Keep the light of transparency going!
The contractors know and the general public knows that the SCPR will look into such behavior if The Report can get cooperating sources to step forward and shame the powerful for the way small contractors are treated.
The SCPR would like the HOF-VP to succeed even though it appears that Baker et al have poorly put together and so far managed the project.
Even if the project eventually succeeds in its $1 billion mode (which remains highly questionable that it will), the SCPR is not impressed with Baker, Denny Saunier (of the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce) and The Rep's Porter who comprise the "prime movers" for the project.
Again, the SCPR is not impressed "key: players in the HOF VP (Welty, HOF Village LLC and the HOF Board of Trustees which has the NFL commissioner and many NFL connected as members on the issue of how it treats African-American Stark County-based contractors.
What follows is a series of video clips from today's one hour plus meeting.
But first a summary of the what the SCPR deems to have been revelations/accomplishments of the meeting:
But first a summary of the what the SCPR deems to have been revelations/accomplishments of the meeting:
- The perceived need of the contractors and their supporting association to have an unbiased record (the video recording by a truly "independent" media outlet (i.e. the SCPR),
- From the get-go with the leadership from the Welty, IRG and HOF Village LLC perspective side of the table in the form of HOF CFO Brian Parisi taking charge and persistently returning to an approach of "let's solve this problem and let's solve it now,"
- As the SCPR interprets the meeting:
- Pyott of Welty and Shaffer of IRG wanted to focus on technical/legal aspects of why the black contractors have not been paid whereas Parisi consistently returned to the "big picture" of "how can we get this matter resolved."
- Parisi reveals that Welty (the HOF VP project manager) has been paid-in-full as of July, 2018
- Which implies that the payment delay lies at the doorstep of Welty and IRG
- Note: Pyott said he was not prepared to say how much Welty had been paid to-date by HOF Village LLC.
- Quality Care says it has been financing the parking lot part of the HOF VP\
- It appears that the basis of the black contractors not being paid has to do with an industry standard of a 10% retainage being held back in payments pending contractor completion of the project which Quality Care claims it has done but still has not been paid some $200,000 which appears double or more of what 10% of the original contract was for
- It appears to the SCPR that IRG/Welty may have a point (see Video Clip 7) in saying that there have be problems with the contractors providing documents to justify IRG/Welty making more timely payments but the bottom line seems to be that fragile financial structure of the HOF-VP and folks like Quality Care Construction not being "timely" paid
VIDEO CLIP 1
PFHOF Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Brian Parisi as Contractors Best Hope to Get Paid
Of the three non Contractor connected officials present at Friday's meeting, PFHOF CFO Brian Parisi stood out as a person who seemed to hear the Contractor complaints about slow payment and appeared to establish a structure for resolving the impasse sooner than later.
Welty Construction's David Pyott and IRG's Todd Shaffer to the SCPR seemed to be markedly less helpful in resolving payment matters.
If the NFL/PFHOF combo is to avoid a further embarrassment at the way in which the black contractors have been dealt with, it will be the likes of Parisi who bails them out.
Here is Quality Care Construction's Neil Stevens singling out Parisi for his apparent highly helpful stance in offering the prospect that the Contractor can expect payment in full sooner than later. (1 min, 20 sec)
PFHOF Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Brian Parisi as Contractors Best Hope to Get Paid
Of the three non Contractor connected officials present at Friday's meeting, PFHOF CFO Brian Parisi stood out as a person who seemed to hear the Contractor complaints about slow payment and appeared to establish a structure for resolving the impasse sooner than later.
Welty Construction's David Pyott and IRG's Todd Shaffer to the SCPR seemed to be markedly less helpful in resolving payment matters.
If the NFL/PFHOF combo is to avoid a further embarrassment at the way in which the black contractors have been dealt with, it will be the likes of Parisi who bails them out.
Here is Quality Care Construction's Neil Stevens singling out Parisi for his apparent highly helpful stance in offering the prospect that the Contractor can expect payment in full sooner than later. (1 min, 20 sec)
VIDEO CLIP 2
SCPR Presence Questioned (44 sec)
VIDEO CLIP 3
Quality Care (QC) VP Stevens Outlines the Threat to the Continued Non Payment to QC Might Have on QCs Ability to Stay in Business (1 min, 24 sec)
VIDEO CLIP 4
In the SCPR's view, this video clip shows the manifest unfairness of how the black contractors have been and seemingly continue to be treated by IRG, Welty and to the extent it is co-joined with IRG, the Professional Football Hall of Fame in jeopardizing the financial viability of Quality Care Construction.
Where is Roger Goodell? Where are the members of the HOF Board of Trustees?
They could certainly step in and mandate that the black contractors get paid and get paid now, no?
The video of all the videos published that is a MUST SEE. (2 min, 52 sec)
VIDEO CLIP 5
Going back to May, 2017 and the threatened boycott of the 2017 HOF Enshrinement Week activities and the resulting pressure on HOF Village LLC to look at hiring of black contractors, it appears that the pressure was resented at the time and when difficulties erupted on the black contractors not being paid timely someone on the Welty/IRG HOF Village LLC is reported to have derisively referred to Quality Care Construction et al as being "those people."
The video. (3 min, 41 sec)
VIDEO CLIP 6
Readers should pay close attention to the next video clip.
PFHOF Chief Financial Officer (presumably speaking for HOF Village LLC) offers the greatest hope that the black contractors will get paid and get paid now thus diffusing the notion that perhaps there is a racism element in how the black contractors are being treated (1 min, 19 sec): (1 min, 19 sec)
VIDEO CLIP 7
In this video, one sees Welty's Dave Pyott quibbling with the contractors over whom said what to whom as a seeming justification for "slow" payments to the contractors. Readers will be impressed with Neil Stevens impassioned response to the quibbling in the vein of: "who works without getting paid!" (5 min, 52 sec)
VIDEO CLIP 8
In this video fellow (to Neil Stevens of Quality Care Construction) black contractor Jesse Childress (who the SCPR speculates had about a $300,000 part of the minority contractors business on the HOF-VP) expressed earlier in the session of being skittish about having Friday's negotiated session being recorded "cuts to the chase" as Stevens did that the core problems has always been the fragile nature of the financing of the project including the Stevens/Childress aspect (the parking lot) of the HOF-VP.
VIDEO CLIP 9
The following 2 min, 24 second video is a clear showing that HOF CFO Brian Parisi has a heart. Maybe the likes of C. David Baker (of the HOF), Donn Taylor (of Welty) and Stu Lichter (of IRG) do not, but-unless-he-is-an-accomplished-fooler, which the SCPR does not think he is, Brian Praisi seems to be a person who wants to help minority contractors be a viable part of the HOF-VP going forward.
VIDEO CLIP 10
One of the things that has been missing in the black contractors dealing with IRG, Welty and the HOF-VP folks has been the establishment of and the compliance with a timeline for resolving disputed matters.
In this video segment, Parisi sets Wednesday, September 5th at 11:00 a.m. as a time for all the parties to meet at the Clearview site to hopefully resolve all outstanding issues.
As Neil Stevens suggests: Resolution of the frustrations of the minority contractors might then be resolved because of the obvious leadership of Brian Parisi.
The video (12 min, 22 sec):
APPENDIX
The entire "unedited" 1 hour, 5 minute meeting session:
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