Regarding Mr. Olson's confilict of interest, Dairy Queens are all franchised. Mr. Olson would not benefit from another DQ unless he was the Franchise owner, which could be found out. Actually, since they are frnachises, another DQ would actually compete with him. Its in his interest not to allow DQ to be a vendor in MPLS parks.
Can't speak to any of your other points. Jeremy Wieland Northeast -----Original Message----- From: Chris Johnson To: Mpls Forum Sent: 2/28/2004 12:17 AM Subject: [Mpls] Park Board set to hire Dairy Queen to run Lake Harriet concessions The agenda for next week's Park Board commissioners' meeting has been posted (see http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=37&calid=244). Looks like a jam packed agenda full of kinds of vague and strange things. Too bad the public can't get the additional information that supplements this in some kind of timely fashion. Actually, from what I hear, sometimes the Minority Four commissioners themselves don't get the information in a timely fashion -- like right at the meeting seconds before having to vote on it. So I'm reading through the agenda and I see among the Action Items several where the board is being asked to authorize staff to negotiate a contract with various vendors to run some of the park concessions. This piques my interest, because: 1) There's been a problem with the concessions not making money. 2) There's been a problem with employee embezzlement from the concessions, so I'm told. 3) There's been a problem with the bookkeeping and accounting for the concessions. Commissioner Berry Graves struggled to get staff to tell her how much money was made or lost at the Calhoun concession separate of the boat rentals, and staff could not tell her. Such co-mingling of revenues and expenses between different operations is clearly a sound business No-No. 4) There was a small furor when the suggestion that Dairy Queen be brought into run the concessions was brought up. 5) There's an obvious conflict of interest in hiring any Dairy Queen-related business to run concessions when President Jon Olson owns a Dairy Queen. At Action Item 7.6, the Agenda says: "7.6 THAT THE BOARD AUTHORIZE STAFF TO NEGOTIATE A THREE (3) YEAR AGREEMENT WITH TWO ONE (1) YEAR OPTIONS WITH SCHWICK, INC. TO OPERATE THE LAKE HARRIET CONCESSION WITHIN THE TERMS OUTLINED IN THE REPORT." 3 years with 2 one year options. Pretty sweet deal, considering I believe the public feeling last year was to NOT contract out the concessions, and that there's almost no excuse for not making a profit at the Lake Harriet concession, given the ideal setting and captive audience it enjoys (see the satirical editorial at http://clickmehard.net/previous/dairyqueen.html for just a bit more on host just how hard this problem must be). And who is this ==> SCHWICK, INC. <== that's getting the contract? Let's do a little research: 1) Google search the web? Zip. 2) Yellow pages? Nothing. 3) White pages? Nope. 4) Secretary of State? Bingo: Schwick, Inc. 3747 13th Ave S Mpls, MN, 55407 Entity type: Domestic Corporation Filing Number: 8E-15 Original Date of Filing: 3/11/1994 Chapter: 302A Hmmm. Interesting address. I wonder what's there? Hello! A DAIRY QUEEN. Is it just me, or has the Park Board just tried to slip giving the Lake Harriet Concession to Dairy Queen by the public? As Tom at Click Me Hard put it: "A five-year-old kid selling life insurance could make money at this location! Yet somehow, the Minneapolis Park Board was unable to sell ice cream in the summer on the shore of the busiest lake in the metropolitan area." Something is rotten at 2117 West River Road, and I think we know what it is. Chris Johnson Fulton P.S. I haven't looked up who "Big Bell, Inc." who is slated to get the Lake Nokomis concession -- yet. Nor into "Dave and Kate Anderson" who are slated to renew at Calhoun and Minnehaha (note that Calhoun also lost money and had poor accounting -- and we reward that by renewing the contract?). REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
