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Michael Fitzgerald
Mike Fitzgerald is The Record’s award-winning metro columnist. His column runs in the paper three times a week. Born in San Francisco, he was raised in Stockton. His column covers diverse beats including, sometimes, the offbeat. Read FullCategories
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Fritchen disagrees
Councilman Dale Fritchen, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, disagrees with one point in today’s column.
Fritchen cast the sole vote against hiring pricey consultants to help re-negotiate the money-blowing Arena contracts. The consultants may also help the city buy out the contracts and flip the Stockton Thunder hockey team to a new owner.
Given how city staffers ignorant of the sports and entertainment industry mucked things up the first time, I opined foregoing experts is “penny wise and pound foolish.”
Consultants are appropriate, Fritchen counters, “I think when it gets to the point that doing things we have little or no expertise doing,” Fritchen said. “Things like writing the contract, making sure it meets the standards for entertainment venues.
“But we brought in consultants just to read the contract. To tell us it’s bad contract. We knew that going in. And to negotiate? Well, we have staff to negotiate, as long as we know the value of the teams.”
Point taken. Consultants might have been employed more judiciously. Some might call that nickel and diming, but I’m grateful for anyone being as prudent as possible with tax dollars, especially in these times.