New Leadership Board To Provide Direction For The Sanford Center

With a 4 to 3 vote, the Bemidji City Council approved a restructuring of the Sanford Center’s executive board and will begin to start contract negotiations with the facility’s management company VenuWorks. While the City of Bemidji still controls the facility, the new board will provide local input.

One of the claimed benefits to having the new oversight structure in place is that it allows VenuWorks to have a clear vision and game plan for the future.

With a new governing board soon to be in place, talks will also start to renew the city’s contract with VenuWorks. But with a rough history and ongoing investigation by the state auditor, some council members are not in support of renewing that contract.

Even though no final decision has been made on renewing the contract, the results of a year-long workgroup suggest starting the negotiations.

With the year coming to an end, the hope is to have the new board in place and contract negotiations completed early next year.

A new contract with VenuWorks could be for five to ten years, provided the city approves the new contract.