Here is the latest email sent by Allen Berg:
Further to my previous mail, please see the highlighted section of the following article:
Otherwise we are faced with Race City Speedway closing at the end of the 2009 season.
ALD. MCIVER PREDICTS CLOSE VOTE ON MOTION TO EXTEND RACE CITY LEASE
January 20, 2009 by admin Race City events like these could be thing of past after 2010 Photo credit: Sports Action Photography by Mo
The report on Race City requested by Ald. Ric McIver goes before City Council January 26. Ald. McIver?s motion calls for an extension of Race City?s lease to at least 2015. He says the vote will be close and race fans need to lobby their aldermen to make sure the motion passes.
?I expect it to be a close vote on Monday on extending the lease,? he said. ?I hope my colleagues see the wisdom in giving them some time to find another location to operate. And also the wisdom in providing a safe place to race cars and also keep a tourist attraction going.?
If Council chooses not to extend the lease, Ald. McIver says Race City will have to vacate the property in 2010. Since a municipal election will be held that year, Ald. McIver says Race City could become an election issue.
?I think this will be an election issue if this (the lease extension) gets turned down. The racing community is large and active and I?m sure they will take note of which way members of Council vote,? Ald. McIver said.
Art Mackenzie, Race City owner
If Councils votes against a lease extension, Race City owner Art Mackenzie says he will seriously consider suing the City of Calgary. Mr. Mackenzie claims City Hall?s action have already caused businesses losses for his company because the impending closure of the facility has made it very difficult to obtain sponsorships or schedule events.
Mr. Mackenzie?s dispute with the City centres around a lease extension signed in 1993. The original lease ran from 1985 to 2005. The extension ran until 2025. According to Mr. Mackenzie, City Hall bureaucrats have told him that he ?never acted upon the extension,? meaning the lease ran out in 2005. Since then he has supposedly been ?over-holding? the lease.
Mr. Mackenzie says he has been told by City Hall that Race City continuing to occupy the property on the southeast outskirts of the city is ?inconvenient? to the department of waste services, which must find a location for a storm water retention pond for the Shepard Landfill.
?I find that a frustrating word. Basically, it?s inconvenient for a bureaucrat to have to change plans or think a little bit about what they?re doing. But maybe it?s really inconvenient for several thousand people that use the race track directly or come and watch events,? he said.
All Race City matters before Council are now in camera, which means the discussion is closed to the public. Administration officials have also deemed that any matters relating to Race City, including background studies and reports, are also in camera and cannot be discussed in public.
Ald. McIver is not sure when the report will be made public. If the City is still negotiating with Race City after Jan. 26, which seems likely, he says the report will remain in camera until the legal issues are resolved.
Without Race City, popular events like the junior dragsters would have no place to race Photo credit: Sports Action Photography by Mo
?My notice of motion says I want the City to extend the lease for Race City at least until 2015?under the original terms and conditions. I know there?s an argument about whether they put their renewal in on time, but just based on the fact that having Race City around is good for the city and citizens of Calgary I think we should be willing and able and anxious to overlook that,? Ald. McIver said.
Both Ald. McIver and Mr. Mackenzie called upon the motorsport community to call, write and email their aldermen to express their support for an extension of Race City?s lease
Thank you for your support of motorsport in Calgary.
Allen Berg
Allen Berg Racing Schools Inc.
aberg@allenbergracingschools.com
www.allenbergracingschools.com(403) 253-3235
(888) 722-3220
"Dear ABRS Racers and Driving Enthusiasts,
Please see the following email and article in SE Calgary News.
If you feel strongly about maintaining Race City Speedway beyond the end of the 2009 season, perhaps the time is appropriate to contact or recontact your respective alderman on this.
Please feel free to distribute this email or to post on your websites
Thank you for your continued support of Motorsport in Calgary.
Allen Berg
Allen Berg Racing Schools Inc.
aberg@allenbergracingschools.com
www.allenbergracingschools.com(403) 253-3235
(888) 722-3220
Ladies & Gentleman:
The report has come back to the Land & Asset Strategy Committee from City
Administration this week and although nothing in this report can be made
public until the public meeting in Council on Jan. 26, reading between the
lines from two sources close to this, it doesn't look good for us.
So our only recourse other than legal action, is to once again ratchet up
the political pressure on the Alderman and the Mayor through e-mails, phone
calls and the media. So our fight begins once again. It's up to us to try
and save our respective sports, because if we thought it was going to be
tough to get a new facility constructed 6 months ago, the problem now has
become 10 fold because of the economic situation we all find ourselves in.
Time to get busy folks.
Rick Francescone
Calgary Motorsports Association
S.E. Calgary News
RACE CITY ABOUT TO GET SCREWED BY CITY HALL
January 14, 2009 by admin Art Mackenzie, owner of Race City
Something rotten is wafting out of City Hall. I can?t quite put my finger on it yet, but I?m trying. One thing is certain: the fix is in for Race City. Motorsport enthusiasts, if you love your local race track, now is the time to bombard your alderman with emails and letters, because Race City has got a very short shelf life.
Let?s recap.
Art Mckenzie, Race City?s owner, was informed by the City of Calgary he would have to vacate the premises in 2010 because Waste Services needed the land for a storm water retention pond. This effectively put a bullet in Race City. Sponsorships dried up, events stayed away. Enter Ric McIver, alderman for Ward 12. Mr. McIver took up the cause and late in 2008 brought a motion to City Council to extend the lease with Race City until at least 2015, preferably 2020, and prepare a report on the dispute, which will be presented in camera on January 26.
In camera means confidential, not open to the public. Now hold that thought.
The problem with Mr. McIver?s well intentioned actions is that Mr. Mckenzie contends he has a valid lease with the City until 2025. I only have Mr. Mackenzie?s side of the story ? which is another thought you should hold for just a moment.
According to Mr. Mackenzie, the lease has been re-negotiated several times since the track opened in the early 1980s. The current version requires the lessee (Race City) to notify the City every five years of its intention to extend the lease for an additional five years. In 2000 Mr. Mackenzie says he filed the appropriate documents with City Hall indicating his desire to lease the land from 2005 to 2010. He did the same in 2005 for 2010 to 2015.
Now here comes an important point: when he filed in the past, Mr. Mackenzie says he never once received a written acknowledgement that the documents were received or that the City agreed to extend the lease. Instead, his lease manager would call him up and say everything?s ok.
Oh, and one other point. The City kept cashing his cheques.
Sometime in mid-decade the Alberta government changed its environmental regulations. The pressure was on to build a storm water retention pond for the Shepard Landfill. Conveniently, Race City was right next door.
What about that pesky lease to 2025? According to Mr. Mackenzie, he was told his lease agent no longer worked for the City and they couldn?t find his documents.
Furthermore, and here?s the real kicker, the City now claimed that the lease had expired in 2000, that none of the extensions had been acted upon and Race City had been allowed to overrun its lease out of the goodness of the City?s flinty little heart. Never mind that Mr. Mackenzie had been told several times by the City lease agent that his lease was in good order and that the extensions had been filed properly.
I think a reasonable person would say that sounds just a little too convenient. The City needs land to build on and the lease documents for the best land available suddenly go missing ? or if you believe the City, were never filed. Or the insurance position, that the lease had already been invalid for seven years.
The gods must have been smiling on City Hall that day.
Drag racing will be a thing of the past in Calgary if Race City closes. Photo credit: Action Sports Photography by Moe
Let me reiterate. I only have Mr. Mackenzie?s side of the story. And everyone knows there are always at least two sides to every story. So I started phoning City Hall to get its side.
First up, a media relations rep. Sorry, he says, after checking with the higher ups, the matter is before Council in camera (remember that from earlier on?) and that means every aspect of the dispute with Race City is now confidential.
Coincidence is now official raining from the sky. How could the bureaucrats have been so lucky? Just when the media wants some answers, they don?t have to produce them.
But I try to dig a little deeper. The City Clerk?s office quotes the Municipal Government Act to me in an email: With respect to meetings held in private (in camera) Section 153 (e) of the Municipal Government Act states as follows:
Councillors have the following duties:
(e) to keep in confidence matters discussed in private at a council or committee meeting until discussed at a meeting held in public;
This same rule applies to members of the Administration who were in attendance at the same council or committee meeting.
A point immediately occurs to me. If aldermen and bureaucrats have to keep mum about Race City issues they discuss in camera, what about those issues they don?t discuss in camera?
No, I am told, once a matter is discussed in camera, then every last jot and tittle concerning that matter is now considered in camera.
Imagine this scenario. During an in camera session, one bureaucrat says to the other, ?Boy, how about that Race City thing? That?s gonna bite us in the butt.? Bingo! No alderman or City official is now allowed to publicly comment on any aspect of the situation.
Again, how convenient for the City. When things get a little hot on an issue, simply convene an in camera meeting and you never have to answer another media question until Council makes it public. And by then it?s likely to late.
Nice roadblock, fellas. But I wasn?t taking no for an answer.
I get passed off to a lawyer in the Legal Department. I put my questions to him. Five minutes later my head is about to explode. He has parsed the question to the point of inanity and twisted things so that I?m not even sure what I asked in the first place. One thing is clear, though - he has no intention of helping a reporter. I am the enemy and he and his colleagues are circling the wagons.
Back I go to the Clerk?s office. This time I get passed off to Dave Griffiths, the real live director of waste services and recycling. He hammers home one more time that the issue is in camera and he?s not coughing up any information.
Mr. Griffiths ended his email with a telling comment, however: ?There are a variety of elements related to this expansion including the development of supporting infrastructure and ensuring our ability to meet all regulatory requirements and protecting the environmental integrity of the landfill. I conclude by saying that the expansion is critical to ensure that we can continue to address the waste management needs for Calgary.?
Let me translate from bureaucratese: Mr. Mackenzie, you are screwed. The City thinks it needs that land and they are going to have it, one way or another.
Message received loud and clear, Mr. Griffiths.
Now, there are two ways Race City can be saved.
One, Mr. Mackenzie can go to court and fight City Hall. He told me that he?s tried to negotiate with the City, has written letters with compromise proposals, but the bureaucrats have clammed up. No replies. Not interested in negotiating. A law suit may be his only remaining option.
Two, political pressure. Motorsports enthusiasts, business owners, anyone who thinks this issue is unjust, can write or email their aldermen and demand the City back off. Demand that the City honour the lease until 2025.
Someone needs to organize a rally at City Hall pronto.
Maybe Mr. Mackenzie will sue, maybe he won?t. But he hasn?t yet. And if the matter is not before the courts, then why are City bureaucrats so afraid to talk about this issue publicly?
Mr. Griffith or any other official of the City is welcome to the pages of SE Calgary News to explain their side of the story. They can comment on this blog in the space below, just like any reader. I?ll even post audio or video of their explanation so they can be sure the message isn?t distorted.
I don?t have all the facts. I only have Race City?s version of events. But based on what I have seen and heard so far, something is not right in City Hall. Race City is being railroaded because the City needs land and the race track is sitting on it. Even if City Hall does nothing more than drag out the process before explaining itself at some distant point in the future it wins because Mr. Mackenzie will likely have shuttered the doors, padlocked the gates and declared bankruptcy.
City Hall is a public institution. It should explain itself publicly in the media, not stonewall inquiries. Voters and taxpayers must hold it accountable.
Reader, the ball is in your court."
