EVERETT — A dispute over scheduling ice skating time at the Everett Community Ice Rink has resulted in a public records request showing close communications between the management group for the publicly-financed arena and the Everett Public Facilities District (EPFD), tasked with supervising the company contracted to operate the arena on a daily basis.
The Everett Figure Skating Club (EFSC), a non-profit instructing youth skaters, has been renting ice time at the Everett Community Ice Rink for nearly 20 years but according to the club leadership, has experienced difficulties scheduling practice and competition event time that they allege is because Oakview Group (OVG) is preferentially scheduling other groups on the ice instead of their group. Everett Community Ice Rink, under the operational direction of OVG, rents ice time to various groups including youth hockey club teams creating a strong demand for ice time at the facility.
According to EFSC, the scheduling conflicts became more problematic within the last year. EFSC says OVG started a competing youth and figure skating club, alleging that when it came to scheduling ice time for practice, competitions or annual shows, the rink-operated skating program was scheduled with more beneficial times while EFSC was sometimes relegated to ice times at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., subjecting participating EFSC families with younger skaters to stay awake after what would be considered typical bedtimes.
EFSC voiced their concerns to the Everett Public Facilities District, a five-member board responsible for oversight of the 10,000 seat downtown arena and the Everett City Council, which is responsible for confirming EPFD board members to their respective terms. When the EFSC felt those overtures to the EPFD or City Council didn’t generate enough inquiry into the complaint about ice scheduling time, they filed public records requests for both jurisdictions.
The EverettPost.com has reached out to EPFD and OVG. At the time of this publication the EPFD has not responded. OVG is making arrangements for a future interview.
According to EFSC board member, Dustin Graves, on June 2 public records show an OVG manager described EFSC complaints as “the same generalized misrepresentations” in an e-mail exchange with an EPFD board member. Graves concern is that the EPFD just defers to the same OVG officials that EFSC is raising issues with regarding the ice time scheduling.
Graves says, “Our concern has never simply been that EFSC believes it should receive the same number of (ice time) hours as another user. The concern is that OVG establishes policies, requirements and standards for use of a publicly owned facility but does not appear to apply those policies consistently among similarly situated users. “
In a July 27 email obtained through public records request an EPFD board member, OVG administrator and an Everett City employee in the mayor’s office were all included in an exchange saying “I think this will really depend on the reaction from EFSC and whether they draw attention to the (E)PFD’s absence and renew their focus on the (E)PFD,” allegedly referencing EFSC’s complaints directed at OVG for the scheduling results or the EPFD’s reluctance to investigate the scheduling complaint.
As Graves asks about the public record, why was the response being discussed in terms of whether EFSC would draw attention back to the EPFD rather than simply ensuring that the substantive concerns about ice-time scheduling were independently examined?
The fundamental question involves over-sight—checks and balances of the publicly-owned arena. Who will adjudicate a dispute, when its applicable, involving a publicly financed venue between groups competing for access to the facility? The City of Everett is currently involved in the process to build a new baseball stadium dubbed the Everett Outdoor Events Center (EOEC) to serve as the home of the Aqua Sox, the High-A minor league affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.
That question was raised by Graves at this week’s Everett City Council meeting during public comment. Everett Councilmember, Paula Rhyne, responded to the concern saying, “I do think it’s important that moving forward with the outdoor event center (EOEC), there are a lot of concerns from the community about how that’s going to be. What the oversight model is going to look like. How it’s going to be funded and a lot of FAQs. And I know council is going to be receiving that full information and the public as well in the coming weeks.
“So, I want the public to know that that is coming, but as a request, as council member, I would love to see a more formally outlined set of parameters for what the oversight structure will look like for the new Outdoor Event Center facility. I know it won’t be a PFD (public facilities district) specifically, but I do think that there are some lessons learned moving forward.
“I would also love to see a community benefit agreement because I do think that community members are curious about, whether they are baseball or soccer fans themselves or not, what is the benefit to the City of Everett residents if we do move forward with a new outdoor event center? And I also wanted to reiterate that my suggestion that I had a few months ago about the addition of an independent City Ombudsman, who can provide independent evaluations for complex constituent concerns like we are hearing tonight.”
Construction on The Angel Of The Winds Arena was completed in September of 2003. The Everett Community Ice Rink is one of three venues on the site along with the AOTW Arena and the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center. The entire facility was initially financed through project revenue bonds. To minimize interest volatility and reduce debt service, the City of Everett and the EPFD executed an Interlocal Agreement to refinance the debt into Limited Tax General Obligation (LTGO) Refunding Bonds.
In 2001, the Everett City Council initiated and approved the process to build the entire facility with a four-way interlocal-agreement involving Snohomish County and the respective city and county Public Facilities Districts. It was financed by the Everett Public Facilities District through $56 million in bonds. The final cost to build the 275,0000-square-foot multi-purpose facility and conference center totaled $71.5 million.
Under the consolidated Interlocal Agreements, the City of Everett acts as a financial backstop. It provides a contingent loan agreement stipulating that if the EPFD experiences a cash shortfall and cannot meet its debt obligations, the City will advance the necessary funds as a loan to ensure the bonds do not default.
Major refinancing actions executed in 2018 and 2019 converted variable-rate debt into fixed-rate LTGO bonds, extending and flattening the principal payment schedules through December 1, 2034.
Under Washington state law, the Snohomish County Public Facilities District (SCPFD) allocates 30.4% of its available PFD tax revenues directly to the EPFD during the statutory extension period spanning from 2026 to 2041 to directly assist with debt reduction.
The EPFD receives dedicated funding via City and County sales taxes, a dedicated local Hotel/Motel tax contribution ($100,000 annually), and facility-generated Admission Taxes.
Revenues generated by arena events, naming rights partnerships (with the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians), corporate sales, and tenants like the Everett Silvertips flow back into the enterprise fund to maintain a self-sustaining financial cycle.
The AOTW Arena states it is the largest and busiest ice rink in Snohomish County, is in operation 363 days a year, 20 hours a day, seven days a week with 200,000 estimated annual attendance. It offers over 625 annual public skate sessions and is the official practice facility of the WHL’s Everett Silvertips.