Public business or personal perk? CIB oversees tax money from Colts luxury suite
It was a telling moment last year when then-mayor Greg Ballard interrupted a meeting of the Capital Improvement Board to deliver a proclamation praising the outgoing president of the group.
The board members are public stewards of about $150 million per year in taxpayer money — much of which goes, directly or indirectly, to the Indianapolis Colts and Indiana Pacers.
After reading the proclamation, Ballard surveyed the room and said, "This almost looks like a Colts suite in here."
After laughter, the CIB's lawyer cautioned Ballard, "You're on the record, mayor."
There's a reason it looked like a Colts suite. From 2012 to 2014, CIB board members, its lawyer, its publicist and their guests watched a lot of football for free from the CIB's lower-level suite behind the south end zone at Lucas Oil Stadium, according to documents obtained by IndyStar through a public records request. Spouses of top CIB staff also showed up often.
The Colts suite has a market value of $166,000 per season, and while the CIB's free use of it is in the team's stadium lease, it remains a valuable public asset whose official purpose is to promote tourism and convention business. Its frequent use by board members, their guests and others — with no documentation of the guests' names or affiliations — raises questions about whether their presence was legitimate public business or simply private entertainment.
It also raises another question: Can board members remain objective stewards of taxpayer money while they and their friends enjoy Colts games for free from a luxury suite — with $19,000 of catering over the three seasons IndyStar examined?
Board members routinely voted on issues affecting the Colts. That included a decision in 2013 to spend $2 million to build two new upper-level suites at Lucas Oil Stadium that, according to the minutes of the meeting, was something the "Colts have requested."
Julia Vaughn, policy director for the good-government group Common Cause of Indiana, rejects the idea that since board members and others aren't receiving the perks "from the Colts," that their actions are acceptable. The "free" suite, after all, had to be negotiated as part the team's exhaustive lease agreement.
"Everyone understands that the stadium was built for the Indianapolis Colts and that they are the primary user and beneficiary of the public dollars that went into the construction and continue to be used to maintain it," Vaughn said.
"The board members making decisions regarding these teams and their facilities can't be objective when they are accepting expensive perks. It's a practice that needs to stop. At a minimum, the CIB board members who take advantage of these privileges should be required to fully disclose who they bring along for the free ride."
CIB documents showed that during the time period examined, board member Milt Thompson used 99 tickets, while former board president Ann Lathrop used 34. Other board members and their ticket count: Doug Brown (89), Maggie Lewis (75), Jay Potesta (67) and Caroline Mays (48).
Lewis cast the lone dissenting vote in 2013 on building the Colts the two new suites.
A change in mayoral administrations will shake up the board's roster. Thompson, Potesta and Mays are no longer listed as members on the city website.
Documents meant to keep a record of who uses the Lucas Oil Stadium suite are inconsistent. The guests of CIB staff members, often connected to tourism or convention business, were listed on the documents with name and affiliation. But names and affiliations of board members' guests were never listed.
The CIB also has a suite at Bankers Life Fieldhouse for which it does not pay. It's on the upper level of one corner. The CIB's records of who used that suite — market value: about $170,000, according to the CIB — amounted to some names scribbled on Pacers schedules.
CIB Executive Director Barney Levengood would only answer questions by email. He said the CIB doesn't ask board members to report their guests.
Asked if he knew who board members were bringing to games, and their relation to public business, Levengood wrote, “Our Board members serve at no pay and spend hours of time tending to the critical business of the Capital Improvement Board. We often have leaders of the civic, municipal, and convention sectors in our suite — maintaining and building our convention and tourism industry requires this work. Our guests also frequently include representatives of conventions that are considering Indianapolis as a destination.”
Visit Indy, which promotes the city for conventions and tourism, has a suite at Lucas Oil Stadium next to the CIB's. The CIB subsidized Visit Indy with $9.5 million last year. Visit Indy provided IndyStar a redacted list of people who used its Lucas Oil Stadium suite, citing a public records exception for negotiations by a local development organization.
The city of Indianapolis also has a suite for which it does not pay. Its records list names of people who used the suite but not affiliations.
Levengood said there was not even an informal policy on use of the CIB suite by board members. Lathrop, however, said board members were allotted two tickets per game, although some board members often are listed as having used more than that.
"When I did not use my tickets, I reallocated them back to the CIB for use in sales and marketing," Lathrop said. "I was not involved in the use of tickets by other board members."
She declined comment on other questions "given I'm no longer on the board."
Thompson said he often took "friends and family and neighbors" to the CIB suite. He said he also reached out to the "philanthropic community" when extra tickets were available to invite people who otherwise wouldn't be able to see the game.
Thompson said he did spend time meeting people and promoting Indianapolis. He is a current board member of Visit Indy. He's also on the board of the Indianapolis Indians and said he stayed out of last year's lease negotiations with the CIB for use of Victory Field.
"I am very, very careful with respect to my 40 years of law practice to know the ethical lines between fiduciary responsibility and what's considered some sort of benefit," Thompson said. "Had I been asked, I would have given names of everyone that was invited (to games). No one ever asked me."
Spouses of CIB staff members also used the suite. That included Levengood's wife (13 games) and the husband of the CIB's former director of sales and marketing (18 games).
The CIB doesn't have a full-time lawyer, but its outside lawyer, Toby McClamroch, used 20 tickets to the suite.
Asked specifically about the public business they were conducting at the games, Levengood responded by saying his answer about the general purpose of the suite would serve as his answer.
CIB documents on use of its suite for Colts games
Contact IndyStar reporter Mark Alesia at (317) 444-6311 and follow him on Twitter: @markalesia.