Columbus Arena Management, a semiprivate board created to manage publicly owned Nationwide Arena, said that it will “hold at least one public meeting per year, but it still plans to operate mostly in private as part of an agreement with Columbus and Franklin County officials,” according to Lucas Sullivan of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. CAM’s four board members “met privately on Wednesday for the first time to sign the operating policy, 10 months after canceling their initial meeting because Mayor Michael B. Coleman, county commissioners and county Prosecutor Ron O’Brien rejected their plan to meet in private.” The board “agreed to hold one open meeting a year, most likely in June, to discuss and vote on Nationwide Arena’s operating budget.” The board also “agreed to hire an accounting firm to audit the arena’s finances.” Coleman through a spokesperson on Thursday said that the “new policy is ‘significant progress’ compared with CAM’s original desires, though he said ‘it falls short’ of his expectations for transparency.” Coleman and county officials “didn’t get everything they sought” with the new arrangement, as they “wanted CAM to operate as a public board and go into executive session to discuss major acquisitions or business deals, as is permitted by state law.” But CAM COO Xen Riggs said that the board maintains that it is “a private entity and will meet in private when it deems appropriate” (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 4/12).
