Columbus Civic Center sees positive cash balance for first time in 10 years — without a director

The Columbus Civic Center is still without a permanent director since the firing of Jon Dorman in May 2019, but the city-owned and operated event venue ended the year with positive cash balance for the first time in over a decade.

Dorman had served as director for over two years and was fired by a vote of council after a recommendation from City Manager Isaiah Hugley.

Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin has been filling the role of director on an interim basis since then.

An audit of the Civic Center’s operations under Dorman found no financial irregularities, according to John Redmond, the city’s internal auditor.

During a January 14 presentation of the audit findings to Columbus Council, Redmond said 2019 was the first time since 2009 that the Civic Center ended the fiscal year with a positive operating cash balance.

Numbers provided by the finance director, Angelica Alexander, show the Civic Center ended 2019 with $80,748.79 in operating cash, as compared to zero dollars every year since 2010. In 2009 the center ended the year with over $165,000 in the bank.

Alexander said the Civic Center fund is an enterprise fund, which means its revenues should support its operating expenses.

“A positive cash balance is created when revenues exceed expenditures,” she said. “Therefore having a positive cash balance helps create the working capital needed to maintain operations without a subsidy from the general fund.”

This is different from profit, which according to Alexander, “may recognize some non-cash revenues such as accounts receivables and non-cash expenses such as depreciation.”

“From an accounting standpoint, net cash flow is the result of cash revenues minus cash expenses,” she said.

Goodwin attributed the positive number to work done by previous directors, as well as under her leadership, to increase revenue from events at the center.

“One of our goals for continuing as we are without the director was keeping that flow going first, but I certainly give credence to past directors for all that they have done,” she said Monday. “I’ve been able to come here and make sure that we’ve continued and prospered.”

The bottom line is the building has to make money, Goodwin said.

Dorman was making a salary over $90,000 when he left. Goodwin said not having to pay that salary has helped, but that it is only a small piece of the finances. The overall budget for the center was $5.3 million in 2019.

“Sometimes it’s the events we bring in and the types of contracts that you enter into, so I’ve been very, very purposeful in making sure that the contracts that we enter, that the building sees some revenue,” she said.

The return of a home hockey team to Columbus could also be a factor, as the Columbus River Dragons bring in over 3,000 ticket holders, an audience that continues to grow, Goodwin said.

Redmond also noted during his audit presentation that several mid-level management positions had recently experienced turnover, including the positions of marketing manager, events manager and events coordinator.

Goodwin agreed there had been several departures of employees since April 2019.

“These individuals that left, left for bigger and better things and so that kind of created those opportunities so now we have an entirely new event staff, a new marketing manager, and things are going very well,” Goodwin said. “We are excited about what’s to come and what has taken place. We’ve heard nothing but good things from every promoter that has come through these doors and brought events here.”

The civic center currently has 21 full time employees and eight permanent part-time employees, with a roster of part time event staff that can go up to 300, from security to ushers to ticket-takers.

The search for a new permanent certified civic center director will likely not be underway until the summer, according to Goodwin, who is on her third stint as interim director of the event center in 15 years as Deputy City Manager.

“Once a director leaves I have an opportunity to come in and see how things really are operating and we look at that to improve things or to keep the wheel on the road,” Goodwin said. “I’m here now trying to get the finances back where they need to be.”

City Manager Isiaiah Hugley said January 14 he put the search for a new director on pause because he “wanted to look further at the civic center and its operations.”

Dorman was the center’s third director in 15 years. Dale Hester took over the role in 2004 and retired in 2011. Ross Horner replaced Hester in 2011 and served as director until September 2016, when he left to become president and CEO of Uptown Columbus. Inc. He was replaced by Jon Dorman in January 2017.

This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the meaning of a positive cash balance.

This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 9:57 AM.