City Hears Plan For Facilities With Kobluk’S Departure, Twohig Would Take Over Spokane Center Until Merger

For 26 years, Mike Kobluk ran Spokane Center, the city-owned group of facilities that includes the Opera House, the Convention Center and Joe Albi Stadium.

Now he is retiring - today is his last day - and his departure leaves the Spokane City Council with two questions.

Who should replace Kobluk?

And now that Kobluk is gone, is it time to rethink whether the city should be in the business of owning and managing sports and entertainment facilities?

Under a scenario being discussed, those two questions could have one tidy answer.

In a plan first devised by Kobluk, Spokane Center would be managed on an interim basis by Kevin Twohig, who manages the Spokane Arena and for years assisted Kobluk with the Spokane Center buildings.

Then, in a complicated deal that would require a vote of the people, the city could transfer ownership of Spokane Center to the Public Facilities District, the countywide taxing entity that built and runs the Arena.

Under that plan, Twohig would manage all the facilities, which he believes will save money and remove a burden from the city.

Twohig unveiled the plan in detail to members of the PFD board and to the City Council on Thursday at a council study session.

“The district has been successful at running the Arena,” Twohig said. “It’s logical too that the district could run Spokane Center and bring the same sort of success. They are the countywide agency created for this purpose.”

City Manager Hank Miggins said the proposal makes sense.

“I’m a regionalist,” Miggins said. “It’s a fragmented system, and it would be to the advantage of the city and county to have it regional.”

Miggins also believes that Twohig should run Spokane Center, at least until the voters decide to accept the consolidation plan.

If the voters reject it, the city would likely conduct a search for a full-time replacement for Kobluk.

Twohig is viewed as the natural choice to run the combined facilities because of his background helping Kobluk run Spokane Center when it included the Spokane Coliseum. (The Coliseum was torn down and replaced with the Arena in 1995).

“Seven years ago, I had complete operational control over five buildings,” Twohig said in an interview. “I hired most of the people over there. I’m as familiar with the facilities as anyone besides Mike.”

At Thursday’s meeting, Miggins asked the council to provide him and Twohig with some direction on consolidation: to either move ahead at developing a final plan or to abandon it.

The council agreed to discuss it at Monday’s council meeting, and some members signaled that they felt the issue should be explored.

“I don’t think we would do justice to the citizens of this community if we didn’t give them (Miggins and Twohig) an opportunity to find answers,” Roberta Greene said.

Largely left unsaid Thursday is that consolidation would speed the way toward convention center expansion.

Under legislation signed last year by Gov. Gary Locke, any state dollars for an expanded convention center would be controlled by the PFD. As a result, the district would need to be tied in some way to Spokane Center. Kobluk’s plan would accomplish that.

But the move toward consolidation has serious obstacles.

It would likely need the approval of the county commissioners, who thus far have indicated that they are opposed to the plan.

The PFD board hasn’t signed off on consolidation either, and the district board isn’t even sure it wants to allow Twohig to run Spokane Center.

At Wednesday’s board meeting, the board debated what it would mean for the Arena to lose 15 to 20 percent of Twohig’s time for several months.

“As a district, should we expect 100 percent of somebody’s time?” asked district chairman Bill Williams. “Can we assume that the Arena will be run 100 percent effectively with 80 percent of the manager?”

Also concerned about dividing Twohig’s time is Brett Sports, whose Chiefs hockey team is the anchor tenant at the Arena and whose Shadow soccer team plays at Joe Albi Stadium.

“Kobluk was working full time, and we feel we have gotten no support for Albi Stadium,” said Bobby Brett at Wednesday’s meeting. “If we have Kevin for six hours a week for these facilities, we (Brett Sports) might get 20 minutes a month.”

For his part, Twohig said his team of employees will help him manage his time and all five facilities.

“It’s worth trying,” he said. “It gives us a chance to see if it can work with one director over five buildings.”

Complicating matters is that while Twohig manages the Arena, he and his staff are city employees contracted to the district.

As a result, the city could legally remove Twohig from the Arena and replace him with any qualified general manager, said the district’s attorney, Ted Stiles.

“Kevin is not your employee and the district does not have the right to tell (the city) what to do,” Stiles said.

The district is expected to make a decision on Twohig’s time at their board meeting Tuesday.