Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 9, 1992 TAG: 9202090164
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
OFFICIALS DISCUSS OPTIONS
There was mistrust, anger and skepticism on display from sports coordinators of the Commonwealth Games of Virginia who met with the Games' leadership Saturday for the first time since executive director Doug Fonder was dismissed last month.There also was determination and, in the end, no mutiny. For that, Virginia Amateur Sports' board of directors sighed with relief.
"Then we're all in this together," said board president James Stutts of Mechanicsville.
"This" is running the 1992 Commonwealth Games in the Roanoke Valley with a skeleton paid staff, an imposing task. The two-hours-plus meeting at a Roanoke hotel produced several agreements:
At the suggestion of a non-board member, at least one sports coordinator will be named to the board;
Cost-cutting will be investigated further. The Games already are operating under a slashed budget; the board will look into such things as securing no-cost venues;
Sports coordinators will look into raising private money on their own instead of leaving it to the board alone, and entry fees could be raised to cover revenue shortfalls;
Former games director Bob Hartman, who resigned in January, will be used as a consultant for this year's event.
Board members said they are confident the '92 Games can be successful, and several coordinators agreed the Games can go on.
However, several on the board admit they still must prove to the coordinators they're capable of running an event they merely have overseen the past two years.
"My system depends on communicating with the [VAS] infrastructure, and there is no infrastructure," said Dr. John Heil of Lewis-Gale Hospital, director of medical services for the Games. "I feel a tremendous gap in communication, a tremendous gap in understanding. Absent the faces I do know [here], a gap in leadership. I need my own level of confidence raised to pursue providing quality service."
Several coordinators grilled board chairman Ken King about Fonder's ouster and how it was handled. At the same time Fonder sat in a meeting with the board Jan. 31 in Charlottesville, a locksmith was changing the locks on the doors at the VAS' downtown Roanoke office.
That made it obvious the board's moves were planned, gymnastics director Barb Jirka said.
King claimed Fonder was running a separate, money-making business - the Gators swim team - out of the VAS office and said that was inappropriate. Jirka, who often worked in the VAS office, said it was only a storage place for some swimming equipment.
Synchronized swimming coordinator Genie Lindsey criticized the board for not including the coordinators in decision-making or informing them of what was going on until a week later.
"I find this whole process fairly paternalistic," she said. "We own this, together, not you."
VAS treasurer David Snyder was quizzed repeatedly about VAS' financial situation, and coordinators questioned why VAS chose to disregard previously reliable verbal commitments of financial support.
"We weren't as reliant on that money as we are this year," Snyder said.
At least one coordinator is convinced VAS will join with Sports Virginia in Richmond and that, as a result, the Games will leave Roanoke. King, who said last week he has talked to a Sports Virginia representative and is open to meeting with that group, told the coordinators no talks had been held between the two groups.