 Changes are coming for Bemidji's Sanford Center with the addition of a new leadership board and contract negotiations with the facilities management company VenuWorks. Josh Peterson shows us how these changes will have an impact. With a four to three vote the Bemidji City Council approved a restructuring of the Sanford Center's executive board and to begin contract negotiations with the facilities management company VenuWorks. While the city of Bemidji still controls the facility the new board will provide local input. What this does is it allows the community better access into how we make decisions there and and how we can speak to the board of directors about the facility. One of the claim benefits to having the new oversight structure in place is that it allows management company VenuWorks to have a clear vision and game plan for the future. It really gives us it gives us a sounding board of direction. It's not a decision of the management company on how one direction or another. So it really gives us a place where we can talk about things about booking and booking policies. With the new governing board soon to be put in place talks will also start to renew the city's contract with the management company VenuWorks. But with a rough history and an ongoing investigation by the state auditor some council members are not in support of renewing that contract. I'm certainly not in favor of negotiating a contract until we find out what the state auditor says. I mean that that's only the responsible thing to do and of course three of the council members feel the same way. Even though no final decision has been made on renewing the contract the results of a year-long work group suggest starting the negotiations. We don't really feel it's in the public interest to change horses and so that's why we made the recommendation to allow us to present a new contract for the city council of VenuWorks. Coming to an end the hope is to have the new board in place and contract negotiations completed early next year in Bemidji Josh Peterson Lakeland News. A new contract with VenuWorks could be for five to ten years provided the city approves the new contract. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.