City Gives Away 100% of Revenue From Eagle Creek Pistol Range; Contract Not Put Out for Bid While Taxpayers Left on the Hook for Paying Operating Costs of the Facility

The City's crack negotiators have struck again.

The City (actually the building authority) owns the pistol range at Eagle Creek Park.  The range is used by the IMPD during the week.  The City decided to privatize the range, bringing in a private vendor to open it to the public on the weekend. So of course our city's skillful negotiators made sure taxpayers received a cut of the contractor's profits, right?

Of course not. They gave all the revenue away to a company called Tactical Firearms Training, LLC, which is owned by Zionsville attorney Guy A. Relford.  Apparently it was not a sweetheart enough deal for the vendor to get 100% of the profits. The City also agreed to kick in $750 for startup costs. 

Meanwhile the City remains on the hook for more than $48,000 plus in annual costs, including $13,000 in utilities incurred at the facility.

Here is the sweetheart deal signed by Stuart Lowry, Director of the Parks Department and Mr. Relford of Tactical Firearms Training, LLC. in June of 2011, which, according to City officials, was not put out for public bid.

To summarize, we taxpayers pay for a shooting range used by IMPD during the week and on the weekend it gets turned over to a private vendor.  The vendor gets to use the facility for free and keeps all of the money the vendor can make.  Plus we kick in $750 for start up costs.

I saw nothing in the contract that reserved the use of the facility during the week to IMPD while the contractor uses it on the weekend.  While that appears to be the current practice, they don't appear to have included in the contract.   Likewise if the contractor provides services to the City (such as training for IMPD officers) in exchange for the free use of the facility on the weekends, that also doesn't appear in the contract.

NOTE:  Thanks goes to Attorney Brian Sweeney for undercovering this contract and information about the contract not being put up for public bid.