By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

STAFF and youth programmes at the multi-million-dollar community centre in Fox Hill have become casualties of a battle between the Minnis administration and the non-profit organisation that owns the facility.

Staff at the Fox Hill Community Centre have been unpaid for months and at-risk programmes for youth have not proceeded like the Inter-American Development Bank expected when it gave the government a loan through the Citizen Security and Justice Initiative that was partly used to renovate the facility.

The property was acquired by former Minister of Housing the late George Mackey in the 1990s and conveyed to the Fox Hill Development Association to be held in trust for Fox Hill residents.

A multi-purpose auditorium, constructed after the Progressive Liberal Party regained power in 2002, was developed into a world-class facility during the last Christie administration.

Minnis administration officials told The Tribune the facility cost taxpayers millions more than initially budgeted. Its board comprises community leaders in Fox Hill.

On Sunday, National Security Minister Marvin Dames said government officials have been back and forth seeking an agreement that specifies the responsibilities of the government and the centre’s’s board. So far, they have produced a draft agreement, but it’s not clear when the agreement will be presented to the board. He said the Minnis administration ultimately wants the facility to be managed by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture so at-risk programmes for youth can proceed.

Mr Dames said an assessment of staff at the community centre determined most of them are not qualified and were hired just before the 2017 general election.

‘Nightmare’

“The whole arrangement leading up to this has been a nightmare for us that we have been trying to work through,” he said. “There was no structure when we came so we had to start from the beginning in trying to save this relationship with the IDB because it was at the brink of collapse. This is partly why it was like that as well as the components, no work had really begun in earnest so the IDB was concerned. If they see the deliverables are not being met, that puts the whole loan in jeopardy.

“Our only objective is to ensure that we are able to have access to these centres to roll out programmes consistent with our agreement with the IDB because these centres are critical to the development of these communities and to the reduction of crime,” Mr Dames continued. “We want to make certain that given the government’s significant investment in this, in terms of the day-to-day management of the centre, it cannot be that the government walks in and is now burdened with the responsibility of having to pay everything and it’s being controlled outside of it.”

Mr Dames said the agreement with the IDB called for the centre to be owned by the government, suggesting the Fox Hill facility was developed contrary to the agreement.

“Part of the agreement was that the government had to have full ownership of the building,” he said, “and that’s why this Big Pond Community Centre is ideal and all of the other community centres will be government owned on government land, where we don’t have these kind of complex issues and I guess that was the intent of the IDB and they were right on, to avoid these kinds of issues, when you start commingling and when you’re done they say ‘this is ours now, we’re going to put our team in place.’”

It’s not clear what the government’s obligations are under the agreement the PLP left in place. Former Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell, a member of the centre’s board, said the PLP left an agreement for the government to pay staff and utilities “in exchange for the use of the building for their government community programmes.”

However, Mr Dames said the expectation was the government would pay for everything.

Maurice Tynes, co-chairman of the Fox Hill Community Centre, said staff went unpaid for months in 2017 and electricity was also turned off after utility bills went unpaid. He said in 2018, staff have not been paid since June. 

“The facility does not generate sufficient funds to pay the staff and to pay utilities and insurance and stuff like that without the government’s help,” Mr Tynes said. “We are anxiously waiting a resolution. I don’t see why the government would want to take full control of the building from the board. Some of the organisations in Fox Hill, this is what they were waiting on for decades and decades. They want some place where they can meet and have their meetings, like the Fox Hill Congoes Junkanoo group, like the Fox Hill Festival committee that plans all the emancipation and Fox Hill day events. We want to be able to facilitate those events and we want to retain control of the revenue-generating elements of the building, such as the hall, the kitchen and the pool. If someone in the community may want to have a wedding here, the board may want to make a couple dollars from that.”

The board would make no money, Mr Tynes said, indicating the funds would be reinvested into the facility and the community.

Mr Dames said the facility should ultimately be self-sustaining, with its revenue generating activities used to take care of maintenance and utilities for the facility.