Minutes
Ohio HBPA Board Meeting
11:00 am, Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Sanese Center, Columbus, OH
Members Present:
President: Joe Poole Directors: Randy Blevins, Bobby Cline, Doug Cowans, Mark Doering, Jeff Jarvis, Mark Kuntz, Mike Rone, Bruce Ryan, Robin Schuster, Kristina Tumblin
Members Unable to Attend:
Butch Nemann
Others Present:
Executive Director Dave Basler, OTBO President Tom McCann, OTBO Executive Director John Engelhardt
Call To Order/ Approval of Minutes:
President Poole called the meeting to order. After review Director Jarvis moved and Director Cline seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the March 23, 2017 meeting of the OHBPA board of directors. Motion passed.
Executive Director’s Report:
The executive director updated the board on hearings held by the Ohio State Racing Commission on Advanced Deposit Wagering and Out of Competition Testing.
Basler informed the board that the commission appears to want to regulate ADW companies who accept wagers from Ohio residents in some fashion but it is unclear at this time what form that might take.
Basler testified at the OSRC ADW hearing at the request of Chairman Bob Schmitz. He informed the commission that the Ohio HBPA has had source market fee agreements in place with the major ADW providers for many years. Basler stated at the hearing that a statutory source market fee may drive ADW providers out of the state and that a reasonable yearly licensing fee would like be more acceptable to those companies. The only others to testify at the hearing were Luther Heckman on behalf of Northfield Park who spoke in support of the OSRC regulating ADW companies and Mark Loewe on behalf of Penn National Gaming who made cautionary statements regarding ADW regulation by the commission which in many ways were similar to Basler’s testimony.
Basler informed the board that the OSRC is moving towards some form of Out of Competition testing regulation although at this time is unclear what the rule will actually look like. Basler stressed to the commission that any Out of Competition Testing regulation should be limited to prohibited substances which can not be detected in post race sampling such as blood and gene doping agents like EPO.
OSRC Chairman Bob Schmitz has requested that the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association and the Ohio HBPA work with the OSRC to come up with language that is acceptable to all parties on an Out of Competition Testing regulation.
Basler led a discussion along with President Poole and Vice Presidents Doering, Jarvis and Rone regarding the recent meet openings at Belterra Park and Thistledown going through some of the issues faced by horsemen at both tracks and measures the OHBPA has and is taking to try and resolve those issues.
Basler recapped the recent ARCI meetings he had attended at the expense of the National HBPA on behalf of both the Ohio HBPA and the National HBPA as Model Rules and Medication Committee Chairman.
New Business:
Purses and Wagering
Basler updated the board on the current status of the purse accounts at all three of the states thoroughbred tracks.
The executive director provided handouts detailing VLT results at each of Ohio’s seven commercial race tracks and discussion was held regarding those numbers with Mahoning Valley Race Course showing a strong year over year increase for the month of April while Belterra Park was essentially flat from the previous April and Thistledown showed a decline.
Benevolence, Policies and Organization
Director Jarvis and the executive director led a discussion on their work with Mannix Marketing on the development of a new Ohio HBPA website. Several different versions of a proposed new website have been looked at by the website development committee from an aesthetics standpoint. The executive director has also updated all of the current content on the site.
Mannix Marketing is now in the design phase of the new site and has promised a June 16th date for getting a new site up for review by the Ohio HBPA. Once that is done the executive director and committee members will have a chance to review the new site make any suggested changes and have them implemented. After this is completed the new website will go live.
Budget and Finance
OTBO President Tom McCann and executive director John Engelhardt presented the board with a multi page handout which detailed the first quarter expenses and activities of the organization as well as laying out a schedule for a proposed Ohio Thoroughbred Fall sale in 2017.
A long discussion ensued with board members asking many questions of the OTBO representatives regarding expenses, activities and the proposed horse sale. When questioned directly by OHBPA board members if there would definitely be an OTBO Ohio Thoroughbred sale in 2017 President McCann stated if the Ohio HBPA provided his organization another $25,000 as was being requested there would be. Many other questions regarding the proposed sale were asked by the board and discussed by the OTBO representatives.
Director Jarvis moved and Director Rone seconded a motion that a $25,000 contribution be made to the OTBO from the OHBPA Industry Initiative Fund. Motion passed.
Basler informed the board that Thistledown Field Office Manager Barb Chatterton had asked him to make a request to the board the Ed Lawson who cleans the HBPA office and restrooms at Thistledown be given a raise as he has done the job for many years at the same pay rate and has done it well and is deserving. Director Blevins moved and Director Doering seconded a motion that Ed Lawson receive a raise to $75 per week for cleaning the HBPA office and restrooms effective with his first pay check in June. Motion passed. Director Jarvis opposed.
Discussion was held regarding the meeting of the next OHBPA board meeting with the board selecting Tuesday, July 18th as the date for the next meeting.
Adjournment:
Director Cowans and Director Doering seconded a motion to adjourn. Motion passed.