VenuWorks Announces High-Level Termination

Facility management company VenuWorks has made a rare if not unprecedented announcement it has terminated Curtis Webb, for cause, from his position as executive director of the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, Ill., effective immediately after a recent discovery of unauthorized usage of a company debit card during a routine financial review.

VenuWorks President Steve Peters traveled to Bloomington, met with Webb and confirmed the allegedly fraudulent activities, according to a statement.

Webb was hired as executive director in May.

“This sort of gross misconduct is never tolerated within our company, which is why we took immediate action to remove the employee,” Peters said. “As unfortunate as this experience has been for us all, I am at least heartened by the fact that our system of cross checks was effective in identifying the fraudulent activity.”

The statement does not provide details of the circumstance, obviously including the amount of the discrepancy, but VenuWorks considers it serious enough to announce some immediate actions including repaying the city of Bloomington for all expenses charged on the card “since it was issued.”

The amount of the reimbursement is $16,000 and the alleged expenses include plane tickets, according to the Pantagraph newspaper.

“Personal airline tickets were the red flag; there were multiple tickets to a destination that didn’t seem to be appropriate for business,” Peters.told the paper. The situation comes on the heels of a police investigation into the operations of the building but is apparently not associated with it; that investigation involves activities prior to April 1, before VenuWorks took over management of the building.

Peters told Pollstar that only some expenses are questionable but VenuWorks is repaying the full amount. He added that the situation is ironic because VenuWorks, to gain the contract, asserted its transparency and professionalism (the investigation is focusing on the previous faciilty management company of 10 years).

VenuWorks is also putting boots on the ground, namely controller Mike Piehl, vice president Russ Ferguson, and VP of event programming John Gimenez, who are either already onsite or will be conducting regular site visits.

Webb is well-traveled; Global Spectrum named him the GM of the new South Okanagan Event Centre in Penticton, Britiish Columbia, in 2007. Global Spectrum then named him GM of the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University in 2010. He was the GM of the Ralston Arena in Nebraska and the Sanford Center in Bemidji, Minn., as well as the GM at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colo.

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