The county commission, which owns the 94-acre Lebanon site, raised questions about the ag group’s operations and the commission’s contract with the organization.
The ag organization’s recent collection practices for boarders appears to amount to “a sweetheart deal” for public land use for those in arrears, Commissioner Shannon Jones said.
“We are limited in scope of our existing contract,” Jones said. “I am hesitant to weigh in on the business operations.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“But I am really concerned that perhaps the contract that the board has (does) not set forth what it’s clear objectives are with this public property and how we wish for whoever contracts with the board ... to operate,” she added.
“I loathe corporate welfare and I don’t like using public property to advantage some people over other people,” Jones said.
The society’s statement “raises more questions to me that it answers,” Commissioner Tom Grossman said.
Commissioner Dave Young said the ag board is “trying to be good stewards” of the fairgrounds, which has two main purposes, the county’s annual fair and the 4-H program.
The society’s financial status “shouldn’t be a shock. It has apparently been going on for months and months,” Young said.
Grossman said he has been getting emails and phone calls about the ag board’s Oct. 21 decision.
“It’s clear that we are not the party responsible for these horse boarding contracts,” he said. “We’re not responsible for how they’re managed … But we’re being questioned. We own the property. We have an interest in it.”
County Administrator Martin Russell said he would seek to have ag society board representatives at the Nov. 12 commission meeting.
Commission legal counsel Bruce McGary said a series of five-year leases with the ag society started in December 2013, with up to eight five-year renewals available to the organization.
Lebanon Raceway was located at the Warren County Fairgrounds from 1948 until 2012 when it was sold to a joint venture of Churchill Downs Inc. and Delaware North Companies from the Nixon and Carlo families for $60 million after the state of Ohio approved video slot machines at racetracks.
The license for horseracing was transferred to Miami Valley Racino in Monroe, where horse racing is held.
The ag board cited steps it has taken this year resolve the rent collection issues. They include:
•This spring, it issued updated stall rental contracts with no increase. To date, fewer than 10% of renters agreed to sign and return said contracts.
•On Oct. 1, stall monthly rent increased from $125 to $150, the first rate hike since September 2021, to better cover expenses for the facility.
•It required each renter have a credit card or ACH payment on file for WCAS to reserve the right to charge for monthly invoices. Notices were posted on each barn and emailed out to renters.
But as of Oct. 21 — when the board voted on the issue — “only 4 of 45 renters completed the required forms,” according to the statement.
The board and the society’s staff “made significant efforts this year on recordkeeping and invoicing for facility usage by each renter and respective subletter and for enforcement of timely payments.”
All three commissioners said the boarding rates — despite this year’s increase — appear to be below fair market value.
Jones said fairgrounds activities should be a “business operation” that support the county fair and 4-H.
“I don’t know that boarding horses is in the public interest,” Jones said. “But it may be in the public interest to board horses at fair market value in order to support the public purpose of the fair and 4-H.”
“To me it doesn’t look like there’s any clarity (with) the business plan,” Jones added. “It looks like corporate welfare. And some people pay and some people don’t pay and it’s a sweetheart deal.”
Young called the equestrian community “an important constituency. They’ve been around a long time.
But “the relationship between the equestrian community and the fairgrounds itself has certainly changed over time. That was the epicenter for a long time for our equestrian community because the races were held there.”
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