Raider Park and the Texas Tech Alumni Association [POLL]

If you graduated from Texas Tech, the Alumni Association wants your money. If you did graduate from Tech, you probably already know that, but should you think twice before giving? Normally, I would say no. For the most part the Alumni Association has done a good job, but a recent story from the Daily Toreador is troubling. The Executive Vice President and CEO of the Texas Tech Alumni Association, Bill Dean, apparently entered into an agreement with Raider Park against the advice of at least one attorney. Just about everyone in the story is connected through the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Here is part of the story from the DT:

Texas Tech and its alumni association stand to lose as much as $1.2 million from leasing the Raider Park parking garage in a deal involving a number of prominent alumni of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

Raider Park, a $25 million venture located at 2522 Marsha Sharp Freeway, is a privately owned parking garage held by a limited partnership controlled by Clayton Isom, a 29-year-old Phi Delta Theta alumnus from Tech with deep ties to the university and its alumni board.

Currently, the lease agreement requires Tech and the alumni association to pay $750,000 a year to lease 1,000 parking spaces and 18 RV spaces, which are used by Tech students during the week and attendees at Red Raider football games on the weekends. Only about one-third of the spaces have been leased.

The university and the alumni association have lost $440,000 since the deal was signed in December of 2009. They will likely lose an additional $760,000 in the next several years.

...

Sims said he advised Bill Dean, a Phi Delta Theta alumnus who is the executive vice president and CEO of the alumni association as well as an associate professor in the College of Mass Communications, not to get involved in the agreement with Clayton Isom in December of 2009.

“There is absolutely no upside-gain to this lease agreement,” Sims said. “It is the only method by which this guy (Isom) can finance it.”

Clayton Isom is the son of a former president of the alumni association, Rex Isom, also a Phi Delta Theta alumnus. Rex Isom was on the alumni board at the time of the vote and recused himself when the alumni association voted on the lease agreement. He is one of the guarantors of the $18 million loan from American State Bank to finance the parking garage.

You can read the whole story here.

So what do you think about this story? Would you trust the Texas Tech Alumni Association right now with your money?

**UPDATE** Here is the statement from Texas Tech Alumni Association:

In a story that ran in The Daily Toreador Oct. 26 regarding RaiderPark, there are allegations of improprieties and wrongdoings on the part of the Texas Tech Alumni Association. At no time was there special treatment given to members of the TTAA National Board of Directors, staff or outside entities with regard to RaiderPark.

In 2009, the 33-member TTAA National Board voted unanimously to participate in this project. This vote was taken after the Texas Tech Board of Regents agreed to become a partner in RaiderPark.

Initially the Red Raider Club was very enthusiastic about the parking garage but did not want it to interfere with the parking they handle around Jones AT&T Stadium. It was agreed that TTAA would sell the spaces with aid and assistance from the RRC.

The Daily Toreador article said nothing about a parking study that was done by Tech’s parking consultant. That study indicated that building the garage last year was premature but strongly urged the university to participate because it would be considerably less expensive than building one of their own and their projections indicated that with the growth of the student body Tech would run out of student parking in the next three to four years.

The article implies that the Isoms received a “sweetheart deal” because they “spearheaded” the drive to build the McKenzie-Merket expansion. The drive to raise $4 million was spearheaded by Nelda Laney, immediate past president of the board. She was successful in raising $4,034,672. The Isom family’s gift to the project represented less than one percent of that total. Rex Isom told our board he was an investor and he did not care whether we entered into the agreement or not. He did not vote when the vote was taken.

The money that we have paid RaiderPark has not come out of any contributed money. It has come out of credit card earnings that span the last 10 years. Rex Isom assured Executive Vice President Bill Dean last year that the alumni association would not lose any money on this project.

The association feels the project is a good investment in Tech's future as the parking study showed a critical need for additional parking in the next three or so years. Because we partner with the university and the Red Raider Club, the TTAA believes this is an investment in the future of Tech.

ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL BOARD OF THE TEXAS TECH ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT BILL DEAN.