The final chapter in the rocky history of the Downtown Facility and Field House Inc. (DFFH) is about to be written. 

City council voted unanimously on Monday night to dissolve the corporation. Dissolving the DFFH does not mean that Mosaic Place will be closing, but that the managing powers will move away from the city and handed to a private venue management company, Spectra Venue Management. 

The DFFH was created in 2013 for the city to operate Mosaic Place. 

Coun. Heather Eby was on council when it was created and was upset with how the corporation ended. 

“This hurts my heart to do this. I know all the history, I know what's happened, but on principle, I'd like to vote against it. I won't because that's not the right thing to do. But this is very disappointing. This should not have ended this way.” 

Troubles with the DFFH began in 2016 when CEO and general manager Scott Clark resigned. Council voted at the time to amend the board of directors to three elected members of council and a non-voting member being the director of parks and recreation. 

In January of 2018, the board hired Graham Edge as the new general manager and he was dismissed from the position four months later. Edge filed a lawsuit earlier this year in regards to his firing. 

Also in 2018, an internal investigation was done by the city after a serious personnel matter was mishandled by the board of directors. The three councilors on the board at the time, Scott McMann, Crystal Froese, and Brian Swanson, were sanctioned for their actions. 

The results of the investigation were that the board of directors was dissolved and the city manager took over the management of the facility on an interim basis while the management structure could be evaluated. 

In 2019, the city hired Spectra Venue Management to oversee the management of Mosaic Place, making it appropriate to dissolve the DFFH and revoke the city manager’s management of the DFFH. 

The city’s legal counsel, Elaine Anderson, went over the steps to dissolve and liquidate the corporation. 

The city will have to repeal the bylaw authorizing the city manager to manage the DFFH and a new, temporary board of directors will need to be appointed. 

“That would be done by special resolution, and once that is complete, once we have the new Board of Directors installed and we have the special resolution, we will file that with the corporations' branch with the statement of intent to dissolve. So, it's a voluntary dissolution,” Anderson said. 

At that point, the bylaw that created the DFFH will be repealed, property will be distributed and the articles of dissolution will be filed. 

The new board of directors will be appointed at the next city council meeting to begin the dissolution process.