The citizens who serve on the baseball stadium oversight committee will most likely monitor spending and report their opinions about how construction is going to the Winston-Salem City Council each month, an assistant Winston-Salem city manager said yesterday.
Assistant City Manager Greg Turner spent part of yesterday drawing up the details that will govern the workings of the committee.
Turner said that the council will likely vote to create the committee at the council's July 6 meeting.
City Manager Lee Garrity said he expected that between 10 and 20 people would serve on the citizens committee.
He said that the council would likely announce the names of those selected at the July 20 council meeting. People can apply by contacting their council representatives.
He said he did not know how long the committee would remain active.
The council approved $15.7 million in additional financial help to finish construction on the new minor league stadium, which is being built at First Street and Peters Creek Parkway, on Wednesday night. Most of the $15.7 million will come from a $12.7 million loan from the city.
The city's agreement with Prim's company states that the company will repay the loan over 25 years, at which time the city will take ownership of the stadium.
The stadium will be home to the single-A Winston-Salem Dash, an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. The team is playing this season at Wake Forest Baseball Park.
In approving the additional help, members of the city council included several caveats, including the creation of a citizens committee to oversee spending and provide more transparency.
Turner said that the citizens committee would likely submit a report each month to the council's finance and public-works committees. The citizens committee would review requests for money from the stadium builder, Brookstown Development Partners, before any of the city's loan money is paid to the project.
Brookstown Development Partners is a limited liability corporation created by team owner and local entrepreneur Billy Prim to build the new ballpark, which is expected to cost $40.7 million.
The city already has contributed $12 million to build the stadium.
Because the city intends to borrow money for the $12.7 million loan, the state Local Government Commission must approve the deal. The Local Government Commission, which falls under the authority of the state treasurer, was created in the 1930s to monitor the debt that local governments take on.
David Lawrence, a professor in the UNC School of Government, said that the commission would probably approve the deal because of Winston-Salem's credit rating. The city has a "triple-A" rating, which is the highest a local government can have.
The deal also has to be approved by the banks that are lending money to finish the stadium. One of those, Regions Bank in Alabama, would take a backseat to the city should Prim's development company default.
Evelyn Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Regions Bank, declined to comment about the deal yesterday.
Prim said Wednesday that he expects to close on the loans by mid-July.
Construction on the stadium, which has been stalled for several months, would begin as soon as the loans are approved, he said.
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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