The criminal part of this story aside, what I am concerned about is that Ovations is sub-contracting out bartending services;

Ovations Food Services General Manager Chad Stoner sent KELOLAND News a statement about the investigation. Ovations is the food and beverage vendor for the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. Stoner writes the company is working with, “authorities as they investigate allegations” He adds the alleged suspect “was not an employee of Ovations,” but hired by a third-party vendor to work that particular concert.

Questions:

1) What if someone gets ill or dies from the drugging that took place, who gets sued? The sub-contractor? Ovations? The city of Sioux Falls?

2) Are these 3rd party hospitality workers getting proper training on health, age verification, ADA compliance, etc.?

3) If the Events Center was supposed to create so many ‘permanent’ jobs (either part-time OR full-time) why are we sub-contracting work out to temps?

We should be very concerned we are opening the city up for civil lawsuits because Ovations is trying to operate the EC on the cheap.

As I have said 100 times, the EC was built to make a lot of people money, just not the citizens of SF, who get to foot the mortgage every year.

13 Thoughts on “Why is Ovations sub-contracting food & beverage workers at the Events Center?

  1. Be part of the solution on May 20, 2015 at 4:18 pm said:

    Absolutely ridiculous! Again-Hey we have jobs but you have to go to Labor Ready or Command Center to get them, that way we don’t have to pay you insurance or a decent wage! Come on Sioux Falls! You have to see the problems here folks. You want people to move here to support the Candyland the City is trying to put together but you don’t want to pay them for the jobs to keep the Candyland attractions going! Seriously!

  2. Joan on May 20, 2015 at 8:05 pm said:

    I have heard of similar things happening at other concerts at the Event Center. I don’t know many details, they have just been related to me in long distance phone calls.

  3. scott on May 20, 2015 at 8:45 pm said:

    The convention and visitor industry mostly creates part time low wage jobs. The taxpayers spends lots of money building these facilities to create jobs like housekeeping, server and store clerk positions. All jobs are obviously important, but could the money spent on facilities be used elsewhere to create full time jobs that pay a living wage?

    I just struggle seeing so much money spent creating part time low wage jobs.

  4. The Daily Spin on May 21, 2015 at 9:55 am said:

    The city is already in a litigation debacle. City ordinance does not allow appeals into court. They use it often. You have to prove constitutional or civil rights infringement. Not worth it because no compensation. State or federal court needed to correct this.

    They’ll go after Ovations. The subcontractor has no money but there’s potential for criminal charges. Ovations may fight but it’s easier to put the corporation into bankruptcy and resume with a new front.

    Sometimes I wonder if democracy works. In communist countries you know there’s no justice. Here, it’s false promises, lengthy litigation, and a process to wear you down without compensation.

  5. Does sub-contracting emplyees relieve you of liability? I find that impossible to believe, as if that was the case all companies that employ these type of low-wage employees would do this.

  6. l3wis on May 21, 2015 at 12:34 pm said:

    Scott, that is why I ask the question. I would think if something happens on city property (no matter who induced it) there could be civil action.

  7. hornguy on May 21, 2015 at 3:02 pm said:

    To answer Scott’s question in #5, what it likely creates is a chain of legal liability.

    So if this woman were to go after the city, the city would have grounds to pursue Ovations, who likely assumes responsibility for its subcontractors, and Ovations would go after the subcontractor, who likely assumes responsibility for its employees.

    And both of those entities, as a party to such an agreement, are likely required to carry an amount of liability insurance that would be sufficient to cover such a cost if a settlement were to be required.

    But for what it’s worth, none of this will happen because there’s no story in this story. There’s a woman who thinks she was drugged (but can’t prove it) by a man who sold her the drink (also unproven).

    For the first time ever, the commenters on a KELO story are dead-on. This is crappy, fear-based journalism with zero facts to back up anything being said. Justifying the story would be like justifying Rolling Stone’s article on the rape at UVA that never happened because it brought awareness to rape.

    KELO should be ashamed of itself for running this. It’s total garbage.

  8. l3wis on May 21, 2015 at 3:21 pm said:

    HG – I would agree, and that is why I didn’t want to discuss whether she was drugged or not. I can tell you if I had to go to a Luke Bryan concert, I would have to be extremely drugged to endure it 🙂

    My basis of the post is the ask the question, let’s say it WAS proven she was drugged AND the person was charged for the crime, is his employer responsible?

  9. I agree with hornguy. There’s a lot of holes in this story. Mainly, the sorry fact is that the predators who utilize date rape drugs do it so they can victimize the person. In this case, you have a bartender supposedly giving it to one of 10,000 people at a show. The likelihood of him even running into this person afterwards is so miniscule that I cannot fathom what he thinks he would accomplish.

  10. Ol'Bubbleguts on May 22, 2015 at 2:48 am said:

    Candyland that shit was priceless.
    Playground of the rich (corn robber subsidy barons)
    and not quite so famous.
    I like seeing giant 50k SUV financed on a 7 year lease
    everywhere.5(60 months for the mathematically challenged) was the standard when I made the dumbest mistake of my life buying a BRAND NEW CAR.Took me 20 years to get a house afterwards.

    OBG
    In Art and Labor,…hang in there people things are about to get very interesting

  11. hornguy on May 22, 2015 at 8:40 am said:

    DL, totally agree it’s worth asking the question re. making sure the city is in CYA mode on its subcontractor agreements. They could never control every detail in a situation like this but knowing that, they also need to make sure they and their subcontractors are properly insured to cover these types of incidents.

  12. Stormland Again? on May 22, 2015 at 8:45 am said:

    My concern to add is a local major “news” organization is a sponsor of the building. Their sponsorship makes them a partner in ALL activities going on inside it.

    Why would they want any negative publicity to inhibit their joint messaging of attending events in this building for a good time?

    What was their purpose in bringing this story up without any substantiation?

    What if Ovations had a temp worker who just wanted to anonymously hurt someone without care just for the fun of it? What background checks are they doing to prevent a Tylenol incident? It is possible this woman received a special treatment.

    Something smells in this story.

  13. Ol'Bubbleguts on May 23, 2015 at 11:42 am said:

    Who sponsors what?
    Above poster.

    OBG
    In A a L dog tired can’t do the sig

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