I applaud Abram Serotta for sharing the Augusta Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau version of the TEE center vision in the Oct. 4 Augusta Chronicle ("TEE project must be OK'd"). I only wish Mr. Serotta, who has served the citizens well on the CVB board, had shared with us the rest of the story.

First, the story cries out for full disclosure. The CVB is a private corporation. The members are not elected, nor are they appointed by elected officials. The board is a self-perpetuating group that selects its own membership. Interestingly, the board members' names and affiliations are not listed on the CVB Web site, even though the group has been given $20 million of taxpayers' money for the TEE center.

THE PUBLIC MAY want to see who on the board represents a company or business with a direct financial interest in the construction of the TEE center at the Reynolds Street location. The public also may want to see who on the CVB's TEE center committee represents a company or business with a direct financial interest in the construction of the TEE center at the Reynolds Street location. The public also may be interested in which board members provide services to these businesses, such as accounting and legal services.

Clearly the public would be looking for assurances that these members of the board and members of the committee have avoided a conflict of interest by not participating in the TEE center discussions and/or voting on any of the matters directly related to the center, its proposed location, its financing, its management contract, etc.

A little sunshine never hurt anyone.

To believe Mr. Serotta's reasoning, the public's TEE center must be built at the Reynolds Street convention center, and it must be built in the manner prescribed by a private entity. He argues that studies rule out the James Brown Arena or any alternative, and the project is too far along to change anything. He is quite wrong on all counts.

Studies will tell you whatever you want them to say. Thirty years ago we had a story that said the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center would pay for itself. More recently, studies told us that the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and Fort Discovery were great investments for massive amounts of public money. The civic center never came close to covering its expenses. The other two projects are history, and so are millions in public funds.

If the city wants to change the location, it has every opportunity to do that. Recent "do-overs" include the terminal at Augusta Regional Airport, the downtown Augusta library and the judicial center. In each case, architects were well along with their work but sent back to the drawing board because priorities changed. If the CVB truly wants to save money and compress construction time, it would recommend to the Augusta Commission a design-build project, just like the city's new water treatment plant on Tobacco Road, built from scratch on time and under budget.

THE CVB ARGUES that the James Brown Arena option would result in costly, duplicate facilities, and the city would be competing with itself at the existing convention center. It's hard to believe that argument, because the CVB has said all along that the TEE center is needed to get meeting business the city cannot handle in the current facility. No competition there!

The area option is viable because the $20 million cash the city has can be used to expand the existing exhibition hall without incurring debt. The center would tie in with existing meeting space and the largest ballroom in the city -- the James Brown Arena. The city already owns the land and the parking, and the Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority could use revenue bonds to pay for a parking deck when it is needed.

The operation of the TEE center can be handled by amending the current management contract with Global Spectrum. Any subsidy for operations can come from current income after the original coliseum construction bonds are paid off next year.

The location is not problematic, because the James Brown Arena is easy to reach with a short walk from the hotels on the river and a short drive from the hotels around Interstate 20. (Shuttle buses are a common option at large conventions.) In Atlanta the main convention hotels on Peachtree Street are a walk of several blocks from the World Congress Center, and in Savannah a river separates the convention center from the hotels. And you know what? Folks get around just fine.

When our city's leadership talks about raising the hotel room tax $1 a night, the hospitality sector immediately sounds the alarm that Augusta room rates won't be competitive with other cities, and business will be lost. The arena option allows the current TEE center bed tax to expire, immediately reducing the cost of a night in Augusta by $1. Shouldn't the CVB be cheering the tax cut?

SOME WILL SUGGEST that the arena option isn't viable, because it kills the room-tax deal to fund inner-city development. Well, the two never should have been linked in the first place; they are unrelated issues. However, inner-city redevelopment can be handled independently today in many different ways -- which include funding the existing Augusta Housing Trust with a steady stream of revenue, such as through the real-estate transfer tax, as dozens of other cities do.

It's clear that Mr. Serotta and his colleagues at the CVB have their blinders on for this project. They quickly dismiss any examination. But if the city of Augusta can build a TEE center without taking on millions in new debt, and at the same time lower taxes on visitors to our city, why would anyone run from a meaningful discussion?