Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's arena task force will focus on giving all proposals a fair hearing over the next four weeks, an arena team leader said Thursday.

Four task force subcommittees on finance, transportation, site evaluation, and business and community impact will collect more detailed information from the development teams that have pitched seven arena options. The subcommittees will also consider renovating Arco Arena, the current home of the Kings, and a previous proposal to build at Cal Expo, said Chris Lehane, co-chair of the Sacramento First Task Force.

Subcommittee work will not be public. The information gathered will be used to create a scoring matrix to weigh the proposals, and the scoring matrix will be released to the public, he said.

"We're going to be kicking the tires pretty hard on this," he said at a press conference Thursday at the Citizen Hotel.

Lehane unveiled eight priorities created during the task force's first phase that will be used during the evaluation process:

• No Direct Taxes: Other potential revenue sources, including tax increment financing and fees on "tourists," will be considered;
• Economic Impact: Speedy creation of work for local construction companies and construction jobs and long-term economic benefits;
• Full Loan Repayment: Maloofs must address their outstanding $68.5 million city loan by paying it back in a lump sum or payments, through equity in a new facility or in another way;
• Regional Contribution: Financial contribution to construction costs, possibly through event ticket fees but not likely to come from surrounding towns or the county;
• Community Benefits: Could include a labor agreement, affordable housing, environmentally sensitive construction, cultural contributions and more;
• Minimize Environmental Impacts, partly with a focus on public transit;
• Fair Share for Use of City Land: "Given that the NBA and/or the Kings will likely seek a controlling interest in the facility, any facility developed as a true public-private partnership ... must ensure that the team/league pays its fair share," determined by the level of public support, according to a document Lehane provided outlining the priorities. The amount the public is compensated must be adjusted for inflation, Lehane said.
• No funding from the city's general fund.

Lehane would not respond to reports that the National Basketball Association is upset about comments he made on the task force blog Tuesday. He called the NBA's previous attempts to get an arena built here "two air balls" and made other comments in a post asserting that the NBA's support for one arena proposal doesn't guarantee that plan will be adopted by the task force or the city.

Several Sacramento City Council members were also upset about the comments and felt he was speaking on behalf of the city.

"Maybe I should have said 'two fumbles.' Maybe I should have said 'two strikes.' But I said 'airballs,' " he said Thursday.

Lehane also said he recognizes the task force is a group of "citizens" attempting to represent the public in an effort to get an arena built as quickly as possible.

"We're not the City Council," he said.

While Lehane lives in San Francisco and another task force member lives in Los Angeles, nine others live in Sacramento and the other member lives in Stockton, he said.

Lehane said he was recruited to the task force because he has no pre-existing relationships in Sacramento or any vested interest in a particular outcome.

"That allows me to ask the tough questions," he said.