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call the order connected city council
committee meeting for Monday March 18th
2024
uh we have three presentations this
evening and so I would like to start
with the electric city colop and whoever
is presenting please come here we have a
microphone for you all
right and you have handouts for us I do
okay you can just give me look okay um
Alexander Carver said there might I
emailed her a presentation is it
possible that we can get
that
if not that is okay because I got it
printed out in front of
me you
can but I will one
sure can you put
this is this
hot people at home for
television all right uh honorable mayor
m MERS of the city council um
distinguished staff I just want to
introduce myself my name is Eric Johnson
I'm the president of the Electric City
Food Co-op uh we're doing business as uh
the Electric City Community grocery uh
we were awarded a grant from arpa for a
million dollar in in support of our
Cooperative grocery startup in downtown
is
connected first I just want to say uh
how much gratitude our group group
brings to this uh governing body and how
thankful we are for your support it's
meant a lot to have your support and
it's really lifted our
sales uh I'd also just like to say that
we've made uh a great deal of progress
since being awarded this
proposal um and would just like to uh
you know just begin with the Positive
gratitude that we have for this group
and uh we'll get right into it I do also
just want to say I recently had eye
surgery so I was sort of counting on
this presentation to be um online but
I'll um work through this um and
uh so um what what we've done is we've
sent a letter requesting an extension
for our arpa um Award with the city our
award expired on March uh 12th this year
and what we're requesting is a r uh
extension for six months to that time uh
so that we can work with our partners to
secure our
location and uh deliver a downtown uh
grocery to the city of SKC uh our
mission from the very beginning has been
to deliver a grocery store to downtown
SKC uh that is our Focus um so that so
when it comes to um you know
conversations about other places our
primary focus is delivering that grocery
to downtown skty um and then once we're
through with that we can obviously look
at other
opportunities uh I just want to draw
your attention to the third slide it's
got uh these logos right here so what we
have um in this third slide is a
three um three Federal a federal state
and a
local uh solution or plans that were
developed uh on the left you have the
arpa
um the arpa um federal law which was
passed right and pumped a ton of money
into the economy during co uh we've got
the downtown re re development re uh
initiative or drri which identified uh a
need for a grosser in downtown skincity
to complement the current blend of
economic
um economic um balance and then the city
uh of Sky 2020 plan that was approved in
2008 which set a planning initiative to
do a perform analysis for a grocery
store and to move that
forward uh the next slide covers um that
we just are identified as a as a food
desert in skty uh food desert is an
interesting term defined by the federal
government but in fact it's a really uh
what I Define as food apartheid because
it is a um structural implemented way in
which there is a scarcity of
availability of healthy foods for
certain zip codes based on decisions of
planners of the
past and uh you know the way that we can
solve that is through food sovereignty
so the electric city food cop is not
going to solve the problem uh the
electric city food Pro um alone the
Electric City Food Co-op is part of the
mix on the right side of this slide
which is slide
four uh is uh it represents the Sky City
Food Council which includes sium the
Green Market SK School District farm farm School Tech Valley shuttles
the City Mission
uh the Cornell extension us and a total
of 30 plus organizations that are
working together with the concy
foundation to further food policy and
the challenges within the food
space okay great great I'll put this
down um if you can go to the next slide
please so um it's quite easy to think
like our organization's been around for
10 years now we incorporated in
2013 and it would be easy to conclude
that we're not making progress I want to
just point out this graph uh you see
that we made steady progress up until
the pandemic and then we Flatline the
pandemic is represented on the red
rectangle and you'll see as we the
official end of the pandemic by that
time obviously people were moving around
but we were having explosive growth uh
at that point we went from 4 65 members
through 1,000 at the end of this year
we're up to 1,035 right now and part of
the way that we were able to invigorate
the community was through the Public
Funding that we had we were able to re
uh price our membership from $200 to $25
what this did was it made it more
accessible to our community we had a
more diverse population that was able to
join in fact uh we we were able to
gather and raise funds to provide
solidary memberships for those that are
unable to provide the $25 we were able
to supplement their
membership um so we continue to grow a
lot of enthusiasm within the community
and we're at the point now if you notice
the diagram on your right hand side uh
we've gone we have paid for uh Market
studies we've done uh our proforma our
business plan uh We've exceeded our me
our membership goals to where we can
kind of move out of our planning stage
and we've been engaged with Metroplex
and we have um are getting ready to sign
a site uh contract with NCG who is our
uh our implementation partner which I'll
go to in in a few more
slides so if we can go to the next slide
please I just want to just reflect on
some of our board members
um pretty great group of people
we meet every week uh to further it we
have four active subcommittees within
this board the people that are circled
with a light green color are all new
within the last year and I just want to
highlight that within this group of
board members we have people that have
deep experience within the grocery
business both Price Chopper and
Cooperative groceries uh people who have
experience on board Boards of directors
of co-ops we've got Finance people we've
got accountants we've got food
manufacturers uh we've got Bakers and
just general downtown boosters so these
are the people from your community our
community that are invigorated and
involved and are looking to get this
project
done uh building back to better together
and so the on the next slide just want
to cover uh National Cooperative Grocers
so you can kind of think of this as like
a um it's a chain for independent
groceries they have a Professional
Services line that is in the business of
starting up GR uh Cooperative grocery
stores around the country in fact
they're starting up six in the first
half of this year so they're on on Pace
of doing about one per month just right
now they've got 230 stores in 39 states
and their total spend is $2.5 billion
annually so we get a lot of buying uh
advantages by working with the national
Cooperative Grocers they've got a
product line which is uh an affordable
product line uh there's often um an
association with cooperatives that
cooperatives are expensive I'm never
going to be able to afford it oh thank
you so much um and cooperatives can be
expensive but it's our goal to provide
Staples that are affordable to our
community uh that's imper for our
business model and also provide options
for you know with local farmers which
might be at a higher price
point so um you know we've got lots of
examples and and like I said the um 1.3
million customer owners uh are reflected
there they've got contracts with semi
trucks to move move food in so we be
using them for food supply they'll help
us with the Final store design um HR
payroll Finance point of sale uh through
store opening through um
stabilization uh so the dream te team
can't be beat so it's kind of a funny
play there but we've got uh the Electric
City Food Co-op the national uh Co-op
Grocers and uh obviously you all who
were so thankful for and SK County and
of course Metroplex and uh Dave or Scott
I don't know if there's anything that
you wanted to add or wait for
questions Scott C Tech Metro PL um it be
on
camera okay Scott C Tech Metroplex uh
thank you for letting us be here today
uh you know Eric and his team have been
really working extremely hard and trying
to make this a reality I can remember
back to the late 90s you know not having
anything supp to have a grer downtown
you know outside of Eastern Avan Price
Chopper and so this has been a long time
coming there's a lot of momentum being
had right now we're at almost at the
finish line there's a couple locations
and a couple developers they're working
with I can't disclose either location
and or developers because we signed n
NDA non disclosure agreements um but I
will say that with a little more time I
think we can uh pull this off um you
know with the bank Environ right now
Insurance a little bit higher we all
thought the rates start coming down a
little bit I think that they will as we
get toward summertime that's kind of
affecting some of the pricing strategies
but I do think that given a little bit
more time here I think they they can uh
execute this plan U they're doing all
the right things and U anything that you
can do to extend this little bit we be
much appreciate it um and uh we do
appreciate it thank
you
okay this next slide is uh a screenshot
from our new website which was just
released over the weekend which we're
excited about but that's not the main
points the main point is what's in it
for the community as you I'm sorry it's
the slide with the yeah that one right
there
so yeah so what what what are we
bringing to the community um you see
expanded uh access to Local Foods uh and
local you know supporting local grossers
producers and artisians keep your
dollars local uh create local jobs uh
our estimate is um
$154,000 monthly
payroll um cultivate thriving
communities rooted root systems uh give
classes you culinary classes how to
sharpen knives how to do the things that
some of our Traditions have forgotten as
far as cooking together and eating
together uh participate in the
governance of a Cooperative organization
and connect with communities so it's
just important to uh think that this is
a really great way for us to develop our
community and expand the Civic
engagement here in SK
activity um like Scott said and thanks
for that Scott uh we're working with
Metro Metroflex to sign an agreement to
occupy a space and a lease agreement uh
as you said we can't um disclose the
location or the developer and as of you
know Tuesday last week when our deadline
came through we did not have that deal
done and that as we all know
negotiations sometimes take a little bit
of time right they're not always easy
and so this negotiation is taking a
little bit of
time uh just as to close if you know a
vote a vote of no an extension for us
makes gives you plenty of time to
reallocate the funds for other
priorities that you
have um the risk is as our team sees it
is that you're missing a really a once
in a-lifetime opportunity to bring a
grocery store to downtown the private
sector alone isn't going to do this it
doesn't work work for them and so if if we miss this opportunity we're going
to be waiting a long time time to get a
Downtown
Grocery and um you know we've got a good
leadership team we've got robust
participation uh people are lit up about
participating in this and just excited
to support one another and that's
something that we all like to see in our
community so I think from that
perspective it would be um a challenge
for us to not see this
extension voting yes on a six-month
extension uh would align with arpa dri
and vision
2020 it would improve food access and uh
Equity it would catalyze local and
Regional food opportunities and
encourage citizens to participate in the
Democratic process within the food
system itself the downside or risk you
might say is that 6 month extension
would allow you only 14 weeks to
reallocate those funds funds by the time
that you must have those committed which
I believe is December 31st of this year
and the other downside is other grantees
would have to essentially wait in the
winds while they're um while while we're
fing out on things it's not our
intention to use the full six months uh
these negotiations do take time uh and
unfortunately Eric and the co-op team
don't always get a seat right at the
front of the table because a lot of
these negotiations are between
Metroplex the the county and the
developers so we've been I think Scott
and know's very encouraging of this
project moving process moving along
faster but these negotiations do just
take some
time um just a few supplemental slides
so from the drri uh I just want to note
that the dri report of 2020 noted that
there was a lack or void of neighborhood
goods and services in the downtown area
so that is um one of the three important
ingredients to a healthy economy and
without um a healthy uh Tri Brit of
those three areas you won't have people
coming down and staying downtown to
spend their dollars and that's been
identified and
reinforced as a problem a systematic
problem with downtown sign Cony and it's
why we have a hard time keeping and
attracting Shoppers in the downtown area
um and I think this next slide shows
that if we're able to SOL at least
partially solve that problem by bringing
goods and services downtown neighborhood
goods and services then we get just more
walkability more people spending more
money downtown um more action downtown
the the restaurants will benefit uh
other stores will benefit so um I think
that that's just an important thing and
then lastly I just want to say that um
I'm not sure that co-ops are familiar to
everybody
but we're a Cooperative uh other one of
the other organizations here is is a
Cooperative
organization and what we know about
cooperatives is that it's a way to lift
one another up in Economic Development
by supporting one another and teaming
together to make uh Solutions where
otherwise Solutions won't be available
so that's really all I have to present
to the council I'm the mayor and I'd
like to thank you if there's any
questions be more than happy to answer
those right so I'm going to start but so
the site control the only thing that
you're really waiting for in terms of
being able to move forward with this
project site control is where what is
the one leling factor yes all right and
um you said you wanted 6 months yes so
um but you pointed out yourself then we
only have 14 weeks to reallocate funds
although I think we I think the city
could figure that out Anthony
right um so let's say we just can't get
to 6 months what could what could we
reasonably sure um great question so a
reasonable uh compromise would be
splitting the difference but 3 months
really won't get us what we need uh so
you know you say like Eric's asking for
6 months let's get him 3 months the
clock already ticking we're one week
into it um and so from my perspective 3
months is a very risky proposition to to
me and I thought a lot about this 5
months is about where we could land and
still either know this deal is going to
happen and we're going to get it done or
no this isn't and we've given it a vant
effort and you know we'll either
continue without the funds or we'll go on our Mar
lights
right so I do you know just I I think I
already said this to you but if we
whatever time limit we give and you know
we're not going to be unreasonable um
once we get there and if you're not able
to do that then we would have no choice
but to to resend the funds because we
are facing that deadline it's not
because we want to but we are facing a
deadline with the federal government and
we have to meet that deadline or we
could then ConEd to lose funds and we
certainly don't want to do that so um
like I started off we're very grateful
and full of gratitud ude for this Grant
and totally understand where you are so
yeah we're meeting where where you are
other questions for Council Members Mr
Williams just as a point of clarity and
thank you for this presentation I think
it was very apparent that you built it
with an understanding of working
collaboratively and together and I think
that was one of the common themes that
just very much stood out to me um just
wanting to get a clarification from um
Council porterfield's Point uh it's
apparent that the biggest obstacle is
the getting sight control however you
alluded that there were other elements
also that 5 months does that fully
address the site control issue or is
that to fully address all outstanding
issues so yeah so where we're at right
now is we've submitted our affid
affidavits our policies our uh orc
structure like we've submitted
everything to you guys all uh we have
one Gap with insurance which is you
can't have insurance without a site and
we just have a box right now so we
talked with Miss Carver about that uh
there is a question of a $5.7 million
match and we do not currently have that
so we've got a commitment from the
county for 3 million the situation is a
little bit different right now because
uh previously when we applied for the uh
Grant the idea was to buy a building so
that with with some of these projects
they're much bigger projects and so we
will be a tenant with that and paying
for a portion of to build out through
our grant funds so to specifically
answer your question I think we look for
some accommodations with the matching of
5.7 anybody else thank you Mr yes follow
up on that you're matching a 5.7 is that
secure or in the process of being secure
so it's not secured it's our our request
was to have contributions from our
developer right so that would be for a
few million uh we got the county for 3
million and I think actually what we'd
like to request is a reduction in that
5.7 for to something lower than that the
matching amount from the county and the
city uh I think we could do a little bit
more than that but that would be ideal
44 million yeah so $3 million matching
to the 1
million so overall what is an estimated
cost of this
project so again that depends on the
particulars of the development
um but right now we're looking
at I mean one developer
is is it possible that I could just give
you some numbers afterwards I mean I or
I mean I can give you estimates yeah I'm just looking for
estimates so so right now it's um like
4.5
to I'd say 5.8 would be the total
project alling cost
mhm
Mr F yeah I just wanted to oh I'm
sorry no sorry yeah so I'm looking at
the numbers here so you let going high
in 5.8 this is estimated numers so
you're looking at um that secure money
already from the city and county $4
million so you're looking at $1.8
million out yeah small funding yeah so
that's that's right so we'll need to
make that up through commitments from
the developer
that's one and then
loans it's yeah uh the loans will be a
combination of member loans like
Community loans and then uh development
like uh there's Cooperative uh
startup Capital funds that give out
loans and it is also hard to get a loan
and you don't have a lot any collateral
right you you mentioned um in your
presentation that your point where to
secure this lease agreement so you think
that at that point where you're right
now to secure the lease agreement is
going to take you 5 mons to get that
done I hope so I mean if we don't have
that I maybe I'd ask Scott to ask answer
that um typically you know when you get
to this part of the game game you
typically will sign up what they call an
Loi which is Le than 10 that just basic
business tenants you know rate term some
other major things then into the lease a
document itself from timing perspective
again this is if we agree today we have
a deal you're probably looking at you
know anywhere from 30 to 60 days just to
complete that task if we had the site
already identified work the math out
since we kind of two sites that were
working true we don't have the final
numbers yet so it's probably going to be
more three 3 to four months and you know
once you kind of get to that point so
asking for five is you know is great um
but I do think we're very somewhat close
to pulling this together and we do need
some time so it's not like you just
we're going to do this you legal
documents you have to you know uh
finalize and make sure that everyone's
comfortable with the terms of conditions
of the lease and that does take a little
bit of time back and forth so hopefully
that answers the question so
Mr Bry has a question so well more of a
statement too so number one I want to
kind of just highlight some of the
things that you talked about as far as
growing
membership um you know so this is
clearly a project that's really about
it's not lost on us that it's about
accessibility and once you were able to
secure funds where you didn't have to
charge people such a high amount more
people had uh that created an open up
access for people to join and I think
that that is really what we're talking
about this project you know overall is
that with access to um quality food
people care about what they eat but but
right now The Limited options that are
presented kind of don't um you decrease
the likelihood of them having a healthy
food option so I I think that it's
really um important that we we just kind
of recognize the fact that as soon as we
increase access to people to be a part
of this they were a part of this and I
would just um safely assume that that
would be the response from the larger
community that if we presented for
people that they were supported I also
like the fact that you have some um
board members with some pretty extensive
uh experience um with grocery stores and
could you talk a little bit about that
and what their are sure yeah uh and I
would say just to respond to your first
point we fully expect our membership to
really Skyrocket once we uh continue to
Skyrocket once we announce and I just
want to say that there's no requirement
to be a member to shop at this fishy
store so I just want to be very clear
there so Rick mosart who's right over
there this uh handsome looking gentleman
he he has 30 years experience uh fitting
up Price Choppers for go go up
Corporation so he's the guy that would
go in and optimize Price Choppers uh set
them up make sure that the insides the
guts the operations were just as they
should be so he was uh one of Mr gb's
Right and
lieutenants uh and then after that he
broke away and worked for hestu f food
cop which is a food cop UH 60 plus years
old in Albany was General Manager for 5
years and then we've got a geman named
Alex Mika who is uh worked at aneste as
well and he's since taken a job with
national Cooperative grocers in their
Consulting team he won't be on our
project because it would be sort of a
conflict of interest
but he's out helping uh co-ops all
around the country those 230 Co-op
grocery stores that I talked about in
order for them to make the most of their
Co-op right cuz this this organization
gives marketing help HR help legal help
uh operations help point of sale help it
help and all that so those are the two
guys and then I have been involved with
food coops I lived in Denver before here
I was involved in one food co-op that
got turned upside down because the real estate got um too valuable so we
didn't get a chance to open the store so
the the dirt got to be too valuable we
weren't able to open I was on a board of
another Co-op that had a mix of a
nonprofit and a for-profit model so we
were able to do a lot of more Community
oriented activities so I've been around
cutting my teeth with the co-op space
for a while as well okay one more so
also obviously this project is about
accessibility and equity and I just
could you talk a little bit about um
maybe what the value system around
hiring people from the neighborhood as
you know section section three workers
as they usually described and people um
uh minority and women um like you talk a
little bit about what the ideology is of
the group in Project yeah so we've uh so
we're going to have about uh 38 to 45
full-time employees on opening um and we
haven't set any specific policies about
that but we want the makeup of our our
store to be the makeup of our community
so without getting into too many details
we want it to reflect our community
itself thank
you any other questions
comments well thank you for coming and
thank you for all the hard work I know
it's been years of work and they could
drop the ball on thank you so much
everybody I really appreciate your time
and we'll we'll discuss this in in our
committee come on thank you very much
for
coming good evening mayor Madam
president city council I apologize for
my tardiness we had an unforeseen um
fire and development so I do apologize
for that
um next we have
our mirac Freddy project which is the
hand we now today have presenting before
us the Hamilton Hill um Cooperative
Association which is made up of some
community service providers that are
vested in keeping the Maran crate
project in the hands of the community
and they are presenting today asking us
to reimagine what that Family Center
will be so today we have brother Johan
Matthews who will be presenting
on behalf of the
co-op thank you everybody I'm going to
pass on
yeah we have a printed version
of should be enough for everybody at the
table Carl and
I he's good he's
good all right all right now
we're excellent so thank you for having
us my name is Johan Matthews here to
speak on behalf of the Hamilton Hill
Community Cooperative so we're distinct
from ml we saw their efforts we're
inspired we were hoping to get involved
once it was completed but but that leg
of the journey has been completed and so
we're here now looking what's going to
happen moving forward now that this
building's been returned and we know the
community still needs this service so
before we go into who we are as a
Hamilton Hill Community Cooperative uh
and this project idea reimagining that
space in order to provide services as
the Carver family community center I'd
like to introduce you to
Janet so this is Janet she's a ham Hill
resident been there her whole life and
she is well loved by the community great
energy better smile people love her and
uh she works parttime at Marshalls you
know she doesn't have fulltime hours
she's been wanting it for a while and
she's going to school in the evening to
be a nurse all right but lately she's
been anxious in fact she's
expecting and she's expecting and
anxious because this is not her first
child right me Lamar this is her first
son this individual is energetic like
his mother loves to draw just an awesome
little kid but he spends most of his
evenings uh at home playing video games
while his mother has to run to the the
school run to her job he's doing his
thing at home exploring the world the
video games at home right and she's also
nervous about that but she's more
nervous because his dad is not in the
picture right nice young guy L but he's
not there right they were young when
they had him that passionate romance
allowed U that passion relationship
allowed romance but it also allowed a
lot of arguments so Lamar spends his
time at home with Grandma Joanne right
here moved to to Hill in the '90s from
the city for her family so that they can
have a second chance right she's watched
the community transformed over the last
20 years 30 years and she's watched her
family grow up watching little Lamar
from a baby until now now meet little
Joelle right that's who Grandma spends
her days watching they're waiting on a
preschool or daycare waiting list to
open up so she get get can get in there
but right now Grandma's watching her all
right and that's Stacy above Grandma
she's the heart of the family she works
as a medical billing specialist she
dreams of having a Cookie Company you
know so instead of dealing with cavities
she'll cause them and but she doesn't
know how she doesn't know how start a
business you know how to deal with money
that's Unk that's grandma Joann's um
only son he just came home a few years
ago and he is known as the wizard cuz
he's a a local chess Grandmaster right
so he loves to spend his days in Barber
Shop playing chess dropping pearls
studying philosophy but he can't get a
job right everyone sees his character
today he's on his best behavior but
employers won't let him live down his
Worst Behavior so look at this family
this is a typical family H to hill now
I'd like to introduce their Lifeline
this is you're kind of Highly efficient
nonprofit service provider providing
very efficiently um needed services like
food right local community members
donate it they catch a cab have a ride
come they go out to their Community they
live in Hamilton Hill but they leave and
go get this food from this Pantry they
need this food these services and when
they go there they feel as though
they're getting some of what they need
but they have to give so much they have
to wait in line wait behind the glass
tell their life story victimize
themselves it's kind of a poor
experience though they need they need
help they don't feel needy right now I'd
like to introduce the Carver Family
Resource Center right so this is the
vision that we're here to share this is
a multi-stakeholder membership
organization we've got a th Community
member owners who walk in this building
like they own it because literally they
do and that's how they treat it whether
they they for services around food or
housing or dayare they are treated like
they belong we also have investor
members these are institutional
investors like this connect Foundation
or possibly the city who serve as a
foundation for this initiative they've
designed and seeded a trust that
provides um income for the operations of
this Center in perpetuity so they've
seated a fund and that fund is in the
trust and every year it gives out
dividends to support this activity
overall covering the cost within the
first 5 to 7 years we've also got the
service provider members many of which
are assembled in this room but there in
this case 10 members and they all have
the resources they need to serve the ham
Hill families so this is an ecosystem of
family centered services
right in the heart of ham Hill right in
the heart of the craigman connection so
when we look at this picture we see
Janet who now has maternal care like
adulla to help her ease those anxieties
she feel about being a mother again
right we've also got community father
who can provide support groups and
domestic violence training and anger
management training to help LEL get back
into the picture we've got after school
program for little Lamar who can come
and leverage his love for drawing maybe
become the next Marshall Jones of SK all
right provided by the art center we've
got little Joel who is not going to be
on the waiting list for preschool
anymore she's going to be in um Sprouts
daycare we're going to have a daycare on
site and for Aunt Stacy she's going to
learn how to start a business and manage
her finances from uink to the economic
artment Center we're going to have those
resources to teach you about financial
literacy as well as how to start a
business and for an not only could he
serve as a a coach and Mentor for many
of the youth programs we'll have ring of
ho boxing or uh electric swarm he can
also get Workforce Development support
when to start a business learn to build
his trades and for Grandma instead of
spending all her time taking care of
others we have a food prep service
providing healthy fresh meals for her
okay so she can get off medication so we
literally have have an ecosystem of
services for the mothers who are
expecting babies to the grandma Whois
them that's what we're looking at so
where are we now well as I mentioned
we've established 10 service providers
these are homegrown institutions that
came out of the soil of skincity and
they're here to support the people who
already already support them already get
support from them right so that's
Community fathers the hamon Hill Arts
Center you corporate um um we've got
interest from the economic empowerment
Center we've got this connect to the um
City Ministry and the city Ministries
and a few others right so we have 10 cor
members who are nonprofit service
providers who are going to be members of
this Community Cooperative using the
space to provide services in the heart
of the community all right we're hoping
to continue the campaign in the
community to get up to a th000 community
members we know over 500 people of sign
petitions we have multiple pages of
folks signing petitions we're going to
ask 1,000 community members there's over
7,000 people in Hamilton Hill in Vil
area to provide $100 to help Capital
capitalize us right so ,000 of $100 next
we're going to invite investor members
between March and may we think and we've
already had support from the skan
foundation many of you guys might see
the letter of support from them to join
us as investor members he investor
members or institutions who can provide
ink kind support as well as financial
support we're going to be asking for up
to 150,000 from 10 of these guys and so
maybe the average will be 100,000 so
that's how we're looking to continue
this journey we have the service
provider members we know the community
is is there to support this and next
we're hoping to tap into the
institutional community of which we have
a lot of support from the scy
foundation next step of course after
this communication today we're hoping to
fire Carver and work together with the
city values align developers to make
this happen not with Jo matchs but for
the ham Hill families right they need it
so if we can work together I'm sure we
can figure it out uh between March this
year and June
2025 that's almost a year a little over
here sorry we can make this happen
according to the quotes from the
contractors it's about 6 months for the
construction to be completed once they
get started
this is just based in correspondence
I've seen so that building could be
stabilized by December if we wanted to
however obviously nothing works so
perfectly and they're saying if it's not
fixed by some parts of it not
stabilized uh some parts won't make it
through the winter so I know there's a
sense of urgency there and the bill is
on the historic register so the final
step of course looking to end of next
year we to formalize our offerings as
this communities cooperative and open
the doors as the Hamilton Hill Community
Co-op and and offer the services we
mentioned for the Parson's family so
that's the next step so what's this cost
start up on you guys all have do
proposal you know that the lowest bids
for the project came in at around 2.9
Million for construction so that
includes everything but maybe by um some
smaller details uh commercial kitchen
and things like that so we have a little
bit of a build out there for that
commercial kitchens can run anywhere 40
to 200 for you know very extravagant so
we just put that in there cushion maybe
a security system like a fob system
every member gets a little fob in and
out we know who's in and 10% for working
capital to support the operations over
that first three or four years so that
total is about
$3.5 million to start up sources we know
the city of SK has previously allocated
$1.2 million to this project we're going
to ask that you continue that allocation
right we know the community needs it we
know we need to spend the money I think
it's a match next the hamton hill
Community co-ops members as I mentioned
we have three classes of members we have
the residential members people who live
in Hamilton hill we have the service
provider members these homegrown
institutions providing these needed
services and as well as our investor uh
institutional investors members who can
help us design and see the trust so that
we can perpetually benefit from that
trust and have a self-sustaining program
in addition to the the grants and so on
that these 10 organizations are used to
attracting these are you know relatively
well-known organizations despite being
underresourced we also are looking at an
office of Child and Family Services
grant for child care when the child care
is needed in the community they're
homebased providers but this can be a
way to support that so we partner with
the art center submit a $1.5 million
application we looking for about
$750,000 finally CF The Cooperative fund
of the Northeast I'm affiliated with
this fund and I help form and financed
cooperatives across the country they can
provide up to $2 million per deal we
probably looking for a $500,000 line of
credit and if we can get less um we
probably go less because you know we
don't want to start with de debt
probably around 5% 5 and 12% so that's
what we're dealing with there this is
some of the monthly expenses right now
this is what folks can expect to pay for
their current programming so you know
that's about $7,000 a month as far as
what folks are used to paying for their
real estate we want to save folks money
right they're sharing this space making
ownership more accessible because
they're sharing it additionally we'd
want to provide other services like
shared bookkeeping shared accounting
shared marketing the more money we save
these groups the more money they have to
support this initiative and provide
services to the community on the expense
side we know we're going to see staff
we're hoping to initially start with a
community manager someone who could deal
with the internal Community make sure
everyone has what they need the
temperature is right if Halls are swept
we'll have an office manager you know
collecting rent keeping the books in
order both part-time initially
increasing over time you take ities and
internet we use some commercial real
estate averages 2.1 $210 per square foot
multiply that by the 20,000 s ft and we
get these numbers as well as property
main maintenance we use other industry
averages 2.3 times the 20,000 ft to get
that number for insurance fill out an
application online using one of those
services to spit out a quote around 800
a month we can probably do around up to
a th000 some
comparable uh organizations that I've
called and got cours for give me their
number problem maxent out about,
month so sustainability plan as I
mentioned we're hoping to get working
capital or Operational Support 100,000
split over the next 3 4 years that we
also get usage fees we can probably
expect at Max Capacity to get $84,000 as
a say 70,000 a month for the you know
couple of organizations in there but we
assume a 50% usage rate so we say
42,000 if we see a fund for
$150,000 right one of our investors or
multiple can do so help us design and
see the fund at 7% average return that's
$10,000 a year one so we can get that to
get the ball rolling next up space
rental this is just community members
who want to access the space Maybe host
a tournament whatever the case is we get
three or four of those 250 or so you
know we put it in
there and um all the expenses are
basically self-explanatory for marketing
we're looking to maybe do a documentary
year one to show the community this
model of cooperation to show this story
we think it could be a powerful story
and then regular Market materials
supplies is miscellaneous toilet paper
ink so on Professional Services for Year
One this will be a lawyer to help us
design the Trust In collaboration with
our Institutional Investor members we
already have a lawyer we're working with
but you know a trust simple trust could
range from
$6,000 all the way up to 10,000 for a
very complicated one we're just trying
to do something that would make sense
and then finally interest only payments
under lineing
credit so year two these cost just
continue to increase if we get two more
investors in that F and that fund that
we want to do that uh undividable
reserves we can get you know 500,000 7%
of that 35,000 that's helping us to get
to Brick
even by year three we've broken even
we've earned
234,000 expenses
215,000 obviously this is best case
scenario and the numbers are very
conservative we'll be looking to reduce
costs using um ecoe efficiency measures
such as LED bulbs um we want to do um
solar panels we want to do automatic
shut offs things like that all these
basic things and my company is involved
with a few of these types of um
proposals through nerto and so on so we
think we could take advantage of that
and try to figure that piece out uh
potential Partners all of these guys
have demonstrated some support in the
past to this or something like this the
CDs connected 1.2 Metroplex
150,000 seeing you know what folks
desire to continue to support this
second leg of the journey would be and
see what's going on as we said the
building is in the heart of the craigman
connection we've seen a lot of support
from tono and Santa Barbara at the
political level and recently we even saw
Santa Barbara supporting myai who was at
risk of leaving because you know they
had a building that was uh facing some
disrepair so we think there's a lot of
precedent for support around Community
Center especially a homegrown one like
Harver that has such significance
historically connect to the county we
have friends over there who we think
will be supportive of this and we'll
rely on you guys to help us to connect
to that the conected foundation I
mention we already have a letter of
support from them and a desire to
connect us to the philanthropic
community in the capital region
literally around table going into the
room pitching this many funders at once
to see who would be interested in
joining into the
so that's the right Community Foundation
Capal region many others we think
there's interest or could be interest
from the steart foundation business for
good already had to line out for this so
we're queued up for a conversation from
them the T Foundation has supported the
um restorative justice housing fund
providing millions of dollars to Black
and low-income homeowners in the capital
region so we think they'd be queued up
for this friends with that program and
uh and a few others that I've mentioned
as as well as a few community
development financial institutions
Community Loan Fund C region I used to
be a technical assistance provider there
they're less activist connect but
they're part of the original deal I'm
sure we can have a conversation and the
Cooperative front which I'm currently
affiliated with providing Finance or
access to finance to emerging
communities across the
country so right now with the 1.2 that
the city already had allocated for this
project all of what's on the screen is
possible
all abatement of hazardous materials all
demolition of unneeded materials and
systems finished installation of new
electrical service and installing
temporary lighting owering the building
s new tours and inspections and so on
all roof repairs and Replacements all
sight improvements fa fencing landscape
Asal gravel pavement
stripping um exterior and interior
masonry work and repairs including new
doorways where needed exterior slabs for
mechanical equipment all window repairs
and Replacements all exterior door
repairs and Replacements renovation of a
bathroom by the back door renovation of
the
auditorium and so on so quite a lot is
already possible if we come together
even more is possible so that's the
point of this entire uh
effort I welcome your
questions thank Mr barley so first of I
like to appreciate the way you frame
that sometimes we get caught up in our
thinking around the project and we
forget that the project was really about
people um so I I I I can appreciate that
I wanted to um ask a question as you're
looking at taking on Partners um I know
that there's talks of uh other Community
Partners just in the swirling of
interested um and you're uh it seems
like this group is actually looking to
collaborate with other uh stakeholders
in order to sustain um in order for
sustainability that's that's correct
right yeah we're happy to collaborate
with any values aligned in investor
service provider and developer and when
we say values Line Community centered
creating a sense of ownership for the
community providing a new model so we
think anyone who's open to that
certainly someone you're willing to work
with thank
you so this will not be a 501c3 that it
will be a
Cooperative so there's two ways to think
of this one is the character of the
business you can be cooperative in
nature because we're all engaged in this
decision- making process in a one Member
One vote right you can do so as a
nonprofit as a for-profit and then you
can think about the actual entity form
right right whether it's a nonprofit
for-profit or cooperative Corporation
you can create the entity to suit the
financial environment if the people with
the problem can pay for it that's a
business if the people with a problem
can't pay for it that's a nonprofit
right with the co-op we're going to pay
to solve this problem together right
like the food co-op they have their
customers built-in that's their members
with a residential Co-op they have their
um customers built in that's their
renters or their residential owners with
a worker cop they have the labor built
in and so on so forth so we can choose
an entity form that's conducive to
whatever the environment is and we're
working on that right now with a lawyer
okay thank
you Mr Williams uh first I just wanted
to to point out I very much appreciate
the way in which you started your
presentation uh I think uh hearing it U
framed in that way accurately put the appropriate level of importance on
ensuring that this project sees sees a
fair opportunity uh one of the points I
wanted to to ask at to uh and I thought
it was a a very good point that you made
you identified that the starting of
construction uh conservative or not
conservative but uh if we started now it
would uh consist of March 2024 to June
of 2025 is that correct be less than
that 6 months is what you know the bid
says so but you know perfect conditions
obviously is what they're thinking um
but the point I wanted to highlight is
uh you identifi just the continuation of
no renovations being conducted this
building going through another winter
exactly from your conversations would
you mind expanding on that so all I have
are corresponding snapshots delivered uh
from the architect and the construction
documents pertaining to that to the city
and to you know the previous holders of
the Baton so you know the correspondence
is all with the city and I can kind of
reference that but that's all I know
that there's a suspect there's an
opinion that the building certain
aspects of it will not last probably
roof and these types of things so the
construction details are all with the
city at this point but I think it's safe
to surise that just that the Coster is
going to continue to Skyrock longer that
this building exists in its current
condition um the cost of doing nothing
now is definitely more substantial than
the opportunity to do something buy
absolutely um I did want to focus on the
sources for the projected startup cost
uh you identified in the Hamilton Hill
of community collaborative that the
members would uh consist of1 million
$110,000 do you have a timeline for how
you start yeah so we already have this
10 service providers that we think are
core each of them could do a buying of
$1,000
$10,000 then we believe a ,000 community
members over 600 or so have already
demonstrated support of this we go to
that list and we try to get the next 400
each of them given $100 they can pay it
over the course of several months if
they needed to but that's what it would
take they've already signed a petition
so ,000 then we go to up to 10
Institutional Investor members within
the cical region Community to provide up
to
$150,000 assuming the average will be
100,000 some be less whatever that's 10
at 100,000 that's a million that's 1,000
people at $100 that's $100,000 and
that's 10 service providers at 1,000
that's
$1,110,000
and if you had to assign a a date to
that or a time line gotta yeah I would
say over the next 3 months we're going
to get cooking on that and obviously
we'll continue to campaing throughout
the year you think the sense of urgency
is going to drive people to action and
see if it's possible
Mr M yeah just follow on that you you
mentioned about having 10 core members
at
$100,000 100,000 is that correct 10 core
members the service providers yes that'
be 10,000 also 1,000 each yeah so is
that a you mentioned petition or is
there a commitment letter from from
these individuals or agencies we are all
committed um we're creating the
coroporation right now we don't you know
have a memorandum of understanding
between ourselves but we're showing up
every week meeting and you know a lot of
them are in the room right now they can
speak for themselves happy to
demonstrate that commitment yeah so you
mentioned about creating this entity now
you're in the process of doing that so
it's not finalized it yet and you are
not sure if it's going to be a non
for-profit or a for-profit entity at
this point in time we have two options
on the table obviously it could be uh
for-profit Cooperative Corporation sub
CH te or or it could be a 501 C12 kind
of a variation on the C3 model the
charitable nonprofit and this would
again just be based on making sure we
can do everything we want to do uh
within the context and within the
financial environment so those are the
two options we have we just have to kind
of vot to move forward we do have the
lawyer we do believe we can get the EXP
that in so I was going ask that it's
something that you should exp if you
power yeah and the you know 10
organizations are establish nonprofits
and for-profit business if we needed a
fiscal sponsor we have that you know
that's pretty typical but yes you're
right we have to choose one and we're in
the process of doing so yeah you also
mentioned about the Grant from ocfs are
they paperwork in or are you just
exploring that so we included the
deadline for the application and you
know Rachel could speak a little bit to
submit sorry planning to submit plan to
submit and the next one the letter of
credit are you doing the same in terms
of getting the paperwork in yeah yeah
I've already spoken to the loan officer
and we're kind of exploring that piece
already and the reason why I mentioned
it because we're looking at you
mentioned the lowest bet at
2.9 and you're estimating a total
completion of 3.56 million yeah so the
shortfall is about you know significant
amount so that is where my question is
coming in in terms of the hhcc members
getting a commitment from them
and not only a beer petition or a letter
or an email or a text that they going to
do that it's more someone need to make a
formal commitment in terms of these
funding because these are critical
funding to complete this project MH yeah
and of course you know I agree with that
um I would say the 50 years the art
Center's been here is a commitment 20
years from Community fathers is a
commitment we're very much committed to
this many of these groups well
respective organizations are working
with the executives you know making less
than what we believe is the moderate
income you know what I mean so the
commitment is there but we will get it
in writing you're absolutely right now
you didn't mention sorry you didn't
mention a list of U foundations are you
reaching out to them or are you sending
formal letters to bring them on board as
being um FAL Partners yes and we've
already gotten a letter of support from
the skan foundation in writing and that
will be kind of a catalyst as we know
the foundation is a catalyst and Bob has
already volunteered to start to connect
us to that founding round table that I
mentioned before they meet a few times a
year so we're going to be queued up for
that however that plays out as well as
oneon-one conversations with each of
funders that we have listed so I've
already reached out to many of them some
of them you know obviously we need to
have some measure of assurance from the
city we're not looking to be across the
table from you guys we going be looking
at this problem together moving forward
together so as long as that's you know
the path to beginning that conversation
is clear I think we're going to be full
seee just just a follow I'm going to go
back to the registration if you were to
put a timeline on that can you put a
timeline on that because I know it's
very important that you register this
entity oh for the registration a
timeline on that seeing how important it
is yeah um I would say right now we're
mid March the goal is to have that
buttoned up by May so that'll be the
timeline next 3 months but certainly
before that we'll be completed if we
decided to do an LLC which is very
possible um and still having the
nonprofit members just have an ownership
in that that's done next week right so
there's there's certain things we can do
quickly and certain things that will
take time we have a very experienced
Cooperative lawyer as well as you know
I'm very familiar with with this process
so can you can you speak to I know that
there was another group that was taking
this and then um you were trying to
partner didn't exactly work out so can
you kind of speak to the time when you
picked up to where you are now because
it seems pretty you've done a
significant amount of work in that time
frame so can you speak to since we
started organizing this again in
anticipation of supporting the fruits of
their labor we were already tuned in now
we just realized we had to come together
given the unfortunate nature of the
relinquished property um so over the
last month or two is when we've been
formally organizing pulling these quotes
letting people know about this so that's where we've been we're also
trying to learn from them you know we
want to be as open as possible we want
everyone to know they have a seat if
their values aligned obviously and
committed to the community at this table
and that we can do this together so we
trying to learn from them we respect
what they've done we think it's been a
admirable effort it's brought attention
to this it's brought a sense of
possibility and um yeah that's that's
how we connect to it new new do you have
something to follow no I think you
better
much any other questions or um so I just
want to be clear your your ask is you
can articulate your ask so the ask would
be a pathway to ownership for the
building right again we see this as a
city problem shared problem this
neighborhood's going to feel the burnt
of that impact and first Ral refusal
right if we want to do something else
cuz again these these are all extent
nonprofit service providers I would say
homegrown institutions places where
people feel at home receiving the
services they need and we also are
asking for continued allocation of the
$1.2 million previously allocated and to
do so on a basis of non-reimbursement so
whether it's a progress invoicing or
upfront we aren't capitalized well
enough to spend money to be reimbursed
so we don't want it under basis as well
as matching we're not going to be able
to raise money to get the money that we
already raised you know so we're asking
for it to be allocated without those two
constraints because they're unsuitable
for us as a group trying to engage this
project and finally we're asking for you
guys to partner with us to make this
happen so you the way you explained it
the
1.250 um would be used just for the next
6 months to get the building online is
that do I understand that properly yes
to make sure this building doesn't
become more expensive to fix and that's
how you would looking to spend that
allocation
okay other questions yes Mr Williams I
think final question and I very much
appreciate your optimism and definitely
it identifies uh a clear need and I
don't think that is something that is
debatable uh that's was highlighted
through the your your narrative at the
beginning um would you mind just
identifying what you think your biggest
obst or hurdle will
be yeah I think a lot of us don't know
what we don't know right you start
digging up that building all of a sudden
you know you you uncover some ancestral
barrier grage something right it's
haunted who knows so I think just
there's a lot of things we don't know
individually right we have a lot of
Gusto a lot of capacity but we're
underresourced so if we can partner with
other folks like the city who's also you
know facing certain Shaw Falls or
whatever the cas is but has a lot of
capacity in other places we can fill in
the puzzle so I think just not having it
all by ourselves is the obstacle and the
cooperation is a solution thank
you one
more I think we mentioned a lot of uh
foundation and and entities I didn't see
you mention anything about going to the
county or have a county here as a
partner have you approached a county to
this project yes so uh Omar mcel
supportive of the project and we know
that there was an effort previously to
align County um interest in this and so
we'd want to continue to shake those
trees again I'm sure a lot of you guys
are familiar with pokes over there and
how things work so maybe you can help us
out as
well uh any other questions or anybody
else hear any speaker your do anyone
like to say
anything I think that he said everything
that needed to be said you think that he
said everything okay
you know but I just want to just say
then then you do want to say
something let me just say something
because I think that even as a community
resident this is so important to the
heart of our community this is like a
heartbeat of our community it has been
it's always been and right now to walk
by and see it in the shape that it's in
and it's sitting empty you know it's
like a blight besides that I think that
the fact that we're moving towards
Cooper
it would be beautiful if uh many of us
nonprofits had the kind of money that we
could just go and buy a building and
make it happen but we we don't have it
like that and the fact is that we're
dealing with a principle I I heard you
ask to ask people about certain things
about a value system and a value system
that we're putting into this is
cooperative economics and Collective
work and
responsibility these are two of the
seven principles that we deal with when
we deal with the whole thing of Quant
and the principles that we try to bring
to improve our community Through um
creativity to leave it better than it
was and also to it's about our city
showing the type of efforts it makes to
make sure that the community is involved
we are very uh Innovative place here in
skty when I go places and I speak and I
speak on SKC people have never heard a
city that does some of the things that
is being done here in terms of its
Outreach and the way it brings in a
collectiveness of bringing people
together and I think this is also
something that will show that and show
our community because the community
wants to see something that it help
create and I think this is as a resource
Cent this is really just uh going to
take it to the next level of the 21st
Century
that's all I have to
say thank
you any other questions oh Mr far yes
with the p uh so I know that um uh the
previous group that was kind of leading
this effort you know um something that
they did do extremely well was uh going
out and getting signatures for over 500
residents that lived in the immediate
area um so um I can appreciate how this
uh project is is still in the space of
what the community was explicit about
them wanting um so I think that you
know that's really important to
highlight and as well as you being
willing to be responsible to the needs
of community but also being um willing
to um welcome other partners on to help
out with um some of this you know the issues around sustainability and and
as a council I just welcome us to kind
of consider the fact I think to Madame
president's Point earlier really to her
question um is that this is um not
necessarily Community problem but a
community opportunity that's been
presented in a really really tight
timeline based on the circumstances that
uh uh the last group um found themselves
in so to pick this up you know you're
really not starting from zero here
you're building on what's already there
and it's still responsible to need to
the community so just kind of want to
highlight that absolutely we're a
distinct group from that group but we
are continuing a legacy a legacy that
has inspired the community so thank you
guys for your time take you thank you
thank our final pres presentation is
from um about the Empowerment Center
brother Ron Gardner our affirmative
action officer he is presenting today
asking city council to reconsider the
arle funds that were allocated
towards Maurice just threw me off I'm so
sorry uh
for Mr Garner did not submit one today
Maurice thank you he's looking to have
the funds reallocated for the rehab of
the Empowerment Center on Albany Street
um to programming over the next three
years so Mr Ron
Garner good afternoon good evening
council members mayor SC gas um that was a powerful uh presentation I
want to set that right the gate and we
talking about the economic empowerment
Center and and I'll just say coming
right out that's exactly the same
mission and vision that we've had for
the past four years in terms of working
on ctive effort creating uh ecosystem if
you will so I'm totally 100% in support
of what they're proposing here and
working with them to uh to make this
happen and what I had specifically asked
for was we were allocated uh some funds
to
uh redevelop 818 Aly Street and I was a
with the cause of construction and
getting that whole ecosystem up up the
line you know that's not uh going to
happen that's that's not working but but
I had you know proposal here in terms of
what we want to do with all our Pro
program and to that you know creating
job opportunities uh creating business
capacity and growing the capacity and
also developing a pipeline of a work for
to come to us within the City by way of
the public safety you know police fire
and all of the other departments that we
have within uh our ecosystem within this
building so so with that
said uh I I would love to work with this
group because uh I think this is so
critically important to uh to really
make this happen and if we're going to
be serious and really make a difference
in the lives of our community I think
it's laid out and we see these uh
examples every day when we go out there
on the streets and we talk to people and
I tell folks all the time everybody come
a lot of people come out every day and
they're so happy to be in this city but
they're really in in a desperate State
and we need to figure out how do we make
a difference how can we utilize the
resources in this once in a-lifetime
opportunity that we have because this is
truly once in a lifetime and and I would
certainly you know asked the the counsel
and um allow opportunity to work you
know with these groups and others but in
the Cooperative effort because that's our whole mission is how do we
create uh the capacity how do we create
job opportunities and how do we create
more home buyers and Home Ownership with
our community and that's really what you
know what it's all about and that's
where my heart has been and I'm sure
that's where I know Dr Walters I I know
him so but anyway that's that's that's
where I'm at so
um I I'll leave at that that's just get
any question or whatever yes um you
really weren't explicit on what you
would like us from the council though
well specifically what I want to do is
reallocate the funds that I had that
were going toward the construction of
818 and I want to mooved that into
programming and when I talked about
programming I had it broke out into the
categories of small business support um
Workforce Development and also
developing a pipeline of a Workforce to
uh come into the the city for by way the
fire department police department and
other agencies within the city so those
be you know basic categories that I have
U outlined
there um
so do you have a a written plan for us
that we could you know we be able to
take a look at that yeah yeah yes I I I have a plan I thought that uh it was
submitted but anyway I'll I'll give that
to you and and again I would like to you
know take time to modify it to reflect
um you know what we you know you know
what we learning here and how we can uh
you know you know make a difference and
make it
happen WIS C so we have nothing I do not
have a plan unless you're ref to the
plan that should presented early on to
city council but not just for this
reallocation exactly okay so Madam
president Mr F so you might have been on
the same kind of page time so basically
um there there will be a a plan and
you're saying that based on some of the
information that you heard today you'd
like the opportunity to kind of um
revamp some of that to see what it
naturally aligns with some of the other
Reed today know
so miss
car so how much funding are we talking
about this point time I think it's we
need to be clear about dollar
$875,000 was what was allocated what was
allocated and some of that's been spent
53,000
roughly
okay and
so so you're you're asking us to take
the the balance of that the 800 and uh
whatever it is um to all towards
programming over the next three
[Applause]
years no I just was looking at my notes
the remaining balances is $823,000
what they're doing to some level and so
they're asking for more money as well so
we're definitely going to have to look
at this not necessarily together but
we're going to have to look at that big
po of funding all at once we we just
don't have any other money so
um again there's there's nothing but
tonight so for clarity Mr Gardner with
city council you want me to resubmit
what was submitted the last time you
came and spoke on programming in the
Empowerment Center the city council
which was last month sometime right so so I want to revise that okay
to to work more collaborative you know
with this group so we have a more
cohesive comprehensive plan to that I
think these resources will help them get
a little bit closer to the hump and and
as far as the Empowerment Center and
what I'm trying to do that's that's not an issue I've always wanted
to work Cooperative because it's not in
the building and it doesn't matter if
it's here there or whatever it's all
about how do we serve people and what
I'm putting forward is simply a people's
budget if you will to provide those
services so they've outlined some of
them already we can certainly enhance on
that and grow on it and build on
it any other questions yes to there I
just have a question as follow you
mentioned a part of your Workforce to
include the police and fire can you
elaborate on that and what is there
involv
orol Department yeah well specifically
what I likey to do is work within our
community and develop a pipeline if you
will to get our
young get our young men and young women
from here in in our city area to
consider Public Safety and Public Safety
don't necessarily mean just the police
and fire but you know we got ogs we got
L you know everything so so we talk
about Public Safety we want to try to
encourage and create that ecosystem
within our community within our
neighborhoods and we're working to
develop that partnership starting you know going into the school district
and getting them young and coming
forward and and exploring and and
sharing ideas and and exposing them to
the opportunities so again specifically
about Public Safety police and fire we
we're trying to identify and enhance the
efforts and why you want to consider
that support and help them prepare you
know for these exams and applying for
these opportunities and also explor
Expos them to Opportunities by having
them meet and talk to people in the
field in other words talk to the fire
talk to the police officer see what it's
like where did they come from how did it
how do it relate why would this be an
interesting you know an opportunity for
us and and and I and I think uh we can
really develop a pipeline and giving
them support and the resources necessary
to make a difference because the school
district obiously want to work with
us we as a city want to do this so I
think it will help us if becomes a
winwin scenario to what we're trying to
do so it's simply trying to build a
pipeline if you will to to have the
bodies to to bring It Forward is this
something new that you're going to be
creating or is this something you
already have we've been talking about it
for years but uh getting it done you
know it's it's talking to one thing and
you know dealing with the resources and
the barri to make it happen but each and
every day more and more pieces of the
puzzle come together you know so um it
took me two years to get a conversation
with the school district with the change
the administration and change of this
and how do we make it work so now we
have that piece of the puzzle down we
have a desire desire from within the
administration here to bring in people
look at from our local ranks how do we
grow and develop that so every day more
and more of those pieces of the puzzle
comes together so we work with you know
other organizations like for example the
one black men for example they have a
tremendous amount of resources in there
in terms of police and fire and other
Public Safety uh Avenues so we can
utilize that resource I work with the
community colleges we work with them on
a regular basis to again help us develop
this pipeline to uh to make it Power how do we how do we navigate
this Mr FY yeah I I I CU hearing all of
these things and there seems to be a lot
of alignment a lot of information a lot
of good information even as we're trying
to navigate this these are all kind of
good problems to have if you will great
opportunities I would just um I would
suggest that um maybe based on some of
the information that you heard here
today um go ahead and revising um what
the initial proposal was um and
therefore I think that we can um make a
more informed decision based on
that and does this include the
programming that you're currently doing
on the um in the building on Broadway
yeah yeah we would include all that
that's ongoing you know so these are
things that will obviously migrate over
expand on whatever the case may be but
yeah absolutely because again we're not
starting from Ground Zero we got program
that we've been doing and we continue to
do on a Basin so those things will
continue and as these other
opportunities come online or these other
physical plant that will come online you
know that's an easy uh you know
migration
thing those program that currently uh
executing are those um funded under cdbg
yes yes yes any other questions
comments all right well we'll look
forward to the submission of this
document do you have anything else you
want to add no I think
uh okay one other thing I would like to
add though is it's sort of off topic
though but it it it continue to come up
in terms of um Workforce Contracting
opportunities and employment
opportunities within the uh Within the
city and I and I do I am aware of
contractors feeling that they have not
gotten opportunities and and I would
just say that I agree with them 200%
they've not gotten opportunities that
they need and uh we work to deal with
that on the daily basis but I will say
to you know to those contractors me
personally I don't write contracts I
don't sign checks you know I can't hire
anybody so I work with you in an effort
to bring for the opportunity so that you
can build the relationships and and make
those type of things happen now
frustration is out there yes you see a
lot of things going on yes but uh I
think one thing that we can certainly
do is look at okay if we really want to
seriously take a step and stop that we
can stop all the contractor don't make
the uh don't meet the objectives we can
say okay we're not going to do it put
them back out the bit or whatever but
I'm but I'm just as frustrated as
everybody else here you know to see you
know the numbers it breaks my heart
because I see the young man young lady
out down the street trying to get a job
I see them putting in the application
and I see they're not getting high so
what can we do and this is what we're
trying to do to create these programming
opportunity to at least we can move one
of those little barriers out the way as
we continue to build and put these
pieces together so that's
what okay Mr far yeah so being that uh
that kind of talk Talking that topic
um I know before you were here you
talked about the possible uh possibility
of I think de bundling um some of the
larger contracts to give uh more uh mwbe
contractors the opportunity um I would
you know again have to put more work on
you and I know working with the mayor's
office I know something that he's been
paying close attention to trying to
figure out like what can we do um as a
council because the frustration is one
thing but what are the action steps that
we can do um and then hopefully that
you'll be able to present sort of a
range of those action steps um because
obviously our produ your responsibility
to the city we also want to um make sure
that anyone who's getting contracts from
the city recog recognizes that there's a
value that we place um um on uh hiring
um mwbe and section 3 workers so maybe I think it would be helpful for um maybe
producing a a range of actions that you
know that are within our purview that
can encourage the contractors um and
anyone that we're doing build business
with to help us meet those goals cuz I I
it to me feels like there's some
daylight between um the current
situation some frustration here but then
really like what are the ABS what can we
do and if we're committed to that then
you know I I cautiously optimistically
speak on behalf of my colleagues that
were willing to um take some actions
obviously with the guidance of of the
mayor's office and part yeah yeah to
that to that point we do have a good
plan in terms of participation and and
goals and objectives and and it's very
realistically and very well thought out
I think one thing that will certainly
help us with these hurdles if you will
because we're dealing with a a broad
range of issues but you know but but
keeping it simple let's say that the bid
comes in and we sit down at the table we
open up the bid and there goal their
objective don't meet you know what it's
supposed to be we should be able to just
at that point just stop it right there
and then put it to the side they they
didn't me the objective I mean we can
get you know that you know black and
white about it you know and obviously we
have to manage that against the need
that do we want to get the business want
see project done and all that now
there's a lot of the education component
that sort of goes on with that too you
know we also have to think about when we take this route do we have the
capacity to fill all the things out
there you know capacity is a big issue
so let's say that the you know XYZ
company says okay I'm going to give this
to this contractor because we know that
we got to meet this goal and the
contract don't have a goal what are we
going to do how are we going to support
this contractor we've been trying to
keep real with these contracts and say I
know you're in business I know you want
to do this but sometime you may not be
ready for this do you understand the
insurance requirements do you understand
the finance commitment do you understand
that when you go ahead and start this
job the city is Con not to cut you a
check up front so you can buy material
do you understand you got to meet your
payroll every week you have those
resources and those are the realistic
things that we have to do so we can do
it and and I'm I'm I'm right here ready
we had we had a plan we had a mechanism
in place to you know make that happen
but I think we can also think about in
terms of how do we break these things
down into small pieces where we can
create opportuni for the Tyrone of the
world for example Tyrone may not be able
to pave all the streets out but he can
certainly install window painting or do
something else you know how can we build
the capacity of that guy so that he can
at some point be at a level where he'll
have the capacity to do you know other
type thing and hire and and and the
truth be told is these small firms are
the ones that's hiring our local
Workforce it's not the big contractors
out there that's got the big contract $0
million when you look at the certified
payroll those people that own that
payroll is not in this 3051 12307
they're not
here okay so um you know we we've been
trying to work up to that capacity but
that's the conv we have to have we can
certainly start at this T we open up the
bid if the bid meet the objectives
coming in you yes know we move to the
side and keep it moving so that's that's
one thing we can do and we can start
also having conversation with the bids
and you know Contracting engineer and
everybody else but that's where that's
where it started it starts here you know
with us as family um you know no one
Department can can do it no one person
can do it but the we we can certain
this Mr Williams just as a point at
Clarity based on the U comments you just
made I want to be careful and ensuring
that we don't conflate the two
conversations that we're that we're
having at the moment I think if we're
identifying if your efforts as the
affirmative action officer uh how are
they yielding to some of the the end
users who kind of benefit from your
actions I think from a council and I can
only speak for myself tell us what more
we have to do or what more we can do to
ensure that these individuals uh
continue to to to receive these
resources these opportunities moving
forward however if we are then looking
at the separate conversation of uh
funding your empowerment proposal for me
myself personally you identifi a number
of roles and responsibilities that I
imagine you currently uh uh manage
solely it is wanting to understand what
team or additional resources you need
because you Mr gner cannot be in
multiple places at once no you know
that's the point we do need you know
more resources so if that's not going to
be the case that Al has to be paired
down and as I mentioned to several
before you know I got put you know laser
focus on what the task is in front of me
know so we can't do everything to
everybody and be effective but I do
believe that in this Arena of creating
an ecosystem or economic OPP OPP unities
for everyone it's one thing to say okay
we have opportunities for you we have a
house for you or we have this for you
but if you don't have the the resources
or the expertise or whatever to pull all
that together then we we're doing your
disservice so we need to have that real
conversation and say you do have to be
prepared and those are some of the
things that we do we have you know
Workshop uh that we plan on on an
ongoing basis where we have
professionals come in the SBA the bank
and tell you this is what you got to
have to you know get the resources how
do we make you bankable if you will and
it's not just a matter going saying I
got a contract or whatever you know to
do it because ultimately it comes back
to the same thing do you have the
resources which mean do you have the
money to get into this game and and and
as a responsibility with a municipality
you have a full plate on your hands in
terms of dealing with you know power of
it to make it happen so you know how do
we how do we do it
okay Mr F so just for clarity it's um it's looking
like what how I'm understanding this is
the council it would
be beneficial and we can expect you to
put together kind of a more revised um
allocation of resources based on some of
the things that you heard um tonight and
maybe some more information that might
come between you to in between time and
also um maybe uh because in the second
issue there's a lot of difference that
has to be given to you because you are
the expert in in this area and what we
would really need is almost a a list of
graduated interventions if you will um
that we can look at and say okay this is
something that we do have the capacity
to do that um will uh get us closer to
those goals and support our local
economy and we can kind of scale up as
we go maybe all scaffold it a little bit
so those two different documents um
would be really uh vital for us moving
forward yeah there there's a lot in that
alphabet suit and it's true true that it
you know there's a lot on both sides of
the C but but it's it's a huge massive
issue you know it's a big problem and um
and and I think the the key here is your
role here as a counsel with the mayor
sitting right there you know
understanding this and helping us guide
the process that's really the key
because from over here where I sit it's
just a matter of you know you're very
limited I'm limited in terms of what I
can do you know by state and federal law
Limited in terms of what I can do within
the comprise what I have to deal with
here but this this is it you guys tell
me you know what you want to do and we
can um we can make it happen well you
have to tell us what some of the possib
I can do thank you
absolutely any other questions comments
from the
council thank you Mr G we look forward
to those to that information do
appreciate it and thank you Miss
car so we will now uh enter into our
official
agenda and start with our committee's
finance thank you I would like to call
the finance committee to order and the
first item is to create a special
assessment District on a portion of
narch College Street we had a public
hearing on 11th of March and I would ask
Mr W to just give us a brief update on
the project on on this project before we
move forward in creating this um special
assessment
District so uh this project was created
at the end of last year we are on to uh
essentially 100% complete we're on the
punch list just to make sure the Grass
Grows and that the trees bloom in the
spring um after we completed the project
engineering put together as built
drawings of all the properties
calculated all of the additional costs
associated with these projects this
project was unique in that it was not
only a $55 per lar foot but there was
also some brick work and some other um
lead walk items that were also added so
we had to document and um classify all
those once those were done and together
it was sent to Lindsay uh in our
receipts office so that we could get the
numbers together for the assessment
rules and then we called for public
hearing so we had the public hearing uh
the period is over and this is on the
next step after this approval we will be
sending out the assessments I think
there are municipal vouchers to all the
residents on the street for the the
billing of the
work
questions
so you have you have a a an ordinance in
front of you so um any questions
regarding seeting down I would like to
ask a motion to create a special
assessment district for a portion of Nar
College
Street um second all in favor I thank
you and that the next item is the
Central Park sideway Improvement project
we had a public hearing on February 26th
we held this for a couple weeks because
there were some concern that was um sent
to us and the engineering department Mr
Walling addressed those and I think
every ready to move forward based on the
feedback you received from the
residents and I ask Mr Walling to just
us so we had
a we had a public meeting uh out outside
of council independent public meeting in
City Hall um where the residents that
did show uh unanimously agreed to keep
the Street's character as is um so that
would mean that allowing no parking on
the street to keep the character of the
road I.E the Landscaping um
intact the public hearing was called
that was actually in council chambers
just like we were doing now at the
public hearing um it was discussed that
some wanted on street parking and were
against the idea of no on street parking
some even switched their vote voted for
it to not um so to try in a way to come
up with a hybrid solution that was not
presented at either meeting uh we sat
down and we looked at an option which
you have in front of you which is to
create a hybrid where I select on street
parking is constructed that does not
interfere with
trees um so if you look on it wouldn't
be on the cover page it would be on the
second and third Pages you'll see bump
out areas
in between the alleys um these areas
would affect um some some lawn but they
would not affect any mature trees they
are purposely constructed to not affect
mature trees it also leaves the island
as is and narrows the roadway so these
areas are all within the right of way
and would be created um I do not know
what residents in front of these
particular areas opinion would be but
this was the Compromise that the engine
and myself thought would be the least
intrusive and get the best results would
be to have these I believe the amount of
parking spaces is nominal somewhere
between 15 and 20 depending on the size
of the vehicles but it does allow for
parking in the areas where um you would
have to go to the alley and the alley
really isn't the most appropriate spot
for a visitor or a delivery to come for
parking so all of the bump house would
be on the Alley side on yes they would
only be on the Alley side because that's
where we have flat space
and we would be able to uh if we went
with a bump out on the other side we
start getting in the hills and it would
be uh much more
invasive so this is not a full product
this is just an idea to allow to have
some on street parking uh specifically I
think a couple people who ask for on
street parking are right in this area so
they would be able to have on street
parking Mr M yeah I think most of most
of the the people who are asking parking
was on the side where the alley is
because if you were to put it on the
other side people have driveways um
that's how side here and you'll see that
it's only between the alleys we do not
continue it because once you get past
the alley towards the Rose Garden that
side then does pick up and have their
own driveways oh okay so we're we're
talking about
19 give or take give or take we don't we
don't mark them so if you have a lot of
small cars get more than 19 but that's
one of the reasons that you you don't
anymore Mark what they call them T's and
L's we got rid of that because uh
vehicles are all different sizes um so
you want to make sure that you can fit
as many vehicles in
all right open up for questions on
this go ahead please I just to make a
comment I think this definitely is uh
reflect over the work of your office so
definitely I I I appreciate it as a
member of the council you take the
additional time to evaluate other
options and also kind of re-evaluate how
to meet some of the concerns of
individuals that may or may not have
brought their attentions to the meeting
but also kind of changed based on other
conversations that they have uh but
definitely excited um to to see this
performance so thank
you go ahead please just quickly so
definitely again kudos for being
responsive to uh the needs of the
citizens of the city I just a question
um is it like kind of a ballpark on how
this cost look different than the
original scope that we talked about no I
mean the Scopes that we talked about
there were so inclusive me we had one
that was around 900,000 all the way up
to 1.3 I know there was a conversation
about really is it only 300,000 I don't
think this will have a a really drastic
effect on on anything we're going to be
narrowing a little bit the roadway this
still has the roadway going from 15 to
13 we really feel that we'd like to
leave it at 13 a typical Lane is 11 so
you're still 2 ft larger than the
typical 15 it's a big Lane and the thing
that we're going to focus on now if we
go we really want to focus on the
turnaround areas make sure they're
adequately size for the turnaround
so also we talked about um I know there
was some discussion around like maybe
like some striping and things I know
narrowing it down obviously for to deter
you know people from speeding as as do
the striping would that still even be
possible even NE what we would do is we
would just strike one white line uh to
delineate where the where the parking
areas are and when you hit that it would
make it feel more narrow we are still
also looking at replacing the lighting
on the corridor with new LED lighting
but the lighting would be essentially in
the same location thank
you thank you Chris I I like that whole
idea right trying to help make everyone
happy um what kind of footage would it
take from the residents on that alley
side would it take some of their Green
Space away in between their those bump
outs with the bump outs if we do that no
I I don't you talking about would it
take the Island area away not the island
lawn their lawn that's in yes yeah I
think you can see there will be a little
impact to some of the lawn yeah and you
can see you can see on the second page
on the top of it know there's a couple
of bushes that we would like to relocate
we're really going to try to see if we
can actually replant them back so there
is not I mean you're probably going if
I'm looking at that sidewalks 5 ft so
you're 5 ft back from the back of the
sidewalk 5 ft to get in so there is an
impact so that's where you know not
everyone is going to be you know pleased
but we are just trying to keep some of
the the better treat if somebody wanted
to say that there was a dead tree and
they wanted to move it and wanted
parking we could always extend it but
you know after our first meeting the
number one takeaway was preserve the
character and integrity of the street VI
the landscaping and it's the whole
street is in tree line with very mature
trees so we couldn't fit in these
Pockets
question I guess my next question is so
what happens now does it go back to
that's an excellent
question I if if I'm directed to go
forward with option D then I'm going to
go forward with option D and that's what
uh so once we have I have a go from the
council we'll start putting this into in
action but I don't know about the next
public
step um um Madam president Mr chairman I
mean it's really up to the council what
you want to do at this point based on
that the revisions that have been
prevent presented to you if you feel
that they sufficiently address the
concerns that were made as a public
hearing um you can AFF because the the document has addressed those
concerns if you feel that you feel that
this is a little bit more different or a
little bit different from the original
plan then you can call for an additional
public hearing on the the revised plan
and that would just put off the the uh
the ordinance but it would also put off
the project for you know
for probably four four weeks I'm
thinking because of the U cycle if you
had a public
heing you could uh put it off for a
couple of weeks and maybe at that next
council meeting at the public hearing
after you hear it all at that point you
may decide to uh do final adoption at
that point so you could put it off for
two weeks if you wish and just have the
hearing and that the same evening you feel that sufficient everything is
sufficiently addressed then you can
adopt the ordinance at that evening and
then it moves forward things forward the
a bit more but it's it's really up to
you if you feel that this is a uh within
the general scope where you want to give
more public uh input that's that's all
up to you but you could do it like I
said you if you want to have a public
hearing two weeks and then that evening
you could decide to move it if you feel
that everything's addressed yeah to to
address that I mean we had the public
hearing and many concern that was raised
and the letter the emails that was
submitted um one of the most important
part of will be addressing the parking
which was loud and clear so I think
that's the only change here and I think
uh majority is in in agreement in terms
of providing parking wheel on that very
same side so I I don't think it's a
major change to that it's change based
and what was recommended to the
engineering department to us for this
project to move
forward go ahead please yeah um I agree
with you that because I actually
attended a meeting where they said this
is part of it um
so we've made the changes however I
think it's also important that we inform
people that this is a change as opposed
to just moving ahead with it so to do
what has been um suggested by Mr O'Brien
the two weeks as opposed to this
extended public heing process to do the
two weeks um put the information out
there that this is what the change is
going to be and again I think it's going
to make some people happy but I'm always
a proponent of informing people and
making people know and being inclusive
rather than when the bulldozers show up
so I I'm I'm in favor of waiting the two
weeks and approving it that night and
then moving forward this information is
actually
out sharing between the res the home
owners there you've already started put
yes I I shared it up I did not yes all
right so I think we so they have access
to this right so I think we still go
with that the the the hearing the public
hearing two weeks and then move forward
as opposed to not you me that we did
make some changes so just want to um on
the end up on the right side of this two
more weeks is it going to be we can
start you know getting some of the other
things together come up really need that
it's up up to you it's up to the council
it's what you feel I mean I it's up to
the members go ahead I would have to to
agree with um Miss Porterfield I think
it was highlighted that not everyone is
going to agree um but very much these
are uh changes that these individuals
Within These households where some Point
uh they're going to have that bump in
that is going to be a change they're
going to have to live with for as long
as their residents in that that that location uh so although uh I'm
confident that these take into
consideration a lot of the concerns that
were uh uh given to the council I I
again think it is important for us to be
transparent and um and making sure we
have the opportunity for people to to
voice their opinion should they have
them um but again if there's not going
to be a significant disruption in the
project which you're saying we won't
I think it it is something that we
should take advantage
of and I think that's what Mr Walling
address there is not a significant
impact on this project by putting this
parking there on that side and majority
of the resident wanted that parking on
that side based on the competition we'll
be having back and
forth any goad please but I would say
what is your confidence in the
distribution means for getting people
that information cuz I would let's say
it is even lacking one I would tell you
if I didn't hear that and there was an
individual who came before the council
and said I wasn't aware of the
information I think definitely making
sure there's opportunities for everyone
to ensure the information is is received
in a timely manner and then again I just
want to point out the two weeks is not
at a cost to the
project any other discussion go ahead
please U I'm just and I'm willing to do
what we did before is to actually unless
you've already done it to the entire
Street I know it took us like maybe an
hour when we did it collectively to walk
again with this new plan and you know
just give it to everyone so they could
have it in front of
them I I just like always to air on the
side of safety caution any other
discussion s we then hold this because
we it doesn't seem we can move power so
we'll hold this for two weeks don't we
have to um sorry do we have to call you
can have a resolution for public hearing
final consideration at the same time
okay
have two motions or one a resolution
calling for a public hearing on the
concept D for this Central Parkway
sidewalk inclement
program
y thank
you second all in favor I and then final
consideration the
ordinance a motion to consider and
that's that will be final consideration
when you put the do the uh the agenda
together for that evening it will be
mark his final consideration unless you
hear something at that public hearing
then you can always pull it but the
ordinance that's already been posted
would be voted on that same night okay any other business for finance
excuse me I just want to be clear do we
need another motion for that one or no
Mr because cons the ordinance is already
there
any other business over Finance I just
want to thank Mr wall for the work and
for L for I know this has been a long
process I was looking at my documents
from
2021 so I'm glad to say in 2024 that
project is actually moving forward so
thank you for all your work on this and
I hope all the residents are
happy on the
same any other business for finance
motion to ad so move second all in favor
I I thank you I'd like to call the word
of the Public Safety Committee we have
one item on the agenda tonight that is a
review of the Amendments of the city
code section uh Chapter 93 section 6
entitled civilian police review board to
modify the manner of appointing
vacancies to the civilian police review
board uh we had a public hearing uh last
week and i' would like to turn over to
Mr Brian M uh Mr chairman if there's no
amendments to or or markups uh to the
proposed legislation we can move that on
for final consideration next Monday
night were there any other comments
questions from the mayor the one thing I
noticed originally said the connect
chamber connected chamber doesn't exist
anymore ised into the capital uh region
Chamber so it's just to change
that um one word is in terms of a
recommending group okay since it's in
keeping with the it's a housekeeping
type Amendment mhm um you don't need
another public Hearing in on it because
it's just reflecting the change of that
particular organization but if there's
no change into the proposed text as far
as the appointment is concerned then uh
we can go forward and I'll make
a Amendment to the to the proposed
ordinance correcting that one U
oranization
name any other questions or
comments uh hearing know hearing none
may I have a motion uh to proceed with
the amendment from the
mayor second all in favor are there any
other items toall Public Safety feing
none may have motion for Jour
second all in favor
say I'd like to call order City
development and planning we have 13
items on the agenda uh the first one is
to follow up ARA Miss
Carver
hello again
hell good evening again since we last
met the Coco house contract has been
signed by the mayor and it's a waiting
signature from Coco house
administrators bcni Hamilton Hill
contract is still pending the mayor's
review
uh the Electric City Co-Op um as they
said in their presentations they're
still missing site and some of the
documents to prove the leverage funding
so that's
pending
the additional updates that I have for
you are just up for discussion the
YWCA um this connected Little League
which Chris Wallen is going to talk
about and I also noted on the documents
the Community Foundation um weed the
organizational chart and itemized Budget
on 311 heard the request of councel and
the mayor um on 314 we requested an
updated budget to include The Fringe
benefit so we're still awaiting those
supporting
documents is there any other groups out
El there are no other groups everybody
else is in
contract I
know missing lights the tunnel um so be
see
mayie so um well YWCA is already on
there so did you want Mr W to speak to
the Oregon Avenue I I'll do the YMCA
first so the YCA YW by themselves
separate okay s okay M
yeah pools Little League tennis golf
what do we got it's like a country club
here so why uh literally this is what
we're talking about I got an email
ordered to me the email was succinct it
had a list of priorities with
anticipated budgets and I assigned uh
one of our Engineers to start getting
pricing for it so we're going to attack
it just as a peace meal um fencing contractor roof roofing
contractor lighting electrician uh I
think it'll just be too difficult to do
one giant bid with all these things in
it because the costs are too small um so
it'll be very similar to what was done
on Michigan Avenue which was a wall we
went with someone who built walls so
we're going to get uh the fencing will
be a little complicated just because it
require a bid uh over
$35,000 so we are going to put together
some um drawings and put out a fencing
bid for that uh and then the other three
will be able to get pricing for because
they're all under $35,000 so then we'll
start getting close from that that from
some of our local vendors that we use I
can work with Ron Gardner on that to see
uh what contractors he would recommend
so that we could try to get it so the
but the list was pretty detailed which
is what we needed and it all had cost
estimates and it was signed by the board
so that is pretty much exactly what we
needed to go forward so how much money
are we working with well right now we're
working with
$175,000 uh which is enough to complete
what they have the only project that
could be ass slope is they want to
reinstate the Back Field which is a
lower field that was abandoned several
years ago reinstating that um it could
just be as simple as brush hogging
mowing getting it down cleaning it out
but it also could be more involved
depending on how we get it so we're
going to focus on the existing fields
and getting them up uh the scoreboard
the roofs and uh and then and go from
there so we'll do what we can do for the
175 and then look at weting the back
field and what the cost would be and
Paul had been talking with them to see
what our inhouse abilities were with
that but that's I'm going to try to do
the other ones that are just to get
something going cuz I know that they
feel like they've been slided so we want
to get that moving some time for uh for
the season that's the other complicated
is where we have a hole in the season
because baseball season is starting um
it might be uh you know we might not be
able to tackle it in the spring but
sometimes in the summer there is a
little bit of a gap in August usually uh
when you everybody stops playing
baseball so that might be the window
that we
for questions comments
concerns any no all right well thank you
very much I know that people are going
to be happy
yep any questions for me so I don't know
why sorry city council I'm you better stay here with me um so
that was the the followup on the ARA
nobody no questions on the Coco house
bcni is in the mayor um we heard about
the little Le um that's it for the
follow up and you talk about jury and
we're waiting for those documents so we
have all that anybody got questions
about that part of it okay cuz now we're
going to move on to item number two the
YWCA Harbor house so I'm bringing this
um as a revisit the last meeting there
was not a decision made on lessening The
Leverage amount requested so I'm asking
city council to consider that tonight
they ask they roughly have a $7 million
mat $20 million um match and they're
asking it to be moved to 7
million so as everyone recalls at the
last meeting they did presentation I
think we were all in agreement that we
would move ahead with that but um it we
didn't bring it into committee to to Dev
vote it through so that's what we're
doing at this point to bring it back to
the committee so that we can vote it
through to lessen their leverage
amount any
questions I'll second it I'll favor I I
thank you thank you Miss far thank
you uh the next one is the to award
bidden contract for the 2024
HB Paul had a leave so I saw him
disappearing so I was like I didn't know
it was going to pitch it council
president mayor city council uh in
keeping with the city's purchasing
policy this the city disc connect went
out the bid for HVAC companies to uh
provide uh maintenance uh all the city
uh buildings all the police stations the
fire stations uh Bureau service City
Hall and all service stations this is
kind of like getting a a retainer for uh
so that we're on top of the list so we
have a call that come in U uh come in uh
and uh fix whatever problem we have um
there was uh I believe five different
bids and uh this was all put up when I
by our purchasing agent and uh you can
see our uh uh lowest bid was uh eords
uh with the the the different uh hourly
rates uh for you know daily 8 to four
nights and the weekends uh looks like
we're going to be a pretty bunch of good
savings it's an option it's a one-year
contract with a option for two years if
they do well um e the company had they'
done other jobs for the city especially
some of the big jobs like the wastewater
treatment plant uh uh North First Street
Pump Station and other things so we know
that they're a repal company uh so uh
this is a a money saving project and
we're hoping uh you guys pass this for
us any questions
concerns and motion so Mo second all in
favor thank you very much thank you Mr
fer
Ferrari um so next we have um a
ceremonial resolution recognizing syia
Jon for her service to excuse me I'm
sorry next item is appointment to the uh
Board of assessment
review um I think all us may have gotten
the email that there was first of all
there was a a person that left the move from the city and uh so therefore
was no longer a member of the board of
assessment review and uh
then I there's an individual who has put
who I'm Who I'm putting forward this um
with this person actually would put
their name forward when the last person
actually the person who just left um was
putting the name both names were up so
um we know that we're going
in May going to um begin to start doing
the U review of the property of
Assessments and so it's important that
we have uh someone in that seat so I'm
recommending Renee Bradley to uh be
appointed as a member of the board of
assessment
review any questions comments or
concerns yes she had uh she had a most
definitely a most impressive uh resume
um my question is so I personally didn't
know that that the spot was was open
should we is there time to let other
individuals submit
names well um when we sent out the um
thing on the ethics he came back and
said so everyone got that email that
said I'm no longer this person I'm no
longer on the board so everyone did
receive that yes we did so what I'm
saying is
we knew there was opening we the time is
of the essence right and again I'm you
know it's open for discussion but this
is an indidual that wanted to be on when
the previous person um left do you have
an objection to this individual I do not
oh just asking if there's time to
suggest other individuals at this time I
would say with the time constraint we
should have move forward because whoever
gets chosen has to also be
trained do
that coming
up
any other discussion or
concerns yes just just to clarify this
for the fiveyear term that's not this is
not it was an expired term yes it was it
would be the full fiveyear term yes
because he he he didn't expire his term
expired and then then he also moved we
got something saying they were going to
reappoint him but then when he answered
his ethics um email he's like can't
reappoint me I don't live here okay I'll
be five okay yes thank
you in that case I'll ask for a motion
so I'll second all in
favor okay the next one is a ceremony
resolution for Sylvia jimon for her
service to the city of SKC um as you may
you probably all got the invitation that
Mr Jon is no longer um is going to be
retired her last day is like I don't
know towards the end of the month 28th
there there's a party for her
and uh so as we kind of learned from Mr
Griffin that generally when things
happen there isn't art resolution so
we're going to we know better now we're
going to do better so we'd like to do
resolution for Miss jimon for her
service to the city of skak today any
questions and motion Mo I'll second all
in favor I thank you um the next one is
um ceremony resolution for Pearl suer
Hunter um some may know some may not uh
woman does a lot of community service to
the community she worked at sium she
currently has a clothing closet so um I
um wanted to do this just simply she's um observing a milestone birthday
and um I think that it's always
important when we you know call people
out for the work that they do to the
community and I encourage other council
members to um to do this as well um it's
often that we people get recognized as
people that everybody knows this is
somebody that many people know but maybe
not everyone know so I was thinking
about something and we'll do something
as side about doing something called
heral of the community kind of
recognition every so often but that's
just me and um how I just like to
support people so uh but at this time
I'd like to put forth a resolution for
Miss tuer
Hunter any questions or concerns or or
questions about uh her that I can
answer all right she all around the
person that's my answer and St a motion
so both second all in favor hi um and
then next one is a ceremony resolution
recognizing Holly pagwa the Hindu Spring
Festival Mr muu Baron yeah thank you um
once again we're asking I'm requesting
CR to recognize um the Hindu Spring
Festival we have done this over the last
several years and we're here once again
I'm asking for this
recognition right so Mr M are they going
to come and dance and do anything for us
I will get back to you we had the iris
dances so you know just just
I'm not in that capacity to say
that yes I just wanted to welcome Mr M
and if he wanted to dance for us you can
definitely we extend that invitation to
you as well we would like to have our
city
come I'll motion so second all in
favor all right we do
um I'm kind of trying to like stay with
the ARP stuff so I kind kind of want to
bring in if we're going to move forward
on any of the discussion that we took
place so I'd like to move that right
here we um heard from the electricity
Co-op and we heard from Harver and we
know with the Empowerment Center there's
more information that's going to be
needed before anything can be done so
this point in time I'd like to discuss
the two uh presentations that we heard
and what their requests are and what are
um what we want to do with that we don't
want to make the same have the same
thing happen with that happened with the
YW where it slipped through the crack so
at this point in time like to um have
those things develop discussed on the
city development and planning and
whether or not we're going to move
forward with the asks from those
groups so
discussion yes Mr T at this point uh in
time hearing everything this evening I'm
not prepared to act on on anything at
this point um I'd like more time to
digest what I heard I took all kinds of
notes so um I'm really not ready tonight
to speak on
that so
um I'm sorry for E either one or either
one absolutely
yeah any
other's go Mr Williams well essentially
what that does for the Electric City
Co-Op is that is giving them an
extension like although we're not
calling it that by delaying the
conversation however for the Carver
Community um Center it is is at the
expense of their efforts because they're
not able to proceed forward without a
determination from the council that's
what I understood is that correct I
understood that as well so um let's take
them one at a time so let's start with
the Electric City Food Co-op so you're saying that you're not you don't
feel like you have enough information to
ask for to I have a lot of information
that they provided this evening but um
there's you know I just listen to what
the other council members have to say
this evening regarding so there asking
for a six-month extension and you're not comfortable um at giving well
they're also asking to um their their um
lower their match lower their match um
uh they were asking for 6 months he was
willing to go to 5 months um you were
thinking more 3 months I think so again
there's just a lot that I'm not ready
to to discuss at to discuss at this
point any other C is your is your hand
up is your pen moving around so I I'll
take the opportunity to say well I as
far as Electric City Co-Op I def I can
understand some of the concerns that
Council m detor is bringing forth I
think that based on you know um I I
think what they're asking for is pretty
much just an extension um and that
extension still would provide us um time
if we had the real funds as well as the
fact that um in in lowering their match
which I I think um you know know we just
did with the with the why um because we
understand that that was just was was a
bit drastic so I think that would just I
would personally I'm I'm prepared to
support um them and and both their ask
tonight personally but I understand if
any council members have any other
reservations sorry I'm
sorry Coop I mean we had the opportunity
to listen from their membership we also
had the opportunity to listen from from
Metro flights and they kind of like the
timeline in terms of how much more time
they
needed um to move this forward to get
the lease agreement in place I think
they at that
point where they need some more time
just to get that people working and
executed I mean I have listen to both
sides and I am willing to support a 4mth
extension okay based on information I
received some Metroplex um commitment
that this is going to happen within you
know 3 to 4 months
or so I'm willing to support that an
extension of four months four months
okay um I I I would support that as well
it's it's not the six months they asked
for but as you heard me say to them that
we don't have a lot of time and if this
can't happen then we would just have to
we' have to bring that money back and
there's Mr Ferrari looking like waiting
um for any money that's coming back
water so uh I I also am willing to um to
give them the the 4month
extension and um the other part of it is
uh lowering the match but we' have to
make sure that we're comfortable with
that as
well Mr Williams I would say my only
response to that is that they were very
clear in that that they would were
asking for the five months and then
worrying whether that was um enough time
to proceed with the uh site plans or
site discussions I I would like to say
like I I don't take lightly having
represented from Metroplex here and
seemed like they're very confident in
where the project was and then also
understanding of the timelines that
we're against so I very much appreciated
the the risk and and benefit timet taes
that were both there but I was not in
favor of the 6 months I think and and
what seems to be the common theme but to
me it definitely seemed apparent that 5
months was was the the minimum
time just to be clear U Mr CC did say
four did he yes he
did is there something you want to add
to
this just don't
drag not familiar with the project
question um so you're yes Mr Toro um
Eric Johnson did ask for five I know yes
just and yes and Mr CC said four so do
we meet in the middle and make it four
and a half I guess it becomes a question
no I'm sticking with four four months
okay we got four over there you have a
question yeah I just I mean I would just
think if I don't know what the value of
is of splitting splitting it there I
mean if we can if we can if 6 months as
our timeline is approaching if the
council feels that that's too much time
then I think that the right thing to do
would be to at least Grant the 5 months
um and I think that they were saying 5
months with the understanding that
they're going to try to get it done but before that 5 month time period so I
would just caution us not to kind of
split teirs and position them in a place
that they can't get it done in the time
and then they have to come back again so
I think
that right and part being that there's
no opportunity for them to do that I
would say that it would kind of compel
us a little more to go to 5 months
so just think about that well it's that
that's where so Mr Mr M who is this is
the committee it's in has said four
months is is as close as he can get to
six am I correct that is correct
yes
so then we have no choice because it's
six months or
it's because uh excuse me it's four
months or um because we don't have a
third person here so we'd have to both
agree on the four
months so are you willing to make that
motion and unless there's more
discussion around this we I would
entertain the four months yes disc in to
move that yes Madam president it's a
four-month extension and then there's a
are you also putting in where the match
is as well at as far as that same motion
so it's would be part of all the same
resolution yes yes yes yes and that and
that number is uh what's the number that
you're you're looking at I thought
I
I'm sorry 3 milon 3 million I think was
it was it three 1.8 1.8
okay no 1.8 is what I have
here count 1 Point 1.8 so lowering the
match to
from um what was the match from Miss car
is
gone it was 5.7 okay okay so it it's 5.7
to 1.8 with a 4mon extension that's the
resolution
that well they saying they were getting
3 million from the county so
it's that money would have to be there
also and then the Gap would they would
work with the developer be roughly the
1.8 million right
yes so is that the motion yes moving
forward all right I'll second it all
those in favor I
okay uh we'll move on to the
Carver Cooperative Community Center um
so I heard the
presentation and so there ask was to
have ownership of the building return um
to continue with the
1.25 um million in funding and
partnership from the
city and I open that up for
discussion Mr M yeah um suggesting that
we hold off on making any allocation at
this point in time because first of all
they're not a register entity at this
point in time so I don't know how we can
do business with them okay and we have
to transfer the property back and I'm
not sure where we are in terms of the
original reort CLA back to from the mar
Craig to the city
and then we have to transfer that
building back to this legal entity which
is not created so I think we just need
to give them time to make that happen in
the next couple of weeks they promise
and then we can rase that at a point in
time okay CU I don't think we should
move forward legally at this point in
time because there is no legal entity
that makes sense Mr barash could you just tell who we are in terms
of the building um it's been deposited
for recording um I can take a look into
tomorrow if we've received
okay all right thank you all right so I agree with that we do need to make
sure it's a legal entity um we kind of
ran into that problem down at the uh
Stockade so we don't want to have that
again oh thought you raising your hand
see don't move don't move your hands yes
not okay um so so we would just wait and
ask them to come back in two weeks or we
can we can actually have Miss Carver
reach out when they're when they've
gotten their legal
entity decided been covered and all of
that in place they can come back and let
us know that yeah that's what I was
recommending okay once that is in place
they can just let us know and we can
have that back on the agenda get
information to Mr T yes
mayor in the other aspect they're still
working on the numbers that were bid a
while ago M so think we have to approach
that with some level of caution that's
going to probably have to go back out to
bid uh
in worth the million two from the city's
perspective the numbers are really a
little over 3
million
uh
and I'm skeptical of what their Alli we
take the million to and go in and just
do kind
of half the project you want to have all
the money lined up so in fact we're
going to get a building and a program
delivery of service that's really going
to
actually exist and be able to go forward
and not have a building that's just
halfway through a rehab
project so we're going to ask them I'll
come back and one thing that you did
mention I don't know how we can help and
hope that we can help that the Craig
main connection is going to be right
there this building is right on Craig
Street and so how do we leverage any
type of funding to assist with that
building since it's right on there and
part of the Craig main project if that's
a possibility and I'm not saying that's
a question that needs to be answered
right here right now but I think it's a
it's something that we should really
consider in terms of um it looks like
we're in the proc we're in the place
where we are assisting organizations to
make sure that they can do what they
need to do and so if there's an
opportunity with the Craig M project
being right there that we could somehow
assist to make this project move forward
as was mentioned it's on the historic
register now so it's not like we just
can run in there and tear it down um so
you know those those concerns we should
we have to keep in mind as well so yes I
think some of the concerns with the the
previous um project managers was just
wanting to have more structure and I
think that was very well presented today
uh I think in the the one month that
they've been able to prepare uh I was
truly I valued what work they were able
to do and then also the understanding of
they weren't starting from zero they
were continuing on the work that was
already established and so part of my
hope is that taking this new uh uh
repackaged energy and then presenting
that to some local Partners I think that
puts them in a very different place uh
but very much to the mayor's point I
would hate for us to have fund a project
and then we have a bigger issue come
winter with uh now we are committed how
do we finish this um but I I definitely
am very optimistic um but uh we need to
make sure that there is an appropriate
plan in place to make sure they have the
full funding
so all right so we're going to just wait
on that we have Miss Carver yes okay and
I think we all agree with the
Empowerment Center we just need a lot
more information in terms of what the ask is what the plan is and all of
that from our affirmative action
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officer all right so um then let's move
on to item number eight uh 1675 watt
Street utility East Miss
BR um May about b car this is a lot uh
is everybody familiar with where it is
from the super power the corner of wat
Dwayne uh that was originally a
pond uh that was filled in it's part of
uh some more tension Pond that was built
in the woodlon reserve M uh there's a uh
cul that runs through there I can't
remember it's 6 or 8 ft in diameter
really big pipe and so it's the current
is lot is owned by the Industrial
Development agency they have a uh
proposal for the site and this would
give an easement across the site uh
delineating the uh drainage pipe that
goes
underground David if you have
anyse thank you I'm the Ida today Scott
was the was Metroplex everything the
mayor just to um keep going with what
the mayor was saying well the Ida's own
this since the 9s uh it was made into a
parking lot uh it hasn't been used since
I've been here over 10 plus years uh the
city uh when they reconfigured the the
roadway and the pond they didn't uh
provide the city an easement for the
infrastructure so we've owned it with
your infrastructure going through it uh
we have uh a company that's looking to a
storage facility there it's a proposal
that fits well with movable storage
units on the uh area of the easement uh
they're interested in um in developing
the site get it back from the tax RS for
the first time we want to make sure
we're preserving the city's
infrastructure uh so that you have your
rights to enter it um maintain it uh
make improvements um it's pretty it's
something that we had the Ida attorneys
uh work on uh to be favorable towards
the city so that you preserve all your
rights that you need to access the
infrastructur all the documents are
there before you are there any questions
comments
concerns no I'm I'm move this all right
I'll second all those in favor thank you
very much thank you
mayor um oh there is one other one item
that um it's came it's uh separate in
your package to do this before we go
into executive sessions um it's
regarding the additions to the um
Community benefits agreement that is
submitted by the city council we
discussed it a couple years ago
a couple of weeks ago it feels like
years a couple of weeks ago and um in
speaking with the mayor um he says that
what we would have to do in order to we
at the last meeting uh the mayor said
he's open to having these additional
discussions with um West yard properties
and other parties involved and so um in
speaking with him today he said that in
order to even to get to the point where
have a discussion but what the city
council would need to do is actually
move forward um a resolution that we
wanted to make these U amendments to the
um Community benefits agreement that
would be um that that was was entered
into this doesn't mean that exactly what
is here is what would happen but these
are the items that would be brought
forth for
discussion any questions about
that so what I'd be looking for this
evening is a resolution to actually um
to say these are the things that we
would want to discuss in terms of um
amending the community benefits
agreement so we're saying that we need
to have a resolution in place before the
conversation takes place this this
becomes the formal position of the
council so right I guess what I'm acting
I'm asking around the order of
operations in other words there can
still be a conversation yes okay but
this becomes what
we've had uh different people say
different things so it's at this point
I'm ter it's informal conversation this
becomes a formal position of the council
by passing The
Resolution oh okay all
right uh
so I mean I I I would suggest that
there's um maybe a meeting held um and
the conversation happens prior to that
cuzz I think that that conver ation
should really inform some of uh what we're requesting and that would be
my thought but but but the mayor is
clearly stating is that conversation
will not take place until we formally
say this is what we'd like to have
considered is I I asked the same
question and am I stating it prop the
way in which you're saying so that
before we do that we have to actually
say these are the things that we would
like you to consider in the form of
resolution is what the mayor is saying
not the conversation and then not that
way what the the resolution has to say
these are the amendments that we'd like
to see added to the community benefits
agreement yes Mr Williams and I I
understand or I'm hearing U from Mr Mr
Farley's point I think based on how uh
our actions are being being dictated
that we have to continue in I think
passing the resolution in that manner
kind of protects us to ensure that hey
we're putting forth these ideas or these
re commendations but this in no way uh I think minimizes the importance of
having that
conversation yes Mr uh Madam president
perhaps a a joint letter you know
something less than a formal resolution
but something that the a letter a letter
circulate among the members was ever in
FA you know say yes you have all the
council members sign that and then
submit that to the mayor is that
acceptable yes okay okay all right um Mr
mud I'm sorry your hand was up or not
yeah yeah I think we should move forward
with a resolution a formal resolution
and then you know bring this to the
table and let's discuss it with via
formal resolution in
place and then start a discussion from
then on something that is more official
from the city
council well Mr O'Brian is saying we
could do the letter and then the
resolution would be the amended CBA
right what I'm saying is as a joint a
joint joint letter of the position of
the these the council members as a joint
letter these are these are the issu
these are what we want in the in the uh
in the agreement these are the these are
the points that we wish to have pointed
in an agreement as a as a Point of
Departure if at a later point that you
feel that you need to underscore that
you can always do a
resolution oh okay I'm just offering
that for suggestion pures Mr turo your
hand what
up yes
so if we have a resolution or a joint
letter position these are the these
points so that would only let us discuss
these five five
options correct yes that would only lead
to
discussion
um and it would it would be in the um
City Planning and Development Committee
yes so let me just reiterate we talked
about this emails have been sent out
there have been multiple opportunities
if there's more than five that people
wanted to so this was not a closed
discussion and everyone had an
opportunity to State what they wanted so
if this is what the end result was based
on the input that was received because
there were opportunities for
input yes Mr Farley I just so again I
think that I uh appreciate what our
Corporation councel is sharing I think
that and let me know Mr Mayor if I'm
wrong the mayor there has been a lot of
convers ations that have happened so I
think that the letter a letter will be
really clear as to what we are
collectively proposing um and I just I
just don't think we should put a
resolution in place for something that a
letter can do that
would uh then form the resolution so
kind of the this is the what we're
asking officially and then that allows
for that um discourse to happen and then
we can move forward with a resolution in
an a formed resolution at that
point yes Mr resolution is from the city
council putting forward uh this formal
request to open
discussion with regards to these Five
Points sure I guess I just didn't know
we needed a resolution to do that I'm
still not sure I still don't agree that
we need a resolution to do that how
about that that's say that's fine again
I I thought the same way I had a
discussion with the mayor and the mayor
says that a resolution is what is needed
at this point I understood that's
exactly I understand what you're saying
but um I had that question I went to the
mayor he said we our for we need to
State our formal position in the form of
a resolution and so that this does not
Kick the Can down the road any
further I'm willing to to move in that
direction because we time is of the
essence and I mean I know it's going to
be a while but um we you know we were
trying to get this done a little bit bit
quicker things turned out differently Mr
Toro yes so I wouldn't be in favor of a
resolution AR rathera because the uh
Community benefits agreement is already
in place and I'm happy and satisfied
with what was presented to uh West yard
Properties LLC and um so that's kind of
where I stand on okay thank you
absolutely you realize that it said
nothing about mwbe hiring so you're not
interested in making sure we meet those
goals I
please don't question me on my on what I
but that's part of a standard contract
right we we heard that that the the
contractors have their own yes yes but I
would really like to see that in there
I'm I'm happy with what was presented
thank you so I'm I'm have some concerns
and other council member has concerns
and we put them forward so that's good
thank
you so the discussion on the table is
are we moving forward with the
resolution or uh the letter Mr I I'm I'm
supporting moving forward with the
resolution okay to start a discussion a
formal resolution to discuss this okay M
I'm just I want to ask Corporation
Council for clarity do in other words we
it's you know it's how formalized you
want to make it it's how formalized you
want to make it a letter would certainly
intend you with signatures of those
members who are signing on to that
particular point you know those points
it gets the message across to the the
mayor the mayor is indicated he would
accept such a letter but if you want to
have it a much more formal formal
resolution that's that's up to the
council as well it's it's certainly it's
how formal you want to do that you do a
letter you delivered tomorrow a
resolution you got to wait till next
week um but the you know the points are
still there but it's what you all want
to do as far as uh how you want to
proceed either way okay Mr will your
hands up I have no issues with a formal
resolution all
right so um at this point in time the
this just may point out there's a te
missing in the word Community benefit
agreement on the top on the last line of
the top paragraph so we'll make that
correction um so at this time it seems
the consensus is that we would move
forward with
um passing a formal resolution to
present these this language in here to
amend the um Community benefits
agreement so second all in favor I I
thank you the final items are for
property sales and therefore we've done
an executive session uh need a motions
to go into executive session Some Mo
second all in favor I we're an executive
session and members of the public will
have to
leave
a