Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 12/11/2018 - P24
Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 24
Given its second reading;
MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-18-092 BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
| would just point out that although this is for final passage of R-18-092 we are not letting the bond, we
are not approving that the bond be let. There seems to be confusion out there that we are allowing the
bond to be let prior to the private funds being raised. That is not what is happening, we are just
approving the amendments, the changes that are in here.
The second thing is around the design and the design of the new Performing Arts Center being
included in what the money can be used for. For those of us who were on not the Steering Committee
but prior to that the working group and Mr. Lannon was part of that. We had discussions at that point
about the need for having some sort of design that could be taken out there. We even had some
casual conversations about the need to raise funds for that. So | think again to Alderman Klee’s point,
we make mistakes once in a while and | think it was just an omission because there had been multiple
conversations about the need to have something to take out and make this whole idea and this concept
more real so people would see what it was we were asking them to invest in. And the community would
have a sense of what it was we were asking them to invest in as well as what it was we were hoping to
have here for them to enjoy.
Again, we are not asking for $15.5 million for the bond to be released, we still have to have that public
money there. There just seems to have been a lot of confusion about that and | just want lead off by
stating that. And that this idea of a need for design is not new | think it was just an accident that we
thought maybe we’d raise the money some other way, bake sales, | don’t know.
Alderman Lopez
I'd want to start out by saying that if Fred is somewhat favorable towards this, we need to listen
because he was also the person who to my recollection earliest starting pointing out the issues with the
architectural flaws and so | take his comments as things we need to consider, even if it to address a
skeptic at times, they are not just out of the blue. So | just wanted to recognize that. | also wanted to
point out that | was the biggest fan of bake sales and | was pushing since Day 1 that ok we have all
these people packing the Aldermanic Chamber, which is amazing because whenever we are talking
about practically everything else, there is nobody in the room back there. So there is obviously a lot of
public interest in this. And we had the referendum and we had people turning out to vote and
committing their support behind this; at least in terms of checking a box and saying yeah move forward
with this and this is something we are interested in if you do choose to do it.
There was public support for it and | have been pretty outspoken about my disappointment that we
aren't harnessing that public support and engaging it and making sure that each individual person feels
like they have a role in it. | would have had bake sales if possible because everybody gets a chance to
contribute something even if it is small. My experience in charitable work is that even small donations
do add up over time. However, that being said, one of the examples that | used to give for things that
you could fund raise privately with smaller donations would have been marketing material and showing
them what the thing would actually look like and trying to attract larger donors.
Building from the bottom up and understanding now exactly how much it costs to get a real professional
architecture involved, to get the assessment that higher end investors are looking for. Now|
understand that basically we would have been throwing out the baby with the bath water. We would
have had the public interest, we’ve had the public input and we would have worn it out before even
getting to the architectural design, because raising $1 million dollars alone with bake sales is
exhausting. That is what Betsy McNamara was trying to tell me repeatedly, that’s what Alderman
