Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 52
President Wilshire
Alderman Clemons.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you. So earlier this evening | had introduced a Memo that basically had the Downtown
Improvement, it was in the history of the Downtown Improvement Committee what the money has been
spent on from 2013 to 2020. Several years ago, we fought this battle really hard to figure out how we were
going to come out with a revenue source for downtown. The idea was to strike a balance with the
businesses that were downtown and say, “If we raise your parking revenue, we will make sure that money
that we raise from that increase, stays downtown”. And since 2013 we have kept that promise. And this
Memo goes through all of the different things that we have spent for downtown throughout the years
including over $200,000.00 for various studies and things like that for the Performing Arts Center and the
Farmer’s Market and the Winter Stroll, things like that. There are a number of things.
So the point is, is that while | understand that it would be nice to be able to do this, if we do it, we are going
to jeopardize some of those things that we have done in the past. And in addition to that, we are already in
a weak position as it is because — let me go back a little bit. So the way that the Downtown Improvement
money is budgeted is different than most of the Budget that the rest of the City runs. So the rest of the City
runs on July to July schedule. Downtown Improvement Committee runs on a collected basis from January
1° to December 31°". So already because of the shutdown through March and all of April and then almost
all of May, we have lost significant revenue already, from people parking downtown that we would have
normally had. So we are already coming in at a loss.
My thought on this is that the way that it is structured is anything over $728,000.00 collected from parking
meters goes to the Downtown Improvement Committee. | don’t even know if we are going to get to that
threshold as it is. My hope is that we do because my hope is that we are successful with the changes that
we are making on Main Street and that people want to come downtown and we kind of make up for what
we would lose, normally like for regular business. But if we were to enact this Ordinance, we would just be
cutting into that already large loss that we have taken and then that would begin to hurt some of the other
parking operations that we do and some of the other expenses that the first $728,000.00 goes to.
So overall, | can’t support this and one last reason | am going to give that | can’t support it and it goes back
to how this is budgeted. If by a miracle we were to get over $728,000.00 in fees collected, whatever
amount that money is, would be allocated in July of 2021. | am hoping we get there, but if we didn’t get
there, the next time that we would have the opportunity to fund the Downtown Improvement Committee
fund would be in July of 2022. So by passing this, if we pass this tonight, | can almost guarantee you that
there will be no extra money added to the Downtown Improvement Committee fund, at least not from
parking revenue, until 2022. And that is because of the structure of how it is funded. So for all of those
reasons | cannot support this Ordinance. | can appreciate the gesture; | have definitely heard from people
who think that having free parking downtown is a great idea. But we made a contract with businesses
years ago and the benefits have definitely played out and | want to keep that going. And my fear is that we
are already behind the game and we may not make it to the finish line in January. So thank you.
President Wilshire
Alderman O’Brien and then I'll call on whoever was next.
Alderwoman Kelly
It was Alderwoman Kelly.
