Special Bd. of Aldermen — 12/20/2018 Page 10
something that we have to be mindful of, because with multiple steps and multiple resolutions that need to be
passed, it is going to be very important that we, who answer to the people, are able to articulate why we are
doing certain things, we are able to answer questions or address it. So we need the tools to do that, which
means we also need to be very transparent and very cooperative at this point, moving forward.
So how do you envision that happening? | know we have the Facebook group and that is a great start. | know
we have Performing Arts Center, but where are people to be looking to see updates, what is happening next?
| mean is there going to be like a section of the Economic Development Page or where should people be
looking?
Mr. Cummings
| am not exactly sure where you are going with that or what you mean by “more information”. | mean this
essentially solidified, so this is substantially complete. There’s some additional understanding necessary as
we get underneath the Master Tenant, that is an evolving conversation. As the Steering Committee continues
to meet, City Hall internally continues to work through the process there will be some additional details and we
will be happy to make this available on the Facebook page. | will update the project website page for those
people who don’t have Facebook. But! would like to give this presentation essentially to the Steering
Committee for the Performing Arts Center, most likely the Capital Campaign Committee is going to want to
understand this. So we will start that public education effort.
One of the things | wanted to extend to this group in particular, if you want to have a further conversation about
this deal structure one-on-one in a more intimate setting, feel free to reach out to my office. I'll be more than
happy to set up whatever one-on-one meeting or small groups meetings if you feel like you need to get more in
detail about this. I’d be happy to make myself available for you and for anyone else frankly, who really wants to
kind of understand this. | love this stuff, this is what | do, right? So this is how you make projects work, this is
how you attract private, positive economic investment to a distressed area. This is how you start to bring about
redevelopment in a community and frankly | hope this is the first of a couple projects that we actually look to do
with this, leveraging this private sector money for our community's benefit.
Alderman Lopez
| personally have no concerns about this now that | understand it. | know | did a lot of my own background
research when we started talking about it, to make sure that | knew what | was committing to. | agree, this has
a huge amount of potential, | do not believe that this chart is going to explain the steps each ordinance or
resolution that comes forward to the Board and | think we need to make sure that the purpose and place of
each one is presented in an easily followed format of — this is the checklist, we are doing step 4 right now — this
is a checklist we are doing step 6. And | think that having the conversations in the other groups and boards will
be helpful because you will be able to have on record the conversations and the questions that | was asking.
And | do recognize the value of having one-on-one meetings and really getting as individuals on the Board,
getting literate in this so we can advocate. Thatis also the opposite of transparent though, so what | was
asking is do we have a public step-by-step process that can be followed so people know where we are and
what we are doing so there isn’t any confusion about whether — are we changing direction, are we restructuring
the rules? There was a lot of public concern that we were changing the guidelines and moving goal posts
which | did not believe to be the case, | think our vote reflected was not the case. However, the concerns are
going to come up and we may face repeated questions about that. And | want to make sure that this process
is as smooth and focused on facts and progress as it can be, especially given that we need to be successful
for 7 years if we are going to have our best chance.
