Special Bd. of Aldermen — 03/6/2018 Page 11
it’s like the Downtown Improvement Committee. It’s a very similar model to our Downtown Improvement
Committee and again it would be a similar type of governance process. What would come back before the
Board of Aldermen would be an amendment to the plan and that amendment would articulate how the differing
financial plan would work and what projects would be expended or spend money on. Then it would be the
committee that would have to actually execute on the project.
Alderman Dowd
Just one other follow up that just came to mind. Did we already address any environmental pollution agency
concerns about working in this area?
Director Cummings
So I’m going to defer to Director Marchant. My understanding is that was part of the plan that was developed
this summer.
Director Marchant
It certainly was. It was some of the biggest concerns that we got from the public was the invasive species and
the inability to access the river and the lack of maintenance. The city with its partner with the Cottonmill
development actually did a lot of invasive removal also with some other funding sources in the past 3 to 5
years but because of the lack of maintenance, it’s all completely grown back again. The point this time is to do
it right and to be ready to maintain it because we have a dedicated funding source. We are on a very limited
budget and we have so many resources and it’s very hard for the city to get to all of our resources. That is a
huge part of the plan and it’s a huge part of what we’ve heard from the public about what was most important
to them. As far as other contamination, or cleanup, or issues, there are no other known ones at this time and
we’ve worked with all of our property owners along the river depending on whatever they’re doing at any point
to take care of things.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Madam Chair. | think this is perfect for this particular area. This is a part of the city that’s a
diamond in the rough that really needs it. My personal walking many of the surrounding areas on it, I’ve seen
some of the investment we’ve put in it unfortunately some the beer cans and trash that’s on there but | think
once the people see the investment that we’re putting into it will be good. My question is on the TIF itself.
Have there — which | support don’t read between the lines but I’m saying have there been communities that
revoked the TIF and is there a procedure to that? In case something unforeseen in the city’s future is there a
failsafe to that?
Director Cummings
Yes absolutely. That’s a great question. Madam Chair and through you to the Board. 1) The body can pull
back and revoke the TIF at any time for moving forward except for funds that have been already obligated. If
you issue a bond and you have debt service, you’re going to need to maintain that until your debt service runs
out. You can with free and clear cash money if you will you can eliminate your TIF at any point in time.
To the second part of the question which is a really important one and one | have taken some time to study is
the best practice is one should invoke if you are going to adopt a TIF. The reason why you should do that is
because there can be waste. There can be abuse and not to name names but | think the Chicago if you were
to do any research has proven out that fact that without adopting some best practices you can get into some
real trouble. One best practice — you want to leverage your private sector dollars. So you want to see and
develop a certain ratio. Maybe it’s 10 to 1. For every $10 the private sector invests, maybe you do $1 of public
investment. That is just an example. By no means do you have to follow that metric but you want to leverage
