Special Board of Aldermen 09-08-2021 Page 4
The timeline. So ideally we will do this outreach. We will continue to massage and craft a plan. I'd like to have some
data and you know, some sort of conclusion arrived at in mid-October. Ideally around your October 12" meeting and
hopefully the work we do will inform the subcommittee that will hear the resolution that is going to be presented to you
on September 14". So ultimately, the ideal would be to have some sort of finalized plan by mid to end the fall.
So some ideas for discussion purposes only and | want to note that the numbers being discussed right now are really
for illustrative purposes is the idea of maybe we use the money to replace future revenue. And so out of the $16
million, maybe we take 13 of that million and you put it into the operational budget for the city. And why are we doing
that? So we know we need to close a gap in the budget, and we also know that there is a revaluation going on, and
with the revaluation going on, you Know, we anticipate that the tax rate may go up over the coming years. You could
massage in this $13 million to help stabilize the tax rate and it's something that, you know, this body may want to think
about in the coming weeks.
Another idea, again, wanting to make a big impact is we take and put $10 million into affordable housing and in
particularly Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Strategies and how we were to use that $10 million, we would need to
develop but it might be a way to make a significant dent in what | believe is the number one issue that we hear about
over and over again in the community. So, again, offering that up as maybe Plan B and ultimately Plan C, look at
maybe reconfiguring Main Street and some of the ancillary side streets around Main Street with about $12 million.
That would be to basically redesign Main Street to accommodate for the outdoor dining and the permanent
infrastructure that would be necessary so he didn't necessarily have the barriers up that we have up right now which
we know is a semi-permanent or temporary measure that we can only do for a few years.
Now ultimately if you note, we're only spending, you know, in these suggestions between $13, $10 and $12 million.
We know we're going to need to use about $1.7 in other ways and that would still leave us with depending on the
numbers between a million to $2 million to spend in various ways on projects that may arise. We did outreach to the
various directors in city leadership here to start to ask for their projects that may be of interest that may qualify that we
could, you know, obviously recalibrate this plan as we go forward. But ultimately what | think we want to try to do is
avoid the kitchen sink approach which is, you know, let's put a plan together where it's everything but the kitchen sink
gets into it. So we really water down the impact. $200,000 for, you know, XYZ business or, you know, $300,000 for
maybe a roof replacement for a very understanding nonprofit that may need it. | would suggest wouldn't make the
community impact that you're going to be able to make if you really focus this one-time infusion of revenue. If we
could prioritize where we think that those monies should go, | think this community could really benefit from it in the
long run.
So really what I'm hoping to do now is turn this over to more of a discussion to hear people's thoughts. I'm going to
see if | can pull up the website that we recently put together as well so folks can see it. I'm not sure if my screen is still
being shared or no.
So that's interesting.
Alderman Lopez
You trying to trick us into investing into more infrastructure.
Tim Cummings Economic Development Director
Donna do you know why this isn't...
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
You double click on the edge right after the zoom meeting. Right before that. Double click on that, because you're
not bringing the internet up.
Tim Cummings Economic Development Director
Double click on which one?
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
You do either do Google or the Edge.
