Board of Aldermen 12-28-2021 Page 16
wanted to say was that any purchase - any real estate person will tell you that almost 100% | would say 99% of all
contracts that someone signs to purchase property usually they say subject to financing. That would be true if some sort
of an agreement were to be made for the Barker property. So the way that Alderman Klee was describing it as the other
ordinance being a pre-approval for a mortgage is exactly sort of the way this is. So what this is basically us saying to the
city - please go and see what you can come back with. | don't see anything wrong with doing that. That was just the point
| was trying to make. This doesn't commit us to anything but it does allow us to at least explore and get some of the
answers that Alderman Dowd or some of the others may have. Thank you.
Alderman Lopez
Based on the descriptions that are given here, it seems somewhat obvious that while the price could go up if the Mayor is
intending to fund this and does identify the opportunity to reach an agreement, the price could also down if other funding
sources beyond the bond alone were identified. | know a number of the public speakers who came in previous weeks had
indicated they would fundraise for it and that they were looking at grant possibilities too. So | thought we should probably
in fairness point out both sides of that. It's not automatically going to go up. Mayor Donchess to my knowledge doesn't
generally write blank checks or negotiate huge expenses for the city. | think if we're just going to focus on authorizing the
city to purchase it that opens the dialogue. Even tonight, some opportunities to raise revenue such as Selling that house
were included in discussion already.
Alderman Caron
Yes, thank you. | agree with my fellow Aldermen. Alderman Dowd | received some phone calls concerning purchasing
this piece of property. One is Camp Doucette. Several people who | know live in that area and said why didn't you buy
that? That's near a conservation land.
But my biggest concern is the people who own this property, did they even come to the city to ask them if they thought we
would be interested in buying it since it's so close to Greeley Park? It's almost like we're forcing their hand that they
should be selling it to us and nobody else. | don't think that's fair to them. This doesn't really affect Greeley in the long
run. Yes, you don't want to have a lot of buildings but Greeley Park is there. We've done a lot of work over there. We've
made changes. We also tried to put some changes in there and they will fought hard. But | don't think this is the time for
us to do it and as Alderman Dowd said, maybe this should wait until the new Board comes in and the questions that are
out there are answered. But | think we're doing a disservice to this property owner who's trying to sell this property and if
the developer that first purchaser has backed out is it because of all of this? That's not fair to them, either. So | will not
support this at this point in time. Thank you.
Alderman Jette
| have a question to legal counsel through you if | could. Am | mistaken but it seems to me that in the past the city has
whether it's the Mayor, or the Planning Department, or the Board of Public Works, or some other entity in the city other
than the Board of Aldermen has oftentimes found a piece of property that they want for whatever purpose determined
whether or not the seller was interested in selling and kind of looked at the possibilities of whether this would be suitable
for whatever purpose entered into some negotiations and come back seeking authorization from the Board of Aldermen
after they've reached some kind of an agreement contingent upon it being approved and funded by the Board of
Aldermen. It seems here that were saying that whether it's the Mayor, or the Planning Department, or anybody else can
look into this property and the suitability of this property for use by the city. It seems like we're saying before anything can
happen, the Board of Aldermen has to initially authorize that negotiation and even put down a not to exceed number of
$2,500,000. It seems to me that it could be done that way but it also seems to me that the Mayor or somebody could
approach the seller and see whether or not there's any interest in selling it to us. Also determine whether or not this is the
best use of that property, whether it's suitable for whatever purposes we might have in mind. So | don't know if you
understand my question Corporation Counsel. Could the Mayor or could someone from the city begin this negotiation
without our authorizing the purchase first?
Steve Bolton, Corporation Counsel
Absolutely. It doesn't have to be done this way. But in this case, an Alderman asked that this resolution be prepared and
that's what was done. But the fact is any transaction in of real property, whether the city is acquiring it or divesting it has
to be authorized by the Board of Aldermen before it can happen. So the original concept, light bulb going off, could
happen in any number of places. But eventually it has to get here.
