Finance Committee - 4/17/2019 Page 8
treatment plant. If we start losing our infrastructure you know what money did we save? We didn’t save
anything, so | am glad we are addressing it for you guys. Thank you.
Mayor Donchess
Alright, if there are no other questions?
MOTION CARRIED
From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager
Re: Contract for Independent Consultant Services
MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN KELLY TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE CONTRACT TO
MEENA GYAWALI IN THE AMOUNT OF $22,000. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN DEPARTMENT 183,
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; TIF DISTRICT
Mayor Donchess
And | believe Mr. Cummings is here on this. Why don’t you come up? To clarify what the source of the funds
for this contract would be, the Board of Aldermen and the City created a TIF or Tax Increment Financing
District surrounding the river a little over a year ago. And what that means is that a certain proportion of the
taxes generated from the buildings around the river including Lofts 34, Clock Tower, Cotton Mill Square and a
few others, a certain portion of the money generated by those properties is devoted or is directed into the TIF,
the Tax Increment Financing District. That money is then dedicated to be spent along the river and to
implement the Riverfront Master Plan that the Board of Aldermen adopted several years ago.
There is about $800,000.00 or between $700,000.00 and $800,000.00 in the account right now. So this
$22,000.00 would come from that account, the TIF Account. There is a TIF Board of Director or Advisory
Board of property owners and residents around the river that advises the City as to how the money might be
spent. | assume they have endorsed this idea. Just as background, with that, could you Mr. Cummings
explain what is proposed here?
Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director
Absolutely Mr. Mayor, again for the record Tim Cummings Director of Economic Development. So what is
before you this evening is just a temporary contract up to six months, though | think it is going to be less than
that where we are going to be engaging in independent consultant. Alderwoman Kelly did a great job in saying
the name, that is actually a very difficult name. The first time | tried saying it, it was very challenging, her name
is Neena Gyawali and her resume is included in your packet. You will see she is very experienced and has
some wonderful skills.
We are bringing her in to help us move the TIF initiative forward and particular help to bring forward some of
the projects that | know this body and other groups in the City have been asking about. So! am asking for you
to approve this. The reason why you are approving it is because per the governing documents that enabled
the TIF, all contracts need to come back before the Board of Aldermen, no matter what dollar amount. This
One is just a tick over $22,000.00 though | don’t think we will actually spend that. Meena Gyawali’s scope of
services is really just to help us get the first RFP off the ground or RFQ technically where we would be looking
to bring forward the continuation of the Riverwalk and hopefully have a civil engineering firm on board that
would project manage similar to the way Hanna Swanson did for the Broad Street Parkway with Mr. John
Vanacore. That’s the ultimate goal that we are working towards.
Mayor Donchess
Discussion.
