Laserfiche WebLink
Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,November 27, 2017 <br /> Page 18 <br /> cated to her that those estimates were totally off target. Councilmember Laliberte <br /> stated that the decision made to remodel versus purchase a site was based on that <br /> $250,000 renovation cost spread over the five-years of the current lease, allowing <br /> the city time to consider its options during the interim. Now with the cost at over <br /> $600,000, Councilmember Laliberte stated her difficulty in considering award of <br /> a bid; and in agreement with the comments of Councilmember McGehee. Coun- <br /> cilmember Laliberte agreed with the need to provide a quality experience for cus- <br /> tomers of the license center, which the city typically provided with other services <br /> and programs. Therefore, Councilmember Laliberte stated how torn she was with <br /> this price point on space not owned by the city. Councilmember Laliberte also <br /> agreed with the comments of Mr. Hess on the need to have a Plan B so the city <br /> wasn't held hostage in hopes to acquire this site. <br /> Mayor Roe shared the frustration of his colleagues, opining that he thought the <br /> city was at a good place a few months ago with purchasing the building even <br /> though several considerations at that time were not without risk even though he <br /> supported moving forward with purchase if an agreement could be reached with <br /> the current property owner. Now, with the five-year lease renewed and other <br /> things that happened since then, Mayor Roe stated that he wasn't sure if the envi- <br /> ronment was right to reconsider purchase of the site. However, Mayor Roe noted <br /> that Plan B seems to be more extensive by finding another site even though there <br /> were a lot of concerns previously raised about that option to find another site. <br /> Mayor Roe noted that the plans and specifications already paid for by the city <br /> would be available and could be used on another round of bidding, hopefully re- <br /> sulting in better bids, but perhaps not coming in any different than those currently <br /> available. On behalf of taxpayers and customers, Mayor Roe agreed that putting <br /> this kind of money into leased property for five-years was more problematic for <br /> him than reconsidering whether a purchase could be negotiated to make that in- <br /> vestment in city-owned property. Mayor Roe noted his interest in understanding <br /> what was driving the costs for the renovation. Mayor Roe indicated that he would <br /> support of the motion. <br /> Councilmember McGehee stated that she would not support renegotiating pur- <br /> chase of this site. Also, Councilmember McGehee opined that she seemed to be <br /> the only person who brought up ways to save money; and while the city knew this <br /> was coming forward when it made the decisions on the new club house, which <br /> was not a revenue-generator and a large ongoing expense, as well as the $19 mil- <br /> lion bond issue for the park projects, and the body cameras as an ongoing ex- <br /> pense, her colleagues took no action to consider this necessary expense at the li- <br /> cense center as a priority with those other projects. Councilmember McGehee <br /> opined that to now return to the drawing board and attempt to purchase a property <br /> that it had no money to purchase, including a gas station, made no sense at this <br /> point; and by taking this action it made the City Council look like confused <br /> bumpkins. While being as unhappy as her colleagues with the renovation cost for <br /> leased property, Councilmember McGehee noted that people are used to this loca- <br />