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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,January 28, 2019 Page 15 Councilmember Groff asked for some background on the reason why this was not funded at the time this was acquired. Mayor Roe stated the City had to pay cash for the purchase, so the City took that money from somewhere, on a temporary basis, and he wondered where that was pulled out of. Mr. Miller stated when the City has cash, it is pooled together with individual funds where the money is parked. Right now, the City has a fund with a negative balance of$2.2 million dollars, so the City needs to find a way to fill that gap be- fore the books are closed for 2018. Councilmember Willmus stated regarding Councilmember Groff's question, the Council was looking at an acquisition that cost $2.7 million to purchase while paying $120,000 plus per year in rent and increasing three percent per year. He stated at the time the license center was looking at $600,000 in improvements for a facility, the City did not own that potentially in three years the $600,000 is spent and the license center could potentially find itself out on the street. Those are all things that came into the purchase. Knowing full well that there were a couple different routes the City could go; the City could look at revenue bonds because it is a facility that generates revenue. It is a multi-tenant facility that could generate revenue and also knowing that the unrestricted cash reserves the City does have in hand,just short of$25 million, there is a way to finance what is somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million. Looking at this beyond a license center use, he thought this was an opportunity to acquire a piece of property immediately adja- cent to the existing City Hall Campus for future needs that the City will have. Mayor Roe stated specific to the finance side of it, it was pretty clear from infor- mation the Council had that the City would be collecting rent from the tenants, the City would be taking the $120,000 the City was spending on rent, which came in from the license center operations, and apply that towards paying back either bonds or an internal loan. The Council did not want to necessarily identify which means the City would take, also knowing the City had the sale of the Fairview Fire Station out there. He noted the City was trying to keep options open know- ing that it was not a situation that the City did not know what was going to be done but some choices had to be picked from. Councilmember Groff thought the decision of the Council was probably good,but it might have been good to have gotten the money straightened out then rather than now. He did not think the bond made sense to him either because it was too expensive and searching through the funds is something that should be done. Mayor Roe stated in addition to the $120,000 a year the license center was spend- ing in rent, in addition to that on an annual basis, going back many more than the four years represented by Mr. Miller, the City has been transferring profits from