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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,June 17,2019 <br /> Page 17 <br /> cause the Council has made it a priority with consultants working on it for the <br /> City as well. He thought it might create a strange echo at the Legislature if the <br /> City were to pull back. <br /> Commissioner O'Brien noted the Commission did have a very robust discussion <br /> about this and were certainly considering the option of waiting and would it alien- <br /> ate people. She did not think the Commission had a good sense at this point re- <br /> garding how many people walk away because there is not a liquor license versus <br /> getting locked into a contract where a vendor might want a 3- to 5-year contract <br /> and what else might the vendor want. When the Parks Commission recommend- <br /> ed to wait a year, it was not without some of the things the Council is talking <br /> about, during that year, doing a lot of talking with vendors to find out what the <br /> possibilities would be and also trying to survey better what the community wants <br /> because the City would not want to lose that as a community building that could <br /> be used by community members as well as by whatever vendor was in there. She <br /> did not think the Commission was looking at this any differently than the City <br /> Council. <br /> Councilmember Laliberte wanted to have the Commission discuss and focus on <br /> what other options are out there. She would also like to have a better understand- <br /> ing of the costs, what the City is offering, and what the City is getting in revenue <br /> back. She noted this is kind of a revenue opportunity for the City and not some- <br /> thing City government does well is digging into some of the revenue opportuni- <br /> ties. <br /> Commissioner Stoner noted one of the concerns he had during the Commission <br /> conversations was it is generally very difficult to quantify the effect of lost busi- <br /> ness. Every year the facility is not selling beer, a chunk of revenue is being fore- <br /> gone because of concerns with taking action in the form of bringing in an outside <br /> vendor. A lot of the Commission conversations, which he thought were very well <br /> founded, were around what happens if the City gets a vendor and is locked in for <br /> 3 to 5 years potentially and then there are negative impacts around that and noth- <br /> ing the City could do about it. Some of those unknowns are because it is not done <br /> all the time as a City government. <br /> Councilmember Laliberte indicated she could appreciate everything that was <br /> mentioned as possible unintended consequences and that is what she was looking <br /> to learn more about before putting a pause on it for a year. For her, it was not just <br /> about the beer and liquor license, it is about pulling people into that facility to en- <br /> joy and use it, see it as their building, and that might be more than a hot dog or <br /> basket of french fries. That is the conversation she would like to see, what would <br /> draw people in. <br /> Mayor Roe thought having conversations with vendors helped to bring in some of <br /> those answers of the unknown. It should be a conversation about what the City is <br />