 As each alderman took his or her opportunity to voice an opinion, a
few things became very clear.
The city is very well pleased with the annual Lincoln Art &
Balloon Festival, and they are impressed with improvements of
performance they've seen with Main Street Lincoln but wonder why
that organization is not self-sustaining as promised.
They understand the Logan County Regional Planning Commission is
going through some transitions. They have not been impressed with
the past performance of that organization but are willing to give
them the benefit of the doubt in the new fiscal year, and the
majority of the group is displeased with the performance of the
Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership.
In addition to the aldermen, the city treasurer and mayor also
participated in offering their breakdown of who should receive what
amounts of money in the coming year.
Treasurer Chuck Conzo
Treasurer Chuck Conzo was asked for his opinion on the numbers.
He said he would leave Main Street Lincoln at $10,000 or even raise
them to $12,500. He would leave the rest as is with the exception of
economic development, which he would drop to $15,000. Conzo's total
came to $47,500 when giving Main Street $10,000 or $50,000 if the
city were to award them $12,500.
Mayor Keith Snyder
Mayor Keith Snyder said he was in favor of keeping the funding at
$60,000.
"I agree with Alderman Anderson's comment about Main Street," he
said. "After the reduction that was made last year, they have done
some good things, so I would keep them at $10,000.
"The regional planning commission's request came this week at
$17,500, and I would ask we keep it there. There are some issues
they are sorting through.
"There are some revenues we get each year from the coal mine and
Monsanto that total $30,000. That money has to be used for
enterprise zone purposes. Those can be spent with the regional
planning commission, and the other place that money could be used is
in John's (building and safety) office.
"The partnership I would keep at $30,000, with the 25 and 5
($25,000 and $5,000). I think it is important to remember that is a
partnership between the county, the city and the chamber of
commerce. It is a three-legged stool. The county's financial input
is the same as ours.
"I am hearing what is being said about the results, and I hope
there will be opportunities for improvement in the performance
there."
Snyder said that he thought the $5,000 to the chamber was money
very well spent. "Maybe out of all, that one has the greatest return
on our investment," he said.
Snyder also proposed cutting funding to the Railsplitter Festival
and Christmas parade to $1,250 each in order to maintain the $60,000
ceiling.
Discussions
Tom O'Donohue asked about if "three-legged stool" meant that the
city had one-third of the votes on the partnership board.
Snyder said there are 21 members. The city has five as does the
chamber and county. The partnership has three on the board, and
there is one representative each from Elkhart, Atlanta and Mount
Pulaski.
Kathy Horn also noted there are members on the board who cannot
vote.
David Wilmert said the city needed to be cautious with cutting
back on economic development because of the other parties involved.
He expressed that if the city cuts back, the county may follow suit.
He said he's been in conversations where he's heard: "If Lincoln
cuts their funding, we're going to too. Like why should we
contribute when you pull back?"
"Any cuts we make could potentially have a multiplicative effect
and lead to a cascading de-funding of economic development," he
said.
Wilmert also said even though questions posed to the partnership
regarding CEDS were not well answered, he hoped everyone would
remember that things like these sometimes take quite a while to
accomplish.
Snyder said, "In terms of moving everyone forward, it behooves us
to work together to try to get more bang for our bucks, and these
are a lot of bucks, I don't dispute that.
"But I would hope that however we are to fund it, we have
opportunities to make some changes in regards to results and
performance."
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Marty Neitzel said in the case of economic development it is
still all about communicating.
"It still goes down to communications," she said. "We don't know
what is going on or how the economic development works. If we knew
more, I think our feelings would be different."
Melody Anderson responded, "I think the mayor has done a great
job of encouraging them to get us the information. It just seems the
story never changes."
Anderson ran through the numbers for the $57,500 and said that if
the group wanted to go to $60,000, the additional money would be
added to the regional planning commission.
"The reason I allocated it this way is I think the message we
sent Main Street last year was well taken. Maybe the same message to
economic development in real dollars instead of lip service might
also cause this," Anderson said.
"I think we need regional planning, don't get me wrong," she
continued, "but Lincoln is not getting the bang for the buck. Maybe
the county is getting some and we're supposed to be getting a
trickle effect. I haven't necessarily seen that in our numbers
coming through in revenues."
O'Donohue asked how long we are going to be responsible for
funding these organizations.
Anderson said that was a conversation that will come up in a
workshop in May.
"We have to start weaning some of these organizations off of our
support," she said. "The decision to make then is how you want to
approach that, and then give the mayor direction in terms of how to
communicate that to the organizations. I don't want to pull the rug
out from underneath them abruptly. That would not be fair."
O'Donohue said, "I don't disagree with that, but I also don't
think we should be paying for these organizations forever that are
supposed to be self-sustaining. We're not helping them (doing
this)."
Anderson told the group they would take a 10-minute break, and
when they came back they would make a decision on this funding.
In a workshop meeting no motions or official votes can be taken,
but a consensus can be developed by conducting a straw vote.
When the group reconvened, the straw vote came in on the side of
$57,500.
The distribution will be $5,000 to the Lincoln/Logan Chamber of
Commerce, $10,000 to Main Street Lincoln, $12,500 to the Logan
County Regional Planning Commission, $25,000 inclusive to the
Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership, and $2,500 each to
the Railsplitter Festival and the annual Christmas parade.
Follow-up
At the Tuesday night committee-of-the-whole meeting, Snyder said
that the Lincoln & Logan County Development partnership had provided
each alderman with copies of their Comprehensive Economic
Development Plan.
In addition, Vic Martinek was in the gallery for the evening. He
told LDN that he was appointed to the partnership board on Monday
night and has been asked by the board president, Mark Hughes, to
attend city council meetings as an observer.
[By NILA SMITH]
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