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 The topic was introduced first in 2015 at the Strategic Planning
Workshop for the city, and again in 2016 at the Strategic Plan
review meeting. This week City Administrator Clay Johnson asked the
council to place an action item on the next voting agenda. The
motion would permit Mayor Marty Neitzel and Johnson act on behalf of
the city in filing the necessary paperwork to establish the
foundation.
Johnson said the first steps would be to file an Article of
Incorporation with the State of Illinois and a Not-for-Profit
application with the Illinois Department of Revenue. With those two
items accomplished, the city would need to establish an executive
director and a board of directors, and approve a set of by-laws for
the foundation.
Johnson said he would be willing to serve as the executive director,
and that the position would be an unpaid position. The members of
the board would also be unpaid.
With the dollars from the Hotel/Motel Tax, Johnson said the city
could start with approximately $8,400 in the foundation account. In
addition, he suggested that the foundation should incorporate the
From the Ground Up group into its organization. From the Ground Up
is responsible for the community garden projects, the "Plant the
Town Red" projects, and the community night event held annually at
one of the city’s public parks. Johnson said that group had
approximately $6,000 that could be added to the foundation coffers.
The foundation would carry on the From the Ground Up events with
those funds. Hotel/Motel Tax funds could be used, if the aldermen so
choose, to fund summertime events in downtown Lincoln.
At the January Strategic Planning Review, Johnson had suggested a
Third Friday Downtown program that would hold special, family
friendly events on the third Friday each month of the summer
starting in May. Johnson said this week, if the council wants to
implement that suggestion this year, then the city needs to move
forward in establishing the foundation soon.
During the discussion portion of the topic, Johnson was asked if the
third Friday events would fit into the prescribed use of the
Hotel/Motel Tax. He said that it would because it will create an
atmosphere of a fun and thriving downtown area that will draw
visitors. Johnson said there was a basic model for each event that
would include family activities, live music, food and more. He
suggested that each event would carry its own theme.
There were also questions about accountability. Aldermen wondered if
there would be an auditing process for the finances and a reporting
process back to the council from the foundation regarding their
activity.
Johnson said that yes there would be an auditing process. He said he
felt the firm that does the city’s annual audit could add a
foundation audit to their work without a great deal of extra
expense. He also said that reports could be given to the council.
At first, it was mentioned that such reports could be done annually,
but also, at any time the council requested a report. Rick Hoefle
said he felt that in the first year especially, the Foundation
should frequently report to the City Council.
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In addition to funding activities in the city, a question was asked,
could the city use foundation funds to help with the creation of the
walking and bike path project that is ongoing in the community.
Johnson said that it could. He noted that right now that group
doesn’t have a mechanism for holding funds for their project. He
said the Foundation could offer to be the holding account for that
project if that was acceptable to everyone involved.
City Treasurer Chuck Conzo said he thought merging the Ground Up into the
Foundation was a good idea as it would simplify the accounting for the money
from both efforts. He wondered if the foundation dollars would be set as another
city account. Johnson said that all needed to be worked out. He noted that the
Foundation would need a clear mechanism established to assure there was no
impropriety in the books. He suggested that was something that should be
discussed separately with the treasurer and City Clerk Susan Gehlbach, so as to
establish a set of checks and balances for the finances.
Talking about who would oversee the foundation, Tracy Welch said he wanted to be
sure that once established, it was clear that the city of Lincoln was the
governing body. He said he didn’t want to see the city get involved with
something and end up having no control over how it was managed.
Johnson said that the mayor and or the council would approve the appointments to
the board, and that steps could be written into the foundation policy, giving
the council and/or mayor the ability to remove board members if needed. Neitzel
said that she would prefer that she not be the one with sole authority over such
things. She preferred that actions to add or remove board members be with the
consent of the full council.
Discussion moved on to who should be on the board. It was suggested that there
be representatives appointed from each of the city’s four wards. With the
proposal that there be a nine-member board with a director, Johnson said that
one option could be to appoint two constituent representatives from each ward.
Another suggestion was to include one alderman from each ward plus one
constituent from each ward on the board.
The precise details of the board membership will be worked out as well as the
by-laws as time progresses. The important issue at hand on Tuesday was to go
ahead and put a motion on the agenda for the establishment of the foundation
with the state.
Because February is a five Monday month, there will be no meeting of the Lincoln
City Council next week. This item will be placed on the agenda for voting at the
March 7 meeting.
[Nila Smith]
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