05/12/1975 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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minutes wherein it was stated she felt spending public money as proposed was not wise. She said ,her comments were in resonse to Mr. Hansen's statement that it was not the city's responsibility to fund activities for the businesses on the mall, and that she ~ felt spending public money on public property as proposed was in order and she sup- ~ ported that concept. Assistant Manager thought the Council should know that the EDA now employs a mall manager to cover commercial ctivities, the pending action is to fund that portion covering cultural and recreational activities. He said one thing yet to be settled was a firm understanding with EDA that there would be an equal voice in hiring the mall manager if that position is to be funded through a joint venture. Mayor Anderson asked Mr. Haws if the intent of his motion would preclude funding the other half of the mall manager's time by the EDA. Mr. Haws said the intent was to keep the positions separate. He said if the EDA wanted to hire a half-time person he had no objection if it was the same person because he felt a person couldn't be told what he could or could not do in his off hours. However, his intent was that the city's funds go toward cultural and recreational activities, not to promote commercial activities. He said he would like to see the city select the best person, in response to Mayor Anderson's question whether the same person could do both jobs. Councilman Murray was more comfortable with this than with the former position, paying one-half the mall manager's salary. He wasn't sure that one person could adequately fill two positions. Mrs. Beal had the same concern. She didn't see where a separation of authority could function properly, and that there really should be two persons to safeguard the spending of public funds for public purposes. Councilwoman Shirey said she hadn't supported the idea originally because she thought if the two positions were separated the commercial interests on the mall would be an extension of the downtown businesses, and she felt commercial activities on the 4It mall should be open to anyone. She wondered what type of commercial interests the mall manager would be promoting. Councilman Keller expressed some puzzlement about Council comments. His recollection was that the greatest concern was to get some commercial activities into the mall area, and funding this temporary one-year $6,000 help would get that activity off the ground. He couldn't understand the quibbling over $6,000 when the initial mall investment amounted to $20 million. He thought there should be some consensus so that the people involved would know from one day to the next what was going to be done. Mayor Anderson was in favor of funding the half-time salary for the one-year period to see if the proposal would work~ To fund the position on the basis of a half-time position, he said, would put the entire situation back into limbo. The Downtown Association has been urged to.promote commercial activities on the mall and this pro- posal brought by them didn't seem unreasonable. He felt it should be given a test. Councilman Murray was in favor of any program that would promote more activity in the mall area. However, his concern was the "blurring" of the two functions - com- mercial and cultural/recreational. He was willing to give it a try, but he couldn't understand if one full-time position could spend half his time on commercial activities and the other half on cultural/recreational activities why two half-time positions couldn't do the same thing. Assistant Manager said there would be some concern that duties ot a person working half-time in EDA employ might conflict with that employe's public service work as a city employe. Also, he said, it should be pointed out that the monies being allocated were also intended to be used for tourist and convention ~ type activities as well as recreational and cultural things, so that tended to also ... blur the situation. He thought it would be more sensible to fund the half-time salary on a contractual basis with the EDA. 5/12/75 - 12 2.57