08-30-16 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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John Murphy stated we have a summary that we will have completed by the end of this week. The debt service is a little over $1.3 million now. That is a direct shift from COIT and EDIT to TIF so that helps to balance COIT. All those funds are in balance, which is the first time in years that they are balanced. Remember last year, the COIT was spent down $4 -5 million, and we don't have that problem anymore. Morris It's been a great year for the Morris, 2015 -2016 had ninety (90) shows versus sixty -seven (67) shows, and the marketing continues to be effective. There were several sold out shows this year. Two marquee musical acts, the Book of Mormon and then Wicked is coming up. We are impressed by the staff and what they have been able to pull off. The Palais itself has increased revenues as well, and continues to have an excellent lineup of shows coming through there. In terms of the budget, we don't see a lot of changes coming. The allocations are all outlined in the budget summary, the major shift would be things that are being paid out as service maintenance agreements that were historically personnel line items, those are being shifted over to the Venues Parks and Arts model. There are no other capital increase requests from the General Fund, we fund it primary through Fund #416, which is a non - reverting reserve fund. We have a couple of capital projects involved there. Michelle Debeck, I've been with the Morris for sixteen (16) years, as you know we've been very busy in the Morris. We're very excited about the shows that are coming up. This is the sixteenth (16th) consecutive year that we have been in the top one - hundred (100) theaters in the United States. We had an eight (8) show run with Book of Mormon, bringing about 14,000 people into the downtown area. Right now we're getting ready for Wicked, we're so far seeing about 25,000 people that will be coming through. It is possible we will do more, but I want all of the shows to sell out. We're also getting a lot of people from Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan, so our hotels are being used. The staff at the Morris and the Palais are extremely proactive in soliciting new business. The Star Plaza is shutting down, so we are tapping into that to see if we can offer initiatives to bring them in our direction. We just booked Love Jones, the Musical for the end of September, and comedian Paula Poundstone for this October. Steve Martin and Martin Short were booked for March of 2017, which should sell out within a day. If the Council would ever like a walkthrough while the Morris is open, feel free to stop in. This week, we have R Kelly which is doing really well, and the News Boys are coming up. We are going to make sure we stay within the top one - hundred (100), we're about eighty (80) right now. Committeemember Voorde asked how the top one - hundred (100) is measured It is based on venue size, the community's size, and how many tickets are sold for events. Councilmember Broden asked if there are measurements for the economic impact when they book a show. Broadly, with the closing of the Star Plaza, do we ever promote something like that, a stay and play package deal? 22