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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-30-16 Personnel and FinanceOFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER, CITY CLERK PERSONNEL & FINANCE AUGUST 30, 2016 5:00 P.M. Committee Members Present: Karen L. White, Regina Williams- Preston, John Voorde, Committee Members Absent: Gavin Ferlic Other Council Present: Tim Scott, Jo M. Broden Others Present: City Clerk Kareemah Fowler, Jennifer Coffman, Kathleen Cekanski - Farrand, Adriana Rodriguez, John Murphy Agenda: Parks Morris Performing Arts Century Center Committee Chair Karen White called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Parks Aaron Perri, Executive Director of South Bend Parks and Recreation, 321 Walter St., as many of you are aware, we are creating an emerging department called Venues, Parks, and Arts, and I'll give you an overview of that department later in the presentation. Committee Chair White stated that she wanted the record to state that Council President Scott is present, and that Councilmember Dr. Dave Varner is helping out in Kokomo and couldn't be here tonight. Susan Visser, 627 Leland Avenue, South Bend, IN 46616, I am the Executive Director representing the South Bend Museum of Art. The South Bend Museum of Art is in the City budget for $65,000 which has been a longstanding item of support from the City of South Bend which underwrites the museum's occupancy in the Century Center. That is in a budget of about $850,000. I want to thank you for your longstanding support, and I also wanted to share some materials with you (available in the City Clerk's Office), this is our 2015 Annual Report and there is a dashboard called "2015 at a glance." This report gives a snapshot of what a typical year is like at the museum. In 2015 we had over 30,000 individuals visit the South Bend Museum of Art, almost 25,000 visits to our site, and 124,000 page views. Over 3,000 students, teachers and chaperones toured the museums, about 1,100 enrolled in classes, over 3,500 people participated 455 County -City Building • 227 W. Jefferson Boulevard • South Bend, Indiana 46601 Phone 574- 235 -9221 • Fax 574- 235 -9173 • TDD 574- 235 -5567 • www.SouthBendIN.gov JENNIFER M. COFFMAN ALKEYNA M. ALDRIDGE JOSEPH MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/ CHIEF OF STAFF DEPUTY/ DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK in outreach programing, we hosted six (6) family days including an extravaganza which is a downtown partnership, and we hosted 3,300 children and adults in total attendance over the year. Over one - hundred (100) volunteers contributed more than 3,000 hours in all phases of the museum's operations, more than one - hundred (100) volunteers were also active in the art league. Thirty -five (35) docents contributed over six - hundred and fifty (650) hours to the museum, of these thirty-five (35) are veterans and fourteen (14) are new recruits. One - hundred and twenty - nine (129) new members joined the museum, sixteen (16) members upgraded. Over one - hundred (100) businesses contributed cash and or in -kind support, twelve (12) exhibitions were hosted, and twenty -seven (27) works of art were acquired for the permanent collection, most of which were contributed by community members. Almost 1,100 were in attendance for events. We also installed a massive sculpture, which takes up a large portion of the sculpture court, one- hundred and fifty (150) guests attended our fundraiser, Art Lights, more than 5,000 people attended Meet Me on the Island, more than 6,000 people attended our First Friday events, thirty - one (3 1) individuals were on the board of trustees, seven (7) full -time staff members, six (6) part- time staff members, and thirty -three (33) faculty members offered classes at the museum. There are nice narratives about all of our programs in our annual report, and it is available to anyone else who might want one. Ms. Visser presented a brochure that explains the adult and youth classes. Fall classes begin September fifth (5t'). This Friday is a First Friday, so from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., we are celebrating the opening of three (3) exhibitions: The American Tapestry Alliance, Zach Tate and Tom Bartel: Death and Taxes, and the Northern Indiana Artist Membership. She passed out a refrigerator magnet that shows all of the museum's family days, in conjunction with the larger exhibitions and DTSB's themes for First Fridays. We do various kinds of hands- on programs. Committeemember Voorde asked what the outreach programs consist of. Ms. Visser explained that the museum has some collaborations and a number of programs are with the schools. We work with Snite Museum, and schools during their fifth (5th) grade year. We bring kids in during third (3rd) grade and we do a tour of the sculptures and have a conversation with professional sculptors. Councilmember Tim Scott asked if the museum would be collaborating to put sculptures in the roundabouts. Ms. Visser stated that she certainly hopes so, and she has had some conversations, but she deferred to Aaron Perri, Executive Director of Parks. Mr. Perri stated the roundabouts are being prepped to accept public art, in the first unveiling it will have landscaping but there will be no imminent public art yet. 2 Ms. Visser stated that the museum has been doing public art throughout the community for a while. We did the sculpture at the airport project for many years. We are now doing the sightlines exhibition at the Century Center, so there will be sculptures outside as well as inside. An affordable way to do public art is through loans rather than actually purchasing it. There are a number of different options that can be discussed as this gets closer. Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked about the collaboration with South Bend Community Schools. She asked if there is any participation from the public on boards or within our program with SBCS. Ms. Visser stated there are two (2) representatives from South Bend School Board on the Museum's Board. Councilmember Broden asked if there is anything more and if there are any collaborative arrangements, cross funding, or support from within the schools themselves. Ms. Visser stated we've done a number of teacher workshops. We did a blog specifically for teachers for a long period of time. That blog actually recently died, so the blog is not live at the moment. Primarily, it's the program through which we bring the students onsite, and we offer them not only tours but also hands -on work as well. We're always open to additional programs as well. Councilmember Broden stated Ms. Visser mentioned that $65,000 underwrites occupancy at the Century Center, and that it has been a long standing arrangement. She asked long has that been in existence, and has it increased or decreased. Ms. Visser stated that she is just going into her third (3rd) year with the museum, and it has been in place since before that time. She believes it was around $36,000 when she came in 1999. There is an agreement by which the amount that the City gives to us is equal to the amount that the Century Center charges us for occupancy, so it has fluctuated from time to time. When we were receiving $36,000, Century Center was receiving $36,000. It was Century Center that requested the increase. Aaron Perri, Director of Parks, stated that the amount has been the same for at least the last nine (9) years since he has been here. Ms. Visser stated that it has probably been that way for closer to fifteen (15) years. Councilmember Tim Scott stated it would be interesting to look at the metrics right now going into 2017, looking at street changes, we're all interconnected. The changes at the Century Center, changes with the hotels that will come up in 2017 and 2018 and what that does for the Museum. Councilmember Scott expressed appreciation for where the Museum is as part of our tourism package. It makes a lot of sense for you to be connected to the Century Center. It will be interesting to see how things change as far as exposure to people coming to our town and participation. Ms. Visser stated they are excited about it, there are things like this that have been discussed for a very long time, to see it come to fruition will be transformative for us and other City organizations. Our two (2) organizations have had more conversations about what is going to happen with Smart Streets and the uptick in aesthetics. Councilmember Broden stated she sees the aging in place piece with South Bend Heritage Foundation. She asked what is that financial arrangement and is it on -site at Robinson. Ms. Visser stated there are no financial arrangements, we simply provide it. Councilmember Broden asked about any early childhood programming or if there is anything with regard to art therapy. Different groups in the community are trying to bring kids into the art loop earlier, obviously for brain development and for dealing with some of the issues people bring into the school system. Ms. Visser explained that they are not dealing directly with art therapy, but they do deal with young children, as young as toddlers in the form of parent -child classes, and we've been doing those for a long time. Committeemember Voorde stated the Century Center was conceived as a community center, not just a convention center, and I think that if it weren't for you guys in particular, it would lose a lot of the community connection, because so many neat things go on there. Ms. Visser stated that the original tenants of the Century Center were the Studebaker Museum and Discovery Hall. The Michiana Arts and Sciences Council was there a long time ago. Those were part of Century Center, and the arts complex that was supposed to be created. Committeemember Voorde asked if Ms. Visser has a wish list for what she would do if she had the resources. Ms. Visser stated that changing the front of the St. Joseph St. entrance of the building, and potentially creating a garden or a sculpture garden along that edge of the building has been a dream for a long time. That was before the Council years ago and it ended up being a project that died. It doesn't have to be that project, but because of the Smart Streets, it would be really important to create a beautiful canvas feel for the Century Center. Committeemember Voorde stated he doesn't know if the food and beverage tax will come to fruition, but if it does, he would like to see a portion of that dedicated to the arts in general. I can't say how it ought to be spent, but just so that it doesn't just get lost in more operating expenses. Ms. Visser stated she doesn't think that model is unusual for cities, those kinds of taxes do go to arts and entertainment. 0 Committeemember Voorde stated it is unfortunate that when budgets get tight, those types of things are often looked at first, because they aren't seen as vital, but actually they are, for the soul of the community. City Clerk, Kareemah Fowler asked if Ms. Visser would be the main contact for art from the schools, because the Clerk's Office is doing a program with children where we are putting art in the Council hallway. Ms. Visser stated she could be an initial contact, but it would probably be someone else on her staff who ultimately would do that, or we could steer you to another arts organization in the community. There are a lot of artist organizations in the community that have member work, and that is another possibility. Patrick Slebonick, 201 S. Chapin Street, Studebaker Museum, I am from Williamsburg, VA. As you all know, in January, Becky Bonham retired from the Studebaker Museum after fifteen (15) years of great service there. Mr. Slebonick stated he was fortunate to be the beneficiary of a national search to be the next director of the museum. He comes from a museum background, most recently working at an art museum in Williamsburg, and is very excited to be here and to be a part of this community. The museum is a fantastic resource and it is going to remain a beacon of the Studebaker legacy. It is a fantastic national story and an important part of our industrial heritage, and we're going to be fantastic stewards of that legacy. We're also going to be an educational institution, we're going to teach our visitors, find new ways to create programs and experiences for people of all ages in our community. We also really want to be a part of this vibrant cultural life that is blossoming in South Bend. It is hard not to catch on to the contagious feeling that this is a fantastic time to be here and growing in this community. We finished 2015 with the highest attendance in over five (5) years, a lot of that was due to the "Lincoln's Final Journey" exhibition, which was a collaboration between the Smithsonian and Ford's Theater and a number of other national lenders. The future of that was a piece of the City's Studebaker collection, which was the Lincoln Carriage. The Lincoln Carriage also went out and carried the Studebaker flag in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian has 2.5 million visitors each year, so the Lincoln Carriage was a centerpiece in the commemoration in the Lincoln assassination there. It carried our community's flag in D.C. in a major way. In 2016, we've been thrilled to be part of the celebration of the Indiana Bicentennial. We're partnering with three (3) other museums to participate in the Hoosier Made: World Driven exhibition. Three (3) museums got together in a collaboration that was the first of its type to create a passport between the three (3) museums across the state, and each of us celebrated a different era of Indiana Automotive Manufacturing. The Studebaker Museum celebrated the "Brass Era" and we've seen great results and a lot of attendance thanks to that as well. We are also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the St. Joseph County Parks system as well as the 901h anniversary of the (inaudible). 5 For the remainder of 2016, there is a new exhibition coming out called "Powered by America: The Original Hybrid." Studebaker was actually a really early comer in the electric car world. We are going in a different direction which is European style cars that feature American power trains and engines, and it's going to be a great exhibit to draw a lot of people, some of the most iconic car names. We're also taking the chance to revamp our public programs, we're doing our public programs on topics of local interest, participating with the South Bend Historic Preservation Commission, but we're also taking the chance to find poignant and salient national speakers so we're bringing in Renee Chris who is a national speaker on the cars. That is something that has been syndicated to PBS and she was willing to come as a courtesy to one of our staff members. She'll be here for two (2) days, and it will be a great resource for our community. In the next couple of weeks, you'll see a new Studebaker Museum webpage launch. It will be more user friendly, and people will be able to make all of their transactions online. We're very excited to have that launched. We've had a number of national TV appearances that have brought the museum national attention. The Travelocity Roman Gnome came there as part of Gameday and tried his hand at being a mechanic. Charles Phoenix, who is most notable for his upcoming appearance where he will be a guest on Jay Leno's Garage, came to town as an ambassador of Americana, then Studebaker was able to provide cars for Comedians in Cars with Jerry Seinfeld. They are speaking about the cars as he rode around with a comedian. It's been a great year to get our name out across the country, and we've also been able to enjoy a lot of success locally. Next year is going to be another big year. The Studebaker Driver's Club is coming back for their annual international meet. They'll be bringing thousands and thousands of Studebaker enthusiasts in the first weekend in May for a five (5) day event. We'll also have the Packard Club which is affiliated with Studebaker through corporate acquisitions, and their international meet will come in June. We're also excited to roll out some new things. We're in the process of financing touch screen displays and we're also working on plans for the final stages of development for hands on experiences that teach things like the harm of human touch on materials found in our car museums, so there will be a nice Plexiglas cover that keeps some of the same material in pristine conditions, so you can see why you are not allowed to touch the vehicles. We want to continue to thank the City, it is a fantastic opportunity to have the Studebaker collection, which is City property in the building. The original Studebaker vehicles, eight (8) of which are national treasures, and of course the opportunity to be within the City. The building continues to be in great shape. Like with any building as it gets older, the expenses of maintaining it go up, but we've been able to work diligently to cover that and try to save money where we can. The big issue over the past year was to significantly reduce energy costs through an energy consultant which we've been very successful with in the past year. The museum has asked for a two percent (2 %) increase in its budget to cover the increase in operating the museum, and to also maintain the $10,000 contribution to the Capital Maintenance Reserve Fund. Committeemember Voorde inquired about the Studebaker Museum's relationship with the history museum. re Mr. Slebonick stated that they are two (2) separate entities, but there is a shared agreement to operate the entrance area. A lot of our visitors actually think that they are visiting one thing. We've been having a great time working with the history museum continuously to find efficiencies and collaborate to maximize each of our potentials. Committeemember Voorde asked if there is recorded oral history of Studebaker from people who worked there in any archive. Mr. Slebonick stated there is some recorded history, but one of the bigger sources we have the most of are the Worker's Spotlights, the worker's publication, but there is also a periodical devoted to Studebaker's corporate sports leagues. We are actually in the initial stages of working with the library to find ways to digitize those. People ask us if we have any information on their great - great - grandfathers or uncles that worked at Studebaker. By engaging in the digital project, we hope that people will be able to find pictures of their uncle working in the factory or anything like that, so that will be a lot. That encompasses the corporate history and there is certainly room to grow in the oral history. Committee Chair White thanked Mr. Slebonick for his presentation, and welcomed him to our city. Aaron Perri introduced the next presenter, Leanna Belew, 120 S. St. Joseph Street, the General Manager of Century Center. Ms. Belew introduced Brandon Gerlach as the new Director of Finance. He has been with the Century Center since the beginning of July. The goal of the Century Center is to achieve our financial goals as described in the budget to contribute to the overall impact for South Bend. We look to achieve this goal by being the leader in customer service by exceeding our guests' expectations, providing a healthy, safe, happy place for employees to work in order to ensure a professional and friendly staff, and be a vital and active member of the community by supporting our local league and minority -owned businesses, volunteering our time at local charities and causes, and doing our part for the environment by reducing our carbon footprint by ways of energy saving measures and recycling and composting waste. Goals and challenges for 2016: To achieve a valuable presence in the convention industry and the community, so far this year we have done this via industry trade show opportunities, side visits, fans and blitzes. Year -to -date we have hosted one (1) fan in conjunction with the CDB, and our sales team has done ninety -seven (97) side visits to Century Center, increasing revenue and decreasing our year -to -year net loss. Year -to -date, our revenue is at nineteen percent (19 %) compared to budget, and our net operating loss is forty -one percent (41 %) better than budget so far this year. We also want to increase our number of events and sleeping rooms. Since we are funded by the events we bring in and the Hotel Motel Tax, we need to show our contribution to those hotel rooms that we bring in, so we are continuing to focus on multi -day events that bring in events with a greater economic impact on the City. 7 Our goal is to have a food and beverage profit margin of thirty percent (30 %), and the food and beverage department continues to be competitive in the market. Right now we are at a forty - three percent (43%) food and beverage margin. We want to increase bookings for future years. Presently we have events on the books through 2018, and right now we are very excited to say we have several events that we're working through 2020. We have three (3) events that we are working for multi -year contracts. One (1) being the Masons for a three (3) year commitment, and for First Robotics, which brings in about 2200 students, and that would be a'four (4) year commitment. We also want to create partnership opportunities for self - promoted events by partnering with local event organizers such as Jazzfest, second star theater, Princess for a Day, and Meet me on the Island with the Museum of Art. 2017 goals and challenges look a lot like 2016's. Our focus remains to achieve a valuable presence in the convention industry, so we need trade show opportunities with Visit South Bend and Mishawaka. Century Center continues to work closely with the CVB by participating in those fans, the industry trade shows, and the blitzes. So we do join with Visit South Bend and Mishawaka to attend trade shows and to blitz Indianapolis or other parts of the region including Chicago, but we're doing that mostly in Indiana right now. Increase revenue every year and decrease net loss by controlling expenses and continued focus on increased sales. Increase booking for future years, that is another one that will be ongoing as we move forward, we continue the effort to the CVB as well as our own marketing initiatives. Our sales team works closely with the CVB but we also do our own research in trying to get groups into South Bend. Continuing to achieve the food and beverage profit of thirty percent (30 %) which is in our contract. We will continue to monitor the market and remain competitive in pricing while controlling expenses without sacrificing the quality. Increase the number of events with sleeping rooms by focusing on our sales efforts on conventions and multi -day meetings. Some of the challenges that we see for 2017 are limited hotel rooms downtown until closer to August. With the addition of Courtyard by Marriot and the ALOFT scheduled to open, it will offer us the opportunity to solicit the larger pieces of business that need hotel rooms. Since we've been here, there are about five (5) conventions that have come to us wanting to be here and we just cannot host them. The addition of the hotel rooms, two - hundred and ninety -one (291) rooms downtown to six - hundred and ninety -four (694) if we include the Residence Inn, will give us the opportunity to host larger events. The other challenge we have is the maintenance of a forty (40) year old building. We have done a lot of improvements to the building with the guaranteed energy savings project that we completed on July 30th. We're excited about our ninety (90) solar panels on our roof and we're looking at getting even more. We have already completed a thirty (30) year plan for maintenance on the building and right now we are thirty -eight percent (38 %) into that plan. Some of our key performance indicators are measurables that we have in our contract, which is to increase our hotel room nights, and to show the Hotel Motel Tax Board that we're doing our part to put heads in beads. Our net operating loss is always a goal of ours. If everything goes as planned, our rolling forecast for 2016 puts us under $1 million, which we haven't seen in a while. Hopefully everything that has said it's going to book will book, and nothing major breaks. Our goal is to get our net customer service measurement as high as we can, and right now, year to date we are at seventy -four (74). The national average is about thirty (30), so we are very excited about that. We've set high goals for each of these categories. Councilmember Scott asked if the events that are on the books right now are based on the increase in hotel rooms or if they are based on the accommodations we have right now. Ms. Belew stated that the DoubleTree and the Courtyard will be able to handle the Masons, but the robotics events will have a county -wide effect. Councilmember Scott stated that Century Center needs the hotels, but they are able to book because of the new hotels coming, and the new hotels coming in are already going to be booked, which is kind of nice. Ms. Belew stated that they have been working closely with the Courtyard by Marriott's sales manager on these projects here. Some of them said they want to see a shovel in the ground first, of course, and there are plenty of them over there now. Councilmember Scott asked when the hotels will start across the street at the .Chocolate Cafe. Ms. Belew said that the foundation has already begun. We did the groundbreaking last Friday, which was helpful with these future bookings. We could promise it all day, but they wanted to see that we were actually digging into the dirt. Committeemember Williams- Preston asked if we've had any of the conventions for the graphic novels and such. Ms. Belew stated that one of the things that has happened in the past two (2) weeks is the Radison in Merrillville is going to be completely demolished and rebuilt, so we haven't taken the opportunity to get some of that business, and one of them is Ramacon. We have looked at some of those, but we tend to lose those to the southern part of the state. Councilmember Scott asked if there was revenue generated for the Century Center by presidential candidates' visits. Ms. Below responded what people don't realize is that we were already full. We were there in the middle of the night working to flip it for the next day, because we had a conference at the end of the week when Cruz wanted to come in, then we had a large event on Friday and Saturday that we had to flip for Bernie Sanders, which is why Sanders didn't get to be in the convention hall, Trump got it first. It was a very intense few days, but the South Bend and other Police Departments did a great job, it couldn't have gone any better than it did, and yes, we did make some revenue. Councilmember Scott asked how many days' notice they had before they came in. E Ms. Belew stated that Trump came in first, and he came in on Friday the week before, so they had about three (3) days' notice. Ms. Belew got a call from the Washington Post asking how much the candidates spent, but they were very adamant that if there was a screen in Discovery for Bernie Sanders, Trump had to pay for that screen. They couldn't share any equipment. Cruz's detail was a little bit more laid back, it was a smaller crowd. Bernie Sanders and the Trump campaigns were very intense. I've done presidential visits before, but this was very different. With presidential visits, you just do what the Secret Service says. In a campaign, you have the campaign and the Secret Service battling for how everything would be set up. It was a great experience and the team was very proud of themselves for being able to pull that off. Committeemember Voorde stated it is so much fun to showcase the community and especially what is going on downtown now, and it's exciting to see the new rooms coming. In the twelve (12) years that I was City Clerk, we were only able to sell the location here once, because we didn't have enough room. Clerk Fowler is already working on bringing the Clerk's conference to town. Anyway, it is all good news because it makes things possible, because before there wasn't even enough room for the Indiana Association of Clerk Treasurers. Committee Chair White stated Ms. Belew mentioned in her opening statements the goal to work with local and minority businesses. She asked what the Century Center has done to reach that goal. Ms. Belew stated they replaced their roof last year, and it was done by Midland Engineering, who is local. When we contracted for that project, that was our number one (1) goal. We buy locally, even though SNG is a national company and we have national accounts. We have an account with Cisco for food, but we use Stans for food probably more than we use Cisco. Committee Chair White asked if there were any more questions, and thanked Ms. Belew for her presentation. Councilmember Broden asked if it is possible to get more information on the capital expenditures and what is going forward. Even though you are at thirty -eight percent (38 %), just to get an overall picture. Ms. Belew stated that it was about $11 million, and I can tell you so far since SNG came in on July 1 st 2013, we have done almost $7 million of renovations and upgrades and those kinds of things with the capital improvements. I can get you the exact number, but I don't have it in my head. Councilmember Broden asked if the Hotel Motel is kicking in for that this year. Ms. Belew stated that has not been approved yet. We have presented to the allocation committee, asking for $975,000 of improvements to our fire pump. It needs to be repaired because it does not meet Code. These are necessities that we need to have done, and that is in the thirty (30) year plan as well. 10 Committeemember Voorde asked if the lighting has been replaced. Ms. Belew stated that the lighting has all been replaced with new LED lighting in the building. All of our heating and cooling, now each individual room can be controlled individually. If you are down in one of the suites, you can heat just Suite One (1) instead of also heating Suite Two (2) and Suite Three (3). Scott informed me that we have seen the lowest usage that we have ever seen in the building since we have done these upgrades. The prices have gone up so we haven't seen the decrease monetarily, but the decrease in usage has been huge. With the Guaranteed Energy Savings Project, we received $52,000 in AEP rebates which we put back into some pretty neat things, and it looks like we might be getting close to $35,000 more, so it's really exciting stuff. Councilmember Scott stated that he toured the Century Center and one of the big issues that I had was the old lighting. You walked into a closet and there were literally only two people with a key, and it was four - hundred and eighty -three (483) phase directly into a panel, which scared the hell out of me because there were no covers, no nothing on this electrical panel. If anybody would have touched it they would have died. There were fans blowing on it to keep it cool so it wouldn't catch the building on fire. When I saw that I just could not believe we're operating that way. Ms. Belew stated she would be happy to give the Councilmembers a tour if they are interested in seeing any of those things. Councilmember Broden asked when the Hotel Motel Tax Board would approve their budget. Aaron Perri stated that the Hotel Motel Tax Board will approve their budget, then the County has to approve it. Their budgets are on the same schedule as the City's. It has to go through the Hotel Motel Tax Board, then the Council then the Commissioners. Councilmember Broden asked if that is a pretty large amount ask. Mr. Perri stated that it is a pretty standard ask, and this is the first year we've asked for a reduced operating subsidy from the Hotel Motel Tax Board for the Century Center. The revenues have been strong over the past few years, so there is an attempt by some of the County to try to use it for some other projects as well. Mr. Perri introduced Ron O'Connor, the Fiscal Officer for the Parks and Recreation Department. He took an eighteen (18) year hiatus, and John Martinez is the Director of Facilities and Grounds, Rebecca Anderson is the Fiscal Agent for the Morris and Michelle Debeck is the Manager of the Morris. Mr. Perri described the new Venues, Parks and Arts department. The idea here is that we have a host of folks in the City of South Bend that are working on quality of place type initiatives. You've already heard from a couple of those groups that are outside of the City, but we'd love to 11 give them a home to interface with us more. In addition, we think the Century Center, the Morris, the Palais, the parking garages, Parks and Recreation, the Print Shop, the streetscaping that had to do with DTSB and Westside main streets. These are all groups that have historically not been accountable to one another. Collectively they have been impacting the City, but what can be a more cohesive impact, where we can collaborate more closely and actually more formally integrate our organizations into one another. That is the goal of the emerging Department of Venues, Parks and Arts. All of these organizations have evolved through the years, but we've never really had a chance, we've been so busy working in the business that we forget to work on the business. Some of the themes you have been hearing are that financial resources are strained and at risk and we have aging infrastructure, so that means we need to be smarter about how we do things. Then there is this idea that there is a heightened evolving set of expectations from the community, especially when it comes to quality of life. A park used to be some open space, relatively well- maintained, a merry -go- round, and a metal slide. Nowadays we have skate parks and splash pads, pavilions, and various amenities, dog parks, the streets, it used to be enough to be safe, well -lit, and generally have no potholes, and now we are talking about flags and public art in the roundabouts and how we take care of those things. The expectations and responsibilities are continuing to evolve. The structure we have had is a little redundant and inefficient. Different departments have people taking care of buildings, grounds, marketing, sales, fundraising, it seemed to make sense if they're all entities owned and funded by the City, that we would have them working pretty closely together. Sometimes the big picture no brainers are sacrificed at the expense of the individual unit goals. Mr. Perri stated he was talking this morning with the Palais group, and an example that came to mind was when a bride books a wedding at the Palais. They spend a lot of money and they say hey, there is that parking garage across the street that costs $5, can we get that free for our guests. Then the Palais would say no, even though it is owned by the City, it is a different department. Well, we spent a lot of money over there at Palais. Big picture is that it would seem to make sense that we would say you're right, you're doing business with the City, let's make this all work together. A lot of these organizations have people that are forced to be jacks of all trades. When you have one marketing person who has to do the graphic design, the web design, the public relations, and deal with all the interviews and sometimes also has to do all of the fundraising and development work, they can't possibly be good at all of those things, and each organization is finding that struggle. The idea is that we use folks more appropriately and allow them to specialize. The underlying point is that each of these organizations will not disappear. Each is its own brand. But each of these things are stronger as a result of them working together. We took a study of where every organization is. This is a good example of two (2) organizations that share a lot of their resources, and they've done it well historically. Mr. Perri showed the work charts of each organization in his presentation which is available in the City Clerk's Office. 12 The idea of sharing resources and having an umbrella organization is not new, but not a lot of cities are doing it. It is a heavy lift. It is a challenge that I am up to and I know the team is as well. Mesa, Arizona has Parks, Recreation and Commercial Facilities, another city has Parks and Public Facilities, Spokane has Cultural Resources. I thought that commercial facilities wasn't exciting enough, so we came up with Venues, Parks and Arts. It will be one (1) department that is somewhat similar to the Department of Public Works which is the umbrella, with multiple divisions under it. We'll have a Facilities and Grounds Division, Recreation, Venue Operations, then X that has yet to be named. The Facilities and Grounds Division will be responsible for all of the parks, the recreation centers, the Morris, Palais, Century Center, and the downtown streets, parking garages and the various islands and corridors. This year we've put a focus on the Westside Main Streets program, so we've seen that pop up, and we'll make sure the roundabouts are well- maintained and look good as entry points to the City. There will be functional units to service those facilities. The Recreation Division is where we house all of our rec center programming, the golf unit, athletics leagues, camps, all of the O'Brien Fitness Center programming, and things of that nature. That looks similar to what it looks like today, it will just be a more organized organizational chart. The Venue Operations section will lag behind. We are looking at implementing everything else this coming January, but this portion, the combined management of the Morris, Palais and Century Center, and it will not take place until January 1, 2018. There are some logistical contracts that we have to work to get aligned to make that a reality. In the meantime, Michelle DeBeck is going to run point at the Morris, so it will be a fifteen (15) to sixteen (16) month interim period. We are thinking of the Morris, Palais and Century Center as one (1) unit even though they are separated by a block. The marketing folks are shared corporately amongst the organizations, the event planning team that works on many of the major events in town, our volunteer coordinators and our development arm works on grants and fundraising and hasn't historically existed before. We just won one of our first ever grants in the Parks Department, the Regional Cities Award for $5 million that will pour into the riverfront parks and trails. Councilmember Scott asked if there would just be one box office, and one (1) or two (2) specialists managing the bookings. Mr. Perri stated that is correct. For example, Denise is in charge of booking the Morris right now. She has only been in charge of booking one (1) theater, she has all of these relationships with promoters and agents throughout the country, there's no reason why she can't she also book the Bendix or Discovery Hall. 13 Councilmember Scott asked how it will work with the projects each entity was working on on their own. The DTSB Board used to report to Community Investment, he asked if they now will report to Parks. Mr. Perri stated correct, the contract between DTSB will no longer be between them and Community Investment, it will now be contracted through Venues, Parks and Arts. Clerk Kareemah Fowler asked if that would include the downtown parking, and Mr. Perri stated that is correct, it will be contracted through Venues, Parks and Arts. DTSB's Board will remain intact and whole, it will remain a third party public private partnership. This division will be able to service them more so than the one staff person they historically got. Now they'll have access to a whole team of folks. DTSB won't disappear, Morris won't disappear, and they will all be better resourced by aligning their services. Councilmember Broden asked a question regarding the areas that would be mowed by the new department. Mr. Perri stated that the idea of central mowing is going to be taken to the nth degree next year, and we're going to have this team take complete control of it for the entire City. John Martinez is the guy who raised his hand and said we can do this. Councilmember Broden asked if we would see a substantial increase. Mr. Perri stated the dollars will still flow through the same channels they always have, and we'll do them as rebillables. That's what we've done this year to some degree. Councilmember Broden stated we've been touring a lot of vacant lots as a Council, but a lot of overgrowth, it is not just bushes and lawns that are really safety hazards, and then become dumping areas. When we say vacant lots, sometimes it's beyond grass. Mr. Perri stated one of the struggles with contracting that service out is that you contract a firm to go mow a particular spot of grass, and there are seven - hundred (700) to nine - hundred (900) properties, and they go and mow just the perimeter they were shown and ignore everything outside of it, the idea of having more control, and our people who have the level of service standards be at a point that is really common sense for the neighborhoods, as opposed to a, contractor showing up and mowing forty (40) square feet that they were contracted for. I think that is a level of service that we will be able to attack more effectively than we've seen in the past. The idea of trees and overgrowth, I know Councilman Scott has brought this up a few times, which is one that we really have to look at. As a community, we really haven't tackled the idea of urban forests that turn into jungles. That is one that is important that we continue to talk about, to what level we want to enforce the care for those. Sometimes people don't even realize the pieces of property they are responsible for, in terms of right -of -ways and things like that. Programmatically, we can talk about budgeting or thinking about the curb and sidewalk program, where there can be the idea of things that each council district has access to in order to help 14 tackle certain areas in their districts. We're open to ideas and suggestions there, it is something we can't solve by just throwing money at, we are really going to have to look at ordinances and programs, and give a lot of thought to how we deal with those. There is a human element, too, when it comes to people not being able to keep up with property that people didn't even know were theirs. Councilmember Broden asked with regard to specialization within this department, there are things that rise to the level of skill trades, so how are we positioned with current staff and going forward, and just in general, that switch, how difficult will it be to switch gears to get the right people plugged into the right job titles. Mr. Perri explained that the Parks Department has historically had a skilled trades unit with carpenters, painters, and electricians. The areas that haven't had access to that are things like the Morris, the Palais, Century Center, the parking garages, that's where we had the jack of all trades. Now that they are all in the same department, those entities will have access to all of that. We will be hiring new folks and we are repurposing some new positions. We'll bring on an HVAC specialist and a horticulturalist, there is a real need for that level of care and thought. All of the skilled trade positions are union, so there are robust training programs involved through the unions. Councilmember Broden asked where we've been on the development side. She asked if there is still a board overseeing that, is there a foundation, or are we parking those dollars somewhere where it is easy for donors to give. Mr. Perri stated that in the budget, we do have a director of development position that just never came to fruition. The idea would be to give that person the resources they need. They're purposefully on the team with the volunteer coordinator and the marketing folks, the press writer, to be able to work closely together. When we talk about Venues, Parks and Arts, there are so many areas such as Neighborhood Development, arts and culture, ecological needs, public health, there are so many dollars out there that are available that we haven't even tried to obtain. Mr. Perri expressed that he has high expectations for the position. Councilmember Broden asked if that would be one (1) person at this time, Mr. Perri explained that it would be one and a half. Councilmember Broden asked what their domain would be, or if there will be some priorities out of the gate for this person. Mr. Perri stated he does not have a plan laid out for them, but it will depend on this person's background and skillset, things of that nature. He stated he will lean on this person to help devise that plan. We don't even have a bench naming program, there is no way to park that money right now. 15 Many of our facilities do not have names associated with them at a corporate level. We don't want everything to have a name on it, but there are real opportunities there when we are talking about added facilities and infrastructure. Councilmember Broden asked if we are limited with the partnership with the Community Foundation as a governmental body. John Murphy said no, we can interact with them. Councilmember Broden asked about utilizing our facilities and getting more for our tax dollars. She expressed her hope that there is some memorandum of agreement and understanding that helps push that out really soon, because the same things that you're putting here in terms of mission, it's the same mission for us as a community, and it aligns with our South Bend Community Schools. When we look at where we've been putting dollars and in the short term where we've been putting dollars, and this is a fourth district Councilperson talking, the neighborhood parks. Year round programing and equity is needed, despite the Kroc Centers and the clubs and programs. Committeemember Regina Williams- Preston stated she is a little confused about the mowing and how that is going to roll out, but she can save most of her questions for later. Councilmember Scott thanked John Martinez and others from the Parks Department. The outreach for Fremont Park was incredible. That was such a great way to engage the neighborhood and have people participate in changes to that park. Committeemember Williams- Preston agreed. Councilmember Scott said that the energy and the staff's interaction with the people was amazing. The people actually believed that their input to the City was heard and it affected change, which is going to make quality of life better, and benefit everybody for years to come. Committeemember Williams- Preston stated her belief that it was a great public relations piece in terms of engagement and even the meetings where we sat down and talked, and the groups of people that sat down and met with the people, and people still talk about it now. It really personalized the connections. The memorial bench means so much to the kids there and to the families, and it is an example of being responsive to the experience of the people in the neighborhoods. Councilmember Scott stated he appreciates everything John Martinez and the team does, and he is not quite convinced, but he needs more details of the metrics to make sure they are capable of doing what they've proposed. Councilmember Scott expressed doubt that they can do it with the resources they have. And with forestry, we need to look at the trees, Brent's not here to defend himself, but he has said that he has a three (3) year backlog, we have to look at the whole process. Councilmember Scott stated when he looked at the list, it didn't seem like three (3) years' worth of work. You're new, so you get that year of forgiveness in our mind, and it's 16 frustrating because we've been here dealing with it, and we have to give you more time to get things in place to be effective. We've done the same thing with police and Code. Code is now getting their momentum because they were behind on technology. IT is in the same boat right now, but we need to have those conversations. Before my decision is made, we need to see the metrics and if they can do what they are proposing. Councilmember Scott doubted that there is enough there to get done what needs to get done within our City. I heard that Corey Lantz had a fabulous year contracting out, but I'd like to hear a report back from him. Committeemember Williams- Preston asked if we employing Corey and his crew. Councilmember Scott and Mr. Perri explained that the City is employing them. Mr. Perri stated that Mr. Lantz should come and present to the Council because he applied for an Awesome Foundation grant, and it was just amazing the work they were doing. Committeemember Voorde asked if any of this needs to be changed in the code book. Committee Chair White stated absolutely. Council Attorney Kathleen Cekanski Farrand explained that the Administration would be filing an ordinance to amend the City Code at some point. Mr. Perri stated he would be interested in knowing what parts you're finding that would have to be amended by Code. Council Attorney Cekanski Farrand stated that according to state law, all executive departments have to be established by ordinance, and it is in our City code in Section 2 -13. So that would have to be updated to reflect the changes you're proposing in the budget. Mr. Perri stated none of the departments disappeared. Council Attorney Cekanski Farrand stated that if the title is changing, it would have to be changed in the Code Book. Committee Chair White stated she was going to ask that same question. Council Attorney Cekanski Farrand stated she spoke to James Mueller about it months ago. John Murphy stated that all of the funds related to this have kept the same names. Council Attorney Cekanski Farrand is not concerned about the funds, just the title change. Committee Chair White stated that she knows the Century Center is run by a board, and asked what role would that board play in terms of the centralization, and what is the status of the parking study that was commissioned. She asked if the Council could get a copy of those findings as well as recommendations. If any fees are going to be increasing, now is the time to 17 make those changes, during the budget process. She stated she probably need to have some additional staffing to keep up, and I think there is a misunderstanding and individuals don't know who owns individual lots. When we had the storm, the trees were taken down, but the stumps were not. The City does not take out the stumps. When it goes into the sidewalks, they can't even walk because of what is happening. Councilmember Scott asked Clerk Fowler to share the minutes from the third district walking tour with Mr. Perri. Councilmember Scott clarified that they are the graffiti crew, too. Mr. Perri asked if the parking study findings were filed with the Clerk's Office. Clerk Fowler stated that it was not, they were still following up with Brian and having meetings. The last meeting they had was with downtown business owners. Mr. Perri stated he thinks we are close to making a recommendation after meeting with all of the stakeholders. Mr. Perri stated he understands the Council's desire to see all of the user fee increases come through at once. Committee Chair White said we need to look at the entire picture rather than a piecemeal version. Committeemember Voorde was under the impression that we needed another parking garage, then he heard that early results showed we wouldn't need another parking garage. Mr. Perri stated the parking study took into consideration that we have a growing demand, but it did say that we have the. capacity, but there are some programmatic changes we need to make. We have too much reserved parking, so we need to change some of those habits. The only way to change those habits is to increase fees on reserved rates, but there are different things we can do. We can get rid of some of the parking time limits on the outskirts, the further away you get from the core. In the coming weeks we'll want to get something officially filed with the Council, which has been on the docket, but he was just not sure of the timing of it. Mr. Perri continued with his presentation, pointing out the idea that parks touches so many things, including social equality. Councilmember's Scott and Williams- Preston spoke about the sentiments that it was a good experience the way we worked with Fremont Park. There are other programs that take that to another level. For example, there is a program that when there is a park redesign, they employ high school students and they teach and have them run the public meetings, pair them with landscape architects and colleges so they can learn about how to do storm water management. They can get class credit through a partnership with the schools. We heard from a young woman who graduated from landscape architecture as a result of doing this program when she was in high school. There are all kinds of engagement things, and we are just scratching the surface. Included in the Council's packet are overview budget items. Some are big picture, but the idea is that on the revenue and expense side, approximately nineteen percent (19 %) of our revenue we 18 are recovering through user fees, and those would also include other sources of income including grants. There is a new category called PSA SMA, and those are the transfers in as service management agreements with some of the other departments. That's how each traditional budget is still in the ordinance and still funded, but we are paying professional service agreements or service management agreements to get corporate level support. On the expense side, facilities and grounds is the largest portion of our expenses. The overall budget review and the changes this year are pretty basic. Healthcare, the mayor's desire to increase the minimum wage, and some new compliance we have to do with the Department of Labor in overtime rules accounts for many of the changes. Committee Chair White asked in terms of the interfund allocations, how much of that additional cost goes back to IT? Mr. Perri responded $600,000. Committee Chair White stated that most of that $700,000 is for IT. She asked if Mr. Perri has been told what they are receiving for that, or is that just maintaining what they have in terms of IT? Mr. Perri stated that is a charge that we have historically been responsible for as a department. IT was covered outside of the City, and now this year they are asking each department to take on that responsibility. It is based on the number of employees, phones, and computers in the department. They'll take care of all of the backbone infrastructure, and it has removed the internal IT people, centralizing it. Committee Chair White asked if he sees the budget being reduced as everything becomes more centralized, and we have also spoken to the point of needing to make sure you have the support to do the things you are talking about. If you do not have the financial support to do those things, it is very difficult to come back and say this is what you need. Mr. Perri stated that the new duties they are talking about taking on, right now they are talking about what they need to accomplish those. In terms of the groups that are coming together here, there is not a lot of cost savings that we are looking at. By putting people together, we're able to get those additional positions that we haven't been able to get in the past. We'll be able to become more efficient. We can't approach it as though we are saving money, we are redeploying the resources in a more effective manner. Committeemember Regina Williams- Preston asked if we are going to say that we need to make sure we are retaining, are we actually increasing salaries because of different responsibilities. Mr. Perri stated that the scenario is true. In terms of the top, there is no assumption, we're in the middle of our Teamsters negotiation, so we didn't want to put anything in there so there wouldn't be a shift after the budget negotiations. 19 Some of the other increases are part of the service management agreement. We were able to realize a few expense reductions though this year, the Zoo subsidy is on a schedule to reduce over time by $100,000 this year per the contract. We're able to save on some maintenance contracts by consolidating what had historically been three (3) separate contracts. The good news is that we see some increased revenues as well through property taxes and grants and sponsors. The net impact to our budget should be about $200,000, negative. We plan to fund that initially through our reserves, which are healthy at this point. We have a five (5) year plan to work on this, as outlined in the budget packet. Besides the new department of Venues, Parks and Arts, the $3.5 million is still in the budget, on reserve from the park bond for the renovation and major expansion of the Charles Black Center. We hoped to break ground on that this year, but with the ongoing EPA investigation, we just weren't able to do that. The investigation has pretty much wrapped up as far as the onsite soil investigation, so we should hear back in the next couple of months about the next steps. We lost a major national tournament this year because of the condition of our tennis courts. We resurfaced seven (7) or eight (8) years ago, and they are in need of resurfacing again. The Howard Park Ice Rink is in the budget, funded by TIF. That won't be open this year, we're doing the Riverfront parks and trails study to help make sure we position that in the right spot in the park and plan for future expansions as necessary in that area. We're going to continue to sustain the Mademen program at the MLK Center, now called just Made, because young women are now a part of it. We'll continue the movies in the parks series this year, which is unique. We decided to take the movies to every neighborhood throughout the City, instead of just putting them in Howard Park or something. Committeemember Williams- Preston stated that she loved Creature from the Black Lagoon at Pinhook. Mr. Perri continued that we celebrated the Fourth of July with the river lights, there will be some new streetscape responsibilities, and we mentioned the roundabouts. Some of the remaining park bond will be used to continue some of the maintenance programs throughout the parks. The staffing changes, this year, more people were added as a result of the tree maintenance agreement. We are paying to help maintain the new trees that were installed, so we added the capacity to help take care of all of those. Hopefully you're seeing the result of that. Historically, we outsourced services by combining all of those folks, it made sense at this point in time to bring in the HVAC tech in house, replace one of the retiring positions with the horiculturalists, so here's where you see a transfer of five (5) positions that have historically been at the Morris, Palais complex to the Venues, Parks and Arts, still servicing Morris and Palais and funded in their budget, but transferred to our budget so it is cost - neutral. FIX We are reintroducing the Director of Development and replacing a full -time position through some attrition, with a volunteer coordinator. It will make a big difference in how our parks are cared for. This was an aggressive year for capital improvements to the parks, and we were really pleased with a lot of the things we were able to accomplish this year, adding a whole other level of thought and sophistication to what we do in the parks. Goals and challenges in 2017 will be aligning everybody. We're in the middle of developing the first ever natural resource management plan. Golf in Elbel is still fully funded in this budget, we really refined the cost recovery model and talked about several weeks ago. Key performance metrics, how we are reporting on what parks are doing for neighborhood development, there are a lot of things in terms of the health of the parks as it relates to the health of the community. The riverfronts parks and trails design plan and implementation, the first meeting is September Stn, you'll be hearing a lot more about that at 5:30 at the Century Center. The consultant will be talking about an actionable design plan, and then some of the capital projects. Committee Chair White stated we'll go to the Morris and the parking garage. Mr. Perri said he can cover the parking garage quickly. There are no changes to the parking garage budget, there have been capital projects with the elevators. Committee Chair White asked if they are still losing (inaudible). Mr. Perri stated they just don't generate enough revenue to address the capital, but they will be revenue positive this year. Councilmember Scott stated that he and Committee Chair White will formulate questions for Parks. Committee Chair White stated that Community Investment gave a comprehensive presentation last night in terms of the utilization of TIF and to support parks, she asked how does that all integrate into what you're doing. We had a detailed breakdown of what they were suggesting, and what impact that would have on Parks and also as we look at the General Fund. Based on what was shared last night, it was indicated that about $9 million was going to be shifted to different areas, but what does it mean for Parks? It would be nice to have a breakdown for each project, what are you going to pull from TIF and what is the impact, and what will we actually have to work with in the end. Mr. Perri does not have an exact number, but Howard Park is a great example of the types of things created using TIF. 21 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 Ms. Debeck stated that we have discussed that in the past. We have a $99 special with the Double Tree where we'll even make the arrangements for them. Mr. Perri stated last time Wicked was here, we were able to quantify what that did for the downtown. Even the stagehands and actors need places to stay. Councilmember Scott stated DTSB usually collected those numbers during the shows. It was real interesting, I have a lot of suppliers to the east, and a supplier from Lima, Ohio who brought his wife, and her mother and father, raved on about South Bend after visiting for the first time to see Wicked. My supplier talked about parking, the restaurants, the Double Tree, and what the experience meant to his family. They went to Studebaker and Notre Dame, but the impact of a great experience downtown was made possible because they were brought here by Wicked. Ms. Debeck stated that they are working on the Lion King for 2018, and the Phantom of the Opera, each with sixteen (16) show runs. That impact would be insane, so we are very excited about that. Councilmember Scott said that again it comes back to having the hotel space. The metrics are going to change when we get more hotels. Mr. Perri stated that they anticipate revenues to be up substantially because of a partnership with the Navarre Hospitality. The committee discussed Dennis Andres and his contribution to the community. Councilmember Broden inquired about partnerships with DeBartolo. Ms. Debeck stated that they are working on discussing initiatives they are doing there and what the Morris can do to share with them. They are looking at shows they might have at DeBartolo that they can offer packages with for the Morris's shows. Committee Chair White adjourned the meeting at 7:06 p.m. K,64- 14i5� 23