07-24-17 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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Committeemember Gavin Ferlic made a motion to send Bill No. 42-17 to the full Council with a favorable recommendation. Committeemember John Voorde seconded the motion which carried unanimously by a voice vote of four(4) ayes. Bill No. 44-17-Housing Study Appropriation Mr. Murphy stated, This is an appropriation of$77,000 for the Housing Market study. It is from the Community Investment Operating Fund. It is not a TIF Fund or anything of that nature. Over the years we have budgeted the operating fund by the balance of the annual expenditures for the Department. The Department has done a good job not always spending all their money every year so we are able to cover this $70,000 out of the Operating Fund. James Mueller, Executive Director of Community Investment with offices on the 14th floor of the County-City Building, stated,As we discussed two (2) weeks ago, we went over the very broad overview of the various activities as well as where we are in our Housing Fund with respect to each of the Federal, State and Local Funds. Also,there are efforts already underway to figure out how to direct those monies more effectively and where in the community they impact the most. At this point,there is a fair amount of consensus around the need for the market study. There are some remaining questions about what supplementary activities would be helpful. The Administration shares those questions about what would be helpful and is certainly open to doing those types of things. The Administration seeks a plan of demonstrated value and, if we do use City funds for these efforts, it would have to be a contract with performance metrics and move through the Board of Public Works. We are open to it, but we haven't been able to wrap our heads around how to get that to work the best. Committee Chair White opened the floor to questions for the presenter from the Committee and Councilmembers. Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston asked, Why was $100,000 initially proposed and now it is $70,000? Have you received offers or estimates? How has the study become more robust with regard to the engagement of the people that will be most impacted by it? Mr. Mueller replied, The original $100,000 proposal was initially drafted without having any scope or figure from any consulting firm at that point. We put it there knowing we could always come down from that number and spend less. When we re-filed, after it was taken out of the Quarter Two (2) appropriations, we had a conversation with a consultant so we made that number$70,000. Since then, we think with the expanded scope, we think we can do it for $50,000. Both the $100,000 and$70,000 were extra,not knowing what the exact number would be. In terms of community engagement, like I said,the Administration is always open to that. We haven't yet figured out how that would work with all the other things moving in the Administration, but we would want to see a few more details of how exactly those pieces would work. Furthermore, as John mentioned,this is the Operating Fund of DCI. Councilmember Broden asked, So the 2014 study on the Westside Corridor, that was done in 2014? 3