The agenda and read ahead for Monday's General session are on the City Website.  The two main items I hope you read and consider providing input on are the Ballot Ordinance for the November Income Tax Levy and the Music Center Management Contract.
 
Remember if you chose to speak Monday Night you have two options.  When filling out the request to speak you can chose to do it as Citizen Comments or you can chose to do it as a Citizen Registered to Speak on Agenda Items.  Generally, I recommend if you want to speak about specific agenda items like the income tax ordinance then you should register to speak on that item.  That way you get to hear the council discussion first and address those comments when you make your own comments.  You can also speak on multiple agenda items.  This will allow you to develop your thoughts more fully.
 
Monday is the second reading of the Income Tax Levy.  The ordinance is Item 11A on the agenda. Council has committed to three reading before it is passed.  However, if you have input Monday will be the time to give it.  This will allow Council to discuss your position in the next committee meeting, during their Ward meeting or via email. 
 
The Music Center Management Contract is being presented for a first reading and expected to be passed as emergency legislation.  This is agenda item 12C.  The proposed contract and Exhibit are found online. If you have input, this may be your final opportunity.  I believe I have a lot of work still to do in order to provide appropriate input and appreciate all that you can do to make sure the opportunity to finish exists. 
 
You can find the agenda with links to the readings at:  http://agendaquick.hhoh.org/agenda_publish.cfm?id=0&mt=ALL&get_month=6&get_year=2014&dsp=ag&seq=857
 
I look forward to seeing you there. 

For those that heard about last Tuesday's Administration committee meeting here is the text of the email I sent council at 1219 am Tuesday morning:
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All,
 
After reading and re-reading the proposed Music Center Contract and Exhibit A it appears we need between 10 to 20 hours of staff briefings and council discussion in order to mold these documents into a responsible proposal.  The degree to which this document and the City's business plan is incomplete makes composing a logical list of pre-meeting items that need to be address a daunting task by itself.
 
As noted in a previous email the agreement and exhibit do not contain requisite performance measures or goals.  Developing how we are going to measure the success of the operations must be accomplished.  After we establish what we want from the facility we will then need to establish a get well plan if the performance measures are not met. 
 
Unfortunately, before we can discuss appropriate performance measures for the Management Company council must establish an operational goal for the facility.  For instance are we going to set up the performance measures to encourage the facility to be used on as many days as possible?  Will we encourage maximum per event net revenue?  Will we encourage maximum total net revenue?  
 
What if we decide that we want to maximize the number of days the facility is used and two years in a row we end up with 10 total events.  How do we step in and in year three start to utilize the facility on other days?
 
Another glaring issue that must be hashed out before entering a management agreement is budget expectations, projections and sources.  If we are looking to have a concert every Friday and Saturday next June, July and August this equates to 28 concerts.  If concerts are booked 4 months in advance, most acts are getting about $100,000 a show and they want half up front then somehow we will have to find $1.4 million dollars in up front fees just for the acts.  In this proposal we are obligated to pay MEMI $225,000 a year even if we don't hold one event.  Will there be other contracts that we will be obligated to pay even if we have no revenue?  A budget plan must be developed before we start allocating funds.  
 
Again there are too many things missing from this document and our Music Center "Plan" to address here but a high priority item that needs to be thought about is a way to get rid of the 10 year guarantee of $225,000 per year.     
 
I look forward to the start of a productive discussion this evening. 
 
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The city attorney incorporated new language in the proposed contract that he indicated would help define the performance expectation.  That language is available in the agenda read ahead for us to review.  When I got the chance to speak I started talking about the objectives of the Music Center Operation.  There was a short discussion between the City Attorney and I.  In this discussion he stated maximizing profits would be council's goal.  Then there was a commitment to spending whatever time was necessary in order to get the right kind of information together and the right kind of discussion in order to draft the best contract proposal.  The discussion on the contract ended there.
 
The committee then spent the next 2.5 hours enthusiastically emphasizing their expectation that I stop communicating with the public and if I do then I should make sure my thoughts match their message.  We never did get back to addressing the issues with the Music Center management contract.