City Council Informational Meeting (11-14)
City Clerk Tom Greco first does a presentation on updates to the election procedures.
Than like a bad dream the Downtown Parking ramp returns. I’m hoping the council can kill this once and for all.
City Council Meeting (11-14)
The council has a very short agenda. Items 11-13 though are contract renewals for SMG, Ovations/Spectra, and the Pavilion.
As for SMG, if I had one criticism that sticks out with their management of several city facilities is I wish they would promote more shows themselves to make the city money (pay down mortgage). We already know the EC is extremely popular, and as I witnessed last night sells out all kinds of genres of music. Why not take the risk of promoting it’s own shows and cashing in?
As for Spectra (Ovations) I have heard several criticisms of the company and the way it staffs events. Besides not allowing tip jars (though my complaining got them to put tip lines on the CC slips now) they understaff. They also tend to use temporary labor. While that is fine in construction or other industry, when it comes to food & beverage service, that is worrisome.
The Washington Pavilion contract renewal is of great interest. While I could go on for awhile about how the Pavilion is ran, I will commend them for bringing in high quality musical acts and promoting most of their own shows. The great hall pulled in over $2 million dollars last year alone.
My issue with the contract renewal has more to do with the way the city and city council is handling it. With all the complaining about secrecy, transparency and RFP’s, wouldn’t it seem logical the city handled these contracts differently?
• There hasn’t been a city audit of the Pavilion in 10 years, with no yearly reviews.
• The 2016 audit of the Pavilion wasn’t released until last week, even though the external auditing firm gave it to the board of directors on June 20. Why the delay?
I believe he Pavilion financials should be reviewed better before renewing the contract. Oh, and, bring back the free galleries.
My public input on the matter last week (FF: 39:20)
Charter Revision Meeting (11-15)
The commission goes over several charter revisions suggested by city councilors. Joe Sneve writes an excellent review of the possible revisions.
Thankyou for this summary. No Pavilion audits in 10 years is suspicious. This session seems a little honest and with foggy transparency. It’s beginning to look a lot like elections.
I see they are not giving up on their parking ramp dreams
http://www.siouxfalls.org/news/2017/November/13/parking-ramp