The City Council is the entity established by Minnesota State Law to make the important policy decisions that make our City work. The City Council makes its decisions by listening to City staff, listening to residents and by talking with each other. The discussion the Members of the Council have with each other is often called “debate.” I think that’s a bit of a misnomer. It isn’t as much debate as it is discussion. One resident of the community talking to another resident. Or, five residents of the community having a group discussion. At our Council meetings, the discussion is respectful and generally friendly.
I offer this preface as a way to contextualize the Council’s recent decision about the Art Center. The Council, after about 45 minutes of discussion, decided to take two actions on the Art Center. The first action was to approve a contract to go forward with building a new parking lot for the Art Center. The Art Center building has a small parking lot, but it needs a larger parking lot in order to function properly as a public facility. Time is of the essence right now for building a parking lot. By awarding the contract this week, it is likely that the parking lot will be able to be completed before the snow starts flying later this fall. If the Council would have declined to award this particular contract this week, it would have been unlikely that the parking lot could have been completed until sometime next spring.
The second action taken by the Council for the Art Center was, in a sense, a non-action. The Council declined to award a contract for the interior improvements to the Art Center building that will eventually be necessary for the building to function as an Art Center. The Council declined to award the contracts because the Council is still hoping that residents, local businesses or foundations will come forward with private contributions to fund the project. The Council believes that if the City pays for the interior improvements with public funds and then goes out looking for donations, the City will be less likely to get donations than if it makes the interior improvements contingent upon advance private gifts. The Council suggested a target private donation level of $80,000 be attained before it would approve the interior improvements contract. The Council asked for an update on the fund raising at their October 21 meeting.
It’s a fact to say that not all Council Members agreed on the final action of the Council. The decision on the interior improvements contract vote was 3-2. But the decision of the Council is, in effect, a way to describe how the Council “feels” about an issue. So in this case, the Council feels that the Art Center is an important new amenity for the City; they want it to succeed; they know it is unlikely that people will give the City private donations to build a parking lot; and that they want residents who want the Art Center to step forward (like residents did who wanted a new ice arena and a new baseball stadium) to help make it all happen.
I think arts advocates heard the message on Tuesday night. I think they’ll mobilize. I’ve seen it happen time and time again in Eden Prairie. I think it’ll happen again.
