Agenda Packets - 2011/07/05 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item No: 2 Meeting Date: July 5, 2011 Type of Business: Work Session City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: James Ericson, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Review Lease Proposal for the Former Chamber Space at the Mounds View Community Center Introduction: As the Council was briefed last Monday night, June 27, 2011, the City has received a proposal from “Redeemed Life Church International” to lease the former chamber space at the Community Center at the lease rate of $10 per square foot. At the Council meeting, staff expressed some reservation with the entity possibly not being an appropriate “fit” and raised the question of the entity’s ability to comfortably carry the lease payments. The Council suggested the issue be added to the July work session so there could be some objective discussion about what types of uses the Council generally wanted to see in the space and to consider the proposal from the church. Discussion: One of the issues brought up at the June 27th meeting regarding the lease proposal was the issue of “church and state” separation. Staff has reaffirmed with the City Attorney that the Council is within its rights to lease to whichever entity it chooses and, conversely, it is under no obligation to accept a lease proposal just because the entity offers the requested lease rate. The Council retains full discretion regarding the mix of tenants at the Community Center. Another issue that was discussed was the partnering with New Horizons. Staff originally did not have the correct understanding of the New Horizons partnership—we had presumed the church had partnered with the well-known international “New Horizons” computer learning center organization. (New Horizons is also a name well known in child care circles.) Reverend Collins clarified this week that New Horizons Resource Group (NHRG) is a non-profit entity in no way affiliated with New Horizons. He states: “New Horizons Resource Group (NHRG) was established by a few working professionals including myself and we immediately incorporated with the state of Minnesota on December 3, 2009, and has been a member of the Minnesota Council of Non-profits for over a year now. NHRG has Employer Identification Number (EIN) and Minnesota Sale Tax Exempt number to legally operate in the state of Minnesota. We did our first fund raiser Dinner in 2010 at the Mounds View Community Center. Our second project was a "Lift Liberia 2010 Personal Empowerment (Leadership) Conference conducted in Liberia, West Africa with Kakata City government.” The full text of Reverend Collins’ email is attached for your reference.