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-13- The Mayor indicated his own remembrance of the work session had been that the • Council had recognized that the same type of project had failed in that location and that Mr. Nelson had indicated he would not be recommending the project be tried again unless he was certain the City would make some money with it. Mayor Sundland then stated that he did not wish to be part of what the general public could perceive to be a disruptive debate about the merits or demerits of an activity in 400 square feet of retail . He also indicated he would not want to give the general public the impression that the Council perceived the liquor operation had been anything but beneficial to the welfare of the community. Mr. Nelson said he agreed that it wasn 't worth the controversy the discussion had started. He had only come to them with his proposal because he believed the liquor operation could do a better job than the business which had been in that space before. Mr. Nelson withdrew his proposal saying he had come to the Council only because he had been unable to lease that space because no one was really interested in starting a business there -that was going to be torn down eventually. It .was his suggestion that the Council look at his proposal again after the ware- house operation is relocated and said, he perceived the City could utilize the empty space for something else in the meantime. Councilmember Ranallo indicated he had certainly never meant to give the impression that he was in any way "anti=liquor" but, on the contrary, wanted the Liquor Manager to devote all his efforts to making the sale of liquor successful to the point where it would make $450,000 instead of only $300,000 for the City to offset taxes. • Councilmember Enrooth indicated he perceived that it had .been Mr. Nelson's goal all along to build up the liquor sales which everybody recognizes are not going to increase with present trends in the market'. He said he believed the Liquor Manager was only trying to wring every cent of revenue out of the liquor operation and believed he could enhance those efforts with his proposal . Mr. Nelson told the Council the City is doing well right now in the liquor business, but sales at the warehouse had droPPed the last few months, except for October when the" ncrea.se _in sales" taxes`-had prompted'peo7Te_to-stock ,up 'ohead• He said he knew of a number of municipal liquor. operations which were going private just because of the diminishing returns and he told Councilmember Ranallo he per- -ceived the assumption that liquor", not food, was where the profits would be made, was no longer true today. Councilmember Marks indicated he would feel more comfortable with having a "business plan" to work with which would estimate the revenues, costs, etc. of such an operation and the matter was deferred at least until the time when the rest of the staff study on alternatives for the liquor operation came in. There was a brief discussion about whether the City should have to pay the "voluntary assessment" requested by the League of Minnesota Cities to support the continuation of the League' s and the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials' - tax increment finance study and lobbying efforts . The Mayor- said it might be thought of as just an extension of the fees to belong to the League. Councilmember Ranallo indicated that because of his membership on the League's Federal Legislation Committee, where he is pushing those lobbying efforts, he • would have to recommend City participation in that effort. The Councilmember indicated he agreed with Mr. Childs that a major effort was being put forth by the League to save tax increment financing perceiving this to be one of the last tools cities have for redevelopment. The Councilmember added