LeRoy's City Council and Park District are at at stand-still as they try to work out an intergovernmental agreement for the operation of Replex.
Will Catalano informed the Council Monday that the Park Board had rejected the city's proposal for a new agreement.
Replex is jointly owned by the City and Park District. Since Replex has been in operation, it has operated under an intergovernmental agreement between the two taxing bodies. For more than six months, the city has been working to get a new agreement with the park district ratified.
The original agreement stated once the city takes ownership of the debt for Replex, the Park District would sign over the deed of the property to the city. Currently, the city is not named on the deed, despite the original agreement.
Alderman Mike Bailey has been the leader for getting a new agreement. He doesn't believe the current agreement is legally binding, and wants a new one to be signed. In August of last year, the Council came up with proposed amendments to the agreement, including a supervisory role for the City Administrator and a $75,000 cap for annual operational money sent to Replex.
The Park District agreed to making these changes and signing the agreement. The city then forwarded the changes to their attorney, who formed a legal proposal to be sent to the Park Board. The Park Board then sent the proposal to their attorney, and after consultation, said they wanted to keep the original agreement.
City Council members were angered at the Park Board's decision, and hoped to meet with them to get answers soon. The Park District's response to the city's proposal said they wanted to keep the original agreement as it has been. They also said they did not want to sign over the deed to the city.
Mike Bailey said he would come to the next Council meeting with a motion to cut off all city funding to Replex for operations.
“I've been trying to get this agreement for nine months, and it is not working,” Bailey said.
Catalano said he could not understand why the Park District decided to take this kind of stand.
“It is odd to me that the Park District would take this position,” Catalano said. “It seems like they are using ownership of the facility as leverage,”
Another sticking point with the Park District's response to the city was their intent with the $30,000 in additional tax dollars they are receiving. The Park District recently raised their tax levy from $90,000 to $120,000 with the intent of increasing their contribution for Replex debt retirement.
But in their letter to the city, the Park District told the council they would agree to pay at least $90,000 toward the debt, but did not want the other $30,000 committed to the debt in writing.
This concerned the Council, as they feared they would not be getting the help for the debt they were expecting.
O'Brien was not present at the meeting, but told the Press Tuesday the money would go to the debt.
“We are going to pay $120,000 towards the debt,” O'Brien said. “It doesn't need to be in writing. It's in our meeting minutes and it's in the minutes from when I addressed the council.”
The other point of emphasis from the city's point of view was having the deed signed over.
O'Brien said once the agreement is agreed upon, they would sign over the deed.
“There has been a lot of talk that the intergovernmental agreement is invalid or it doesn't exist. If it doesn't exist, then we don't need to sign over the deed,” O'Brien said. “Let's ratify this agreement, and once we agree on that, we'll sign the deed over that same day.”
Both sides agreed there has been a breakdown in communication. The Council said they wanted to see both the deed signed over to the city and for the Park District to put in writing that they will contribute their full $120,000 for Replex debt.
If that doesn't happen, the problems will only grow.
The Council directed John Haney and Dawn Hanafin, the two representatives on the Replex board to speak to the two Park District representatives at the RCA meeting Wednesday about their position to try to sort out the problems.
Both sides agree the debate has gone on too long, and a solution needs to be reached.
“We have to get together with them and figure this out,” City Clerk Sue Marcum said.
“People are letting emotions get in the way of what needs to be done for the betterment of Replex,” O'Brien said, “We need to put personal feelings aside, realize what is important and not let emotions get in the way of logic.”