Thread by @shayshinecastle

First thing: What IS the civic use pad? It's that area behind the St. Julien on 9th and Canyon.

When the St. Julien and the underground parking garage there opened in 2004/2005, this area was set aside for... something. It just needed to have a civic use, per an agreement with the city (who owned part of the land and the parking garage).

That agreement expires in Jan. 1, 2020. If the city doesn't do a deal by then, the St. Julien can do whatever it wants with the civic use pad.

A survey of 56 area nonprofits in 2018 found a need for event spaces with access to a kitchen and nearby parking. So that's what the St. Julien will build/operate/maintain and own.

The civic use part comes in bc civic and nonprofit organizations will get first dibs at reserving this space. Plus a subsidized rental fee and a discount on catering services, if they need it.

The city will subsidize these benefits, up to $250K a year, with money from the tax the site generates.

There is a master list of organizations that qualify. It needs updated once a year.

Forgot another perk: Civic/nonprofit groups can bring in donated alcohol (not all venues allow that). They just have to pay for a St. Julien bartender/servers.

Actually a good question from Nagle: How do we separate some groups that we might not want to support, like nonprofit hate groups? Then what if it gets down to political groups?

Yvette Bowden, head of parks n rec and community vitality, says staff will be working with council in the time that it takes to build the space to determine that.

"Council will have an opportunity to weigh in on the developed process. That will ultimately become at attachment to this agreement."

Yates follows: If there's a 501c3 org not on the list, would they receive the benefits?
Assistant attorney David Gehr: No they wouldn't. They'd have to apply to be put on the list.

Yates: But what if they want to reserve the place next month? You only update the list once a year.
Gehr: Primary booking season is 1-2 yrs out. But I don't anticipate our staff would be that bureaucratic about it. (In other words, they can likely accommodate that.)

Yates: I'm still not convinced.

Council is amending the agreement to open it up to Boulder County nonprofits serving Boulder residents, whether they're on the list or not. They just have to be 501c3.

Maybe.

Jones: The issue is hate groups can be 501c3 and they could be serving one city of Boulder resident. But they don't want them on the list.

Yates on the purpose of a list allowing discretion on the behalf of St. Julien. "It's a bit of a Hobby Lobby situation. Idk who's going to running it 5-10 yrs from now. If they want to assert their politic views and exclude somebody..."

Jones: They don't want hate groups at their hotel
Yates: Why don't we flip it and do a list of groups they don't want?

Bowden: "There might be need for additional dialogue." Suggests that council come up with a process to be completed before the certificate of occupancy is issued.

Bruce Porcelli, managing partner of St. Julien, is addressing council now. Lots of words; nothing worth typing.

Except this: This agreement is not meant to continue negotiations. It needs to be a complete agreement.

Porcelli: "One of the $64K q has always been, who gets to use it? If somebody calls and wants to use the space, we just want a list we can flip to."

"To use our labor force to help sell this space, allow third-party caterers to come in, all these things we tried to think through and put into the agreements."

Porcelli: "This is 25 years later, for me, of working on this. I feel like Morgan Freeman on Shawshank Redemption, coming up for my fifth time on parole."

RE a list: It would be to city's advantage, he says. "There may be groups you can’t deny being the city, but as a private entity, we can."

Jones have 2 qs: Agreement says no blackout dates for the first five years, so what changes after?
What's the potential that not very many groups won't be able to use it bc you'll be better at scheduling ahead than they will?

Agreement has been redrafted so that potential blackout dates will be reviewed after 5 years.
Bowden says there are accommodations for later reservations.

Jones: Maybe we want to take a look at how things are going more frequently than every 5 years...?

Another Jones q: How will we know it's working? What's the benchmark (number of events, groups,etc.)?
Bowden is giving some answer about outreach. Talking about the "safeguards" so that one group doesn't "use it every week" and use all the subsidy $$.

"This is really a demand-driven agreement," so it's hard to know... I guess, is the answer...?

Young asks if council would want to include a process for 501c3 that is left off the list.

Brockett: Let us create such a process. You're hearing from us a lot of concern about how we determine what groups use the space.

"I think we need some additional comfort that our local nonprofit and civic groups will be able to use the space even if they haven't planned 18 months in advance."

Young: "I just have a concern for smaller, less well-funded groups that can fall off the radar."

Weaver asks about the city process for vetting groups that rent out the library.

Carr: I hope we don't have a process for groups renting our library. I hope that it's first-come, first-serve. We don't want a gov't deciding what groups get in or not.

Weaver: We want this to be as open as it can be. It's a CIVIC use pad. I think we should be really careful about the restrictions we place on it.

Brockett: To me, this is less about keeping bad groups out. We have a limited resource here. It's more about making sure we're having actual nonprofits.

Weaver: There's activist groups. Why would we not allow this? I'd be OK giving 501c3s priority, but it seems to me there's an awful lot of judgement calls that go into it that could end up excluding smaller groups.

Jones: idk if the problem we're trying to solve is groups falling through the cracks, or the hate group piece. There are different solutions.

Agreement is amended to add that Boulder and the St. Julien agree to create a process for deciding who gets to rent.

Porcelli: We're fine with a process, but it has to be a joint process. We can't be deciding which groups get to use it, and the city can't either. As far as the intent of this, it's bona fide groups.

Boy this guy talks so much and says so little. I have zero idea what his point is.

"The way the agreement is now, you have no obligation to subsidize anything."

Porcelli: "The process for who gets a subsidy, I'd say that's more on your side than ours."

Bowden: We need to do a little more thinking on how the subsidy needs to be used. Do you want to subsidize only certain types of events? Should it cover St. Julien's bartenders?

Jones: How much do you charge? How far will $250,000 go?
Bowden: Rates from $300/day to $3,500/day, depending on how much space/services you use.

Bowden: And you don't have to subsidize the full expense of each use. You can subsidize a portion, or specific services, etc.

Porcelli: This is not set up to be a church basement, high school cafeteria. This is for large events. That's what the survey showed the needs for. Fundraising events, etc. We're going after larger, bona fide groups.

Jones: This kicks it down the road a bit, but what it does is create a space to create a process and an intent to do so.

We're doing language cleanup now. Haggling over ands/ors.

Now they're debating a "which"

Gripping stuff in the council chambers.

I think that's a wrap. Now we vote..?

Jones: There was a time I thought some of us were concerned we'd never get there.
Brockett: Thanks to staff for hanging in there. There's a light at the end of the tunnel and it's freedom!

Young: I can't believe we're here. And right under the wire, too. Lots of ppl spent many years on this. Thank you, Yvette, for taking it to the finish line.

Morzel: I'm glad we're at the end of this, and we're still smiling. Thank you everybody who's participated in this. (There were four city task forces on this issue alone.)

Public hearing. THERE'S NO ONE HERE!
Unanimous vote.

Please unroll @threadreaderapp. Thx!