Minutes - Council Work Session - 04/15/2008

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Councilmember Look stated that at one point, there was discussion about taking this issue to the public by conducting a random survey. City Administrator Ulrich stated that there was discussion about this, but felt the direction from the Council was to form a task force rather than conduct a survey. Councilmember Jeffrey stated that the task force can be formed and then if there is something that comes out of that group that needs a survey, then a more focused one could be conducted. City Administrator Ulrich reminded the Council that the City has the ability to include a survey with the utility bills. Mayor Gamec asked if there would be a theater group involved in giving feedback. He stated that there is a theater group in Elk River and also suggested contacting Steve Schmidt at Lyric Arts in Anoka. Park and Recreation Commission Chair Johns stated that theater space has come up consistently for years. Assistant City Administrator Nelson stated that she will put together a work plan to start gathering broad input from the community groups and bring this back to the Council before an open house type session is scheduled. 3) Discussion of Lawful Gambling Fund - City Code 3.40.02 Assistant City Administrator Nelson stated that as part of the code amendment process in 2007, there was an amendment to allow for lawful gambling funds to be used for community programs and services. She stated that the City has received a request from Youth First which triggered an internal discussion about the idea of applying a percentage to the amount of money from this fund that goes towards community programs. Councilmember Dehen asked what the City was trying to fix by applying these percentages. City Administrator Ulrich stated that there is a balance of over $200,000 in the account and the City has not had a discussion about where the funds should go. He stated that $175,000 in the CIP is designated for the skate park, but there is also an annual estimate revenue of about $58,000. He stated that of the $58,000, $21,300 is designated for operation and program activity. He stated that if the Youth First request is granted, nearly 100% of the remaining balance would go towards the annual allotment. He stated that he sees this as a policy issue and asked if the Council wanted to have 100% of the funds go towards programming efforts or 100% towards park capital projects, or a balance of, for example 50% to capital and 50% to activities. Councilmember Dehen stated that he did not want to "jack over" Parks and Recreation, so he feels at least 50% should be reserved for them. City Council Work Session /AprilI5, 2008 Page 6 of 10