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Councilmember Elvig inquired what sureties the legal teams are asking for. <br />Assistant Public Works Director Olson explained the reason Attorney Tom Bray is so concerned <br />about the possibility of someone that already has a vested interest contesting this, is that they <br />would not just be in jeopardy of losing that one small portion of the total assessment; they run the <br />risk of jeopardizing the entire 13.4 million -dollar assessment if one person is allowed to get out <br />of it. It is complicated and that is why they are adamant about having the secondary parties as a <br />signature on the agreement, especially if they will be releasing the escrows. <br />Mr. Feges stated the six million -dollar assessment for the parking structure, four million dollars <br />for AUAR, and 1.3 million dollars for Phase One and Phase Two are agreed upon. If the <br />secondary developers disagree today and an assessment hearing is not done, another party could <br />say there is not a benefit for them either. If they do an assessment hearing now and allocate the <br />dollars across the project, then the appeal process is done and no one else can come back on that. <br />Mayor Gamee stated at one time there was a group that was working with this and suddenly there <br />are many different groups going different ways. This has gotten to a point where it has gotten so <br />far away from them that he does not know if anyone on the Council knows what is going on. He <br />suggested all of the parties should get together with the Council present to hear all the sides of <br />the stories. He would like to see some plain hard facts on the situation, and the attorneys will <br />also need to be present. The Council will need to make a decision based on what is presented to <br />them. <br />Council member Strommen stated it would be good to go through this issue by issue as far as <br />what the dispute is and what the two positions are. <br />Mr. Feges stated Attorney Tom Bray has said that some of this comes down to making a business <br />decision based on what the attorneys have expressed concern over. <br />Councilmember Elvig stated the lawyers have their ideas and there are business decisions and <br />leaps of faith to take. There are calculated risks involved in getting into business, but the lawyers <br />should be present in the conversation. <br />City Administrator Norman indicated there is a better than fair chance they may not be able to <br />put this cleat together. One side or the other may view it as more beneficial to the other side. He <br />thinks Mr. Netegaard really wants to work with the City. However, if they are not able to put this <br />document together it would still operate under the Master Development Agreement. He noted <br />the AUAR was based on a special taxing district, which would be an unfair way to tax just the <br />commercial, and not the whole area. <br />Assistant Public Works Director Olson explained the intent was to tax the entire area and it was <br />found they could only tax the commercial area. At that time it was determined that the dollar <br />value per square foot of land was too much to bear, but that does not mean they could not go with <br />a Lesser amount. <br />City Council Work Session/October 5, 2004 <br />Page 3 of 5 <br />