City Council chooses to "eat the cost" at Wednesday special meeting
St. Cloud City Council held a special meeting on Wednesday to sort out logistics for Saturday’s Proud in the Cloud event. At issue, Mayor Chris Robertson said, is not the event itself, but making sure the attendees and the City’s asset are protected.
“A lot of balls were dropped in many departments, at many levels, at the uppers especially, and I believe we need to take control of the situation and ensure that it's handled accordingly,” Robertson said.
At the Wednesday morning meeting, which was upgraded Tuesday from a workshop to a full meeting so motions could be made and voted on, Robertson questioned whether two Parks and Recreation staff members and four on-site bathrooms would be enough for the 2,000-4,000-person event.
“I was told there was not going to be any port-a-lets on the property. When I said, ‘Well, we're going to have all these people, and they need to bring in port-a-lets.’ I was told that they need to use the bathrooms. But now I'm being told there's port-a-lets going on,” he said.
Deputy City Manager Scott Davidoff told Council that the group will be bringing in eight port-a-lets as well as 40 volunteers, 10 staff, and five private security personnel. The City will provide six police officers, a fire truck, an ambulance, and eight staff members – six of whom would be assigned only to the stage.
Deputy Mayor Ken Gilbert, who said he produced over 10,000 events in his career before he retired, questioned whether eight staff members for an event this size would be enough.
“Through the experience I have, when you see the 2,000 to 4,000 people … that's a lot of folks. And if something goes wrong, it goes wrong pretty quick. I'm not saying it will, and it doesn’t have to, but I agree with the mayor in protecting assets and the success of the event.”
Resident Jackie Fricchione said she and her husband helped the previous Ranch owners develop the venue, and she shared about their experiences. “Our last year there was the busiest ever. It was 1,100 people, and our parking lot got filled to capacity,” she said. “When we ran fall festivals, we had to have massive numbers of port-a-lets throughout the venue for convenience. These are just some things that I don't think were taken into consideration,” She added that the previous owners believe a minimum of 20 staff members should be required.
Robertson made a motion to add and pay for 10 additional staff members to work the event.
“I believe we need to eat the cost on this. I believe they need to have their event,” he said. “What I care about is, we have citizens that believed that they were getting a facility of ours to hold an event, and we need to ensure that they're safe, and we need to ensure that our property is protected.”
Deputy Mayor Gilbert seconded the motion, which carried 4-1, with Council Member Shawn Fletcher dissenting.
At the meeting, the Council also put a Community Support Grants Program on hold pending Council action at the next Council meeting.
Council Member Kolby Urban said, “I think I’ve made it pretty clear I'm not a fan of the program at all. I wouldn’t lose sleep if we put this entire budget into police and fire or … public safety services. As a taxpayer myself, if I want to donate to an organization, I’ll spend my own money. I don't need to funnel through my tax dollars.”
Mayor Robertson agreed: “I would agree with that, that things don't always work out, and it's our job to question things, review the whole situation. So I would be in agreeance with Councilmember Urban that I do not have any faith in this program.”
