Cape Girardeau City Council promises to fund Old Town Cape $40,000 for one year

With one year instead of two and a more ambiguous source of funding, Old Town Cape didn't get exactly what it asked for Monday night.

But, despite the somewhat heated discussion that came first, executive director Marla Mills said she could live with the outcome reached by the Cape Girardeau City Council.

"I'm happy with the end result," Mills said.

Old Town Cape, a not-for-profit downtown revitalization organization, went into the meeting Monday night asking the council to set aside $80,000 to bridge what it saw as a two-year gap in financial support caused by a dwindling city fund.

The group was hoping to have the money set aside in a special fund until June 2014, when the city plans to use revenue from a new Riverfront Fund to financially support Old Town Cape.

What the council decided instead was to promise to fund the group $40,000 for one year without specifying exactly where the money would come from.

During the study session before the meeting, council member Loretta Schneider got the discussion started when she said she was surprised to learn that the Convention and Visitors Bureau one-time fund was nearing depletion. If the council approved the Old Town Cape's two-year proposal, it would put the fund, which once held $850,000, to $168,000.

"It was a shock to me that it is down this low," Schneider said.

Over the past two years, the council had used the one-time fund to provide Old Town Cape $20,000 to work to revitalize downtown and an additional $20,000 to plan and implement the Downtown Strategic Plan.

In addition to funding a portion of Old Town Cape's roughly $160,000 budget, the council also used the one-time fund to pay for special projects, such as Melaina's Magical Playland and the Boomer Project.

Schneider said she was unaware when she voted to approve those projects that it was coming from the one-time fund.

"I'm not at all happy with the way it's being conducted," she said. "I think it really needs to be clarified."

Then council members John Voss and Mark Lanzotti each took issue with what they saw as promising to fund the organization for two years.

"Why should we commit two years in advance?" Voss said. "We help fund the Humane Society and the Safe House [for Women], and we give them all one-year commitments. We should just fund them for one year like we've always done and then allow them to compete for those funds next year like they always have."

Lanzotti didn't understand initially why Old Town Cape was asking for a promise for funding now. The city normally prepares its budget in June for a fiscal year that begins July 1. But Mills said that Old Town Cape operates on a calendar year and -- as the group is preparing its budget now -- it wanted to ensure the money would be in place should the council opt to fund them as it always has.

"I appreciate the need to plan, but what I'm asking is why am I being asked to approve something that is 30 months down the road?" Lanzotti said. "This is not an assault on Old Town Cape. This is an assault on the mechanics of it. I see this as a luxury request."

Lanzotti also said he wanted to challenge the council and city staff to find the money to fund Old Town Cape in the general revenue budget or through some other savings. That's apparently why any mention of the one-time fund was removed from the city's motion that was approved on a 7-0 vote.

Meanwhile, council member Debra Tracy said she supported pledging to support the organization for two years and using the one-time fund to do it.

"I know the money is there right now," she said. "It's going to a purpose that we as a community and we as a council should support. We should put our money where our mouth is."

Old Town Cape board member Steven Hoffman said after the meeting that, in some ways, what the council did was stronger than what they asked for. The organization was asking for money to be set aside in case the council wanted to fund them, Hoffman said. What the council's motion did, he said, was promise to fund the group.

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Pertinent address:

418 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO