The City Commissioners have been addressing the Salina housing issue at nearly every commission meeting for the past few months.
During the commission meeting, Former City Commissioner Jon Blanchard stepped forward during Citizens Forum to spark a discussion on the housing issue.
"I found out last Tuesday evening," Blanchard began, "watching the Planning Commission Meeting, that the Magnolia Pointe 168 apartment deal by Menards was dead on arrival."
Blanchard continued, "I reached out to the Mayor and Vice Mayor on Wednesday to see if I could get an update, and what was going on with that. I heard back from the Mayor. She provided me, just today, with an update from the City Manager. There are a lot of parts of that update that I find very troubling." Blanchard finished his time by saying, "On May 3rd, you made official that this was an emergency. We're in the position now where we have been before. And that is, how did we get here? Why didn't we see this coming? And, where do we go from here? I hope you address this in the very near future, because it's all about accountability. Who knew what, and when did they know it? When did the City Manager find out? When did he inform individual city commissioners, or the commissioners as a group?"
Mayor Hodges then took the floor. "I was going to request, of my fellow commissioners, given that we've acknowledged that we have a housing crisis, call it what you will... I planned to bring up in other business the information we got on Magnolia Pointe in this morning's City Manager's update... but I would like to officially add it to this evening's agenda if there's any support to do that, so that we can talk through and share with the public what we do know, about the fact that we are not getting the 168 unit Magnolia Pointe apartment complex that was to be located by Menards."
Commissioner Davis moved this motion. Commissioner Peck seconded. The motion passed 5-0. Commissioner Ryan was participating remotely.
When the time came at the end of the meeting for this issue to be discussed, Mayor Hodges asked "if we could hear from staff about where we're at in the process of the Magnolia Point Apartment Complex that was going to be built adjacent to Menards. I was not aware," she continued, "that there had been any issues with the development until I received an email from former Commissioner Blanchard, that included a clip from the Planning Commission Meeting, where at the end of the meeting, one of the planning commissioners appeared to ask spontaneously about the update. And, the update is, it is not going forward. I'm hoping city staff can give us an update on where we are."
City Manager Michael Schrage then spoke up. "Sure, I'll do my best. I don't know that I'm prepared to say that it is not going forward, although there has been a snag that we're trying to see if we can work through. The developer of the Menards site, had more property than just the Menards site, and that project culminated with the Menards opening in 2011. In May of 2010, 6-12 months before Menards opening, the developer entered into what is called a Declaration of Reciprocal Easement and Operating Agreement, between him as the developer and Menards as the tenant. As it pertains to this, a section is included that provides a list of prohibited land uses on the remainder of the property owned by the developer, that Menards would have to consent to."
Schrage went on, "The owner of the land and builder of the apartment complex informed us that they needed to get Menards consent. They were not aware that Menards conducts a real estate committee process, and they are the final arbitrator of whether they consent or not. Menards real estate committee then responded that they wanted to hold out for retail development on the property."
The City Manager finished by saying, "The agreement that was in place between the two parties, the City did not obtain a signed copy of that. We did rely on the developer and the builder telling us that they had Menards consent without independently verifying that."
Mayor Hodges then asked, "When did we hear about the deal falling through?"
Lauren Driscoll provided the answer. "I heard about 2 weeks ago that there were concerns that Menards had this additional process and they weren't sure how it would go."
The Mayor continued, "At what point, if a planning commissioner hadn't asked for an update, was the commission going to be brought into the loop that this project was running into some difficulties, and then ultimately that those difficulties weren't going to be resolved?"
Schrage stated, "I wasn't aware that it came up in the planning commission meeting, but I intended to share it as part of the update I sent today."
Mayor Hodges replied, "The first time I heard about it, was just through an email that was forwarded to me, and that sits wrong."
Schrage then took responsibility for the communication. "I didn't anticipate it taking on a life of its own. We were just working on it like we do other deals."
No other commissioners had any questions on this, however, Blanchard took the opportunity to stand up again during public comment.
"I am utterly shocked that your staff knew about this in July and didn't say anything about it. I think that elections are about accountability. The voters held the governing body accountable. When are you guys going to start holding management accountable? This is one of several issues where the ball has been dropped. You mentioned two weeks ago, you knew the whole thing was over, and you still didn't mention it to the governing body."
Blanchard then brought up the timing of all this with the recent local election.
"We had an election where this was a huge issue. Did all of you find out about this for the first time this morning, or did some of you know about this beforehand? In particular, Commissioner Hoppock? Did you know about this beforehand?"
Commissioner Mike Hoppock gave a very straight forward answer. "Yes, I did."
Blanchard replied, "When did you know about it? Because there was an election where there was an awful lot of bragging about having secured this project. How long have you known about this?"
Hoppock said, "A week or so."
"During the campaign. Before the election," Blanchard confirmed. "I'm glad I wasn't on the ballot because I would have been very upset if I would have known that city staff held from the public and other candidates information that other candidates were using as major accomplishments in their terms. The voters can only hold you guys accountable. When are you going to hold staff accountable?"
Mike Hoppock took the chance to defend himself. "Jon, you made a comment about this being a problem back in July. Did staff know this was a problem back in July? There was a document out there, but I don't believe anybody thought it was an issue."
Chad Farber, who ran for City Commissioner just eight days ago, then stood at the podium. "I was on the ballot. I hope that you, Commissioner Hoppock, were not holding onto this information to undermine the other candidates. One of the things I've heard leading up to this election, is that there's a problem with transparency within our local government. This seems to be another incident of staff having information, and the governing body either not knowing, or not passing that information along to the public. Let's go back to the whole fire department thing. We haven't heard anything on that in awhile. The Mayor asked for input on that, and it was shot down!"
Farber continued, "I don't want to hear that it's a personnel issue. This is tax payer money and we need to know who knew about what was going on. Former Mayor Hoppock, if this went on underneath your watch, you need to get that information out so the public isn't thinking that you are complacent in what has been going on behind the scenes. There needs to be some transparency. There needs to be accountability! There needs to be answers. How long has City Staff been sitting on this information? On information about the fire department? There needs to be some answers. We the people want answers! It's a shame it had to come out in a planning commission with a simple question."
Commissioner Peck then sided with both parties, believing the timeline staff gave yet understanding the public desire to know more information. He did say more than once that he found out about the project being dead just that morning.
City Commission meetings are held on Mondays, beginning at 4pm, located in the City / County Building at 300 W Ash. The meetings are streamed live on YouTube, with the ability to comment when the time is given.