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City Council Minutes <br />February 8, 2018 <br />Page 5 <br />Mayor Dietz noted most of the sales tax collections around us are county collected <br />for transportation and noted Sherburne County is considering a similar option. <br />Mayor Dietz stated he spoke with Representative Zerwas who told him whenever a <br />local sales tax has been approved by its citizens; it has never been turned down by <br />the legislaure. <br />Councilmember Ovall questioned how many arenas have been funded without a <br />referendum. <br />Mr. Portner stated he doesn't have the answer for this meeting but noted the City of <br />Shakopee had three failed referendums and they ended up building an arena. <br />Councilmember Ovall stated this is the biggest expense ever put forth on the <br />community and it is for an amenity versus a need which is tough for him. He stated <br />he wants to revisit the numbers because they have been tossed around differently. <br />He noted how past literature outlined the city would still spend money if the vote is <br />no but it stated it would be for about $10-12 million and Council is now discussing <br />$23 million noting this doesn't include other facilities needing work. He stated he has <br />an issue with moving forward on the current arena project based on what was stated <br />in the literature. He further stated he wants to communicate with citizens and do <br />another referendum if Council is deviating from the $10-12 million. <br />Mr. Portner stated the referendum literature stated, at a minimum, the city would still <br />spend $10-12 million to replace the ice plants, fix the roofs and corrosion in the Barn <br />and didn't add other needed spaces such as locker rooms. He stated on January 17, <br />2018, Council rejected that process and gave consensus to move forward with the <br />other option based on the task force report. <br />Councilmember Ovall stated he wouldn't have voted for the other $23 million <br />option if he understood what he had been voting for. He understood it to mean <br />Council had to act on something versus kicking the can down the road He assumed <br />there would be more citizen engagement with the project. <br />Councilmember Westga d stated he does not follow Councilmember Ovall's <br />comments. <br />Councilmember Ovall stated he voted against the arena project and doesn't recall <br />voting for a $23 million budding option. <br />Councilmember Westgaard stated in January the discussion was what the Council <br />should do now. <br />Mr. Portner stated the January meeting gave direction to staff to engage 292 Design <br />Group in order to review previous architectural plans and to engage JLG Architects <br />for an option with combining uses/facilities and to engage the YMCA to look at <br />Nr4TURE <br />