By Susan Motander
City Manager Oliver Chi outlined the proposed agreement between the Monrovia and Samuelson & Fetter doing business as the Daylight Limited, LLC to rehabilitate the Monrovia Depot to the Monrovia City Council on Tuesday. The major points of the agreement were in the staff report that was available for review prior to the meeting. The final form of the contract, however, was not complete by the time of the council meeting. As a result, the council voted to delay action until its Dec. 15th meeting.
Council Member Becky Shevlin announced early in the discussion that she was not comfortable voting for something that the entire community did not at least have an opportunity to review prior to the meeting. She did state that she “had full faith in Samuelson & Fetter” but that she was only uncomfortable with the lack of notice.
In the absence of Councilmember Alex Blackburn, a unanimous vote was required on the action. Therefore Mayor Tom Adams seconded Shevlin’s motion that the matter be deferred to the next meeting, despite Councilmember Gloria Crudgington’s stated concerns about losing the grant for the funds to rehabilitate the depot.
The Gold Line Construction Authority is the source of the $1.5 million dollar grant monies that the city intends to use toward the rehabilitation of the badly neglected building. Since the GLCA is winding down its operations and hopes to have all its business concluded by the end of the year, there is some urgency in the matter. As Crudgington noted, “If we do not use these funds, we will not receive them.”
Samuelson & Fetter has estimated that the entire cost of the rehabilitation will be $1.77 million, but has agreed to pay the additional monies of more than $200,000 to complete the rehab. In exchange the company will rehabilitate the depot and prepare it for use as a restaurant or café, and will find a tenant to rent the facility. Samuelson & Fetter will have a 55-year lease of the building at the rate of $2,500/year until the building is occupied by a tenant at which time the rent will be 5% of the funds from the tenant. Samuelson & Fetter will be responsible for the maintenance of the building after its rehabilitation.
Chi said that he was confident that even with a delay of two weeks, the monies from the Gold Line would still be available.
In an unrelated action, the council voted to change its employment contract with Chi to give him a 2.5% pay increase from $195,000 to $199,875. Even though his employment contract allows for bonus payments, Chi had requested that he not be awarded a bonus this year. The council honored that request, but did vote for the pay increase.
