Panel takes first step to consider restructuring downtown Cedar Rapids’ managing entity

CEDAR RAPIDS — Could another organization host signature downtown events such as the farmers market or decide how to spend public funds on things like murals and lighting?

The Downtown Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District Commission — a mayor-appointed panel that oversees downtown initiatives — took steps this week to explore such questions and consider how to potentially change the management structure of downtown operations. The move comes as consultant Progressive Urban Management Associates of Denver is slated to bring a refreshed Downtown Vision Plan guiding the future of the urban core to the Cedar Rapids City Council for possible adoption Dec. 5.

A SSMID is a district where the city levies an additional tax on property owners to raise revenue for beautification projects and programming within the district. James Klein, chair of the downtown commission and the Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust president, in a meeting Wednesday said the consultants essentially decided “we’re not going to tell you what you should do with the downtown SSMID.”

The plan will recommend the district put together a task force to make a recommendation on its structure going forward. One section of the draft vision plan examines the downtown entity’s current structure in relation to others in the country, Klein said. Outside of Iowa, he said the structure is unconventional.

Currently, the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance provides administrative services to the downtown SSMID, housing the staff who execute on downtown projects and goals. Interviews are underway for a new downtown program manager at the alliance to succeed Jesse Thoeming, who resigned from the role in September.

Ultimately, the SSMID will vote on whether to keep contracting with the alliance for services, hire for its own services or contract with another entity.

Commission members indicated support for the alliance having a voice on this task force that will decide its future with the SSMID. But Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell raised questions about whether the alliance could be a neutral voting member, though she said she supported the alliance lending its expertise to the task force. O’Donnell asked for the commission’s thoughts on the alliance’s involvement in the task force “since the EA is so uniquely involved and could be impacted by that.”

  Buy Photo

Last summer, O’Donnell pulled a City Council vote on the city’s membership with the alliance, and the council later reduced its membership fee from $75,000 to $25,000 for fiscal 2024.

City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said the city wouldn’t vote on the structure and “not everybody needs to be a voting member” of the task force. The alliance also wouldn’t have a vote in the final structure set by the SSMID commission.

Randy Rings, a commission member and TrueNorth’s general counsel, volunteered to lead the effort to put together a task force. The SSMID’s executive committee will discuss members and other details, then seek commission approval.

The current plan is to have nine members on the task force — a member each from the Economic Alliance and city of Cedar Rapids, some property owners within the district who are not on the commission and five commission members. The commission budgeted $10,000 for the task force.

Nikki Wilcox, the alliance’s director of strategic development, said the farmers market is labor intensive to put on and whoever manages the Downtown District must be prepared to perform certain functions. Rings said the SSMID hasn’t been involved in all of these tasks and needs that expertise on the task force.

“There's no bias,” Wilcox said. “If it's better for the Downtown District to go on its own, by all means, we support that. … If you don't have someone that knows that information, I don't think they'd be able to make a sound decision.”

O’Donnell later told The Gazette she wants the city to have a vote on the task force, but not the final vote before the SSMID. With the alliance budgeted to receive $369,087 from the SSMID for staff and overhead to facilitate downtown management in 2024, O’Donnell said that’s why she raised a question about the alliance’s role.

“It begs the question: Do you have a voting member that has such a significant financial stake in the decision, or do you lean on that entity as an expert?” she asked.

The mayor said she supported the task force’s formation but was interested to see its composition.

“Everything that I've learned from my conversations with the consultants, as well as conversations with other municipalities, it makes sense to look at a more targeted entity … It’s critical that we identify the way that it’s going to be successful in helping us implement the (vision) plan,” O’Donnell told The Gazette when asked if she supported a specific management structure. “I have an open mind about how we get there.”

The possible structural changes to the SSMID came up as the commission adopted a 2024 budget. Budgeting for about $1.05 million in expenditures in 2024, the panel upped its proposed budget by $50,000 to seek more philanthropic support or a contribution from Linn County to support the downtown vision plan.

Commission appointments

When the 15-member commission faces a vote on this task force, two new panel members — appointed by the mayor to serve three-year terms — will need to be seated.

Wilcox said there are two spots open due to vacancies. Local developer Fred Timko’s application will be reviewed by the City Council at an upcoming meeting. The SSMID commissioners are brainstorming members for the other vacancy. The SSMID next meets in January.

O’Donnell said, “as we do with any board we’re on, I’d appreciate being included in any of those ideas” so as not to draw applicants she wouldn’t appoint. Asked if she’d consider applicants’ views on the downtown management structure, she told The Gazette she wanted well-rounded candidates as it’s not a “one-issue position,” though she would want to understand their thoughts on the vision plan and downtown in general.

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com