R2021-222 Resolution Authorizing a Memorandum of Understanding between the Decatur Park District, G&H Marine, Inc. and the City of Decatur for Additional Docks

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December 2, 2021 TO: Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe & Members of the Decatur City Council FROM: Scot Wrighton, City Manager RE: Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)for Additional Docks on the Lake Earlier this year, the city and the Decatur Park District released a request for proposals (RFP)for the turnkey development of a full-service marina. The City and the Park District received no proposals that were fully responsive to the RFP, but we did receive an alternate proposal from a local company willing to build additional covered docks and then lease the new slips to boat owners under the auspicious of a lease agreement. The attached and recommended MOU has been negotiated with the Decatur Park District. Both the Park District and G & H Marine have agreed to all of its terms. It sets forth in detail how the various operational matters involved in City and Park District oversight of this project will work in the future. The MOU reflects a fundamental policy position of the City that we eventually want to get out of the marina business entirely and focus exclusively on maintaining boat safety on the lake and simultaneously stepping up watershed management and erosion control initiatives in and adjacent to Lake Decatur. For this reason, the proposed MOU retains for the City complete control over construction activities, excavation/digging at the lake, and the installation/maintenance of capital improvements on the lake (which is owned by the City); but the day-to-day operations, maintenance, fee collections and customer interface as it concerns the new docks will be the responsibility of the Park District and G & H Marine. The first phase of this improvement involves the construction of only 40 slips (see attached illustrations and aerial overlays). But the MOU envisions that as additional docks are added in the future, as provided in the MOU and a future lease, more marina services will be shifted to G & H Marine (or a different private operator). If the City and the Park District had received a fully responsive proposal to its RFP from a full- service marina owner/operator, and a proposal had been awarded by the City and the Park District,then the City would have exited the marina business sooner. The arrangement outlined by the proposed MOU aims to achieve the same outcome over a longer period of time. Because the City will be gradually withdrawing from the marina business,the proposed MOU provides a revenue split only between the Park District and G & H Marine. This will result in a revenue loss for the city; but in the long term the city will reduce its expenses. Furthermore, under the terms of the MOU, the City will incur no capital expenses. It will only incur small one- time costs to remove abandoned parts of private docks prior to construction of the new docks. If the city changes its mind sometime in the future and desires to re-enter the marina business, the MOU allows the City (and/or the Park District) to buy out G & H Marine's investment.