Monday night's meeting at City Hall closed out with a couple of councilors sharing concerns over a document on the City's website.  

Councilor Heather Eby stated her disappointment in the request for proposal (RFP) not returning to Council Chambers for the Executive Committee to look over prior to the document hitting their web page. She added that there are a few lines within the RFP that she would not have signed off on, and that's why she was hoping Council could be the second set of eyes before anything was made official. 

"Because this was a different situation that we were dealing with and really trying to get it right... I felt, as I believe most of my colleagues felt, that it would be important for us to see the RFP before it went out, and that didn't happen. The RFP is on the City's website with no second review of the Executive Committee. Those are the things that I'm concerned about and that I would have never agreed to have in the RFP."

The lines stating that the City Manager would have purchasing authority, as well as the creation and event reserve cash fund in the amount of $100,000 U.S., are the two major concerns of Eby. 

Under the U.S. Stabilization Fund in the document, it states "The City will establish and hold a $100,000 USD fund as of December 31, 2018, or sooner. Any losses in a fiscal year may be recovered by the Third-Party Management Company upon written request and financial statement proving loss to the City."

As well as under the Operations section it says, "the General Manager shall recommend each show to the City Manager. The City Manager has authority to approve concerts to a maximum of $150,000 either rental or co-promotion upon written recommendation. The City Manager has the option to forward concerts/events in excess of $150,000 to City Council for review and approval."

Both of the above statements are phrases Eby said she never would have agreed to leave in the official documentation, and only signed off on the above statements on an interim basis. She said that when they voted for a third-party management company to take over "you basically hand over the building, and they run it." 

"I really believe that when we're hiring a third-party management company, they should be deciding what concerts and events come. I don't think those decisions are in the hands of the City Manager or City Council anymore; I believe those are in the hands of the people running the building, which is partly why we've never gone down this road before, because we didn't want to hand that over," explained Eby. 

Looking into the future any saying no matter who takes over and what the success of Mosaic Place is, Council will have to answer all the questions that come forward. 

"This is such a huge thing to turn over this building for someone else to run and to take care of on behalf of the citizens of Moose Jaw and the taxpayers of Moose Jaw. It's going to come back on us, whatever comes of this it'll come back on the seven members of Council so for me, I can't speak to anyone else about how they're feeling, to me I just want to be sure we get this right and to get this right I feel we should have been able to have a look at this.

Eby added that the wording might muddy the waters and make it unclear as to who in control of running the facility.

"When I was not on Council before I was re-elected and the board of the DFFH was dissolved, I really felt that they were throwing the baby out with the bath water in that people said this is the second time the board has failed and these things have happened."

She stated that these two boards that were dissolved were made up of different people, facing different situations - one being financial issues, and the other a human resources issue. Eby described that it's difficult to fully understand the decision, as she was not on Council at the time and didn't have all the facts of the case and why the board was disbanded.