A passionate, five hour-long Evansville City Council meeting yielded yet another delay on the convention hotel financing decision Monday evening.
Council members point to the recent private investment of 11.5 million dollars as reason enough to reserve the decision for a special session next week.
About thirty minutes into the finance committee hearing, Council Attorney Scott Danks asked Mayor Lloyd Winnecke if postponing the decision another week would jeopardize the project.
To this, the Mayor responded:
“If you’re asking me, do I support it being voted down tonight, versus it being delayed a week to have a chance to get it passed, my question is I’ll obviously agree to the pass but it would not be my ideal choice.”
Third Ward council member Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley says more time is due, particularly given the short amount of time it took for public subsidy to be slashed by private investment – 72 hours to be exact.
“I mean I really want to thank you for the distance you’ve made, the only reason why I’d be inclined to wait a week is, frankly, you knocked off 18.5 million in four days, and in terms of me bargaining on behalf of the citizens of Evansville, I get pretty excited and I think, hey can you go to 17?”
The City Council will revisit the public financing at a special meeting next Monday, Sept. 30 at 5pm.