19 - Waiver for Event Center Rent

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Item No. 19 TO: Mayor & City Council Grayson Path, City Manager FROM: Janice Ellis, City Clerk SUBJECT: WAIVER FOR EVENT CENTER RENT DATE: February 22, 2021 BACKGROUND: On July 22, 2019, Ms. Samantha Hughes entered into a Lease Agreement with the City of Paris to rent the Event Center at a monthly rate of $1,200.00 (located at 1875 Fitzhugh Street) for a period of three years, beginning on August 1, 2019. Under the terms of the Lease, Ms. Hughes was to maintain the building for meal services and other related activities, including preparing, packaging and serving food. This service was and is being provided to children at the Boys and Girls Club and youth at City Square. Ms. Hughes was receiving State funding in the amount of $3.00 for each child she served through the program which helped offset the costs. STATUS OF ISSUE: Due to Covid-19 impact, Ms. Hughes reports that she originally served 300 kids per day, but now is down to 90, because the Boys and Girls Club had to cut their numbers. Ms. Katrina Mitchell of the Boys & Girls Club informed me that additional children show up on a daily basis and they are serving an estimate of 115 children. She said they had to get creative on the space to allow for social distancing, but simply could not refuse a child. Ms. Woodruff from City Square/Teen Center at Oak Park reported that approximately 20 teens were given snacks and received a hot meal on a daily basis, which was served by Ms. Hughes. Ms. Hughes contacted City Manager Grayson Path in September 2020 to inform him that due to CoVid-19, the State had cut her payments and therefore she was unable to pay the rent. She had in fact missed a few payments up until this point. Mr. Path agreed to forego pursuing this so long as Mr. Hughes kept him informed. Ms. Hughes was able to regain her financial assistance from the State and made a payment in November 2020. Mr. Path agreed to forgive her prior rent payments missed that summer given the State did not compensate her for that time period. In December 2020, Ms. Hughes reached back out to Mr. Path and asked if we would consider waiving her rent for the foreseeable future — given the amount the State was paying her vs. the reduced number of kids she was serving, she was unable to afford the monthly rent. Mr. Path requested that she provide the City with financial information to support this request. If everything checked