STE. GENEVIEVE — The Ste. Genevieve County Commission faced a packed meeting room of its constituents and dozens on Zoom for a town hall meeting Wednesday to discuss its decision to turn over the operations of the Ste. Genevieve County Community Center and the water park along with other community center facilities to the YMCA.
All three county commissioners were in attendance: (from left in photo above) Presiding Commission Randy Ruzicka, and Associate Commissioners Mark Marberry and Cory Ford. YMCA officials attending the meeting were (to the right of county officials) District Vice President Matt Clark; Erin Darche; Tim Verhayen; and Jared Beard.
Many of those speaking out expressed concerns that the county commission negotiated with the YMCA in secret — without letting the community center board, the community center membership or the public know what was happening.
Presiding County Commission Randy Ruzicka said the negotiations were done behind closed doors on the advice of the county’s legal counsel.
One of those voicing concerns was Carl Kinsky: “I was just a little concerned. We’ve been, obviously, gypped by legislators, who, for whatever reason, did not read the legislation before voting on it. I kind of feel like here, I’ve been expecting to hear some mention of numbers, like this contract is going to be for five years, and then up for renewal. We’re going to pay ‘x’ to the Y subject to these terms. It really concerns me, that you have done some negotiation for some period of year. The Sunshine law may allow you to keep that negotiation confidential, but it certainly doesn’t require you to. You have chosen to keep it confidential for a year, and frankly I have been here, and I haven’t heard a single number mentioned yet. (At this point Kinsky was interrupted by applause). When I am not getting numbers I feel kind of like the legislator who didn’t read the bill before voting on the bill.”
Ruzicka said the numbers would be forthcoming.
“You raised some valid points. First and foremost the agreement that was signed is for five years. As far as the actual numbers, as we said, that is still being worked out because they have to do a complete analysis of where we are,” Ruzicka said.
Clark said the YMCA’s goal is to reduce the burden of operating the facilities on the county’s taxpayers.
“We’re still in the discovery phase,” he said. (current Community Center Director) Brad (Arnold) and I have been working very carefully to try to get to the root of what the actual financial impact is down to the last penny. That is going on now. It won’t be completed for a couple of weeks. At that time we will go back to the commissioners. The contract has an up-to-amount to protect the taxpayers. It will be below that number once we figure out that number. Then we take that level of submission necessary to sustain this community center over the last many years and then it is our job to start shrinking the dependency of the center burden on the tax base.”
The meeting ran more than two hours and was recorded by SteGenTV where it is now available on the SteGenTV You Tube Channel at https://youtu.be/J2iNLnGN0Ps?si=BJZEd8SV8gTEUUIK