Consideration and Adoption of Resolution No. 2019-57: A resolution of the Flagstaff City Council approving an Intergovernmental Agreement between Coconino Community College (CCC) and the City of Flagstaff East Library for the lease of the East Library. 

This IGA will extend the rental agreement between CCC, and the City of Flagstaff, East Library, until 2024, when the ground lease will need to be renewed between CCC and the property owner.  The IGA states that each year, the rental cost will increase by 2.5%. However, during the first two years, there will be an additional 5% increase also added to the rent to make up for no increases in the past few years. The library is attempting to enter into a four and a half year contract. 

The annual rent for this agreement is $100,162.80. The library has an FY2019-2020 budget of $99,530 for the rental agreement in
account 030-07-035-0143-5-4241. The small overage required will be cover by the budget in 030-07-035-0143-5-4233. Starting in July 2020, the new IGA payment terms will take effect, increasing rent 7.5% per year for two years and then 2.5% per year after that. The current rental payment will remain unchanged for the first six months of the new agreement.

Approval of this IGA secures a continued location for the Eastside Library and allows the City to provide services to patrons out of that location for an additional 4 1/2 years.

Council Goal - Economic Development

• Grow and strengthen a more equitable and resilient economy.

Strategic priority #3: Foster a resilient and economically prosperous city

• Deliver outstanding services through a healthy environment, resources and infrastructure.
• Promote policies that reflect a positive and safe community.
• Continue to enhance community outreach and engagement.

City Council approved the initial IGA for rental of this space in 2002, and subsequent extensions to that agreement. 

The East Flagstaff Community Library has been located in the CCC building on the fourth street since 2002. There are only three options for the future of the east side library. The first option would be to close down the library, but because of the high demand from the community and the needs the library serves, we do not feel this is an acceptable option. A second option would be to relocate to a new location on the east side of Flagstaff. The issue is there is a real possibility that rent somewhere else would be even more than what we are paying now. The third option, that could address higher rent fees in the future and could be a better use of taxpayer dollars, is to acquire land and or a City or County-owned building the library could move into. This would allow the library to put the funds paid towards rent into running a new, larger facility and provide more services to the community. Out of these three options and the time restraints involved with them, at this time, we feel it would be beneficial to approve this IGA until other arrangements could we put into place which require long-range planning.

The East Flag Community Library location has been located in the CCC building on 4th street since 2002. Since that time, the library has always paid rent to CCC through an IGA with some form of CPI taking place every year on the amount of rent due. When the school district began moving schools to the eastside, the library began serving a larger population of the community. 

The percent increase put forth in this IGA increases the annual rent the library is paying. However, the increase and total amount of the rent paid each year is still far less than what most retailers are spending in the fourth street area. Until a cheaper location is found and acquired, the IGA with CCC is the most beneficial agreement for the library at this time. 

The East Flag Community Library is a beloved institution to Flagstaff. After school is out, it is hard to find a seat at the library sometimes due to the influx of the youth that utilizes our location daily. Which serves the reason why we need to do long-range planning for this library in the future. Currently, we know the library is an excellent resource to the east side and provides several services that help build a stronger community. There are many free services offered at the library, which help Flagstaff citizens save money by using these resources. Everything the library does is to benefit and better the community in educational, financial, and cultural ways.