Fairfield council, arts center agree on lease extension

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield City Council has voted to extend its lease of the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center to 2040.

The council unanimously approved a resolution during its meeting Monday to extend the lease of the building, which the city owns and which it leases to the nonprofit corporation Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, Inc.

Mayor pro tempore Paul Gandy told the council that the property committee, which he sits on, discussed the city’s long-term lease with the arts center during its meetings in late May and early June.

“It’s the property committee’s opinion that the lease, as written, should be approved by the council,” Gandy said. “There are some changes that add clarity.”

Council member Doug Flournoy asked Gandy if there were any substantive changes in the new lease agreement compared to the old one that was signed in 2010 that was to last until 2030. Gandy said that, in the new agreement, the city is requiring the arts center to increase its insurance. Gandy said he didn’t feel the changes in the agreement would alter the city’s relationship with the arts center’s board, and that the agreement merely reflects procedures that have already been put in place.

Fairfield Arts & Convention Center Executive Director Lindsay Bauer attended the meeting to answer questions from the council, but the council members did not ask her any.

In recent years, the city and arts center’s board have discussed making changes to the lease agreement, such as which entity is responsible for various forms of maintenance of the building. For instance, in 2020, the arts center’s board sent an email to the city’s property committee suggesting the city should begin paying for maintenance expenses related to the building’s exterior, such as its foundation and roof, while the center would continue paying for interior maintenance. This would have been a departure from the lease agreed to in 2010, which stated that all maintenance expenses be covered by the center. That year, Fairfield voters approved a referendum to allow the city to use local-option sales taxes to purchase the center, which opened in 2007 as a private venture. Under city ownership, the center’s mortgage would be paid off through LOST funds, and it would no longer have to pay property taxes.

Though the two sides never agreed to change the wording in the lease agreement at the time, in early 2021, the city’s ways and means committee opted to give the arts center $50,000 for building upkeep, and the city council agreed to give $8,000 from its general fund for infrastructure expenses.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com