Here’s the news from tonight’s Santa Fe City Council meeting. I’ll update throughout the meeting (until I split, that is. Then you can follow the webcast here).

Railyard Cinema

One of this week’s more controversial items was placed, oddly enough, on the consent calendar, intended for pro forma matters set for a unanimous vote: That is, the Railyard Cinema proposal.

Granted, the resolution itself has been tamed since Councilor Matt Ortiz initially introduced it. The substitute resolution, by Councilor Rosemary Romero, does not automatically start the process to issue a $35.4 million city bond for a private company with a questionable record to build a new theater downtown. Rather, it directs the city manager “to Initiate Discussions” with the key public and private players at the Railyard, in order to “Deveop a Variety of Ideas and Viable Financial Options” for development “in Accordance With the Railyard Master Plan.”

Weird capitalization, yes. Publicly financed cinema? Not necessarily.

Romero’s resolution passed without comment.

400th Funding

Also up for a vote tonight: Whether to give the struggling non-profit that’s organizing the city’s 400th anniversary celebration another $750,000. This should be interesting.

5:55 pm: Fresh off their anniversary gift to the city, KSFR’s Dan Gerrity is pitching the station’s latest idea to save the 400th.  The idea? A special edition Farolito to be gifted to the White House.

5:59 pm: My bad. This item got postponed. Which is to say: Punt!

Santa Fe City Councilor Matt Ortiz gave SFR a look at a binder showing the expenses and revenues of Santa Fe 400th Anniversary, Inc, the largely public-funded non-profit organization that’s staging events for the celebration. In SFR’s earlier reporting on the anniversary budget, 400th Executive Director Libby Dover declined to share such details. But now that the non-profit, aka “the committee,” is asking the city for another $750,000—see the New Mex story today—they didn’t have much choice but to open their books.

Some highlights:

Dover makes $10,000 a month!

The other five employees average $4,000 a month. Not bad considering the local average.

Salaries aside, it’s a pretty bare-bones operation.

The chair of the committee (Maurice Bonal) has his own office at $300 a month. For what? Meeting with all those corporate sponsors they don’t have?

Whoever manages the committee’s decent-looking but content-free website (the registered administrative and technical contact is Bonal) is pulling $2,100 a month. Hmm… (Their graphic designer has a pretty good gig, too.)

The committee expects to bring in under $200,000 in revenue from events.

One more after the cut.
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Is it just me, or does Gov. Bill Richardson sound less than thrilled about Santa Fe’s 400th Anniversary festivities? Maybe they should’ve had Cal Worthington do the ad.