During the press conference in which former Mayor J. Michael Houston sought to endorse current Mayor Jim Langfelder for an additional term in office, the discussion turned to the question of Wyndham debt relief – which city alder people are less than thrilled about.
Wyndham – who owns the city center – owes City Water, Light, and Power a substantial sum of money – a quarter of a million dollars – and there has been debate as to whether the company should be compelled to pay the rest of the debt to the city, or whether it should be forgiven.
Springfield’s alder people will be coming together in just about two weeks to vote on the plan themselves – something that Mayor Langfelder does not believe needs to happen, citing payment arrangements and his own corporation counsel’s advice.
“…Bottom line is that the Wyndham – or the owner – paid for all the utilities paid for the electric usage, water usage. What we waived was the meter charge. They have like – it’s an antiquated system. They have like 12 meters or, you know, a dozen meters in the hotel, and you get charged for each one. So that’s an add-on fee by the utility. Same with the infrastructure. It’s called a demand charge, where we build out the infrastructure, and it’s an ongoing monthly charge that they charge. That was the other point we waived with regards to what we felt was fair. One, we wanted to make sure we got the payment and definitely paid for our utility usage because that’s the true costs that we were, out and that’s what we collected last year.”
Pressed further by a reporter, Mayor Langfelder responded succinctly.
‘Well, I think you have to ask Corporation counsel – he has explained it to me, so he should explain it to you. You know there are situations where they do, from time to time, work out payment arrangements – things of this nature. And that’s one of those times that it was worked out. But good follow-up….”
The press conference audio – spanning the former mayor’s endorsement of the current mayor, to Wyndham and the debt discussion – is available below.
