New times and reservation fees are being set for community groups and nongovernmental organizations that want to use Naperville Municipal Center meeting rooms.
In December, city staff requested an end to meeting room reservations for outside organizations due to concerns over security, a decrease in room bookings, and billing and reservation system challenges.
Naperville City Council members rejected the request, arguing that the proposal made the center feel less welcoming to the Naperville community.
Following the discussion, staff returned last week with a suggestion for new availability times and fees, limiting meeting room use by outside organizations to Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and increasing room rental fees from $30 and $60 to $90 and $150, better reflecting the administrative, billing and maintenance costs involved.
Outside organizations also will be allowed to reserve meeting rooms during regular city business hours. Security will be increased to address concerns related to oversight, building operations and emergency responses, a change expected to cost about $42,000 more per year, according to a city staff report.
Still, not everyone was fully on board with the new proposal when it was discussed last week.
“Should you approve staff’s newest proposal though there’s really no way of telling just what the outcome will be till we have lived with it for at least a few months?” said John Brubaker, a Naperville resident and member of the Lisle Township Democratic Organization. “I still maintain that this is a philosophical decision more than an economic one,”
Brubaker’s organization is one of the outside groups that frequently uses the municipal center for meetings.
“It would be a shame to waste this beautiful public facility created for and by taxpayers,” Brubaker said. “With the latest proposal, you will still reduce the meeting room capacity in Naperville, and will correspondingly lose some users due to a combination of, well, the three-fold increase in fees, limitations on available evenings and increased competition for time slots during those evenings.”
Some council members agreed with Brubaker’s assessment.
“This is the public’s building. I think it’s important that the public is able to meet here,” said Councilwoman Mary Gibson, who proposed adding Monday evenings back in as an option for outside groups.
Multiple council members also noted that the increased fees may deter some groups from reserving meeting rooms. Previously, the city has not charged for administrative and billing costs associated with meeting room use, only for the expense related to setup and cleaning.
“I’m not supportive of us not charging what it costs us to turn the rooms and provide the setup and takedown,” Mayor Scott Wehrli. The proposed fees may not reflect the expense related to maintaining common areas such as restrooms.
“I think adjusting to at least cover costs for the specific meeting rooms so those can be utilized as efficiently as they possibly can is something I’d be absolutely supportive of,” Wehrli said.
To compromise, the council agreed with increasing reservation fees to reflect present day costs of setting up and cleaning meeting rooms for outside organizations, changing the new reservation fees to $60 and $100.
“I’m comfortable increasing to cover the cost of cleaning,” Gibson said. “As we’ve discussed, there’s technological solutions for scheduling and administrative costs. I’d like to stay consistent and have the fees cover the cleaning cost.”
Staff will update to the council in six months on how the new rental structure is working.
cstein@chicagotribune.com
