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Council renews community center lease despite council concern over infant-care slots
Summary
After a tied motion to table failed, the Saint Peter City Council voted to renew a lease with the Saint Peter Community Child Care Center for community center rooms. Several council members pressed for a workshop discussion about the provider’s reduced infant slots relative to the 2017 RFP commitment.
The Saint Peter City Council voted March 10 to renew a lease with the Saint Peter Community Child Care Center (SPC3C) for space in the city community center, approving a multi‑year lease retroactive to Jan. 1 and running through 2029.
The renewal passed after an extended discussion during which Council member Bridal moved to table the lease and send the issue to a workshop for further review. Bridal said SPC3C originally committed to providing 20 infant spaces when it won the 2017 RFP for the space; the center currently provides about 10 infant spaces, Bridal said, leaving the city with fewer infant slots than before the center took the space. Bridal asked for a workshop to revisit the RFP commitments, and pointed out SPC3C’s balance sheet (noted on the transcript as $350,000 at a September 2023 report) as context for the request. The motion to table produced a tie on a roll call and failed; council then took up the renewal and approved it.
Council discussion acknowledged the operational and market pressures on child‑care providers. Council member Johnson and other members said staffing challenges, regulations and business decisions during and after the pandemic had affected the mix of infant, preschool and school‑age slots. Multiple council members said a workshop to clarify expectations for future RFPs and for oversight of leased tenant commitments would be useful; others noted that decisions about program mix are business decisions for the operator.
The final roll call on the lease recorded Council member Weisenfeld Aye; Council member Scharstrom Aye; Council member DeVos No; Mayor Noel Aye; Council member Johnson Aye; Council member Perez Aye. The transcript records an earlier tie when the tabling motion was called, and the lease remains in effect through the end of 2029 as approved on March 10. Staff said the current month‑to‑month occupancy would continue during any delay and that the lease includes modest annual increases; members cited the benefit of discussing lease‑level expectations in a closed workshop rather than in open meeting debate.
The council did not change the lease terms at the meeting; members asked staff to place the topic on a future workshop agenda for fuller review of the RFP history and the city’s expectations about infant‑care capacity.
