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Council funds $100,000 feasibility study on Soldiers’ Monument options; staff to brief council on timeline and public process
Summary
The committee approved a $100,000 BAR to hire experts to evaluate options for the Soldiers’ Monument — including restoring to pre‑2020 condition or moving and rebuilding — and asked city management to provide a timeline and coordinated briefings to the full governing body and the public.
City Manager Mark Scott and councilors discussed a request to allocate $100,000 to contract experts for a feasibility study of the Soldiers’ Monument. The Quality of Life Committee approved the BAR.
Councilor Faulkner, who co-sponsored bringing the item back for study, said the study should be non‑prescriptive and produce a menu of options with cost estimates and feasibility for restoring the monument to its pre‑2020 condition, moving it and rebuilding it elsewhere, or taking no further action. She and others called for a public meeting once the study is complete and for more frequent, coordinated updates to the governing body during the study so all councilors receive the same information.
Councilor Michael Garcia asked how the study schedule aligns with a December court ruling by Judge Wilson that ordered the city to (a) remove the box and obscuring elements within 30 days and (b) either restore the monument to pre‑2020 conditions within 180 days or proceed only under specified historic‑preservation processes. City Manager Scott said staff had a firm under consideration that believed it could meet a compressed 60–90 day turnaround for the initial feasibility analysis but acknowledged unknowns and potential follow-up work. Scott committed to providing a written timeline and status report to the council and to include public-participation steps in firm negotiations.
Councilors emphasized the need for transparency because the monument issue has been contentious; several members requested a special governing‑body briefing to “level set” the council and suggested that, after the study, the city schedule public meetings and consider more structured civic-deliberation models. The motion to approve the BAR passed on a roll call: Councilors Castro, Chavis, Garcia, Faulkner and the chair voted yes (5–0).
