Council seeks payment and reporting safeguards for $500,000 Mobile Sports Hall of Fame contract

Clerk Lisa Carroll introduced a proposed $500,000 contract to cover technology integration and facility build-out services for the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame and invited council sponsorship for the item.

Council members asked whether the $500,000 would be paid as a single lump sum and how the quarterly activity reports mentioned in the contract would relate to payments. "Is it a single payment? And if so, then what role is the quarterly activity report in terms of that?" a councilmember asked.

City staff said the payout schedule with the contractor had not been finalized and that the county partner was planning to provide a lump‑sum payment; staff said the city could consider structuring payments to align with activity reporting or withholding portions of payment if milestones were not met. "We don't even have the payout schedule with the contractor yet... it's stated as a lump sum, but we may not necessarily need it all as a lump sum," staff said, and noted the goal of transparency in reporting where taxpayers and the county can see how funds are raised and spent.

Council members asked that the city consider aligning activity reports with any contract payment schedule so the city could withhold payments if required results were not received. Staff said they would explore aligning reporting and payment milestones once payment schedules are finalized. The contract was introduced as item 21 236 with a listed amount of $500,000; the transcript did not record a final vote in the pre‑meeting.

Council discussion framed the Hall of Fame as a city‑county partnership, with staff noting the county was preparing its transfer and that the city wanted to preserve day‑to‑day reporting obligations to assure taxpayers that funds are spent as intended. No formal decision about payment timing was made during the pre‑meeting; staff indicated follow‑up on payout schedules and report alignment would be brought back to council.