Q&A
Lease terms and outstanding payments for Nuestros Ninos
1:46:34
ยท
148 sec
Council Member Krishnan inquires about the specific lease terms being negotiated for Nuestros Ninos and any outstanding contract payments owed to the center.
- DOE is negotiating to extend the lease until the end of the 2025-2026 school year
- Krishnan expresses concern about the short-term nature of the lease extension
- Questions raised about exhausting all options to keep the center open before deciding on closure
- Discussion of Nuestros Ninos' current contract registration process and potential backlog of payments
Shekar Krishnan
1:46:34
Are those negotiations for a month to month tenancy for this site?
Cora Liu
1:46:39
No, those are not.
1:46:41
Our current leases would allow us to stay month by month, but the landlord would have the right to evade us, which is why we reach out to the landlords to start negotiation to have their commitment we can stay until the end of the school year.
1:46:53
And we're working to execute those lease extensions as soon as possible.
Shekar Krishnan
1:46:57
And what is the lease term you all are looking for?
1:46:59
Are you looking for a longer lease term than month to month for renewal for the future?
Cora Liu
1:47:02
For those four sites, we're we're looking to extend the knees up until the end of twenty five-twenty six school year.
Shekar Krishnan
1:47:08
That's very concerning to me but my final two questions are have you all exhausted all your options to keep this day care center open before notifying them twenty four hours before that they were going to close?
Simone Hawkins
1:47:20
So they work So again we have to manage a system, right.
1:47:24
We are talking about sustaining for the children of today but also the children of the future, right.
1:47:29
And so we cannot continue to expand or support lease costs that are growing year over year without doing some housekeeping and cleaning to make sure that we are being as effective and efficient as possible.
1:47:42
Right?
1:47:42
We are all clear about the stimulus cliff that we experience with three k, we are all clear about the changing needs of community and we have to be responsive and responsible with taxpayer dollars.
1:47:53
I'm a steward of those tax dollars and I cannot in good conscious continue to sign twenty year leases for contracts that run a year or five years at best.
1:48:03
And so we need to really come up with the system that is sustainable and makes sense for communities while allowing us to infuse some flexibility.
1:48:11
Things change and we can't continue to do that if we lock ourselves into these high value leases.
Shekar Krishnan
1:48:17
Understood, but let's look at that system and that's my final question is how much is Nuestros Ninos owed as an example in outstanding contract payments at this point?
Simone Hawkins
1:48:27
And so Nuestros Ninos that again that contract is on an annual basis.
1:48:33
They are and I'm sorry for the feedback everyone.
1:48:36
And so right now they are going through the contract registration process.
1:48:40
Their budget for this particular site, they have three sites, this particular site is pending, is already pre approved in our system which is a great thing and so once the contract is registered we will be able to allow them to begin invoicing on their current year expenses.
Shekar Krishnan
1:48:56
But don't they have a backlog of payments they're owed already kind of like the similar situation?
Simone Hawkins
1:49:01
Not that I'm aware of, no.
Shekar Krishnan
1:49:02
Okay.