After months of meetings and debates and petition drives and legal arguments, it has come down to this: The Eau Claire City Council will determine the fate of a referendum related to the Confluence Project at its meeting this afternoon (Tuesday, Jan. 28). The outcome of the decision might well decide the future of the $77.2 million public-private performing arts center project slated for downtown Eau Claire.

The proposed referendum – brought to the forefront by a citizens’ group composed mainly of critics of the Confluence – would require the city to hold another referendum anytime the city wants to spend more than $1 million on a performing arts project. The Citizens Referendum Committee collected enough signatures to qualify the referendum for the April 1 ballot, leaving the City Council with three possible paths when it makes a decision at its 4pm meeting. In addition to getting public input on the project at a meeting Monday night, council members quizzed City Attorney Stephen Nick about the legal ramifications of their upcoming decision.

This is complicated and confusing stuff, so we’ll try to break it down as simply as possible. Here at the council’s three choices:

1. TWO REFERENDUMS. The council could vote to put the proposed referendum on the April 1 ballot. The referendum would be for what’s known as a “charter ordinance” (essentially, a change to the city’s constitution), which, if passed, would require another referendum anytime the city seeks to spend $1 million or more for a venue for “dramatic, musical, or artistic performances.” If the April 1 referendum passed, the newly adopted ordinance would require a second ordinance in the near future to approve the pledge of $5 million toward the Confluence (which the City Council already made in October).

2. ONE REFERENDUM. Alternatively, the council could adopt the proposed charter ordinance (see above), essentially skipping the first referendum and going straight to the second. However, City Attorney Stephen Nick said even if the council took this step, there isn’t enough time to get a stand-alone referendum about Confluence Project funding on the April 1 ballot. (As an aside, Eau Claire County voters will decide on a referendum that day about the county’s $3.5 million pledge toward the project.) Unless a special election were scheduled, the referendum would be held on one of the next regularly scheduled election dates, Aug. 12 or Nov. 4.

3. NO REFERENDUM. Finally, the City Council could reject the proposed referendum entirely – essentially forging uncharted legal territory. (“We just don’t have Wisconsin case law on the point,” Nick quipped at the meeting. “Maybe we’ll get an opportunity to make some; we’ll see.”) In a Jan. 10 memo to the council, Nick noted that a previous state Supreme Court ruling “concluded that a City Council may exercise its discretion to refuse to take action if the proposed legislation is clearly unconstitutional; if the proposed legislation exceeds the authority of the City Council; or if the proposed legislation seeks to ‘impliedly or expressly repeal existing ordinances or resolutions.’ ” In short, if the council decides the referendum would improperly tie its hands, it could throw it out – and wait for an inevitable lawsuit.

Want to see history in the making? The Eau Claire City Council meets at 4pm today in the council chamber at City Hall. You can watch the action live on Community Television (Charter Cable channel 994 or 97), online at cvctv.org, or over the radio at 101.9 FM.