05/15/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 5/15/2007 Councilman Miller, member of the Finance Committee, reported for chairperson Talton: 1) The committee met on. May 7 and was chaired by Councilman 1Vliller. Discussed was: • Ordinance 2007-48, an ordinance authorizing the transfer of certain moneys from the Sewer Bond Retirement Fund to the General Obligation Retirement Fund. This was explained in detail by the Finance Director. The amount of money involved. is about $616,000. The Sewer Bond Retirement Fund is completely paid out, and the remaining funds will now go into the General Obligation Bond Retirement Fund group. The Finance Director did assure the committee that the Law Dept. reviewed this as to form. and John Larson, our bond attorney, reviewed it also. Both parties recommended this. The Sewer Bond Retirement Fund has excess funds, and all its obligations have been paid off: So now it goes into another obligation-type fund to continue paying off the city's debt. The committee recommend approval under suspension. • Resolution 2007-53, a resolution authorizing the Director of Planning to proceed with negotiations for the sale of city-owned real property on Lorain Road, identified at P. P. No. 237-09-003, and known as the former site of the Pine Tree :Beverage store. This is a very small. parcel of land where Pine Tree Beverage used to exist near the intersection of Clague and Lorain. CDBG funds allowed the city to take down an unsightly building and. restore the property as green space. It had to be maintained as green space for a period of time; that time has expired, and now we can get that property back on the tax rolls by selling it. An appraisal has been. done. The committee unanimously recommended approval under suspension. LETTERS AND COMMU, NICATIONS The Clerk reminded Council she placed in their mailboxes a BZA finding which was granted. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION 1) Jim Burns, 3978 Dover Center, spoke about his concerns with Ordinance 2007-48. When the Sewer Bond Fund was established, it was a voted tax levy-a 3 mill levy with only the amount of taxes needed to cover the debt service for that year to be collected. When he left office as Finance Director, that amount was in the neighborhood of 1 or .8 mills of the 3 mills. If we have a $600,000 carryover it's not to be used. It should not have existed to begin with because theoretically this fund was only to collect enough taxes to pay the debt service for that year. This money is owed back to the taxpayers as it is money that was collected in excess of the voted levy they gave the city to use. The city has an inside millage of 11.1 mills. That millage goes first to the General Bond Retirement Fund and then to the General Fund. So, if there is a portion of that money that's not needed in the Sewer Bond Retirement Fund ($600,000), that means that $600,000 less has to be transferred in collections from the General Fund to the Bond Retirement Fund. In effect, this is a transfer to the General Fund. What Council should think about doing is putting this back in committee and discussing the possibility of 7