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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-10-15 Finance Committee Minutes FINANCE COMMITTEE Monday, October 15, 2007 Minutes Councilor Attendance: Stone, D’Errico, Hawes, Blanchette, Farrington Staff Attendance: Cyr, Little, Dawes, Barrett 1. Consent Agenda By a 6-0 vote, a motion was made and seconded to approve the Consent Agenda items as follows: a. Resolve, Appropriating ADA Voting Reimbursement Funds b. Quitclaim Deed – Sprague – 85 Downing Road c. Workout Agreement – Malo – Lot 20 Holiday Park d. Workout Agreement – Archer – 174 Cedar Falls 2. Bids/Purchasing a. Plow Equipment & Truck Bodies – Motor Pool – Howard P. Fairfield - $183,572 Cyr said these are the actual plow units that will attach to the chassis units purchased back in August. The City went out to bid for 4 units and received four responses. There was a required on-site visit from City Fleet Maintenance staff as part of the RFP process. A motion was made and seconded to approve staff’s recommendation to full Council awarding the bid to Howard P. Fairfield in the amount of $183,752. Stone asked about the life cycle for the plow in terms of years. Dawes said ten years. Responding to Stone about updated software to remap routes, Cyr said she had spoken with the School Business Manager earlier in the spring. Part of their bid for bussing services was that the winning respondent would need to have this particular software. Cyr asked Kochis to check with Cyr to see if they would allow the City to remap its snow plow routes and, to date, she has not received a response. She will follow up on this request. Dawes and the Public Works Director have a meeting next week to look at AVL (automatic vehicle location) software. This will take place at Public Works on October 23 at 11:00 am. The vote was 6-0. 3. Quitclaim Deed, Personal Property Issue – 38 Blue Hill East Little said this item would require two approvals from the Committee. One is to accept payment of $6,600 to pay outstanding real estate taxes for this property. The other is an outstanding personal property tax balance. Upon checking with city staff, the real estate owner had leased the property to other individuals to run businesses during the year. Staff doesn’t feel that the owner should be held libel for the outstanding personal property taxes. Staff asked for approval to write off a little over $3,000 in personal property taxes that are sitting on the books that are uncollectible at this time. They should not have been and would not have been assessed to the owner had the Assessing Department known the owner was no longer in business but leasing the property. A motion was made and seconded to approve staff recommendation. The vote was 6-0. 4. Excise Tax Policy Little referred to recently passed LD 227 which allows municipalities if they chose to reimburse excise tax under certain circumstances during a transaction where the excise tax of the old vehicle is more than the excise of the new vehicle. Essentially, they downgrade the value. Before that money could be used on transfers of other vehicles owned by the same operator or it was lost to the town as revenue. Now it can be reimbursed, if the municipality chooses to do so. Staff recommended that the City not participate in this process. One, the LD is set up to an all or nothing legislation. If the amount was one penny, it would be one penny. It also requires all excise tax regardless of where the initial excise tax was paid. An administrative tracking system would need to be in place to avoid double refunds. Staff has researched but not located any Maine municipalities participating in this program. Responding to Gratwick, Little said his understanding is that there was one constituent who was in favor of the program and who suggested its creation. A motion was made and seconded to approve staff’s recommendation. The vote was 6-0. 5. Executive Session – 1 MSRA 405 6C – Disposition of Property A motion was made and seconded to go into Executive Session. A motion was made and seconded to not dispose of the property by a 6-0 vote.