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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-05-07 Finance Committee Minutes FINANCE COMMITTEE MINUTES May 7, 2018 @ 5:15 pm Councilors in Attendance: Weston, Nealley, Graham, Supica, Tremble, Nichols, Davitt, Sprague Staff in Attendance: Little, Conlow, Theriault, Drew, Willette, Nicklas 1. Consent Agenda a. Workout Agreement – 35 Webster Avenue North – Richard Motion made and seconded to accept Consent Agenda, motion passed unanimously. ** Agenda order modified by Committee Chair, Councilor Weston 2. Request from Taxpayer to Write Off Taxes Vaughn Thibodeau requested the Committee reduce or write-off the personal property taxes assessed by the City for the 2017 tax year. Staff explained that it appears Mr. Thibodeau’s company General Contractor Vaughn Thibodeau II, Inc. has maintained personal property in Bangor and/or has moveable personal property that should be taxed in Bangor. State Statute’s require non-fixed assets be taxed in the municipality in which the main headquarters is located, which is Bangor. After a number of unanswered requests to obtain a true listing of the personal property, the City Assessor, as allowed by State Statute, estimated the value of the property to be $779,700; resulting in a tax bill of $17,543.25. The City Assessor, subsequently received a true listing for the 2018 tax year which reflected a value of $404,000, all of which qualified for the State BETE program and resulted on no tax for the 2018 tax year. Staff explained to the Committee that the $17,543.25 was legally due and payable due to the taxpayer’s failure to provide documentation; however, it was within the City’s practice to adjust prior year balances due when a true property listing is received. Adjusting the value to $404,000 would result in a balance due of $9,090.00. A motion was made to adjust the balance due to $9,090.00 and waive any interest that accrued on the unpaid $17,543.25. The motion passed unanimously. 3. Bids/Purchasing a. Lawn Maintenance Services – Parks & Recreation – Johnson Lawncare - $660/per Motion made and seconded to approve purchase, motion passed unanimously. b. Stream Monitoring Services – Engineering – FB Environmental - $26,500 Year 1 Councilor Weston disclosed a client relationship with one of the bidders and therefore a possible conflict with the bid. A motion was made and passed unanimously that Councilor Weston did have a conflict and he stepped away from the discussion with Councilor Sprague stepping in as voting member of the Committee. Questions were raised regarding the price difference between the recommended bidder and the lower bidder, CES Inc. from Brewer. City Engineer, Theriault, expressed staff’s concerns that CES did not appear to have the capabilities to perform the necessary work at this time and the City should remain with the current provider, FB Environmental. CES representative John Pond addressed the Committee and indicated that in their opinion they could perform the necessary work and any perceived deficiencies in their proposal were due to non-required information or examples of custom reports for other clients which did not represent the information that would be prepared for Bangor. Councilor Graham made a motion to accept staff recommendation which was seconded by Councilor Supica, the motion was doubted by Councilor Nealley and was defeated 3 to 2 with Councilors Nealley, Tremble and Sprague voting against. Councilor Nealley made a motion to award the bid to CES, Inc.; the motion passed 3 to 2 with Councilors Graham and Supica voting against.