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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1994-01-19 Community and Economic Development Committee Minutes • COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Wednesday, January 19, 1994 @5:00 PM MINUTES MEMBERS PRESENT: Councilor Gerard Baldacci, Chair Councilor Chris Popper OTHERS PRESENT: Councilor Pat Blanchette Renneth R. Gibb, Director of Community & Economic Dev. Rodney G. McKay, Community Development Director T.J. Martzial, C.D. Housing Resources Coordinator Erik Stumpfel, City Solicitor Bruce Shibles, Asst. City Solicitor Gary Jewell, Parking Supervisor Don Winslow, Bangor Police Dept. The meeting was called to order by Councilor Gerard Baldacci at approximately 5:03 PM. AGENDA ITEM #1 - Community Development Residential Rehabilitation Loan - 29 Fruit Street, Single Family • T.J. Martzial, C.D. Housing Resources Coordinator, presented this loan request for $15,858 @3� for 20 years. The general repairs include siding, windows and bathroom remodeling. Owners have plenty of equity in the property and an excellent credit rating. � It was motioned and seconded to approve this loan request as presented. So voted. AGENDA ITEM #2 - Executive Session - Land Negotiations Postponed u3�ti1 further notice due to insufficient preparation time. AGENDA ITEM #3 - .Privatization Committee Report This item pertains to the issue of current and possible future privatizing of City functions. Ken Gibb reviewed this report for the Committee. He stated that the major areas that are being considered for privatization are legal services for loan and lease closings associated with the City's Community Development Block Grant Program and the City's � leasing activities for BanAir Corporation. 2 . Erik Stumpfel, City Solicitor, spoke to the Committee regarding. Originally, when the Asst. City Solicitor's position was created it was done so with funds from the Community Development Dept. in order to handle their title work load. About 10 years ago, the Asst. City Solicitor pasition was changed over to the City side of the budget and became a more general position in order to address problems in other City Depts. rather then being exclusive to Community Development (C.D. ) . Due to this change, the title work for C.D. loans has become less o� a priority for the Legal Dept. It will cost more to privatize C:D,. 's title work but it would be accomplished in less time. This cost would be an eligible expense under the Co�arnunity De�elopment Program. It was asked by a Committee member if it would be possible to hire another Legal staff person (instead of privatizing) . Erik replied that he will be requesting (in his FY 94-95 budget) permission to hire a paralegal to help with his current load of work for the City other then C.D. 's items. A paralegal would be able to handle some of the title work but it would still require a lawyer to look them over- (if there is outside lendinq involved; C.D. 's is inside) . Having a lawyer making sure the loan is secure provides an additional level of assurance to HUD. After some discussian as to the urgency of bringing the � current level of outstanding titles brought up-to-date, it was suggested by Ren Gibb to pursue the current process of having the City's Legal Dept. paralegal do the work. If, however, there is a pressing need to consult for Leqal assistance from an outside lawyer, Staff can pursue this option. Councilor Baldacci requested that City. Staff come back at the next meeting with a brief update as to the status of their efforts on this matter. Ren Gibb suggested that .their findings would be more enlightening after Erik has his quarterly review with the Council. However, if grior to that ti.me if there is an emergency need to consult with an outside lawyer for title work Staff will inform the Commi'ttee. Erik mentioned that the other aspect to the privatization issue is whether or not to have BanAir . Corporation's lease documents handled by outside lawyers. He stated that he would not recommend that this be done as the leases are tied in with the City's overall airport operations. Ken Gibb agreed with Erik's opinion as stated. � 3 i Ken Gibb stated that another area to the privatization issue . is real estate broker services. Discussions have been held with the Council before on this issue. BanAir Corporation has also discussed this matter in terms of marketing City-owned land at the airport. The BanAir Finance Committee recommended that the City should have the Economic Development Officer (Steve Bolduc) go out and discuss the potential of a sma�ler fee instead of a full commission fee with the local real estate community and then come back to the City Council and BanAir Finance Committee with his findings. This will be done within the next month or so. Collection of parking tickets is another privatization issue. The Bangor Police Dept. is currently collecting 80� of the unpaid parking tickets; this falls right in line with what any private agency could accomplish according to Staff's research. The installation of computers can be attributed to playing a positive role in the collection process over the past couple of years also. The police dept. does not, however, have the ti.me and manpower to devote to the additional 20$ collection process. Privatizing for the remainder of uncollected tickets is thought to be well worth the course of action as the cost would come out of the ticket reimbursement to the City as it is paid (the percentage that an agency would take out is 60-40; the 40 going to the agency) . . AGENDA ITEM #4 - New Councilor Orientation Ren Gibb presented this item to the Committee for informational purposes only. The first aspect of this item was to give new C&ED Committee Councilors an overview of the City's Parking Policy. Ken briefly explained the involvement of his dept. (aside from the police dept.. ) over the past 3-4 years with respect to how the overall parking policy works (primarily downtown) . The current budget is $1.1 million; of this total $693,000 is debt service for primarily the Pickering Square Parking Garage and another smaller parking lot. Another $486,000 is a subsidy from the general fund to the parking fund -- this is a deficit between revenues and expenditures including debt service. The projection is that this debt service will decline over the years but it is projected to be some time before there is a breakeven proposition. There is less demand for parking then there are spaces; the price that is charged would have to be tripled before there would be a breakeven. There are 7 parking control aides (3 full-time; 4 part- time and all civilians) working 30 hours a week primarily downtown. They also do patrolling, maintain street signs, paint the crosswalks in the downtown dis.trict and help with barricades for parades. For 1993, 19,400 tickets were written with $206,000 in revenue collected. (There are ti.mes when police officers write parking tickets also. ) � 4 � The 2nd part of Item #4 dealt with the overview of Economic Development Goals/Policies. Ken referred to 1993's Annual Report and the reference to Bangor's Comprehensive Plan with its 9 major Economic Development goals and objectives/policies within each of those goals showing what has been done in each. The Economic Development Advisory Commission has a separate committee going through and updating this plan. AGENDA ITEM #5 - Ruth Epstein Ren stated that he had received a telephone call from Mrs. Ruth Epstein who resides at 31 Parkview Ave. She recently had requested that a handicapped sign be placed in front of her residence. This item was brought up before the C&ED Committee on January 5, 1994 for their decision. The motion to approve was denied by a vote of 3-4. She expressed that she's very disappointed with that decision; she felt that she should have been able to have someone represent her at the C&ED Committee and the Council meetings. Ken indicated to her that he would discuss her latest request with the C&ED Committee and then he would telephone her back on January 20, 1994 with the results. Her original contention was that, even though she has a driveway, the extra distance made it difficult for her to walk to a vehicle. Gary � Jewell, Parking Supervisor, personally went out and measured the area in question. His findings were that from the walkway to a vehicle it was 11 feet; to go to the driveway from the walkway to enter a vehicle was about 44 feet. Ren asked for direction from the Committee -- would they be willing. to discuss this further with her representative in order to explain the decision on the part of the Council? � Asst. City Solicitor Bruce Shibles stated that from a Legal standpoint nothing can be done to change the vote. Basically, the process would have to start all over again with a proposed Ordinance. Councilor Baldacci suggested that perhaps the best solution to go with would b� to allow a handicapped parking zone only for the duration while she continues to live at the residence at 31 Parkview Ave. Bruce Shibles responded that this would be difficult to oversee and regulate. Councilor Popper stated that he has no problem with Mrs. Epstein coming before the Council, but that based on all the information and facts that he has heard, he would still vote against it. Ken Gibb asked again if Committee was willing to give her a time when she (or her representative) could meet with the Council. The consensus was among . Councilor Baldacci and Councilor Popper (those present today) that they would have no objection to Mrs. Epstein bringing her case before the Council during the public comment period. �