HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-02-06 Finance Committee Minutes j
� FINANCE COMMITTEE
, February 6, 2006
� Minutes
� � Councilor Attendance: Cashwell Hawes Allen Stone Palmer Farrin ton
. . � , , 9 ,
Gratwick
� Staff Attendance: Cyr, Barrett, Hamer, Mitchell, Dubois
Others: Harrison Clark, Nick Bearce, Donald Lewis, Charlie
� Birkel, Ken Buckley, Dawn Gagnon, George Burgoyne
1. Executive Session — 1 M.R.S.A. Section 405 (6) (E) —Workers Compensation
Settlement
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. � A motion was made and seconded to go into executive session.
� 2. Open Session-Recommendation on Workers Compensation Settlement
� A motion was made and seconded to accept staff recommendation.
3. Consent Agenda
�. A motion was made and seconded to approve the Consent Agenda.
a. Quitclaim Deed — Striar— 143 Grove Street
� � b. Quitclaim Deed — Lawler— 101 Cedar Falls
c. Workout Agreement— Ingegneri — 37 Fifth Street
� d. Council Resolve 06-063 —Accepting &Appropriating HUD Grant Funds for Project
Based Rental Assistance
e. Update on Purchases to Digitize Records —City Clerk
� 4. Voting Place Realignment &Closure Recommendation
� . Last year, City Clerk Dubois had prepared a proposal for the Committee's
� � consideration which would combine all City polling places to one site. Although
� � not approved by the Council, there was interest expressed into looking at other
� options. Dubois formed a working group with those who expressed interest at
last year's public hearing on the issue. She expressed her appreciation to those
who worked with her, and she indicated that the group had discussed the pros
� and cons of the current polling locations. Some good features were: a
neighborhood feeling, being able to walk to the polls, students get to witness
voting. Less positive features: lack of parking at some sites, ADA issues, safety
concerns of students, and general logistics and voter confusion with spreading
� � resources thin on Election Day. The group had discussed absentee voting. In
: the Presidential election, 25% of the turnout was done by absentee voting and
handled by one employee in the City Clerk's Office. Due to its convenience,
1 absentee voting has continued to increase. Various sites were also discussed for
potential polling including Spectacular Events, the ]ob Corps, UCB fitness center,
� EMCC, UTC, Bangor Motor Inn, St. Mary's, Glad Tidings Church. Ultimately the
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group decided that none were enough of an improvement within their district to
warrant disrupting the voters. �
Dubois said the group came up with two recommendations: 1) absentee voting
wouid be moved to the Civic Center with proper staffing; 2) consolidating the �
current eight polling places into four, which would result in a cost of savings
annually of approximately $6,000. �
Stone asked for citizen members of the working group to speak.
� Charlie Birkel, who had previously senred as an election clerk, ward clerk�and as �
a warden, said the four suggested polling places are the Civic Center, Bangor
- � High School, Community Center and Cohen School. Judy Boothby said the �
current proposal would work. The City must comply with the ADA, must have
parking, and public transportation available. All four suggested sites meet these
standards. Harrison Clark felt that one voting place would work but also thinks �
the proposed four sites would work. It will make the process more transparent,
fewer individuals involved in fewer locations, less opportunity for things to go
wrong, more opportunity for the Clerk and the parties to observe. He thinks it �
. should be in place for the]une primary. Don Lewis agreed that the proposed
four sites is the best way to move forward. Nick Bearce said the proposal is a �
� � good compromise. The report indicates that one of the City Hall problems is
parking. He thinks the City should lead by example and make more parking .
available to citizens rather than for department heads. George Burgoyne asked �
the Council to consider making absentee voting conveniently available when
people might be able to use it; i.e., evening, Saturdays. Ken Buckley disagreed
with cutting the number of polling places in half as it places citizens at a ,
. disadvantage. It also means citizens would be traveling greater distances to
vote. He spoke of the neighborhood voting places. It will cause undue hardship
-� all based on the fact that in the initial presentation the main concern was over �
conversion of some of the present sites to become handicapped accessible. If
done by the City, it would cost approximately $12,900.
Stone commended Dubois and the working group. He suggested she put a letter
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together for the mayor to sign thanking members of the public who served. �
� Gratwick asked about electronic voting versus absentee. He expressed concern
that City Hall is difficult for handicapped individual to access. Regardless of the �
. proposal, he feels that the building should be more ADA friendly. Dubois said
. � that City Hall is not designed for 3,000-4,000 individual voting in a back office in
� � such a short period of time. The suggested ADA improvements would slope the �
handicapped ramp and address door lift issues. They are not major violations.
Regarding electronic voting, Dubois said it is something perhaps for 10 years into
the future. Cashwell validated that the polls are open 7 am to 8 pm and that �
150 hours a day times for 15 days is available to absentee voting and staffed by
- five workers. Dubois stated that absentee voting outside of the polling place_
� requires an extensive tracking system. Farrington said that City Hall should �
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� accommodate people who do wander in for voting. Dubois agreed. Palmer also
� thanked the committee for their work. He suggested new, more positive
terminology to replace absentee voting: early voting, vote by mail. He agreed
City Hall is problematic in terms of accessibility. Palmer spoke about the
� problems of voting places set up at the 14"' Street Schooi, Fairmount School,
Mary Snow School, Abraham Lincoln. Palmer and Hawes commended the City
Clerk's office as well as the working group's efforts. Hawes made a motion to
� . move the recommendation to full Council. The motion was seconded.
Responding to Allen, Dubois said the net savings of condensing 8 polling places
into 4 places is $5,000-$6,000. Regarding absentee voting at the civic center,
� Dubois said the idea is to make it convenient and well staffed. Dubois said she
was looking for the committee to recommend the proposal to full Council in the
� form of a council order as well as to hold a public hearing. Allen spoke about
extending the hours of service for the BAT on Election Day. Dubois said it would
provide another service to enhance the voting process but at a cost. Cashwell
� asked if the BAT would charge for service for voting purposes. Unless a change
in policy, Barrett said there would be a fee. Palmer suggested it would be a
� good service to provide. Farrington suggested trying it during the primary.
� � 5. Assessor's U date — Personal Pro e Tax
P p �Y
� Birch provided personal property declaration forms to the committee for their
review. The forms are mailed to business properly owners, and the annual
mailing was on January 6, 2005. 2,931 forms were mailed. Last year, 3,025
� were mailed and 1,928 were turned for a 63% return rate. There were 1,024
, accounts where individuals did not reply and they forfeit a right to appeal by not
replying. Personal property represents 12.75% of the total tax base for the
City. The mailing system was improved this year cutting the distribution cost by
� � $390.17. Birch explained the declaration process and the various forms.
� � Gratwick and Allen questioned personal property items in rental properties. Last
� year there was $254,225, 800 in personal property valuation and it generated
$5,186,206 in tax dollars. It is well worth the effort of the Assessing Department
to be as thorough and as detailed as possible. Barrett spake about the state's
!� efFort to phase out the personal property tax by LD 1660, which has been
- introduced and which is currently being revised. The Legislature is looking for
some mitigation technique regarding the loss of personal properly tax. Barrett
� will keep the Council updated on�the status of the LD. There is a constitutional
requirement that the State reimburse municipalities for 50% of the loss
sustained by elimination of personal property tax. For Bangor, it would be a
�� potential loss of $2.5M in property taxes and the amount would be shifted to the
properry tax base. Regarding the phase in of the LD proposal, Allen understands
� that more money would be targeted toward education which would relieve some
of the burden from the property tax owner. Barrett said the theory is that those
communities that would lose.a significant amount of personal property would be
� partially reimbursed through the education funding formula in that they would
have a smaller percentage of overall state value.
� 6. Development District Discussion
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Hamer said this is an item which has been reviewed over the past few years. He
reviewed the actual procedure for establishing districts. In order to qualify, there �
are four criteria: 1) at 25% of the area has to qualify for suitable commercial
uses; 2) there are overall limitations on the size of the district both for the
individual district and overall land within a City that can be made into a district; �
total area acreage of the city is 21,965 and not more than 11,000 acres of land
can be placed into development districts; as of]une 2004, Planning Department
� � indicated the city had 209 acres in development districts; the downtown ,�
development district is exempted; Terri Corey had researched and prepared a
map of the mall area showing a potential district in the area of Stillwater to �
Hogan Road/Interstate is 170 acres. 3) a tax increment financing district is not a
factor with the mall; 4) aggregate value applies to TTF districts. Designating an
area is the first step and then deciding what to do with the district is the �
following step. A devefopment plan would need to be created which includes a
statement of goals and accomplishments. The district would need to support
improving the economy and employment ratios in the area. The plan can then �
_ . be implemented with special assessments being assessed against members of
the development district. Allen and Stone discussed the area on the other side
of Stillwater Avenue. �
i Responding the Cashwell, Cyr said this would be a special assessment district: �
. Barrett said the City will be looking at a TIF district for the racino, downtown
waterfront area and discussion will take place at the upcoming Business and
Economic Development Committee meeting. Allen said the racino area will �
impact the current downtown development district. Barrett said it will be a
separate tax increment financing district. Allen said that part of the revenue
� � generated by the special assessment goes back into the actual improvement of �
the development. Barrett said that all goes back into the district. For a mall
district, he said staff has talked about designating the funds for sidewalk and
street improvements; environmental improvements associated with the �
� Penjajawoc Stream, and potentially marketing and promotional efforts to attract
additional people to the mall area; i.e. the Chamber and BCVB. Hamer stressed
the writing of the development program will determine the assessment and �
where the funds will go. Three separate and distinct types of assessments and
limits with their expansion. There are development assessments designed to -
. . increase the developability of lots (infrastructure); maintenance assessments to �
help pay for existing services to the area (police/fire protection); and
implementation assessment. Stone thanked Hamer for his work. Responding to
Hawes, Cyr said the funds could be used to print a brochure marketing the mall �
, area to the Maritimes, for example. General marketing for Bangor would not
qualify. �
Barrett clarified that the first step is clarify the boundaries of a potential district
in the Mall area. It cannot include the entire mall area and that in itself creates �
political issues. Once identified, the development program needs to be created,
� � identifying projects to be undertaken, how funds will be expended and then look
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at the total value being captured by the district, the tax rate to be established for
� the district. �
Given this information, staff is looking for committee recommendation to move
� forward in identifying a specific proposal with boundaries, to work out the value
to the captured and the type of tax rate required for certain levels of income.
� Responding to Allen, Barrett said the impact fees by mall area business are paid
once as part of the development cost. It is rare to receive a complaint about the
� fees. The bigger issue is the ofF site traffic improvement costs which are placed
back on the developer. These costs are substantial. The City has used its traffic
improvement funds to do minor supplemental projects in the mall area; i.e.
� traffic signal interconnection, relocation of Sylvan Road. Additional improvements
will be needed and largely funded by the State. With state budgetary problems,
these projects may be delayed. The City may have to do the improvements on
� an interim basis. Marginal tax difFerentials will not heavily influence retail
business locations in the mall area. Barrett indicated the creation of a mall
district is a policy decision for the Council to make.
� Farrington expressed concern that no response was received by area mall
businesses to a letter sent from the City. He can't see the benefits compared to
� the negatives. There needs to be a positive reason for the district other than the
monetary benefit. Gratwick said the area mall businesses need to be invited to
discuss this with Council. Barrett said the City needs to clarify what it wants to
�� � do with the proposed district. One project which he feels is fully justifiable is
dealing with water quality issues associated with the Penjajawoc. He spoke about
� upcoming projects and stormwater drainage issues. Cashwell said that before
the City proceeds there should be a list of issues that are critical to development
in the area. Allen agreed. She also suggested considering the impacts of LD #1.
Barrett said development districts are excluded from LD #1. Palmer thinks there
� needs to be considerable time spent looking at this matter and to involve all
stakeholders in the decision-making. Stone asked for a show of hands
� requesting the City Manager to pull together the requested information for a
. workshop session.
� On another issue, Cashwell spoke about rental car agencies at the airport and
their compliance with paying excise tax to the City. With some agencies not
. complying, the City has lost a quarter of a million in excise tax. Barrett said the
� agencies have been notified they are in default and that they must come into
compliance. He anticipates a make up provision over the remaining length of the
term of their agreement at BIA. Dave Little is working with some agencies.
� Barrett said it will be closely monitored. Cashwell asked if an airport excise fund
could be created to correct the make up provision questioning if the airport or
� � the taxpayer should bear the burden of the catch-up. Barrett said he will check
with the City Solicitor in terms of the FAA, etc. He anticipates the City will
receive all of its money. Cashwell asked if there are other contracts between the
� airport and revenue producing entities similar to this.� Farrington asked if this
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item should go to the TIC Committee as an agenda item. Barrett said the issue
belongs at the Finance Committee level. Little is tracking the payment process in �
Treasury and will keep the Committee updated. Cashwell asked for the revenue
� numbers from the rental agencies as well as details regarding each rental
agency's agreement with the Airport. During the next RFP process, Barrett said �
the City's intention is to offer a 5"' rental agency at BIA. The excise tax will be
included in the next round of proposals as well.
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