Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - City Council - 01/09/2013 • sollt • AGENDA SOUTH BURLINGTON CITY COUNCIL City Hall Medium Conference Room 575 Dorset Street SOUTH BURLINGTON, VERMONT Special Meeting 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013 1. Consider entering executive session for discussion of potential litigation with City Attorney. 2. Agenda Review—consider additions, deletions or changes to the order of items. 3. Consider approval of petition to redirect equalization of property values effective January 1, 2013. 4. *** Consider approval of Certificate— No Appeal or Suit Pending. 5. Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda. 6. Other Business Respectfully Submitted: Sanford I. Miller City Manager *** Attachments Included South Burlington City Council Meeting Participation Guidelines City Council meetings are the only time we have to discuss and decide on City matters. We want to be as open and informal as possible; but Council meetings are not town meetings. In an effort to conduct orderly and efficient meetings,we kindly request your cooperation and compliance with the following guidelines. 1. Please be respectful of each other(Council members, staff, and the public). 2. Please raise your hand to be recognized by the Chair. Once recognized please state your name and address. 3. Please address the Chair and not other members of the public, staff, or presenters. 4. Please abide by any time limits that have been set. Time limits will be used to insure everyone is heard and there is sufficient time for the Council to conduct all the business on the agenda. 5. The Chair will make a reasonable effort to allow everyone to speak once before speakers address the Council a second time. 6. The Chair may ask that discussion be limited to the Councilors once the public input has been heard. 7. Please do not interrupt when others are speaking. 8. Please do not repeat the points made by others, except to briefly say whether you agree or disagree with others views. 9. Please use the outside hallway for side conversations. It is difficult to hear speaker remarks when there are other conversations occurring. JLadd From: . Sandy Miller Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 4:00 PM To: JLadd Subject: FW: Recommended appeal of Education Grand List - URGENT - ATTY CLIENT • Importance: High For CM Notes From: John H. Klesch [mailto:JKlesch©firmspf.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 2:05 PM To: Sandy Miller Cc: Todd Leblanc; Robert Fletcher; Bob Rusten Subject: Recommended appeal of Education Grand List - URGENT - ATTY CLIENT Importance: High Sandy: We have learned the 2012-13 education grand list for South Burlington was transmitted by the State to the City Clerk by letter dated December 12, 2012. Todd has inquired of the City Clerk's office and apparently no date stamp was made to allow us to verify date of receipt. Todd had his copy of the letter at least by December 13, 2012, and given the mailing date it thus appears we should treat December 13 as the receipt date. 32 V.S.A. 5408(a) allows a municipality to appeal the municipality's equalized education property value for a given tax year. City of Burlington's entry into the Heritage Aviation lawsuit in April, 2012, challenging whether some of the BIA properties should be in the Grand List and/or whether such properties are properly valued by South Burlington, has the potential to result in a lower grand list value for the City for the 2012-13 tax year by possibly tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in value. Therefore, we recommend that the City file a notice of appeal as a "placeholder" pending outcome of the lawsuit. The idea is to arguably hold open an opportunity for relief for the City from its education tax liability if Burlington were to succeed in reducing the taxed value of BIA property. The statute requires the appeal petition to the Director of PVR to be made within 30 days of receipt by the City Clerk of the education grand list. We understand from checking with Todd yesterday and today that the City has not filed an appeal for the 2012-13 tax year. As the City can still meet the 30 day deadline, and given the potential impact on the grand list if Burlington were to substantially prevail in the suit, we recommend the City act promptly to submit a petition of appeal. Unfortunately we read the statute as requiring the City Council to vote to authorize and proceed with such an appeal. I recognize the likely inconvenience to you and the Councilors of this view, particularly given that there was a meeting last evening, but given the potential implications we recommend you ask the City Council Chair to convene a special meeting on 24 hours notice for the Council to act on whether to submit a petition for reconsideration to PVR. A"yes" vote by 1 the City Council would authorize the Chair (or they can authorize another designee) to sign and submit the written petition to PVR. We fear that signing by the Chair with later ratification would jeopardize the validity of an appeal being considered timely by PVR. Provided there will be a unanimous vote, only 3 Councilors' attendance would be necessary. The statute is not explicit, but we recommend treating the deadline as the deadline for receipt by the director of PVR (though I have inquired of Bill Johnson, without mention of this case, as to how he views that question). We thus recommend the Council hold a special meeting in time to allow the Chair (or a designee) to sign a petition letter by Friday January 11, 2013 noon at the latest. If we receive word from PVR that transmission by either electronic mail or regular mail makes for a timely submission, then the letter can be sent accordingly. If not, then we recommend the letter be delivered by courier to the office of Bill Johnson on Friday afternoon well prior to close of business. I will go ahead and prepare and send you a draft petition letter so that it is ready and available should the Council choose to pursue this course of action. I am around if you wish to discuss the situation, and if you do not reach me Bob Fletcher is also up to speed. Given the time sensitivity, would you please let me know you received this email so we know you have the information. Regards, John John H. Klesch Stitzel, Page & Fletcher, P.C. 171 Battery Street P.O. Box 1507 Burlington, VT 05402-1507 Telephone: 802-660-2555 Fax: 802-660-2552 iklesch@firmspf.com Website: www.firmspf.com 2 n. . VEFMONt AGENDA SOUTH BURLINGTON CITY COUNCIL City Hall Medium Conference Room 575 Dorset Street SOUTH BURLINGTON,VERMONT Special Meeting 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013 1. Consider entering executive session for discussion of potential litigation with City Attorney. Our attorney(s)will be present to brief CC on the need for the special meeting. Additionally, the e-mail I received from John Klesch which precipitated this is pasted in immediately below. From: John H. Klesch [mailto:JKlesch@firmspf.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 2:05 PM To: Sandy Miller Cc: Todd Leblanc; Robert Fletcher; Bob Rusten Subject: Recommended appeal of Education Grand List- URGENT-ATTY CLIENT Importance: High Sandy: We have learned the 2012-13 education grand list for South Burlington was transmitted by the State to the City Clerk by letter dated December 12, 2012. Todd has inquired of the City Clerk's office and apparently no date stamp was made to allow us to verify date of receipt. Todd had his copy of the letter at least by December 13, 2012, and given the mailing date it thus appears we should treat December 13 as the receipt date. 32 V.S.A. 5408(a) allows a municipality to appeal the municipality's equalized education property value for a given tax year. City of Burlington's entry into the Heritage Aviation lawsuit in April, 2012, challenging whether some of the BIA properties should be in the Grand List and/or whether such properties are properly valued by South Burlington, has the potential to result in a lower grand list value for the City for the 2012-13 tax year by possibly tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in value. Therefore, we recommend that the City file a notice of appeal as a"placeholder"pending outcome of the lawsuit. The idea is to arguably hold open an opportunity for relief for the City from its education tax liability if Burlington were to succeed in reducing the taxed value of BIA property. The statute requires the appeal petition to the Director of PVR to be made within 30 days of receipt by the City Clerk of the education grand list. We understand from checking with Todd yesterday and today that the City has not filed an appeal for the 2012-13 tax year. As the City can still meet the 30 day deadline, and given the potential impact on the grand list if Burlington were to substantially prevail in the suit, we recommend the City act promptly to submit a petition of appeal. Unfortunately we read the statute as requiring the City Council to vote to authorize and proceed with such an appeal. I recognize the likely inconvenience to you and the Councilors of this view, particularly given that there was a meeting last evening, but given the potential implications we recommend you ask the City Council Chair to convene a special meeting on 24 hours notice for the Council to act on whether to submit a petition for reconsideration to PVR. A"yes"vote by the City Council would authorize the Chair (or they can authorize another designee) to sign and submit the written petition to PVR. We fear that signing by the Chair with later ratification would jeopardize the validity of an appeal being considered timely by PVR. Provided there will be a unanimous vote, only 3 Councilors' attendance would be necessary. The statute is not explicit, but we recommend treating the deadline as the deadline for receipt by the director of PVR(though I have inquired of Bill Johnson, without mention of this case, as to how he views that question). We thus recommend the Council hold a special meeting in time to allow the Chair (or a designee) to sign a petition letter by Friday January 11, 2013 noon at the latest. If we receive word from PVR that transmission by either electronic mail or regular mail makes for a timely submission, then the letter can be sent accordingly. If not, then we recommend the letter be delivered by courier to the office of Bill Johnson on Friday afternoon well prior to close of business. I will go ahead and prepare and send you a draft petition letter so that it is ready and available should the Council choose to pursue this course of action. I am around if you wish to discuss the situation, and if you do not reach me Bob Fletcher is also up to speed. Given the time sensitivity, would you please let me know you received this email so we know you have the information. Regards, John John H. Klesch Stitzel, Page &Fletcher, P.C. 171 Battery Street P.O. Box 1507 Burlington,VT 05402-1507 Telephone: 802-660-2555 Fax: 802-660-2552 iklesch@firmspf.com Website: www.firmspf.com 2. Agenda Review—consider additions, deletions or changes to the order of items. 3 Consider approval of petition to redirect equalization of property values effective January 1, 2013. This action will be the subject of the briefing in executive session. 4. *** Consider approval of Certificate— No Appeal or Suit Pending. 5. Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda. 6. Other Business Respectfully Submitted. Sanford I. Miller City Manager *** Attachments Included • January 9, 2013 • William E. Johnson, Director Property Valuation and Review Division Vermont Department of Taxes 133 State Street Montpelier, VT 05633-1401 Re: Petition for Redetermination of South Burlington Certified Equalized Education Property Value (Effective 1/1/2013) Dear Bill: Please accept this letter as a petition on behalf of the City of South Burlington for redetermination of its Certified Equalized Education Property Value ("EEPV") (Effective 1/1/2013) pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 5408. The petition is based on an appeal of 2012-13 property taxes by the City of Burlington to the South Burlington Board of Civil Authority of 124 properties which the City of Burlington owns within South Burlington, including property located at the Burlington International Airport. As of the writing of this letter of petition, that appeal remains pending with the BCA. This petition is also based on the fact that, as I believe you are aware, Burlington has also challenged South Burlington's 2012-13 taxation of some of these same properties in a declaratory judgment lawsuit currently pending in Chittenden Superior Court. The pending appeal to BCA, an appeal of the forthcoming BCA decisions, and the pending Superior Court action each have the potential to significantly alter the value of our 2012-13 grand list. South Burlington therefore wishes to preserve the right to seek relief from the January 1, 2013 EEPV sent to the City under letter from you dated December 12, 2012. Thank you for your kind assistance. I request that you please direct your response to this petition to John Klesch at the law offices of Stitzel, Page & Fletcher, P.C. Sincerely, City of South Burlington City Council, by its Authorized Representative k:\wpdoc\cor\son13-003 pvr draft petition.docx