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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 03/18/1996SOUTH BURLINGTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES MARCH 18, 1996 The City Council regular meeting on March 18, 1996 was called to order at 7:42 PM. Members present: William Cimonetti, Chair; Robert Chittenden, Michael Flaherty and James Condos Others present: Chuck Hafter, City Manager; Peg Strait, Assistant City Manager; Peg Picard, City Clerk; Steve Stitzel, City Attorney; Representative Ann Pugh, Paul Farrar, Sonny Audette, Hank Lambert, Lani Ravin, Donald Whitten 1. Comments and Questions from the Public (not related to the agenda). Mr. Cimonetti asked for any comments or questions from the public on any items not appearing on the agenda. He then asked for any announcements or reports from Council members. Jim Condos stated that he will be attending a Chittenden Solid Waste Executive Board meeting on Wednesday, May 20 and also the regular scheduled executive board meeting on March 27. The meeting will be held in the South Burlington City Hall Conference Room. Bill Cimonetti mentioned that there will be a regular meeting of the MPO scheduled this week on Wednesday, March 20 and there will be a special meeting of the MPO early in April. At this special meeting they will be talking about the report from the committee that studied the possible combination of the MPO/RPO and folding all of this into Regional Planning. Mr. Chittenden suggested that this issue may come up on Monday, March 25 and because Mr. Chittenden will be out of town he suggested that Mr. Hafter represent the City at this meeting. Mr. Cimonetti pointed out that there are three (3) items that are very important to South Burlington: 1) the Lime Kiln Bridge, 2) the Exit 13 On-Ramp, and 3) the Kennedy Drive rebuild. He has asked the MPO for a specific explanation of these projects at this meeting being held on Wednesday, March 20, 1996 at 3:00 PM in the Williston Town Hall. Mr. Audette pointed out that the MPO will be releasing a contract for the Kennedy Drive project. It will be scoping from the Interstate through the intersection at Airport Drive. No land has to be acquired. The City has the right-of-way. 2. Announcements and City Manager's Report: The Steering Committee meeting is Thursday, March 21, 1996 in the City Hall Conference Room. The next meeting of the Regional Economic Development Committee will be held at 60 Main Street in the Chamber of Commerce Building at 9:30 AM on March 27. The next regular City Council meeting will be held on April 1, 1996 at 7:30 PM in the City Council Large Conference Room. All dog licenses need to be renewed by April 1, 1996. Mr. Hafter pointed out that the City in conjunction with the Chittenden Bank is now offering an Automatic Automated Tax Payment Program. City Clerk Peg Picard added that there had been a good response from citizens on tax day and more participation is expected. At the time of this meeting there were about 20 participants. 3. Recommendation from Charter Committee on Elimination of Machine and Equipment Tax and Authorization for Tax Stabilization Agreements. Paul Farrar, Charter Committee member, presented the proposed changes to the Charter. The first proposal was the removal of the inventory table which is in the charter. This would change Section 1504. This table has become obsolete. Paul pointed out that they have been dealing with the machine and equipment tax. This machinery/equipment tax is approximately 6% of the entire tax base. Rather than do away with the tax completely all at one time and create a 6% decrease in tax revenue all at one time, other options were reviewed. The option that seems most reasonable is that any machine and/or equipment installed after April 1, 1996 would not be taxed and any machine/equipment that is presently installed the tax on it would be reduced by 20% per year or the rate at which State law now allows it to be reduced, whichever is the highest. At the end of 5 year there would be no more machine and equipment tax. Paul pointed out that there would be no guarantee that this tax reduction would be offset by additional commercial development but there is reasonable expectation that this would encourage additional commercial development in the community. The third option reviewed is to give the City Council the ability to negotiate tax stabilization with the commercial development coming into the City. All votes of the Council members except for one would be necessary to support a decision regarding the tax negotiation. Mr. Cimonetti's question proposed to Paul was, "At what rate have we been adding machinery and equipment each year. Paul's answer was that he did not have historical data to answer that question. Paul would expect that it would be no greater that the addition of commercial real estate. Commercial real estate is approximately 50% of the tax base. Mr. Cimonetti pointed out that the total overall grand list has had an increase of only 1.5% per year suggesting that the business and equipment has done about the same thing. Mr. Hafter pointed out that the City has seen a decline every year since 1991-92. The City is down $15 million since 1991-92. Mr. Hafter stated that about 1/2 of this decline is due to the loss of Digital. Mr. Cimonetti pointed out that he sees the impact, based on the most recent 4 years, less than the 20% that you see and Paul agreed. Paul indicated that he believes that psychologically that this would have the most positive effect on the business community. The two (2) issues, the machinery and equipment tax and the tax stabilization are connected. Paul felt that he could not see any reason not to tie the two together as an item on the May ballot. Both are aimed at encouraging non-residential development in the community. This will lower the residential tax rate and it provides jobs for the residence of this community. Paul pointed out that in effect in the short run that there may be less money to spend but on the other hand in the long run, one could put together a scenario that there will be more money to spend. Jim Condos feels that South Burlington is in a much better position, in a business point of view, because it is only 6% of our total budget; whereby, some communities have to deal with a much larger percentage. Mr. Cimonetti pointed out to Council that to proceed with the proposal Council would have to have two (2) different public hearings because what is being proposed is a Charter change in advance of the time that the ballot is set for the May election. The hearings have been warned for: April 15, 1996 and April 22, 1996 allowing the item to be placed on the ballot if Council so wishes. If the referendum passes the next step would be to apply to the Legislature for a change to the Charter. Because the Legislature would not be in session the Council would have another year before the Council could proceed. The effective date would be April 2, 1996. Bob Chittenden moved that the Council proceed in the following manner that there be two (2) public hearings, one on April 15, 1996 and the other on April 22, 1996 to further discuss the elimination of the machinery and equipment tax and all three (3) items presented to Council. Mr. Flaherty seconded this motion. The motion was passed unanimously (4-0). 4. Report from Social Responsibility Committee on 1996-97 Fy Budget Allocations. Hank Lambert presented the report from Social Responsibility. Hank Lambert and Rosalind Saunders served on the Social Responsibility Committee for these past three (3) years. This year they reviewed requests from 16 agencies and 2 of these agencies were applying for the first time, 14 received funding last year. They examined various criteria such as program services, duplication of services, quality of the services, services to the residents of South Burlington, the relative financial need and the use of volunteers. They are recommending a balanced budget, $42,000. The charge that was presented to the Social Responsibility Committee was to make recommendations to City Council that they thought would be fair allocations of funds. The requests were level, no one asked for amounts over and above what they received last year. The decision was to not fund agencies requesting for the first time. The Child Care Resource and The Vermont Respite House were both eliminated. Increases are being recommended for three agencies: The Family Center increased by $1,500, The Howard Center increased by $250 and the Women Helping Battered Women increased by $25. Decreases are being recommended for two (2) agencies: CASA and CVAA. The cut to CVAA reflects the rounding of dollars, the cut to CASA was a much more difficult one to make. They wanted to increase the funding to home-grown South Burlington agencies. They felt that the Family Center had made tremendous strides in this past year deserving the increase in funds. The committee is hoping that these two homegrown agencies will work to collaborate a little better to avoid duplication. Hank and Rosalind recognize that dollars are tight and the budget process is a very difficult one, but they want to recognize the need for increased resources for human service programs that serve this City by helping to keep people in their South Burlington homes, by preventing and treating substance abuse, providing safety from domestic violence, providing in-home care, etc. The committee wanted to mention again the possibility of South Burlington asking the United Way to help distribute these funds in future years. At this time Mr. Cimonetti turned to Council members for any questions. Mr. Chittenden stated that he would like to run through the itinerary with Hank. Mr. Chittenden feels it important to maintain the adult basic education in our community. He asked where COTS comes into play in our community. Mr. Lambert pointed out that COTS is based in Burlington, serving Chittenden County, and they do provide services to South Burlington. Mr. Chittenden expressed concern that the City was not able to provide for books in our library, rather than put monies toward COTS. Mr. Chittenden sees the monies as better spent putting them to the youth and citizens of South Burlington. Mr. Lambert understood that the councilmen have to make some very difficult decisions, he expressed his personal view is that any community is as good as it treats the least among them. The $42,000 dollars from the City of South Burlington does not seem like a lot of money when putting it toward proven services that help our society. Mr. Chittenden expressed the need to differ with Mr. Lambert and stated that he has had a problem with this organization (The Social Responsibility Committee) since its inception. The increase from $5,000 to $42,000 in a seven (7) year period of time, he sees as generating more money than most any other agencies in our entire community. Mr. Chittenden stated that he has a real problem with their priorities. He feels that the children in our community should be our priority and, therefore, would rather see $42,000 dollars go toward new books and reading materials for the community library. He feels that the committee is off base and the priorities are not in the right place when spending City monies. Mr. Lambert stated that it is not the committees job to decide where the monies are spent, it is the Council's job. He sees his job as presenting Council with recommendations. He agreed that our youth are very important but he sees us, South Burlington, as a wider community. Mr. Chittenden feels that we do not have enough money for our own community and questions why we would go outside of our community. Mr. Condos stated that the committee has done an excellent job of providing Council with the information that is needed to make informed decisions. He sees the information as getting better every year. Mr. Condos thanked Hank and Rosalind for all the effort that has gone into this allocation process. Mr. Flaherty thanked Mr. Lambert and Ms. Saunders and stated personally he would like to give the committee more to work with. He sees agencies such as the Visiting Nurses as giving a great deal to our community and sees them as getting short-changed. Mr. Chittenden sees this agency as a voluntary organization and feels that you can not put a dollar value on that. Mr. Cimonetti thanked Mr. Lambert for his presentation. He stated that the recommendation of turning more of the allocation responsibility over to the United Way has been discussed before and is something that he personally felt that this a good idea. 5. Request for Approval of City Manager's Budget as Amended for Presentation to the Steering Committee. The next step in the budget process is for the Council to make their decision as to whether or not to take the amended proposed budget to Steering Committee and to the Public Hearing. Mr. Cimonetti stated that Council is at a point, whereby, they make a preliminary approval and further changes can be made to the budget as a result of the Steering Committee meeting or the Public Hearing. The decision is whether to advance the proposed budget or not. Mr. Hafter was asked by Mr. Cimonetti to state any amendments that have been made to the proposed budget. Mr. Hafter stated that the line called "General Receipts" was changed to "Special Activities Receipts." The second amendment is that lumped into "City Highway Materials" is $40,000 for materials used on the roads. The line item "City Highway Materials" is now $31,500 and a new line item was created called "Road Painting" at $9,500. The original request for sewer rates of $13.90/1,000 cu. ft. is being proposed by staff to $14.90/1,000 cu. ft. per Council request. This will raise homeowners cost about $21.75 annually over current costs. Our rates are still the second lowest in Chittenden County. This fee is being increased to provide in anticipation of $70,000, almost to be considered as an escrow account, to help to meet the expenditures to the costs of upgrading the Bartlett's Bay Plant. Mr. Flaherty made a motion to approve the City Manager's Budget as amended on the communications of March 6, 1996. Mr. Condos seconded this motion. Mr. Chittenden asked Mr. Hafter to clarify why the line item name was changed and Mr. Hafter explained that Council requested this change to bring the two names together. Mr. Chittenden pointed out that the "Highway Materials" should be reduced to $30,500 level funding. Mr. Hafter agreed. Mr. Chittenden also expressed concern over the sewer tax rate increase for our citizens. Mr. Cimonetti suggested that it is his intention to have the sewer costs covered by those using the sewer. Mr. Chittenden agrees that we do need the new sewer plant and feels the impact fees and new construction costs will cover the construction of the plant and is not in favor of trying to get more money out of the taxpayers. He feels that there are other areas where spending can be cut. Mr. Cimonetti pointed out that there are no impact fees being applied to the sewer plant. Mr. Condos seconded Mr. Flaherty's motion. The motion was passed 3-1, Mr. Chittenden opposing. 6. Continued Discussion of Request for Waiver of Impact Fee for Harbor Heights Duplexes; John Larkin. This issue has been resolved and this item was removed from the agenda. Mr. Larkin no longer had a need to request a waiver of the impact fee for his development. 7. Interview with Ms. Lani Ravin for Appointment to the Natural Resources Committee. Mr. Cimonetti welcomed Lani Ravin and appreciated her interest in the Natural Resource Committee. Ms. Ravin explained that she has been working as an urban planner in Israel and feels that she has knowledge and energy that would be valuable to the committee and would like to contribute to the committee. Mr. Cimonetti pointed out that our Natural Resource Committee has taken on a responsibility for our Planning Commission and has grown to be quite significant over the last five years. Any development request that goes before the Planning Commission, is reviewed by the Natural Resource Committee in the area of the impact on natural resources. Mr. Flaherty indicated that he had noticed that Lani might be interested in the Zoning Board also. Lani stated that she has more expertise in zoning issues but she is interested in both. Mr. Condos recognized that Lani had interest and experience in land-use planning. He asked Lani whether she had any interest in the Planning Commission. Lani response was that she had interest in the Planning Commission but at this point was not able to take on that heavy of a commitment. Mr. Chittenden asked Lani if she was a voting member and resident of the community. Lani response was that she lives at Stonehedge, her daughter goes to Orchard School and she votes in the community. Mr. Cimonetti reminded Lani that the appointments to boards and commissions will be made in executive session. She will be notified as soon as the decision is made. 8. Consideration of Approval of Capital Equipment Refunding Note and Resolution for International Truck. Mr. Cimonetti asked Mr. Hafter if he was correct in thinking that there is $50,000 outstanding, the City is prepared to pay down $10,000 and refund the remaining $40,000. The rates are 4.25%. Mr. Condos moved to approve the capital equipment refunding note at $40,000 with an interest rate of 4.25% and the accompanying refunding and borrowing resolution. Mr. Flaherty seconded this motion. Mr. Chittenden asked whether there was any extra monies in the Highway Department to cover equipment. Mr. Hafter pointed out that there is money available by bond issue strictly for capital projects. There is no available equipment money. The motion was passed unanimously (4-0). 9. Acceptance of Resignation of Ms. Susan Pritchard from Correctional Center Liaison Committee. Mike Flaherty made a motion that the Council accept with regret Susan's resignation and asked Mr. Hafter to send her a letter of appreciation. Mr. Chittenden seconded this motion. This motion was passed unanimously (4-0). 10. Item for Information: a.) South Burlington Steering Committee Agenda and Steering Committee Minutes for October 26, 1996. Mr. Chittenden stated that he will not be attending the Steering Committee. He will be out of town. 11. Consideration of Approval of Annual Entertainment Permits: Mr. Cimonetti pointed out that the application from the Holiday Inn is not complete. Mr. Flaherty made a motion to approve the Annual Entertainment Permits for Franny O's and Jake's Bar and Grill and table the application from the Holiday Inn until Council receives a more complete application. Mr. Chittenden seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (4-0). 12. Review Planning Commission Agenda for March 19, 1996. Mr. Condos expressed a concern about the number 5 item on the agenda. This area is the location of the movie theater/MacDonalds/apartments etc. Cars are parked in the road and in no parking areas. If a fire truck tried to get through at crowded times it would be impossible. Mr. Condos requested that the Planning Commission pay particular attention to the parking problem when discussing this item. 13. Approval of City Council Minutes for February 26, 1996 and March 4, 1996. Mr. Condos asked that there be a correction to the March 4 minutes, page 2 just below halfway point. It should read: "Mr. Condos moved to approve the ordinance as amended." Mr. Hafter pointed out that on page 3 of March 4 minutes it should be changed to: Mr. Weith noted that the interchange (116/89 Interchange) is on the official map and is in the Comprehensive Plan. Mr. Chittenden asked that March 4, minutes, page 2, read as Mr. Chittenden felt that the increase in fees is a revenue enhancement package. Mr. Condos made a motion to approve the minutes as amended. Mr. Flaherty seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously (4-0). 14. Mr. Condos moved to adjourn the regular City Council Meeting and resume as Liquor Control Board. Mr. Flaherty seconded the motion. The Regular City Council Meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM. Mr. Cimonetti presented the list of First and Second Class Liquor License Renewals. Mr. Flaherty asked Mr. Hafter is there were any problems or concerns with any of them, and Mr. Hafter stated that there were no concerns or problems and that they were all renewals. Mr. Flaherty made a motion to approve all of the First and Second Class Liquor Licenses that are on the list provided by City Manager dated 3/14/96. Mr. Condos seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously (3-0). Mr. Hafter presented a new application from Night Flight requesting a First Class Beverage License. The application is in order. The corporate identification number will be attached. Mr. Flaherty made a motion that the Council approve the First Class Liquor License for Night Flight Inc. Mr. Condos seconded this motion. The motion passed unanimously (3-0). The Council moved into Executive Session to discuss appointment to Boards and Commissions, Litigation and Contract Negotiations. The Council returned to regular session. Jim Condos moved to approve the City Hall Employees' Association Contract 7/1/95 - 6/30/97. Mike Flaherty seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Bob Chittenden moved to appoint Lani Revin to the Natural Resources Committee. Mike Flaherty seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Bob Chittenden moved adjournment. Mike Flaherty seconded. The motion passed unanimously and the meeting adjourned at 10:00 PM. Respectfully submitted: South Burlington Council Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.