Council Report

By Dottie McGrew

Interim city budget
The city is expected to enter the 2007 fiscal year with an interim budget.

Council plans to approve a first reading, on emergency, of legislation authorizing the city’s first interim budget. The interim budget would carry the city to March 31, at the latest. The goal is to complete a review of the proposed budget by Jan. 31.

Councilman-at-large and Finance Committee Chair Pat DeOrio proposed the interim budget to allow council time for an in depth review of the $36 million budget submitted in late November by Finance Director Julie Herr.

Traditionally, council approves the budget for the upcoming fiscal year in December, just prior to holiday recess.

DeOrio plans to hold a series of Finance Committee meetings one hour prior to council’s regularly scheduled Monday night meetings, perhaps beginning as early as Dec. 4. The Finance Committee meetings will be open to the public. The committee plans to bring the results of the budget review back to the entire council for approval.

Some council members and city officials said after the meeting that an interim budget would allow time for resolution of ongoing contract negotiations with unions representing city employees, including safety forces, as well as the future of The Hoover Company. Both the contract negotiations and the prospects for Hoover will impact deeply the 2007 budget.

Recycling – the next step
The city plans to purchase 2,026 two-feet by 4-feet blue plastic bins to facilitate residential recycling of paper, plastic containers, bottles and cans. The containers will be paid for by a grant from the Tri-County Solid Waste District. The M. Conley Co. was the low bidder at $9.20 per bin.

The city plans to mail information and a registration form to residents in late November or early December. The containers, two to household, will be distributed on a first-come, first-served
basis. Registration forms will be time-stamped. City employees will deliver the containers to
residents along with instructions for use. Participation is voluntary.

Residents organize
Residents of the Lipton-Elmwood SW neighborhood are organizing to lobby council
to craft more effective public nuisance legislation.

Some residents are particularly concerned about vehicles being parked in front yards. In some cases, residents say unlicensed vehicles have been on blocks in yards for an extended time.

For the most part, homes in the area are on small city lots with single car garages and single lane driveways. They were built when most families had only one vehicle. But families with two and three vehicles are now common. Overnight street parking is banned by city ordinance as is parking in yards. There is very little, if any room, for driveway expansion.

“This problem is not unique to Ward 4,” said Ward 4 councilman Jon Snyder. “It’s all over the city.
We must find a pro-active way to handle the problem. It will not happen overnight.”

Councilman-at-large Pat DeOrio said that council should develop a “mechanism for people to comply with the city’s complex parking restrictions.” Such a mechanism would increase home values and lessen the probability of owner-occupied homes becoming rentals.

Cracking down on delinquent taxpayers
The city has sent out four separate delinquency letters since July to 300 people who had not filed income tax returns with the city and another 700 who had filed but still owed a balance – some for as long as six years.

Finance Director Julie Herr said that the letters were a last chance to pay taxes before the city takes legal action.

The city will consider criminal charges or civil lawsuits against those who do not comply, law director Randy McFarren said.

Herr estimates the city could collect as much as $200,000 in unpaid taxes.