CITY OF
PICKERINGTON
FINANCE COMMITTEE OF
COUNCIL
CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD
THURSDAY, MARCH
27, 2003
REGULAR
MEETING
7:30
P.M.
1. ROLL CALL. Mr. Wright called the meeting to order at 7:30 P.M., with roll call as follows: Mr. Wright, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Parker were present. No members were absent. Others present were: Joyce Bushman, Lynda Yartin, Linda Fersch, Susan Crotty, Nikki Wilson, Katie Neal, Brittany Chambers, Phillip Jovanovski, Nathan Burgess, Edit Wettee, Andy Park, Matt Jones, Teonna Brooks, Jessi Brown, Kevin Giffey, and others.
2. A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF February 18, 2003, Special Meeting. Mr. Fox moved to approve; Mr. Wright seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Parker abstaining and Mr. Wright, and Mr. Fox voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 2-0.
B. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF February 27, 2003, Regular Meeting. Mr. Parker moved to approve; Mr. Fox seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Fox, Mr. Parker, and Mr. Wright voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.
C. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF March 18, 2003, Special Meeting. Mr. Parker moved to approve; Mr. Fox seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Fox, Mr. Wright, and Mr. Parker voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.
3. FINANCE DIRECTOR:
A. Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinances amending appropriation ordinance 2002-142. Mrs. Fersch stated she had provided two draft appropriation ordinances to the committee. She stated the first ordinance would be an appropriation of $8,500 from Lands and Buildings for a new roof for the building department facility. She stated the second ordinance dealt with projects from Service Committee and included an appropriation of $14,000 under the Windmiller/Diley TIF Construction Fund for engineering realignment of Diley Road; from Street Construction Fund an appropriation of $26,000 for the Courtright Road access realignment; and, from the Street Capital Improvement Fund an appropriation of $25,422 for street paving. Mr. Fox moved to approve both ordinances and forward to council; Mr. Parker seconded the motion. Roll call was taken with Mr. Parker, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Wright voting “Yea.” Motion passed, 3-0.
Mrs. Fersch stated she had provided the Committee with the City Fund Balances based on the appropriations approved this evening. She stated she had also provided a listing of the City’s debts and a debt schedule explaining where our debt is coming from, where the revenues are to pay the debt, and what the balance is, the interest on bonds, etc. Mr. Wright stated he noticed no resident’s property taxes are used to pay debt, and Mrs. Fersch stated that is correct and we have never done that. Mr. Wright also noted that obligations paid by the General Fund represent only 2.85 percent of the assessed valuation of the City, which is very low. Mrs. Fersch stated that was correct.
Mrs. Fersch stated further she had attended a meeting where the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) is providing monies to counties that Governor Taft declared disaster areas based on the amount of snowfall during a 48 hour period from January forward. Mrs. Fersch stated we had the big storm in February, however, Fairfield County had not been included in those counties. She stated they are working in various areas to get Fairfield County included in those counties, however, if we cannot get Fairfield County included, we will still be able to receive a small amount of funds for the portion of Franklin County that is in the City.
4. PERSONNEL: No Report.
5. DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT:
A. Reports
(1) Chamber of Commerce Report. Ms Crotty stated she had attended the last Chamber meeting and several individuals have resigned from the Chamber so they are in the process of filing those positions. She stated they have decided to combine the Taste of Pickerington with the Community Showcase in the fall.
(2) Rt. 33 S.E. Growth Alliance Report. Ms Crotty stated the Transportation Committee has been very active and one of the things they were supporting was the inclusion of one of the interchanges in the Transportation Equity Act Reauthorization Bill. She stated it would remove one of the lights, it was an application for federal funding, and it is supported by Representative Hobson. She stated it is not definite it will be funded, but it is included in the Bill. She stated they had also met with ODOT today and she had sent the information from that meeting to the engineer for review as it ranked Allen Road a little lower than the others. Ms Crotty stated they have several options they are reviewing and Violet Township, Canal Winchester, and Pickerington are all in agreement and support of the Allen Road location.
(3) Fairfield County Visitor’s and Convention Bureau Report. Ms Crotty stated most of the activity has been revolving around the Glass Museum and they have just decided on an architect.
B. Project Updates
(1) Business Retention and Expansion Study. Ms Crotty stated she has been meeting individually with task force members to give them their information, and they have assigned businesses for people to contact and visit. She stated they have already received over 80 surveys from the 388 sent out, and the responses have been very positive.
Ms Crotty stated she had also met with a prospective business today and we are competing with some of our neighbors to locate them here. She stated it is a bio technology type of business and she felt the meeting went very well. Ms Crotty distributed a copy of the information she had provided to the prospect today. She further stated they had shown them five different sites that are generally along S.R. 256, and it appeared he was more interested in a couple of the vacant sites we have closer to the downtown. Mr. Fox clarified the space needed was about 15,000 square feet to start and expanding to 35,000 and up to as much as 50,000 square feet. Further the first year there would be about 29 employees with the possibility of up to 44 by the third year, and the payroll the first year would be about $2.8 million. Ms Crotty stated the prospect was meeting with officials in Canal Winchester and Lancaster tomorrow, and she hoped to hear something within about 60 days.
5. CHAIRMAN:
A. Monthly review of law director services. Mr. Wright ascertained there were no questions on the law director’s report.
6. OTHER BUSINESS: No other business was brought forward.
Several students were present at the meeting and clarified the duties of the Finance Committee. They also asked questions regarding the widening of Diley Road, and the moratorium that is on the table at Council. Mr. Wright explained the Diley Road project would realign Diley Road to come out at the new traffic signal so you would not have two traffic signals in such a close proximity as we have now. Ms Crotty clarified that an industrial business that does distribution needs easy access to a major transportation corridor. She stated that is why U.S. 33 is important to us and why we have been trying to extend the city’s boundaries to U.S. 33, so we could have some control over the development in that area as that is where industry wants to be. Mrs. Bushman stated the city has been involved in trying to annex to U.S. 33 and that is now in the Courts. She stated there was an elderly farmer who wanted to annex to Pickerington, but was being forced to annex to Canal Winchester by the Township. She stated a very small portion of the 33 corridor is in our school district, and that is the area the City was trying to annex so we could move forward with an industrial park as that would provide tax revenue and a larger commercial tax base which would help the school district. Mr. Wright responded to the question regarding the effects of the building moratorium stating that he felt the majority of council believed that a total moratorium for a period of time would destroy the city’s finances. He stated he felt the majority of council also felt that once that moratorium was lifted there would be no further growth within the city because we would be viewed as an entity that cannot manage their growth. Mr. Wright stated other individuals felt this was the only way to save the schools, however, there is a proposal out there for a Community Authority that would take 1,000 acres of land and a certain millage would be set aside for the new homes that go on that property. Mr. Wright stated the funds necessary for the schools that would have to be built have been identified and the Community Authority would generate those funds. He stated without growth, however, the Community Authority has no funding mechanism to pay back debt and, therefore, no ability to build schools. He stated although it has been said that the Community Authority would take care of nothing dealing with operating levies, if you looked at the Pickerington school district, operating levies did not come up that often, it was building levies that came up. He stated if you took away the cost of having to build the schools, it made it easier to pass an operating levy and to handle the operating expenses of the schools. Mr. Wright stated it was his opinion that a moratorium of zero growth would destroy the city and ultimately the schools. Mrs. Bushman clarified that over the past ten years the average number of homes built in the city was about 181 homes a year. She stated there are fluctuations each year caused by various things, such as the reduction in the interest rates. Mrs. Bushman stated further there were years when the city had annexed several new subdivisions that were platted and ready to be built in the Township, and this caused the city to absorb growth that would have been reported in the Township. Mrs. Bushman stated when you analyze the growth over the last ten years, the growth between the City and Violet Township have been pretty equal, with the Township’s average being something like only 17 more homes than the City. Mrs. Bushman also stated the city had a moratorium in the early 1990s and as a result the market went flat in three subdivisions because the houses were not built out. She stated they are just now starting to recover from that. Mr. Wright clarified the legislation dealing with the moratorium remains on the table at City Council. Mr. Parker stated he would like to clarify just as an easy way to explain this, the taxes for the schools are paid by the residents, and if you do not add homes when the schools require more money, it is spread out among all the residents and their taxes go up. If new homes are built, then the amount is spread out over more homes and the taxes go down.
7. MOTIONS: No motions were made.
8. ADJOURNMENT. There being nothing further, Mr. Parker moved to adjourn; Mr. Fox seconded the motion. Mr. Parker, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Wright voted "Aye." Motion carried, 3-0. The Finance Committee adjourned at 8:10 P.M., March 27, 2003.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
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