It was standing room only at tonight’s Fairfield City Council meeting as over eighty residents packed City Hall. The council opened up the meeting to hear public comments on the proposed vote to shift 12.5% of the local option sales tax (LOST) to create a public-private partnership between the City of Fairfield and the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center.
Mayor Ed Malloy opened the public hearing explaining that the question before the council tonight was whether to put the issue to a public vote, which would probably take place on May 4th. Getting ahead of perhaps the biggest criticism of the proposed funding of the FACC, Mayor Malloy explained that the FACC grows the revenue for LOST and therefore will contribute to sewers and streets (which currently receive 75% of LOST funds). Furthermore the Mayor assured that the re-allocation of LOST funds to the FACC, would not take away any current allocation of LOST funds to sewers and streets.
In a lighter moment from the meeting, residents were asked to limit their comments to two and a half minutes, with a thirty second warning given by City Clerk Joy Messer.
Over a dozen residents addressed the council and nearly all of them told the Mayor the issue should be put to a public vote (no matter whether or not they supported the re-allocation of funding).
Public comments opened with several FACC supporters speaking, including Dave Neff, Ken Ross, Fred Swartz and Pat McMahon (Fred and Pat are both members of the FACC board of directors). They were all well spoken and represented different perspectives on why the FACC is an asset to the community and therefore important to support with public funding.
Ken Ross, who has run several companies in Fairfield, provided a business perspective on one of the biggest criticisms of the FACC – a poor business plan that had to be redone. He explained that it’s common for a business plan to be re-written once a venture is launched in order to adapt to new information and unforeseen challenges.
Ray Griffin was the first resident to speak in opposition to the proposed funding of the FACC. Ray Griffin is also the author of a recent ad in the Fairfield Ledger where he argued that “bailing out the Civic Center” may jeopardize other programs like Little League, Police Department, Jefferson County Trails, Green Strategic Plan, and Parks Department. He addressed the council with concerns over lack of education over the proposed partnership and potential increase of property taxes. Mr. Griffin argued that if the FACC were to take LOST funds, then other entities would be underfunded, which would then force an increase in property taxes to cover the difference.
Another resident who addressed the council agreed to hold the vote, although she was opposed to the proposition of funding FACC. She expressed her opposition by questioning priorities. “What would happen if the public voted on more funds for our streets?”
The most unique comment of the evening came from resident Denyce Rusch, who spoke not of business plans, costs, or tax priorities, but of taking a sick relative to a musical at the FACC, and the emotional value of having access to the arts in our community.
After hearing everyone in the crowd who wished to speak, the council spoke briefly about the proposal, including a short thank you from councilwoman Susan Silvers who thanked the residents in attendance for voicing their different opinions “in a professional manner” (unlike some of the more heated hearings this council has witnessed in the past).
The council voted unanimously to put the proposition to a public vote this Spring. The next immediate step for the FACC board is to find residents of Jefferson County to convince their officials this coming Thursday to approve a similar vote for county residents.
Mayor Malloy's straw poll of last night county residents about support of the FACC was heartening, as the pro-FACC had a modest lead. Thursday's meeting with the county supervisors will be interesting. Will, thank you for this timely and accurate reporting!
If anyone missed the meeting, FPAC Will be Airing it at least 3 times per day over the next 2 weeks. If you don't have FPAC in your area, send an email to fpac@lisco.com and you can order one.
Thanks "Fairfield Voice" for such prompt reporting of this important issue
Here is the Mayor prefacing last night's hearing.
[youtube 03EDVB7ul_g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03EDVB7ul_g youtube]
How Property Taxes Are Effected By Vote
The 100% of the local option sales tax is divided like this, 50% for street repair, 25% for sewer repair and 25 % for community betterment. The 12.5% for the convention center will come out of the 25% for community betterment. Some concerns from residents centered on property tax, which mayor Ed Malloy assured could not be raised because there is a limit on property taxes and they are already maxed out. Revenue bonds would keep the 12.5% from going up, as you don’t go default on those agreements, you just extend the time on those terms and possibly renegotiate the agreement. The joint agreement between the city and county would see the city picking up 65% of funding, while the County would make up the remaining 35%.
Thanks for covering this, Will. It was good to see you at the press table last night.
I appreciate that KMCD clarified the property tax issue. Disinformation such as concern that city property taxes would increase cloud the issue unnecessarily, so I always strongly support stating the facts after stating someone's unfounded concerns. Everyone needs to be heard, but the facts are what's most important.
Thanks again for covering this story as it unfolds. I'm sure there will be many more interesting blogs on this topic in the coming months.
Anyone know what time and where the county meeting is tonight?
It's actually Thursday night at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Hope you can still come.
Tonight, 7pm in the Activities Building at the Fairgrounds
I find "community betterment" too vague a description for me to make a decision on this. What will not be funded in order to fund the FACC? If FACC is not funded, what will the 12.5% be spent on? Are there specific projects competing for those same funds or would that 12.5% just be doled out, in the moment, as needs arise?
Alex, let me try to answer your question. This breakdown of the Local Option Sales Tax with 50% to Street Repair, 25% to Sewer Repair, and 25% for Community Betterment is only a couple of years old, so there's not a lot of "history" to point to. In that time several local organization have requested and received funds from the Community Betterment portion of the tax, but none (aside from ArtWalk) are counting on the funds on an ongoing basis. Most of the projects funded this tax were once-per-decade upgrades that were completed simply because the funds were available (e.g. resurfacing the Little League fields).
So your last statement is the most accurate: the 12.5% will be used as needs arise. ArtWalk is the only ongoing program (that I'm aware of) that received LOST funds in 2009 and will most likely request additional funding in 2010. Since Community Betterment is a broad term then those funds could also potentially be used by City departments to fund needed upgrades, though I believe the original intent was to use the funds to community projects.
In short, there is not a long list of specific projects counting on continued Community Betterment funding, which technically makes the 12.5% for the Center "available" funds.
I would have to look at our budget sheet, but I believe FPAC received a small portion of LOST funds (I can't remember exactly where it came from) to augment our yearly budget in 2009. Normally we receive only a percentage of the Franchise Fees from Mediacom/LISCO, but for this year we requested a little extra in order to facilitate our move to a new facility, and to purchase some much needed equipment upgrades.
Just to give you an idea of where some of it went in 2009. 20,000 I believe is how much of our 50,000 budget came from LOST.
Order a DVD copy, I mean
Mike just passed me the DVD so I will be ripping that into segments and posting here. FPAC you guys rock!
Of the 80+ in attendance, 10 raised their hands identifying themselves as county residents. 6 were in favor, 4 were against. I think Myron or Ed corrected it to 7-4.
Good questions Alex! I hope we can get the specifics on this- transparency!