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City Council Recessed Meeting
Minutes
Tuesday; February 17, 2009
City Council Chambers
7:00 p.m.
February 17, 2009 Public Hearing Action
Action: No action taken on this item. Additional public hearing to be held at the March Council meeting.
Action: City Manager Tom Aspell provided a brief overview.
Mayor Bouley asked staff to comment on the public testimony given at the last meeting in regards to baseball games being in two hour increments when it takes approximately six hours to play. Recreation Director David Gill explained that the American Legion games are the only ones that take six hours and most of the other ones are two hour increments.
Councilor Nyhan moved approval. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
Action:
Councilor Bouchard moved
approval. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
Action: City Manager Tom Aspell provided a brief overview explaining that this item was recommended unanimously by the Planning Board and would help to address signage needs in multiple building campuses.
Councilor McClure inquired whether or not it includes the recommendation of the Planning Board to add a new subsection 4b. Mr. Aspell responded that it does.
Councilor Bouchard moved approval. The motion was duly seconded.
Councilor Shurtleff thanked the Planning Department and Planning Board for all their work on this ordinance.
The motion to approve passed with no dissenting votes.
Action: City Manager Tom Aspell provided a brief overview.
Councilor Blanchard moved approval. The motion was duly seconded.
Councilor Bouchard thanked Councilor Shurtleff and Representative Osborne for their help on this item. She noted that she hopes Council approves this ordinance.
Councilor Patten thanked Councilor Bouchard and Shurtleff for all their help.
Councilor Blanchard’s motion passed with no dissenting votes.
Action: No action taken this evening. Public hearing tabled until the March Council meeting.
Action: No action taken this evening. Public hearing tabled until the March Council meeting.
Action: Councilor St. Hilaire moved approval. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
Action:
Councilor St. Hilaire moved approval. The
motion was duly seconded and passed on a voice vote.
Reports
Action: City Manager Tom Aspell provided a detailed overview explaining that the Fiscal Policy Advisory Committee is recommending a zero percent tax rate increase. He pointed out that the real growth and valuation that is being looked at is going to be down from about 1.6 percent this current year to the projection of 0.23 percent for next year. Referencing non-property tax revenues, he noted that the projection is that this will be down 3.4 percent. He noted that for general budget purposes, staff did not anticipate any assistance with the federal stimulus package and that it appears that there will be very little money if any at all to Concord. Based on Governor Lynch’s proposed budget, he explained that the elimination of the meals and room and the revenue sharing is going to have an impact on the city. He explained that when the increased requirement for the employer’s share of the contribution rate is also added, the city is looking at a $3.178 million impact to the city. Referencing the tax rate target discussion, Mr. Aspell explained that they looked at what the gap would be and what a tax rate would be which was 17 percent and that this would move it to a 28 percent tax rate increase. He indicated that they will think of all of these when preparing the new budget and that this will essentially result in the dramatic decreases in capital expenditures and significant impact on services. He added that the gap that the city was looking at before was $5.2 million has grown to $8.4 million.
Mayor Bouley inquired whether there has been any indication that there is stimulus package money available that will come directly to the cities and towns to offset this loss of $3.2 million. Mr.Aspell responded that there has not been any indication. He added that it appears that if there is federal stimulus dollars it would go to the non-municipal side of the budget.
Councilor Bouchard noted that it is her understanding that any stimulus money is earmarked for projects and is not to go towards helping operating budget expenses.
Councilor Coen inquired as to the largest dollar amount that is being shifted down to the city that the state used to pay. Mr. Aspell responded that it was approximately $1.7 million for rooms and meals and $1.3 million for revenue sharing.
Councilor Keach indicated that he feels that at some point discussion needs to be held as to when the city stops providing services to for the state if there is no compensation provided to the city.
Mayor Bouley pointed out that the state does have a line item within their budget of $125,000 for aid to Concord and within the Governor’s budget he level funded this.
Councilor Nyhan stressed the fact that the city has just been given an 11 percent tax increase passed down to the city by the state. He added that he just wants the citizens of Concord to know that this will be a huge gap to fill and is not any reflection upon how the city has managed their operations or capital projection.
Councilor Shurtleff indicated that the stimulus package is supposed to be geared towards shovel ready projects and noted his concern with the North State Street/Fisherville Road Corridor project. He asked if this would be considered as a shovel ready project that federal funds could be diverted to complete.
Councilor Bouchard noted that it is her understanding that cities and towns have put forth a list of projects that they would like to be considered to receive stimulus package money. She indicated that if there are projects on the list that match projects that the cities or towns have previously submitted to the NHDOT, those projects would get priority on any stimulus money.
Jim Howard, Deputy City Manager – Finance, pointed out that the Governor’s budget is just a proposal at this point in time and there is a lot of discussion that will need to take place. He noted that communication through the Concord delegation is going to be critical. He indicated that there will be significant service impacts as well as substantial difficulty in making the zero percent tax rate increase. He explained that they will have to look at what the city’s options are and develop some options partnered with a lot of the other towns and cities within the state to try to rectify this situation.
Mayor Bouley concurred with Mr. Howard. He noted that it is his hope that the delegation could come to next month’s Council meeting to explain more about the budget so that the city can properly prepare their budget.
Councilor Coen moved a zero percent tax rate increase. The motion was duly seconded and passed on a voice vote.
Action: Councilor Nyhan moved acceptance of the fiscal monitoring report. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
Action: City Manager Tom Aspell provided a brief overview explaining that the Planning Board has vote unanimously to update the schedule of fees but that the increased fees not be adopted in recognition of the economic downturn.
Councilor Bouchard moved to adopt the Planning Board recommendation to not adopt
the increases. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting
votes.
New Business
Unfinished Business
Action: This item tabled until the March Council meeting.
Comments, Requests by Mayor, City Councilors
Referencing item 32 within the consent agenda, the downtown overnight parking status report, Councilor McClure requested a financial report be prepared for the next Council meeting as to the costs and revenues.
Councilor Shurtleff indicated that he had gone to a reception sponsored by the NH Retail Merchants Association in which Attorney General Kelly Ayotte presented the association’s annual law enforcement officer of the year award to Detective Sean Ford for the tremendous job that he has done in the area of retail theft. He noted that Detective Ford is another example of outstanding employees within the city.
Councilor St. Hilaire pointed out that Detective Ford, over and above the award, is being proactive on trying to rehabilitate any offenders by working with the County Attorneys office in starting a new program for shoplifters that are first time offenders. He explained that the economic downturn has created a boom in shoplifting arrests and this program is being put in place to deal with the offenders to help keep costs down for Concord and the rest of the county.
Comments, Requests by the City Manager
Consideration of items pulled from the consent agenda for discussion
Items 12, 22, and 27 were pulled from the consent agenda to be discussed following unfinished business items on the agenda.
Referral to the Parking Committee
Action: Councilor Lemieux pointed out that since he has been on the Council this is the fourth similar incident. He noted that when Council resolved a few of these, they were reminded that this situation with narrow streets happens every winter and yet Council is solving these on a piece by piece basis. He asked that this be referred to the Parking Committee and to also ask the staff through the Traffic Operations Committee to take a broader look at resolving this problem wherever it occurs.
Councilor Lemieux moved to refer this to the Parking Committee for the immediate incident and to the Traffic Operations Committee for the broader solution. The motion was duly seconded.
Referencing problems within Ward Six in regards to narrow streets, Councilor Bennett indicated that they may want to look at restricting parking to one side of the street during the winter time. City Manager Tom Aspell asked whether this restriction would be during the winter only or year round. Councilor Bennett responded that some streets should be considered year round. In anticipation of the budget, Mr. Aspell noted that staff is going to strongly consider reducing snow removal activities and this may tie into what this issue is going to be. He explained that there will be more issues of snow having to be in the streets and people parking on both sides of the street indicating that it will take longer to get rid of the snow because it will be done during straight time. He added that he agrees that narrow streets need to be looked at from a broader issue.
Councilor Lemieux pointed out that he is recommending this item be sent to the Traffic Operations Committee because the membership consists of the Police Department, Fire Department, Parking Department, General Services Department and individuals from the school have also been attending.
Councilor Lemieux’s motion passed with no dissenting votes.
Action: Councilor McClure moved to refer this item back to the committee explaining that there are a number of exemptions and credits that are based upon economic need and others that are not based upon this need and that all of these exemptions increase the taxes of the other taxpayers. She noted that she would like the committee to look seriously at some of the credits and exemptions and see where they may reduce them to the minimum allowed by the state or adjust them in some way that they are not a handicap to the other taxpayers while still acknowledging the need to provide some exemptions where there is an economic need to do so. The motion was duly seconded and failed 6 to 9 on a show of hands vote.
Councilor St. Hilaire moved to accept the report. The motion was duly seconded and passed on a voice vote.
Action: Councilor Patten asked where the Fire Department is at with the minimum staffing and whether the needs are being adequately met.
Fire Chief Dan Andrus indicated that this particular report took a look at the demand trends over the last three years and they have found that there was considerable growth in Central’s district. He explained that this remains the third busiest of the four stations but still saw an increase of 9.23 percent in its call volume being generated within this district. He noted that he feels that much of this is coming from the development of Horseshoe Pond. He explained that staff is also continuing to scrutinize their response times with reports indicating what time of the day and night they receive calls in which can be modeled with some precision when calls arrive. He added that 37 percent of the calls fall at night which is a minority of calls that are representative of the most serious calls. Chief Andrus indicated that there have been seven major incidents since the new minimum staffing took effect in August with four being at night with three being documented that there is some delay in getting water supply. He added that it is hard to match this with any kind of outcome such as increased injury or fire loss. He further added that staff is continuing to review what the experiences of having engine one out indicating that one of the impacts is that with only three engines active within the city, they are limited in the amount of training that can be done on night shifts. He noted that another impact is that in a city like Concord usually somebody is busy all the time which cuts down on the ability to address a structure fire which typically takes about fifteen people in order stretch hose lines, establish water supply, ladder the building, conduct search and rescue, ventilate and transport patients that are found.
Councilor St. Hilaire asked whether calls out of the city district were up. Chief Andrus indicated that the year end report indicated that there were 159 mutual aid calls last year where apparatus left the city to aid another part of the compact and 97 paramedic intercepts. Councilor St. Hilaire questioned whether staff was looking at these numbers to make sure that they are being equalized or that the city is providing service and also getting service back from other members of the compact. Chief Andrus responded yes explaining that in every instance mentioned of the seven, the city has received coverage from surrounding departments both at the emergency scene and to cover Concord stations.
Councilor Blanchard asked if there was a greater demand on Ladder One because of the downtime of Engine One. Chief Andrus indicated that to be correct.
Councilor Nyhan moved acceptance of the report. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
Consideration of Suspense Items
Councilor St. Hilaire moved to suspend the rules to consider items not previously advertised. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
2 Sus1 Referral to General Services
and the Parking Committee
Communication regarding parking and snow removal on Short Street in
Concord.
Action: Councilor Lemieux moved to refer this communication to General Services and the Parking Committee. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
2 Sus2 Referral to General Services
Communication from Merrimack Valley School District requesting that
sidewalks surrounding the schools in Penacook be designated as “Safe School
Routes”, placing them on the priority list for snow removal/plowing.
(Not previously distributed)
Action: Councilor Blanchard moved approval. The motion was duly seconded.
Councilor Shurtleff asked whether Washington Street in Penacook could be included because the old Penacook High School is also used for the Merrimack Valley School program as well as a charter school. There was no objection to include Washington Street in Penacook.
The motion passed with no dissenting votes.
2 Sus3 Referral to the Tax
Exemption Policy Committee
Petition from residents of Island Shore Estates requesting the City of
Concord reduce the property tax rates for Island Shore Estates Condominium
Association Tax Payers. (Not previously distributed)
Action: Councilor Nyhan moved to reject the referral and not take this up at the Tax Exemption Policy Committee. The motion was duly seconded.
Councilor Keach inquired whether there is any precedent to this type of initiative. Kathy Temchak, Director of Real Estate Assessments, explained that there are no provisions within the statutes that allow the city to have different tax rates for different types of property or for different property owners.
Mayor Bouley noted that he will be voting against the motion because he would like to see this communication referred to the Assessor’s office. He indicated that he feels that the petitioners deserve a written response.
City Manager Aspell explained that if it was referred the response would come back to Council and then to the petitioners. He asked if Council would like the Assessor to send the letter and attach the response as an information item. Mayor Bouley indicated that would be fine.
Councilor Shurtleff indicated that he would be recusing himself from the vote because he is a resident of Island Shore Estates.
Councilor Nyhan’s motion not to refer the communication to the Tax Exemption Policy Committee failed on a voice vote.
Councilor Bouchard moved to refer the communication to the Assessor’s Office. The motion was duly seconded and passed on a voice vote.
2 Sus4 To be set for a March 9,
2009 Public Hearing
Resolution appropriating the sum of $2,000,000 for biotower
refurbishment; authorizing borrowing such amount from the State Revolving Loan
Fund (SRF) or otherwise and the issuance of bonds and notes under the Municipal
Finance Act and RSA 486:14. (CIP #104); together with report from the General
Services Department. (Not previously distributed)
Action: Councilor Nyhan moved to set this item for a March 9, 2009 public hearing. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
2 Sus5 To be set for a March 9,
2009 Public Hearing
Resolution appropriating the sum of $275,000 for Scada Implementation;
authorizing borrowing such amount from the State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) or
otherwise, and the issuance of bonds and notes under the Municipal Finance Act
and RSA 486:14 (CIP #104). (Not previously distributed)
Action: Councilor St. Hilaire moved to set this item for a March 9, 2009 public hearing. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
Adjournment
The time being 7:56 p.m., Councilor Stetson moved to adjourn the meeting. The motion was duly seconded and passed with no dissenting votes.
A true copy; I
attest:
Michelle Tiffany
Deputy City Clerk