 I didn't think it'd be all right. We will convene this March 5th 2019 annual city meeting public information hearing at 5 0 5 We still need to do all the approval of agendas and everything I assume so is there motion on the agenda Councillor Bushier I'll move to a top the agenda is presented Second moved by Councillor Bushier seconded by Councillor Tracy. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye and opposed. We have our agenda Yes, let's do the pledge of allegiance Okay First item on the agenda is the number one is the approval of the school budget for fiscal year 2020 Nathan Lavery is come on up and tell us a little bit about this school budget ballot question Board will recall that this is brought to your attention in the past the ballot question calls for a total budget of Just about eighty eight point seven million dollars We in the the state mandated ballot language can be a little bit confusing But questions were most commonly asked is how much did the budget increase and that in terms of the total budget That was about a four point 36 percent increase and then people also ask what is the tax impact of that increase of that increase and for property taxpayers The estimate we're using is four point eight six percent increase and for income payers that it is a Point four three percent increase those figures particularly the property Figure is Well, really both of them are subject to change based on Still a few outstanding factors one being equalized pupil counts Which were very late in kind of being ironed out by the state this year for a variety of reasons At this point while we haven't you know the dust hasn't settled on that It's moving in the right direction So I think there's a fair chance that when the dust does settle on that front The equalized pupils for the Burlington school district will go up meaning that the tax rate Change will actually decrease slightly So there this is one of those areas where I think most of the risk so to speak is moving in the right direction for us But again, all of this is subject to change as well as obviously changes that could be made by the legislature and then Governor reaching different agreements on things like the dollar yield and that sort of thing All right. Thank you And city attorney, we should invite the public on each item or at the end of all of them at each one I think at each item makes sense. Okay, is there any comments or questions from the public on item number one? Dealing with the school budget for fiscal year 2020 Hearing none. All right. Thank you, Nathan. Thank you Item number two is an increase in the maximum tax rate for general city purposes Is that one going to be from the CAO Beth Anderson? So this question asks the for an increase in the general city tax rate to be increased by $1.25 from point two six oh four to point two seven two nine which Sorry represents a 1.5 percent increase in the FY 19 from the FY 19 tax rate. Okay Any questions or comments from the public on item number two the Maximum tax rate for general city purposes for this year Councillor busher Can I just before before Nathan leaves and what? Can I just get clarity? Certainly because I do get asked this question If the public votes for this This is the maximum that that you can tax but You don't necessarily have to Call up that entire amount. Can can both of you speak to that? Yeah, I can I can speak to that with respect to the school Portion that is not how it works. It's different from the municipal the municipal side where I believe that is the case But for the schools what we are saying is this is what will happen really what we are The main issue is how much money does the school district get from the state education fund and that number will be fixed We will get that amount of money The tax rate impacts as I said are the product of a few variables a couple of which could potentially change So there it's subject to change for that reason But we won't it's not subject to change because we'll say well We don't need this money or that money or we need more money that we don't have either of those options Okay, thank you Could the CAO respond to that CEO Anderson? Yes So ours is slightly different in that they're approving the public would be approving a taxing authority We do not have to tax to that authority and in fact for the past number of years for the so for fiscal years 1718 and the current fiscal year 19. We are not taxing to the full authority So what we do as you're well aware is each year as we go through the budget review and approval process Determined what we do need to spend to cover the basic city operations and Tax for the amount we need to cover and when we don't feel that we need to we do not tax to that full authority Does that answer your question? Yes, it does. Thank you I hope that the people that have asked that question have a chance to watch this Thank you for that clarification Councillor busher. So with city attorney Blackwood Could I just add one Clarification for the public that might be confused about this on the for the school the public votes on the budget So what you're voting on is the budget the amount that the school is spending for the city the city council Creates and approves the budget the voters don't vote on the budget just on the tax rate So that's why these are different Also a good clarification Anything else Okay, so we we did do the if anyone who wanted to speak or comment on I have number two and But you'll need to do it in front of the microphone and you need to pull the microphone in It's okay And I really wanted to comment since you brought it back open about the school department and and having an understanding of that And obviously I need I think I need to get more involved in it because it's it's very frustrating that Frustrating as a taxpayer that every single year continually You know more money is asked for and I really feel like a complete evaluation of their budget is Would be necessary is necessary because I feel like every year we can continually just You know hand over money so with that said I'll move on to the second thing and From working at the city. I I know How difficult it is to make the decision to raise taxes even a little teeny bit But seeing the last few CAO's come in and what we've gone through to try to make a budget balance without a tax increase Literally going through every single line item of every single person's budget Right down to their office supplies and asking them if they really need that extra hundred dollars So I am definitely in support of this tax Honestly, I think it probably Could have been more than that. We really could use more than that Thank you, Ms. Barton appreciate it Okay, anyone else on that item Hearing none, we will go to item number three and that is a proposed charter change to create Department of permitting and inspections and make zoning administrator and planning director Mayoral appointments rather than be appointed by the Planning Commission as it is now Hello and bill Ward here to present on this one Gentlemen a 45 minute presentation prepared for you I only gave you a half an hour The third question is about creating a new permitting and inspections department Which would directly address concerns that have endured about the city's permitting process for decades The proposal is to merge three existing components of different departments into one department That would be the ISD the inspection services component of DPW Director Bill Ward's code enforcement office And the zoning portion of planning and zoning into one department and locate that department at 645 Pine Street Anything for mr. Ward I Would just say that we've presented this both at a few different public forums And I wanted to be available in the event that people had specific questions about the overall item or Things that they've seen at other meetings that they didn't get a chance to whether it's counselors or members of the public Thank you both and again as I've said before and others have thank you for the great work on this From both of you and other departments heads as well Questions any one in the public who would like to speak on this charter change or ask any questions? Any city counselor? Okay, thank you very much Close item number three Item number four is the proposed charter change is to strengthen and restructure the downtown improvement district Council roof are you gonna speak to that one? I wasn't I wasn't aware that I would be but I'm certainly happy to also. I think Attorney Blackwood might be good to do that as well. Okay city attorney Blackwood and if council roof would like to add comments Yes, that'd be fine This question looks at the downtown improvement district currently this the city charter sets out a downtown improvement district that is limited to providing funding for the free parking two-hour free parking program and this is Expanding both what that downtown improvement district does and expanding expanding the boundaries of That that district so first it expands the when you look at the Short-form question on the ballot you will see a list of the major things that because this is a very long charter change We had to do a short form question to make sure that we could fit it on the ballot Please make sure that you look at the official copy of the charter changes because that has all the language of the entire For the entire district, but the summary of the changes are that it expands the boundaries It redefines the purposes of the DID so that it is doing much more like what the Church Street Marketplace Commission and district currently do But it does it for the larger area of the whole downtown improvement district area There's also a there's a lot of information about this charter change up on the city's website on the elections page you will see there's Information concerning the ballot questions and if you click on that you can get to Specifics and in this particular instance there there are quite a number of documents leading up to the adoption of this new language the It will establish a non-profit entity to manage this DID and replace the Church Street Marketplace Commission So everyone should be clear that this DID is going to replace the Church Street Marketplace Commission the Change goes on to describe the powers and duties of the non-profit entity and the relative powers and duties of the city council within that DID there the City council is going to continue to have the authority in the city and all of its city departments to Conduct all of the general government services that the city has been doing this district will Create a special assessment fee on certain of the non Residential properties within the disc the DID area that will be used by that non-profit entity to address the purposes of the DID So the money that is raised from this special assessment So this is not being paid for by all the taxpayers but by certain properties within the DID and those properties will Pay that special assessment into the city which will then Turn the money over to the DID to administer the purposes of the DID The city will continue to provide the services that it provides to other taxpayers as well This also provides a process for appeals and for abatement requests for property owners who get have circumstances that Warrant those it creates a provision for enforcement and collection of that fee and It deletes provisions of the article related to the prior DID in Church Street Marketplace It does have a sunset provision that will automatically end the DID after 10 years if it is not renewed So all of that is a general very broad overview of The DID change that is proposed And so the council at that time 10 years from now we'll have to take an action to Renew it correct the council would take action to To renew it in addition in what I didn't mention is that once if if the voters pass this Authorization it then like other charter changes goes to the legislature and the governor has to sign it once that is done then the then the folks that are organizing the DID and the the Charter change lays out who Who those folks represent? They will negotiate with a city council or with the city and come to the city council with things like their bylaws with a management plan And other details of their operations Thank you Council roof. Did you want to make any remarks? Okay, thank you And open that up to the public any comments or questions from the public Ms. Barton come on up. I want to say I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this I I didn't hear a lot about it before it was placed on the ballot I found it really difficult to read the document that was online It was probably 20 something pages and a lot of things are underlined a lot of things are crossed out so At the end I was asking myself. What is this really going to do? As someone who Works with the different departments here I'm curious as to how this is going to affect traffic because it talks about parking But yet traffic is in charge of the parking garages So it seems like there might be a little bit of a conflict with how this could potentially be managed as well Who anyone won't can respond to that council roof or city attorney Blackwood? Just correct me if I'm wrong here city attorney Blackwood, but the Proposal as it's written does not cede any power That is normal that is typical for the the city so the city will maintain all of its authority around Parking and transportation This this district will not have any special privileges or rights around managing The rights of way whether they be on the street or sidewalk or anything like that So any issues around parking will still remain issues to be directed towards Those who manage those those assets and policies This the district could potentially help to Fund things but not manage things in the way that that the government does So my other question is because Eileen you had said that This is going to be funded through a special assessment So that means that the taxpayers that are in this district are going to fund all activities And then there's not going to be any contributions from the city Correct there will be no contributions from the city and and the special in terms of that special assessment fee to the DEA to to this new DID non-profit entity That the city will get a fee for Collecting the money from the the special assessment so there will be a fee to the clerk treasurer's office For example for the time to collect the fees. Okay. Thank you Thank you, and I think it's it is I mean for voters that I look trying to look at that document I think it probably can be confusing to have all the Cross-outs and Is there any way to Have a version that doesn't have that or I mean I know the cross-outs are stuff that is eliminated obviously So it may be right. I I mean if if people think it would be helpful We could put a totally clean version up as an alternative But I don't want to mislead anybody because the chain It's important to look at the changes and see what the existing charter language says and what is being changed Council roof would just request if a clean version is put on just on that document somewhere to note Just what you just said because I do think that it's just as important for folks to recognize what the strikeouts are Then what the what is what's left over? So I just want to make sure that is our request that a note be on that document somewhere or maybe multiple times just to reference those changes Councillor Shannon Thank you for raising the point I actually had requested a clean copy for myself because I found it difficult and maybe if we can leave the Leave leave up the one that has all the changes in it Which is important and then also and and label each of them that one has all the changes and one is a clean copy of the current proposal That would be helpful. Thanks Thank You councillor Shannon. I think that is a good idea. I support as well councillor busher Sorry CEO Anderson is suggesting I clarify that all this information is on the city's website So if you go to elections, and then there is a little I don't know what you call them. I'm a link That you can that you can Click on that says information about ballot questions And if you click on that you you you will see and it'll have all of the questions. We're going over tonight Including this one and then if you click on this one that is the DID there are there's a whole bunch of documents reference that That led up to this including a lot of the background information So I think we can add this To the background information and we can put on it very clearly that this is if the changes are adopted This is what it would look like Thank You city attorney blackwood councillor busher So I think that would be helpful, but I also know that a lot of people go to the polling place and Read that read the questions sometimes for the first time So and that's just the way it is and so I'm wondering if We can have both versions at the polling place and my question also is Which is separate, which was my original question is at the polling place Will there be the map that shows the DID as opposed to the language because I think the map is really important the language is Challenging I can never figure it out I always have to see the map when they say you know north here and south here and blah blah blah anyway We might have to check with the Secretary of State's office about before we commit to Putting those documents at the polling places because I don't know the answer off the top of my head We're not allowed to put promotional materials for example, and these are not The these are informational background not the actual question that people are voting on in In the sense that the question you're voting on is whether to change the charter So that's why it shows the changes. So I don't see this as in from I see that the language is the short version, but what is being cited by my fellow councillors is the full Text of what we're doing. So I don't see that as as Informational I see that as relevant and is just the the extended language My question regarding the map is just further clarity to unto Explain the expanded boundaries, which I think is also germane. It's not It's relevant to the question I fully understand and agree with you We just have to check with the Secretary of State's office to make sure we're not Okay, stepping over the bounds of what we can have. Okay, so hopefully it's total sense Okay, hopefully they will or the person that that we check with will agree and that that will be available For people at the polling place. Thank you We all set on what we're doing on that Thank you item number Six is the proposed charter changes to eliminate the business personal property tax Is that presentation being done by CAO Anderson? So so this ballot item asks to eliminate what we The business personal property tax, which is a tax that we charge in Burlington on the non property assets businesses maintain And it seeks to eliminate the tax in to to or phase it out in two steps The first step would be for fiscal year 2020 to apply The there is currently a 45,000 exemption that applies to some businesses not all we would ask to apply that exemption to all businesses to make it more of a level field and Then the goal would be with fiscal year 2026 to eliminate the tax entirely and at that time There would be a loss in revenue to the general fund. However, that is the same year where the waterfront TIF will expire and there will be more Offsetting tax revenues coming into the general fund to offset the loss Thank you open it up to the public first any Comments or questions for us from the public on this charter change proposed charter change All right hearing none any comments from counselors or questions Counselor Jang. Thank you Anderson can you please come back to the amount of taxes that the city is currently collecting from that? How much is it? It's approximately 1.2. I don't have an exact exact. It's about 1.2 million dollars right now and now if the TIF district Money start to kick in will we have a gap and if yes, how much of a gap it would be? So It's hard to project because I don't know exactly what the business assets that we will be taxing in 2025 are so I can give you Estimates but not exact numbers we estimate that with the application of the exemption for next year for 2020 It's about 125,000 dollars in in lost tax revenues. There will be a change in the tax revenue from this Tax in 2022 when we do their assessment on property because it'll we're expecting the reappraisal will lead to a Decrease in the tax rate, but it will not change the asset value for these assets because they're not reappraising They are currently at market value. They won't be reappraised. So there is about I'm sorry I want to check the number about 268,000 dollar loss in 2022 that's not because the elimination of this tax but that will kind of leads into the final answer Then in 2026 when we would see full elimination of this tax It's about another hundred eight hundred and sixty five thousand dollar loss And we estimate that the TIF proceeds will be about nine hundred thousand dollars so it it would cover the loss in that year and Last question on top of your head. Do you know what were the surplus? From the general fund of FY 18 The surplus of the city Do you remember was 800,000 or something or less? It depends on how you look at that number which so it's a slightly hard answer for me because it depends on which funds You're looking at to go in the health fund And you know your memo. I still think about it. It was really well done. Thank you Thank You councillor Jane and The 2026 They it actually could be earlier, right? Apologize. Yes, it gives the opportunity to eliminate it sooner if we as early as 2024 I don't think we've set any limit on when it just says it could be done sooner by action of the council. Okay. Thank you so If not anyone else has any questions, we'll close that item and go to the final item which is the advisory ballot question regarding single-use plastic reduction policy and Recognize councillor Shannon to give us a description of this one Thank you, this is an advisory question that is simply meant to gauge public support for either banning or taxing single-use plastics specifically plastic bags plastic stirs plastic straws Styrofoam and styrofoam food containers but not limited to that this a vote on this Doesn't in and of itself change anything but give the council guidance so that we would be advised to proceed with creating ordinances that would be in support of this ballot measure and As you said councillor Shannon, we would still have to work through what What that ordinance would entail all of the specifics working with the business community anyone else that was interesting anyone We want to work with thank you. Thank you We'll open it up to the public. Is there any comments or questions for us on this advisory question is Barton Come on up. No, you're fine My only comment would be that if this does pass and you're considering how you're gonna deal with that that it would be That it would not be a tax because I just feel like as a state and as a city We're just so taxed so heavily already that there would be another way of dealing with it And are you that's just a comment, you know, no question. Okay. All right. Thank you Anyone else on this one? All right, hearing none unless the council has anything councillor jane So And it looks like this is an advisory chart. This is an advisory. It's not a charter change. It's just an advisory question I thank you. Okay Unless there's anything else from councillors or the public we will close out this informational public informational hearing and Move to adjourn councillor Shannon second by councillor I know I look like councillor Shannon, but oh councillor Busher councillor Busher It's the eyes and in the back of his head. I raised my hand to councillor Busher and seconded by councillor jane. All those in favor I suppose we are adjourned. Thank you