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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSSM031521 CITY OF CENTRAL POINT Oregon Council Study Session Minutes Monday, March 15, 2021 I. Call to Order - VIrtual Meeting Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Hank Williams Mayor Remote Neil Olsen Ward I Remote Kelley Johnson Ward II Remote Melody Thueson Ward III Remote Taneea Browning Ward IV Remote Rob Hernandez At Large Remote Michael Parsons At Large Remote Staff members present: City Manager Chris Clayton; City Attorney Sydnee Dreyer; Finance Director Steve Weber; Police Chief Kris Allison; Police Captain Dave Croft; Parks and Public Works Director Matt Samitore; Community Development Director Tom Humphrey; Planning Department Director Stephanie Holtey; and City Recorder Deanna Casey. Staff present: Chris Clayton; Deanna Casey; Dave Jacob; Matt Samitore; Steve Weber; Elizabeth Blodget; Doug N II. Discussion 1. Utility Fee Analysis Discussion Part 2 Parks and Public Works Director Matt Samitore explained that we are the only city that has our Pacific Power Franchise fee go through the general fund. The Council can designate where those funds will be spent. Currently the pacific power franchise fee goes to the street fund. Every jurisdiction in the valley has two street fee rates, one for residential and one is for commercial. All cities in the valley have a higher street fee rate than Central Point. Eagle Point and Medford will be increasing their commercial rates in 2021. Central Point has not raised the rate since 2004. If we increase the commercial rate to $.46 it would generate $121,400. This would eliminate the need to increase the residential transportation fees. There was a discussion about freight/shipping based businesses. Presented a comparison of Central Point businesses like Umqua Dairy, Redaway, and Pilot currently pays a fee of $.26 cents to Medford rates of .46 cents. While reviewing Gas stations we found internal errors. Some gas stations were calculated by the number of pumps on the property, while others were calculated by square footage. By fixing these errors it would increase our amount by $36,000 annually. There was an error at the FedEx Distribution center when they made City of Central Point City Council Minutes March 15, 2021 Page 2 improvements to the facility, we did not change their calculations. Multifamily current rate was set in 2017, no methodology option is presented to raise residential fee. Mr. Samitore presented several options to get to increase the rates we need to help with the operations and maintenance for the community center. Taneea Browning likes the blue side of the table. Her choice is to be consistent with staff recommendations. Michael Parsons stated that the options are precise and clear. He is not in favor of placing the pass through on Pilot. They should be charged the higher rate. Kelley Johnson agrees with Mrs. Browning. This is a good plan, but she is concerned about new businesses not wanting to come to Central Point and will go to Medford if the rates are not any better here. She asked if we are covering ourselves for future growth in regards of the Community Center and the UGB growth. Mr. Samitore stated that this plan favors small businesses. The more traffic generate the higher your rate will be. We are considering the smaller businesses. We want to be lower than Medford when they increase their rates. We will still be lower overall in fees compare to the rest of the valley. We are considering for ten years into the future but we don't know what could come up in the meantime. Pilot will be hit hard, but he doesn't see that they would want to move out of the city, and if they did we don't see that the property would be vacant for very long. Mr. Clayton explained that we have been considering the growth, but there are always things that come along like the Little League fields that we couldn't plan for. Pilot has no plans to leave that location. We have actually approached them and they will not have a huge issue with the increase. Rob Hernandez is all for making it the same on both sides of the city, gas lanes and business types. He just wants to make it fair across the board. Mayor Hank Williams agrees with Mr. Hernandez. The Pilot causes problems in that location and the increase shouldn't cause them hardship. PARKS - OPERATIONS The cost of operations for the community center should be around $225,000 annually costing $1.70 per household based on current growth rate. This is for where we are right now, if the current construction continues. The cost to operate the cemetery is estimated at $25,000 annually costing $.20 per household. This would help with current issues. Cost to maintain the greenway $50,000 to $75,000 per year for maintenance or $.40 to $.60 cents per household. City of Central Point City Council Minutes March 15, 2021 Page 3 For the Little League fields we would do a 15 year loan at 2.2% interest. The suggestion is to cap at 1 million staff suggests $4.50 per single family home. The Greenway and Cemetery fee would be slated to start July 1, 2021. We are currently spending money on the greenway. The Community Center and Little League fields would go into effect in 2022 if approved by Council. Staff is preparing documents for survey questions in regards to greenway and little league. We are pretty confident that the community would be in favor of the Greenway, but we don't know about the Little League. Mr. Clayton would recommend that we designate the amounts Council is comfortable with, we would put out a small survey in the water bills or do a direct mailing so that we have an idea what the community will support. Budget meetings will be in May and we would like to have an idea of what we need to be budgeting for. He clarified that these proposed fees are only for operating and maintenance for Community Center, Greenway, and Cemetery. The operating and maintenance for the little league would be through user fees. The community center we hope will be built by June 2023, but we need to have funding in place before completion or we will not have capital to provide maintenance and operation. Mr. Samitore stated that we will need to look at these fees annual because of the unsure economy and what future growth will be like. He explained the fee difference between Single family and multifamily homes. Dr. Olsen is interested in the lowest amount for both the street and parks. He would like to present this to the citizens as a bond instead of implementing fees. Mrs. Browning feels that we should make sure we get the word out not only on social media and the newsletter, we should also be talking with the news and radio stations. Mr. Samitore does not recommend the minimum amount because we won't be able to get the work done that needs to be done. We need the funds in order to stop the growth of invasive plants and making sure transient camps don’t return to the Greenway. We need to focus on the greenway and the cemetery right now. These two items need the funds now because we are currently doing the work and paying for it out of the general fund. The community enter and little league can be added after we find out what the community wishes to support. Mr. Parsons wants to get the information out to the public on what we plan to do with the Greenway and the Cemetery and what our long range plan is. Mr. Clayton said that we have plans in mind for the Greenway they are just don’t City of Central Point City Council Minutes March 15, 2021 Page 4 have them on paper yet, that is being working on. The community center construction is not included in these recommendations; this is just for operating and maintenance for greenway, cemetery and community center. Financing of the little league field would be down the road if we decide to do that. Right now staff recommends at least a $2 fee for the cemetery and greenway. If we get to 2022 and don't see movement on the community center or little league, those funds would not be implemented. Mr. Weber would like to see the money budgeted now, and not spend it if not needed. We would need to do the debt financing down the road, but if it is budgeted we have the ability of going out for funding once approved instead of waiting till the next budget cycle. The Cemetery and the Greenway fee would be added to the Parks Maintenance fee. We could implement a new code section for a recreation fee to go to operation of the community center and define what the fee will be used and spent on. Conclusion: Communicate with citizens about fees for maintenance of cemetery and greenway. Poll the community regarding little league, greenway improvements, and community center. We have to be careful in regards to discussions and projects for the little league fields. We have an investor but we won’t own it and it won’t be in our city limits unless we do an UGB expansion and annex the property. Matt will bring legislation on the Transportation fee next month to the Council and do the recreation fee at a later date after we see what the Community will support. III. Adjournment The Study Session for March 15, 2021, was adjourned at 7:33p.m.