City aldermen divide over taxes, spending

Members of a divided Clarendon Board of Aldermen aired their differences as the struggled with taxing and spending issues at their regular meeting last Tuesday, August 28.

A project to lay new water and sewer lines under streets that have been targeted for paving was the first issue to cause rifts at the meeting. In May, city voters approved issuing $700,000 in bonds to pave the streets, but city aldermen later decided to replace the utilities first.

City Administrator Lambert Little presented the board with a professional agreement with KSA Engineers for design work on the utilities and said he hopes to have pipes in the ground by the end of next June. Aldermen accepted the agreement with one nay vote, that of Alderman Tommy Hill.

Little also asked the board to rescind a resolution that was passed earlier last month that authorized both the voter approved $700,000 street bonds and an additional $700,000 in tax notes for the utility replacements. The board had amended that resolution to require that any revenue the city gets from the sale of groundwater to Greenbelt Water Authority be applied to the debt. But Little said City Hall had discovered that it is improper to bind future councils in that way, and that such a requirement would be a budget decision from year to year. Aldermen Will Thompson, Terry Noble, and Abby Patten agreed to rescind the resolution, and Aldermen Hill and Jesus Hernandez voted against the measure.

Little then presented the same authorizing resolution without the amendment for the board’s approval. Thompson, Noble, and Patten approved the resolution; and Hill and Hernandez voted no.

The board then moved into budget matters, and Little said the city’s working budget was built largely by putting an expected $100,000 from groundwater sales into the city’s Enterprise Fund, which covers maintenance and operations of city utilities, i.e. the water department. Little said if the board chooses to put all of that revenue towards debt service, it would require them to cut $100,000 from the proposed budget and he had City Secretary Machiel Covey propose cuts in that amount.

Covey said making the cuts were difficult because in her words, “There has been no progress for so long that now everything is broken.”

Greenbelt Water Authority Board Representative Gary Campbell also raised concerns about the city’s proposed use of the money. He said he hated to see the city spend money it doesn’t have yet and also that he hated to see any of that revenue used for general purposes and preferred it be spent on pipes in the ground.

Alderman Patten said she felt like the city had promised citizens that the groundwater revenue would be used for pipes, and she moved to dedicate those funds to the utility improvement debt and accept Covey’s budget cuts. Thompson, Hill, and Hernandez voted with her. Alderman Noble voted no.

Aldermen again divided when Little asked the board to propose a 72-cent ad valorem tax rate for fiscal year 2013 to generate $35,000 in new revenue. The rate would be the maximum the city could go up without facing a rollback election and would increase average taxes in the city by $26 per year. The current rate is 65 cents.

Alderman Hill objected to raising taxes at all, but Alderman Noble pointed out that the city has not raised taxes for four years and is now facing the added problem of a sharp decline in water sales revenue due to drought restrictions.

Patten said she though water sales would recover next year and said she hated going up the maximum on taxes when the city is also looking at increases in water and sanitation rates.

Hill said he was fine with raising everything but taxes and moved to adopt the same rate as last year. Aldermen Hernandez voted with him, but Patten, Thompson, and Noble voted the measure down.

Patten then moved to adopt a 69-cent rate supported by Thompson and Noble, and Hill and Hernandez voted no.

The city will hold public hearings on the proposed tax increase on September 13 and September 18 and will meet again to adopt a tax rate and approve the budget on September 25.

In other city business last week, the board approved Ordinance 414 to allow the sale of bonds to be paid for by Greenbelt Water Authority to activate former city wells and lay a pipeline to the authority’s filter plant. Aldermen also heard from Chandra Eggemeyer, Clarendon’s new director of tourism and economic development, who outlined her goals for her office in the first two years. And resident Laura Paul addressed the board in public comments regarding her concerns about people living near her in substandard housing without proper sewer service and urged the city to condemn said property.