Greenwood Mo BOA Continues to Deal with Financial Issues
Posted by jennW in by Jennifer Warren, GSD Online
Alex Tipton, area boy scout, led the Pledge of Allegiance and attended the meeting as part of fulfilling the requirements for his Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge
Greenwood’s financial situation continued to be a hot topic at the Monday, May 10, 2010 Board of Alderman meeting, a meeting that was just shy of being two hours long. The meeting opened with Mayor Megee asking Alex Tipton, an area Boy Scout to lead the Pledge of Allegiance and ended with the Mayor telling those assembled that he has asked the police to “step up their efforts to curb speeding in Greenwood… if you want to complain, complain to me.”
The first order of business was approval from the BOA to pay the bills, it was also the first item of business this BOA has attended to that brought some mild dissension. Alderman Al Reynolds was concerned that the first of three $63,000 payments to Lee’s Summit for Fire and Ambulance services was not on the list of bills to be paid. It will be on the second batch of bills that the city pays this month. Alderman Reynolds would like to see the balance owed to Lee’s Summit paid in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Under the current plan the final $63,000 payment will come out of the 2010-2011 fiscal year budget.
City Financial Specialist Dana McIntire distributed financial statements and once again gave an overview of the city’s financial status. General fund revenues are down from last year approximately $100,000. The three primary reasons for that are a loss of $39,000 in sales tax revenue, a loss of $40,000 in building and zoning permits and fees and a loss of $47,000 in court fines. Total expenditures are only up about $15,000 this year, over last year’s budget. The loss in sales tax revenue also affects the Parks account and the Transportation Fund. Both of those funds have seen a decrease of roughly $17,000 in their income this year. Additionally the BOA passed a resolution to change the banking procedures for Greenwood. Instead of using one “pooled cash” account the city will now have six separate bank accounts set up. This will make it easier for the BOA and city staff to track which funds are overspending. As Campo said during the discussion “the real benefit is it makes it more distinct when Peter robs Paul.”
Alderman Chris Seagraves questioned City Attorney Paul Campo about the “Wolford Money”, the $50,000 that was found to be missing in December of 2009. Campo stated that the claim has been submitted and the claim manager is in the process of verifying the loss amount and processing that claim.
Public Works Director, Cliff McDonald gave an update on the notice of violation Greenwood received from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources after the sewer overflow last month. The MDNR has been pleased with the response and cooperation they have seen from Greenwood in cleaning up and testing the waters of the silt pond and Lake Winnebago in the days following the spill. To date Greenwood has spent approximately $6,000 on the clean-up of this vandalism. One of the corrective measures required by the MDNR is that Greenwood take steps to prevent a similar occurrence. McDonald proposed replacing the ten existing manhole covers with a bolted cover. The costs for each of the new covers would be approximately $250 each. Alderman Van Acker asked if there was a way to “rig” the existing covers in order to fix them cheaper and Alderman Reynolds asked if it would be possible to simply weld a slide bar on each cover rather than replacing the covers. McDonald is looking into alternative ways to seal the manholes and will report back at the next BOA meeting.
Other points of interest:
• Greenwood has approximately $62,000 available for infrastructure projects from the County Urban Roads System fund ran by Jackson County. McDonald explained a bit of how that program works, stating that “it is a very good program.”
• The BOA, in it’s ongoing endeavor to create a workable budget, is looking at ways to decrease the cost to the city of benefits for city employees.
• There will be a public meeting in the next few weeks to explain the Storm Water Usage Fee study – how the fee will be figured, what types of projects and maintenance the city hopes to accomplish with the revenue collected from that fee and why this study and the resulting Storm Water Utility Fee are necessary for Greenwood.
• Morgan Contractors has until June 30th to finish re-striping Allendale Lake Road. This resolution to amend the agreement between Morgan Contractors and Greenwood has been on the agenda for the past several months and the contractor has already been paid for the work to be done.
• The agreement between the Greenwood Parks and Recreation Board and the Greenwood Sports Association, allowing the GSA to use the practice and game areas at Hitt Park has been approved.
• The city is preparing to surplus some of it’s equipment and will be selling those items.
• Alderman Chris Seagraves has been appointed to the Public Safety Advisory Board.
• The intergovernmental agreement between Lee’s Summit and Greenwood for Fire and Ambulance services has been renewed. Alderman Van Acker said that he has “heartburn about this” stating that the agreement needs to be renegotiated, a process that City Attorney, Paul Campo, said was at least two years down the road. Mayor Megee, while in favor of renewing the agreement this year said that when he looks at the document “I can barely associate it with Fire and Ambulance… this agreement is a loan document… I don’t have any interest in entering into a piece of trash agreement like this again.”
• Jeff McKinney was appointed to the planning committee in a move Mayor Megee called “an end to partisan politics.” Stating that he personally met Jeff on the campaign trail and “he is the only person that I looked at and said please don’t vote for me.” Not because he and McKinney did not like each other but because they had a “dramatic philosophical difference on how to get to the same end.”
• The Park Board is busy planning the annual 4th of July celebration which will be held on June 26th.
• The Planning and Zoning Commission will be meeting on Monday, May 17th to review and approve changes to the development agreement for Allendale Lake Meadows.
• Cliff McDonald reported that Allendale Lake Meadows and Delinda Estates should both be ready to move forward with new construction soon. Allendale Lake Meadows is on schedule for the public improvements there to be accepted by the BOA next month and Delinda Estate’s 3rd phase should be right behind that. Once those subdivisions are ready to start building again each Building Permit issued will generate roughly $5,000 revenue for the city.
• The only Alderman report was from Alderman VanAcker who challenged both The Dispatch and the Lee’s Summit Journal to write a “detailed, non-biased financial report” on the city’s budget. We have a Sunshine Request in for city financial records and will write that article as soon as we receive the documentation we requested two weeks ago.
