THE AGENDA FOR COUNCIL

On first glance at the agenda; one wonders how on Wednesday night Bill Reid will get himself and all home by 10 pm. The Chairman of the Council’s Committee of the whole has set that as the desired closing time target for the Agenda Setting Session,

Not only are there 58 Resolutions and  3 Ordinances for second reading to be considered  but a Special Council Meeting regarding Proposed Budget Amendments has been called for at 8:30 pm; one hour into the Council Agenda meeting. There also is scheduled a Discussion on “Smoke Free Ordinances” however the “Provided under separate cover” was not in the Library packet.

Will the time spent on the Special Meeting be added to extend the 10pm deadline?

Actually, the 58 Resolutions are not as bad as it seems. Two are ‘Do Good items, and one is to renew Donna Tierney’s annual “codification and transcription” contract. 33Resolutions have to do with the annual renewal (or denial) of liquor licenses. That would leave 23 Resolutions for discussion as to their placement on next week’s agenda; none originate from the “Administration/Executive Branch”

Once again it is regrettable that this year’s Council has seen fit perhaps to shorten this meeting to have eliminated the Public Discussion period before the Council opens its review of the proposed Resolutions. Of the 23 remaining excluding five (5) that pertain to the July 4^th celebration almost all of the residual 18 merit in depth discussion which in all likelihood will not happen.

From the Department of Administration & Finance there is one (Z11) for the Temporary Budget for July –month 7 of this fiscal year.

Z12 authorizes the City to enter into a “Sub-Grant “agreement with JFK for 20K for “Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention”. It is not clear if the Grant money is on hand or anticipated. Nor are the parameters of the program to be provided by our good friend JFK.

 Z14 Adjust the Redemption of outside liens and tax premium balances as reflected in 2012 annual Financial Statement. There is some $800,000.00 listed on one line in the report when in actuality it belonged on the other.

Z17 Authorizes the Tax Collector to issue estimated and reconciled (?) Tax Bills. Number are confusing although there is mentioned of a Tax Rate of 7.219% on an estimated 89 million tax requirement. On the Budget submitted by Administration the amount to be raised for Municipal Services is listed as $51,602,175.63!

Does the additional 38 million represent the County Tax and the “School Tax”? If so that means that only 58% of our tax bill is for our city. What is the breakdown of the other two portions of our taxes? Also how much of the Tax rate is due to a decrease in ratables?

Z18 calls for Cancellations of outstanding State and Federal Grant balances. I thought that was a Resolution passed last month. Does it represent Grant Money available but not used?

Tomorrow (Monday) I shall continue with the agenda.