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EDITORIAL: Town Council Meeting Preview |
Glenn Walsh | 5/5/08
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The Elephant Comes Out Of The Corner
Hard to believe there has been an elephant in the corner at recent standing room only meetings at the Community Center. While scores of local business people have crowded into the South Conference Room to plead for relief from Town impact and water district reservoir fees, the elephant has been there.
Tuesday evening the elephant will take its first steps into what promises to be a controversial three-ring circus spotlighting the millions of dollars in fees and monthly charges needed to pay for the Town’s soon-to-be-constructed $4.3 million wastewater treatment plant. Three rings: who will pay, how much, and on what terms?
Tuesday’s question: How much will existing businesses be charged in plant investment fees for the new facility? The sewer usage of many Town businesses is being reassessed as part of the ongoing business licensing program. Town staff artfully characterizes the under-assessment of Town businesses as an “unknown condition.” It’s an unknown the Town has known about for a long time. And the reassessment was the principal if understated aim of the licensing program.
 So how many businesses will be charged the present $3750 investment fee for each unit of usage (note that a small restaurant may be assessed seven or eight units)? And how high will that plant investment fee and monthly rates be raised when the new rate survey is released within the next month? Former Town Manager Mark Garcia gave two very public forewarnings that the hikes will be high.
The Town’s $3 million financing package for the new facility has a combined rate of just under 3%. Will the Town extend the 10-year, 3.5% financing it has offered for impact fees for these plant investment fees. Or will it impose the full (and soon to be hiked) fees on hard-hit local businesses?
Town Manager Sticker Shock
Interim Town Manager Tamra Allen negotiated a salary and bonus package last week which will equal Garcia’s $78,818 salary until a new Town Manager is hired. Allen also presented the counsel with a very extensive survey of salaries for Colorado town managers which makes a good case that Garcia was being paid less well than his counterparts. How much more the Town will offer Garcia’s successor and how much it will pay the executive search firm to find that successor will be decided Tuesday. Four firms are being considered whose fees run from $20,798 to $29,500. Allen’s list of comparable towns suggests the new town manager will be paid at least $10,000 more than Garcia was earning.
Negotiations in Hot Water
The Council will discuss The Springs’ proposal to build out the 32 acres adjacent to the present resort. The full development of over 500 hotel and time share units holds the promise of over $10,000,000 in annual sales and lodging taxes for the Town. For that The Springs would like promises from the Town about increased geothermal rights, relaxed building height and river setback restrictions, the construction of a new downtown parking facility and, in general, a promise by the Town to be consistently favorable to the project over the next 20 years.
The meeting agenda notes that the Council may move into executive session. The Council has no contract to discuss or specific lease terms to examine. Negotiations at this point involve broad public policy choices. It should be interesting to hear the precise rationale for asking the public to leave the chambers.
Curious Continuity
One of appointments proposed by “Staff” is former Councilor Tony Simmons for the Land Use and Development Committee. That committee has been charged with the controversial task of setting building height limits for the entire Town. Simmons was perhaps the most controversial participant in the at-times acrimonious debate about building heights which dominated Council discussions prior to last month’s election. That election turned Simmons out of office and two new councilors in.
The rationale for Simmons’ appointment by the undefined “Staff” is “continuity.” It is a curious case of continuity. Simmons was the Council representative for little more than three weeks following Councilor John Middendorf’s resignation, and Simmons’ replacement as Council representative on the LUDC, Shari Piece, has been on the committee for years.
A more plausible rationale would be Simmons’ expertise, demonstrated interest and passion for regulation of development in Pagosa’s older residential neighborhoods. But that rationale is shared by others who have applied for spots on the committee.
And was the principle of “continuity” endorsed in the recent election?
A Bridge Too Far
The misbegotten bridge plan for the forested end of Hermosa Street has apparently run through its somewhat comic lifespan, according to a staff report to be presented to the Council Tuesday. The present price tag of over $350,000 doesn’t include the expense of extending the street to the bridge or building a lengthy sidewalk from the proposed Town Park pedestrian bridge to the end of Hermosa Street. The Town is apparently going to seek CDOT opinion on moving the bridge to a different location or transferring the nearly $200,000 in state funds dedicated to the bridge to another project.
The comic highwater mark in the negotiations over this bridge was reached last fall when a prominent local businessman sought to trade a right of way for the bridge landing for forgiveness of a large utility bill he owed the Town. Negotiations stalled when Town Manager Garcia learned the businessman did not own the property he was trading for the debt forgiveness.
Tuesday’s session will begin at 5pm, upstairs at Town Hall on Hot Springs Boulevard. Other minor topics on the agenda include the choice of a new Planning Commissioner, an attempted financial rescue of Pagosa’s only affordable housing project, the possible adoption of a parks and recreation master plan with specific capital goals and financial commitments we are assured need not be observed, the official mothballing of the development of the East Village, and the commencement of a large scale annexation of property unattached to Pagosa Springs which might double the population of Town. |
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