Belleville DDA fails to approve proposed budget for 2017-18

A preliminary balanced budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year was presented to the Belleville Downtown Development Authority at its May 17 meeting in order to get it approved in time to get it to the city council for the city’s budget talks.
The vote was 4-1, which was not enough to pass the budget, since a vote of five is required.
DDA member Alicia McGovern cast the only no vote. Voting yes were chairwoman Rosemary Loria, vice chairwoman Denise Baker, Treasurer Sabrina Richardson Williams, and Mayor Kerreen Conley. DDA members Jim Chudzinksi and Secretary Jim Higgerson were absent.
“We won’t have a budget for the city council,” said an annoyed chairwoman Loria. “We’ll deal with that.”
Last May the DDA also did not have a budget ready to be considered during city council budget talks.
At the end of the meeting, Treasurer Williams said they need to know why there was a vote against the budget and, “We need to have that discussion.”
“We have to bring it back to another meeting,” Loria said.
The proposed budget was distributed to board members just before the meeting and McGovern explained her no vote to the Independent after the meeting.
“I’m a numbers person and we didn’t have a chance to study the numbers,” she said. McGovern runs the local Edward Jones financial consulting group.
DDA Coordinator Carol Thompson presented the budget committee’s recommendation to the DDA, explaining the DDA and city were still going back and forth on the Maintenance agreement. She said no revenue growth is foreseen for the coming year.
She said they just replicated last year’s budget on a temporary basis and it will be revised later.
The proposed short-term recommendation shows $676,100 in revenue from captured taxes from the city, Wayne County, Wayne County Community College, Zoo, DIA, and district library.
This is down from $690,931 in the present year and Thompson noted there is similar tax capture value, yet with a decrease in tax revenue.
“Plante Moran is recommending a conservative revenue estimate due to the Headlee Amendment Rollback which restricts a municipality’s tax revenue growth,” the recommendation said.
Plante Moran is the city’s financial consultant.
As far as expenditures, the Administration total for 2017-18 is proposed at $57,742, which includes Thompson’s salary of $46,200. The total is down from $58,035, with Thompson’s salary unchanged.
Both the present and proposed budgets have $5,000 set aside for legal services and $1,000 for contracted services.
District Maintenance expenditures total $206,000 this year and is cut to $185,000 for the coming year.
Contracted Services in District Maintenance went from $11,000 this year to $20,000 in the proposed budget because the DDA decided to hire an outside contractor for grass mowing, instead of paying the city for the work.
Also the Capital Projects Contribution that was $30,000 in the present contract, was zero in the proposed budget. The recommendation said, “In his review of a new District Maintenance Agreement, the DDA attorney believes this transfer of funds is a violation of the DDA Act.”
Also, the 2010 Bond Payments towards the principal continue to rise annually for a next few years, with a ceiling of $419,920 in 2021.
The 2016-17 bond payment costs on the 2010 Bond were $350,396 and will be $369,058 in 2017-18.
The two budgets carry identical totals of $30,800 for Economic Development. Later in the meeting City Councilman Tom Fielder said from the audience that in the future he would like to see more in this budget item for economic development.
The beginning fund balance for 2016-17 was $1,120,588 and the proposed fund balance for 2017-18 is estimated at $1,104,330.
Also, recommendations from the budget committee are $1,000 each for the National Strawberry Festival, Belleville Area Council for the Arts for Music Lakeside, Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce for Winter Fest, Belleville Area Museum for Harvest Fest, BooVille, and holiday programming, plus $500 toward SOUP 2016.
The Community Program Funding is down from $6,500 in 2016-17 to $4,500 in 2017-18.
The Belleville Community Chorus also submitted a funding request, which was not recommended because its concert event is held at the Methodist Church, which is not located in the DDA district, and the application did not meet program guidelines for working with downtown businesses or promotion/advertising plans.
In other business at the 25-minute meeting, the DDA:
• Approved purchase of six waste receptacles with liners at a total cost of $2,236.73 from Belson of N. Aurora, IL, lowest of four bidders. These will replace two waste receptacles lost due to age and damage, plus add four more for Main Street in the style similar to the 1990’s streetscape. There currently are a total of 34 waste receptacles located on Main Street, Horizon Park, Victory Park, Doane’s Landing, and Village Park;
• Approved Accounts Payable of $33,414.48 for six disbursements, which includes a $28,309 Capital Improvements Contribution to the city;
• Heard Thompson announce the new outdoor sculptures are scheduled to be installed on May 30. She also said she has been working with Belleville High School’s New Tech students on their winning SOUP project for downtown;
• Heard representatives of Victoria Commons subdivision question the progress on returning fountains to the ponds. A man said electrical meters for some fountains haven’t seen usage in two years. Thompson said she knows there is a problem and DPW Director Rick Rutherford is checking with an electrical contractor who is going to come out and look at them;
• Heard McGovern say, “We’ve had Victoria Commons here a couple of times and it seems like a tennis match. I would like a completion date.” She thanked the Victoria Commons residents for coming to the meeting to voice their concerns; and
• Heard Kelly Bates, a planning commission member and resident of Victoria Commons, say there are some planters at Village Park that are full of weeds that could be filled with flowers at little cost.