Neighbors,
The City Council is scheduled to meet Monday, September 24, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. in Contois auditorium at City Hall.
We will begin by receiving a communication from City Attorney Eileen Blackwood on collective bargaining efforts. It is expected this will be done in Executive Session.
Our deliberative agenda includes five items. The first item is a communication from CEDO on the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report. This will be followed by a public hearing on the report.
The remainder of our meeting will be dedicated to November ballot items. We will first take up a proposed debt policy for the City. The debt policy would establish a ceiling on the amount of debt the city can incur and guidelines for the types and structures of debt. The debt policy is intended to articulate the City's policy goals and to demonstrate the City's commitment to long-term financial planning. The overall goal is to continue work toward improving the City's management of its financial resources, and as a result improve its credit rating and lower the cost of borrowing.
The Weinberger Administration, Board of Finance and School District have been working collaboratively and diligently over the past few months to adopt a policy that is responsible and meets the projected capital needs of each. The discussion of establishing a debt policy came about as a result of discussions with our ratings agency and conversations about the capital needs of the City and School District (although the City and School District are separate legal entities, they are treated as one for credit rating purposes).
The final two items on our agenda seek approval of questions for the November ballot.
The first seeks authorization for the issuance of up to $29.9 million in revenue bonds to pay for capital additions and improvements to the City's water and stormwater systems. A rate increase associated with the boding would not occur until Fiscal Year 2023 (beginning in July 2022). The impact for the average residential customer after this five years would be $64.32 a year or $5.36 a month.
The second ballot item is a question authorizing the City Council to "pledge its full faith and credit by the issuance of its General Obligation bonding in an amount not to exceed $70 million for the purpose of making capital improvements to the existing Burlington High School property, including both new construction and rehabilitation of facilities."
The borrowing assumptions assume $4 million, $50 million and $16 million in borrowing in Fiscal Years 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. It is estimated that the cost to the $250,000 median residential property in Burlington during Fiscal Years 2023 to 2050 will be approximately $300 a year in additional tax for these improvements and new construction to our high school.
Public forum will be held at 7:30 p.m. Additional details on the agenda may be found at http://www.boarddocs.com/vt/burlingtonvt/Board.nsf/Public. The City Council meeting will be televised live on Channel 317 on Burlington Telecom Channel 317 or streamed live via You Tube.
Thank you,
Chip Mason
Dec 21, 2024, 10 AM to 12 PM
Get Ready for the BTV Winter Market!Dec 21, 2024, 2 to 6 PM
10th Annual Orchard Food Drive PlusDec 23, 2024, 10 AM to 12 PM