“Final” Reorganization Plan presented: Live from the meeting

November 16, 2009: Before tonight’s council meeting the Reorganization Committee met to approve the final plan (read it here). Here are the notes from that meeting.

The meeting’s primary purpose is to meet approve and sign the final plan of reorganization as presented. Motion and second. Passed unanimously without discussion.

First presentation & hopefully reading by the WRT Board will be November 19.

Public Forums presented by the Council and the Board (sponsoring) presentation will be by the committee will be held on November 30, 6 to 8pm and December 5^th 2:30 to 4:30, public meetings at the Community Church of Greenwood. Asking for public comments, comments will be brought back to the council and then the council and board can amend if they so choose.

Final version will be presented to the Council and Board for final approval on December 21^st. Law requires that budget must be approved in the year before the reorganization effort takes place.

Don Cummins, Laura Hilden (parks & rec) Steve Burkhart (health and safety), Paul Maurer, Mike Campbell, Andy Wiesman, Don Hanlin, vice chair, Pat Sherman Chair of communications committee. (Editor note: Forgive misspelling took quick notes and names may not be accurate.)

Bargersville ruling which granted them the annexation up State Road 135 will primarily affect the finance portion of the plan, those revisions are still under way. Some of the numbers are available tonight, others will be detailed later.

Pat Sherman Begins His Presentation

This is the presentation to the Greenwood Common Council only. The plan will be presented to the WRT Board later. Requested the council fore-go the rules and pass this through the first reading so the plan may be presented to the public on November 30th and December 5th. This does not short cut procedure just simply allows the plan to be presented to the public sooner. Amendments requested by the public and the council could then be acted on during the December 7th council meeting.

All three White River Township Board members are present tonight. The WRT board believes they cannot take action on the plan tonight they want to take action in a special meeting at 5pm on November 19th.

The joint meeting of the council and board scheduled for the 30th would be canceled in favor of the public hearing at the Community Church of Greenwood. The mayor is not sure that having the public forum before a joint meeting of the two “legislative bodies” is a good idea. Having what would be legally a joint meeting in a public forum may not be a good idea.

Mark Messick suggested the Greenwood Council come to WRT to have a joint meeting on December 8th. The question then becomes should the regular council meeting on December 7th and then the next night have a joint meeting in WRT. Meeting may be held in Center Grove Schools administrative building to provide more room.

Linda Gibson made motion for suspension of rules, second by Brent Corey to move to first reading. With a few reluctant yeses and a few joyful yes votes the rules are suspended and there will be a first reading.

Council member Bates stated he has a issues with the plan. However he knows that this may ultimately be decided by the voters.

First issue with the plan: This will create more bureaucracy and more inefficiency he does not believe that to be correct.

Second: Eliminates check in balance on how money is spent in the city.

Third: Self-determination, there is a group in WRT that would like to determine their own future and they should have a chance.

He would be fine with being outvoted “so be it” and let the people vote.

Linda Gibson: Would like to see table of contents expanded to make it easier to find the information. Believes the community needs an easier way to search the document and find what they need. Pat Sherman responded that they have begun to expand the table of contents and the glossary at the back of the document. Council member Gibson wants to provide a keyword search.

The public forums will be an overview of the plan. The plan will be available on the website, and ours as well, tomorrow morning. Hard copies will be available. Questions will be accepted from the public. Council and Board members should listen to those comments and be ready to respond at a later time to those issue. The meeting will be recorded.

Vote on first reading: Bates voted no, Armstrong yes but stated he felt significant changes needed to be made to the document. Vote passed.

Next Item: Vote on public forum on December 5th.  Discussion on will the be a meeting of the council and board or should they stay away and avoid a quorum? Pat Sherman believes they should be there to hear the public reaction.

David Stall member of the public expressed his opionin that he expected that there would be a public discussion of the plan tonight.  Made it clear that he belives that the opportunity for public hearing is very important. The offical, legally required, public hearing and second reading will be held in the Greenwood Council on December 21st, and at WRT Board on December 22. The vote on the plan by those legislative bodies will take place on those dates. There is one other option they could seek a continuance but then they would run the risk of not being able to present the budget prior to the end of the year.

Council approved plan to have public meeting on December 5th at Community Church of Greenwood. It will be an official meeting of the council as well since a quorum is expected and encouraged.

Council then approved a joint meeting with the WRT Board in WRT township on December 8th at 7pm.

Bargersville Annexation Information: Pat Sherman presented information on how this will affect the plan. The information was presented verbally. Total road miles 13.7 in State Road 135 annexation area. Analysis of amount of dollars to be lost by the annexation was presented. The biggest issues are public safety and street departments. “What is going to be the impact to the city of Greenwood if they have it, and to the city of Bargersville if they have it.”  The area if included in Greenwood would be $424,408, about $500,000 less than Bargersville will get because of Bargersville higher tax rate. In other words the residents will see significantly higher taxes because they are becoming part of Bargersville instead of Greenwood.

There are more tax dollars to be considered but those numbers are not yet detailed.

In the southeast annexation area, there are 1,044 acres and 4.4 road miles. The tax rate for 2011 would be lower under the “new” Greenwood the difference in income to Greenwood is about $4,ooo.

The southwest annexation area is about 2,150 resident, 7,000 acres, 36 road miles. Taxed at Bargersville rate would be a net of $640,000 (rounded by me) under Greenwood taxes would have been $447,000 (rounded by me). The Greenwood rate would be 52% lower than residents will pay to Bargersville when they are annexed.

Rough estimate of the information provided it appears that all annexations areas going to Bargersville will decrease revenue by about $1 million an estimate of cost savings has not been completed. They do know that fewer police officers will be hired. Mr. Sherman expects minimal adjustment to the budget.

Mayor requested a map to show the judges decision on the split of the area and that the above figures be made available Tuesday morning.

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