Also selects more expensive company for website redesign
According to Jefferson mayor Craig Berry, gambling revenue is what’s keeping cities financially afloat, and he encouraged council members to lobby State Senator Jerry Behn and State Representative Phil Thompson to increase a state-mandated $8.10 (per thousand of taxable valuation) cap on cities’ general fund levy.
Berry said cities are all at that limit, and the only way to increase city revenue is through economic development that adds to the property tax base. “We’ve got communities like Dana that have no economic development and no foreseeable economic development. They have to go backwards because their valuation keeps going down further. I feel sorry for the smaller communities,” he said.
Berry suggests the $8.10 cap be increased 5-cents each year for five years.
He said none of the communities he knows of “would go crazy” if they had more tax revenue. “They’re not going to go out and buy a battleship. They just need to keep going.”
City clerk Diane Kennedy told of a budget workshop she attended in December, hosted by the Iowa League of Cities. She heard there that legislators “are of the opinion that cities have too much money.” The Iowa League of Cities has tried to change that attitude, but “it’s a long road.”
“To me, the only thing that’s keeping cities afloat, whether it’s Jefferson or Dana or Des Moines, is casino money,” Berry said. “We’re using gambling money to look at something that should have been looked at a long time ago.”
Council member Dave Sloan brought up the $8.10 cap at Coffee and Politics with Behn and Thompson Feb. 2. According to Sloan, of 950 cities in Iowa, 935 are at the maximum. Behn and Thompson had little interest in taking up the matter at the Statehouse.
“It would be a tax bill and no one wants to put their name on it,” Sloan said.
Kennedy explained after the meeting that property and liability insurance can be levied for above the $8.10 cap. That’s $45,000 in the city budget in the coming year. Employee benefits for employees whose wages are paid from the general fund can also be paid through a levy above the cap.
Those expenses account for $4.38 of the $12.48 (per thousand dollars of taxable valuation) general fund levy. Using $1,380 as the value of each 1 cent of levy, that totals $604,440 in the coming fiscal year.
Also at the council meeting, the council approved a bid 80 percent higher than the lower bid to update the city website. Emily Vander Wilt, assistant park and recreation director, had been tasked to research potential providers. The current website is outdated and cumbersome to use, as city staff cannot upload information to it. City staff wants a new look and something more user-friendly for them.
Vander Wilt reported looking at five different companies; she sought proposals from two of them. Websites to Impress is based in Illinois. That company created the city of Carroll’s website. Its design cost was $4,930 with $622 in annual fees.
Saltech Systems is based in Ames and did the city of Ogden’s website. Saltech quoted a fee of $8,900 for redesign and $1,740 in annual fees.
A representative of Saltech was at the meeting and highlighted his company’s services. No one was there from Websites to Impress.
Vander Wilt did not recommend one company over the other. Council members did not say they had looked at websites designed by either company.
After commenting about the cost difference, the council approved on a three-one vote hiring Saltech to do the redesign and maintenance of the website. Sloan voted against the motion; Matt Wetrich, Harry Ahrenholtz and Larry Teeples voted in favor.
The council approved a resolution stating the incentive program for new Jefferson police department hires. The council had approved the plan in December but there was no formal resolution.
The council approved hiring Concrete US to refurbish the floor in the bath house at the municipal pool at a cost of $21,500. Jefferson park and recreation director Vicky Lautner used the expertise of Randy Monthei in finding that company. Monthei vouched for the company and the urethane product that will be used.
Berry made committee assignments as follows: housing- Dave Sloan and Harry Ahrenholtz; public works- Sloan and Larry Teeples; cemetery- Ahrenholtz; recycling- Matt Wetrich; police/LEC/fire/animal shelter- Sloan and Ahrenholtz; park and recreation commission- Sloan and Teeples; airport- Teeples; Highway 30 Coalition- Teeples; hotel/motel tax- Sloan and Matt Gordon; Greene County Development Corporation- Ahrenholtz; golf course- Wetrich; finance- Ahrenholtz and Wetrich; library- Gordon; and wage and benefit- Wetrich and Gordon.
