Commissioners voted to use $800,000 from the city’s Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia projected 10-year, $90 million deregulation hedge credit to finance the first six months of the gang force before raising the tax millage rate .62 mills in the fiscal year 2010 budget to cover the expected $1.1 million needed annually to run the program.
“There is an underlying perception in the city that this is something that needs to be done,” Mayor Willie Adams said. “I think it’s especially critical with the coming holidays that our citizens know we are moving forward with this proposal.
“The message to these people who participate in gang activities and to the general public is that we’re not just putting on a show; we’re taking action.”
Assistant City Manager Wes Smith offered three financing proposals to the commission, all of which included the use of MEAG funds. Alternate proposals called for a more gradual raising of the millage rate to pay for the task force or financing the special force solely through MEAG funds.
“You’ll note that, as you requested, none of the three proposals calls for use of reserve funds to finance the program,” Smith said.
The MEAG credit is a return on funds the city’s Water, Gas & Light Commission paid to the 49-city cooperative as a hedge against feared deregulation action that never materialized.
“We need to let the community and these gangsters see that we’re for real,” Commissioner Tommie Postell said before the commissioners voted to approve the funding. “This thing’s on everybody’s radar, and if we take it off the community’s going to say ‘we knew they wouldn’t do anything.’ We need to move forward now.”
City Manager Alfred Lott said all he needed for that to happen is approval from the commission at its Oct. 28 business meeting.
“If you give me authorization, we’ll move forward,” he said.
Police Chief James Younger said he had already begun recruiting efforts to fill the slots on the task force.
Also at the work session, commissioners voted to approve a plan for the city’s Riverfront and Gateway Tax Allocation District, which expands an earlier proposal to form a TAD comprising the downtown historic district.
Tax Allocation Districts are specified underdeveloped regions that are so designated to allow government entities to spur development through tax incentives.
“We looked, originally, at doing two TADS, one downtown and one around the new Wal- Mart area (in East Albany),” Assistant City Manager James Taylor said. “But after discussing the matter, we felt that it made more sense to tie the two together. That way we’ll be able to pick up residual properties that could allow us to make certain infrastructure improvements.”
The expanded Riverfront/ Gateway TAD encompasses downtown property from the Liberty Expressway to Oakridge Drive into East Albany to include property from Oglethorpe Boulevard to Clark Avenue.
Taylor told commissioners the net taxable value of the land within the TAD is $155,464,700 with a TAD bondable amount of $30,533,086. After service fees, if the city decides to issue municipal, tax-exempt bonds, the net proceeds would be $23,192,284.
“That’s not to say we’ve been given the go-ahead to issue bonds,” Taylor said. “Those figures are based on development projects that are in our plan. There could be any number of projects that aren’t on the plan right now.
“Bonding is just one way we could go. Certainly, we could wait for the (tax) money to come in and use it as we get it.”
Taylor said the figures were based on the county agreeing to work with the city on the TAD project. The other taxing agency in the county, the Dougherty County School System, is not allowed, by law, to participate in TAD allocation, but that will change if a proposed statewide amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot is approved by voters.
In response to a question by Commissioner Dorothy Hubbard, Taylor replied, “If that amendment passes and the (local) school system agrees to take part, you could see that $23 million go up to around $40-$45 million.”
Also at the work session, Commissioners voted to tentatively accept Department of Community Affairs local development grants of $20,000 and $15,000, and heard a report from Public Works Director Phil Roberson and Sewer System Superintendent Ann Zimmer-Shepherd on a successful employee advancement plan that has boosted morale in that department.
Commissioners also voted to approve bids on painting services ($64,822.40), a bucket truck ($77,164.80), a gradall and street sweepers ($587,424), front loader gargage trucks with disposal ($592,008) and pump repairs ($52,717.76).
