MOUNT VERNON — Mount Vernon City Council members adopted legislation Monday that adds to the city’s safety forces and ensures that money will be available for roads and capital improvements as well as long-term projects. Council waived the required three readings and passed all three pieces of legislation as an emergency.
“With the new levy [passing], it will impact us with the ability to add one more police officer and three firefighter/paramedics,” said Councilman John Francis, chairman of the Employee and Community Relations Committee. “When we look at a department that’s going to skinny up, we don’t want it to be our fire department.”
The financial piece involves (1) reallocating the amount of revenue that goes to the general and capital improvement funds and creating a new fund dedicated to roads and bridges, and (2) establishing a reserve fund.
“With these two pieces of legislation, and with Mr. Francis’ piece of legislation [regarding employees], I think we have followed through on what we promised the people,” said Councilman Sam Barone, chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee. “I couldn’t be happier with this council … I couldn’t be happier with the city for passing the levy.”
The amount allocated to capital improvements will increase from 10 percent to 19.5 percent; 19.5 percent will also go into a new roads and bridges fund, and the general fund will decrease from 81 percent to 52 percent.
The amount allocated to the cemetery, streets and police and fire pension funds will stay the same at 4 percent, 3 percent and 1 percent each, respectively.
The reserve fund is restricted to three uses: unforeseen adverse events, unforeseen opportunities and declining economic trends. It takes a two-thirds vote of council to release funds from the reserve account. The fund is a perpetual account, which means the money in it continues to accumulate.
The amount put into the reserve account is 5 percent of the total expenditures from the general fund from the previous year. For 2018, the amount appropriated will be based on 2017 expenditures.
At the recommendation of the Greater Downtown Management Council, city council gave a first reading to legislation changing the way money from the bed tax is distributed for 2018 and 2019. The Woodward Development Corp.’s portion will drop from 25 percent to 20 percent. The Available Petition Fund will increase from 5 percent to 10 percent.
The Foundation Park Conservancy replaced the Knox County Landmarks Foundation as a beneficiary and will receive 5 percent. Auditor Terry Scott said that the GDMC felt the Landmarks Foundation fit better under the Available Petition Fund, through which nonprofit organizations can apply for funding.
Distributions to the other beneficiaries will stay the same:
- Mount Vernon Parking Company, 10%
- Heritage Centre Association/Main Street Mount Vernon, 30%
- Knox County Convention & Visitors Bureau, 20%
- General fund, 5% for operational expenses
In other action, council:
- Appointed Jim Sulzer to replace Chris Menapace on the Board of Zoning Appeals and Susie Simpson as alternate to replace Sulzer
- Reappointed Larry Schaefer to District 5 Advisory Council-Area on Aging
- Reappointed Cynthia Cunningham, Joan Stallard, Brett Wiley and Todd Hawkins to the Library Board of Trustees
- Appointed Jim Gastin to the Board of Property Maintenance Appeals
- Approved an appropriation of $10,000 from the Ariel Foundation for snow removal on sidewalks
- Approved transfers
Don Durbin of AAA Storage told council he would like to install a new message sign on his property located at the corner of Blackjack Road and Ohio 661. The sign would be on the Ohio 661 side. Durbin said he was told there is no zoning within the industrial park, which is where his property is located. Councilwoman Nancy Vail, chairwoman of the Planning and Zoning Committee, will follow up on the request.
