Special Council Meeting
July 26, 2015
The Council of the Village of Riverlea met on the above date at 230 W Riverglen Drive, Riverlea. The following Council members were present: Michael A. Blanchard, Jenny D. Jones, Eric A. MacGilvray, Josh Schoenberger, and Jacalyn Slemmer. Also present were Joshua C. Mehling, Clerk-Treasurer and L. Leah Reibel, Solicitor. At 6:00 pm MacGilvray called the meeting to order.
President Pro-Tem
In the absence of the Mayor and President of Council, Blanchard moved and Slemmer seconded the motion to nominate MacGilvray as President Pro-Tem for the meeting. The votes on the motion were as follows: Yay, 4: Jones, MacGilvray, Schoenberger, and Slemmer. Nay, 0. Abstain, 1: MacGilvray. The motion passed (4-0-1).
Bond Levy
Jones introduced Ordinance 06-2015, An Ordinance Declaring the Necessity of Issuing Bonds, Submitting the Question to the Electors of the Village, and Declaring an Emergency.
The Solicitor explained that the Franklin County Auditor’s office had rejected the Village’s request for certification of the millage necessary to fund the $7 million infrastructure project. She had worked with Dennis Schwallie, Bond Counsel with Dinsmore & Shohl, to rework the language in a format that would satisfy the county. MacGilvray requested clarification on the process that Council had taken to approve the bond issue and the general fund increase. He questioned the $7 million figure, given that the estimates from Burgess & Niple had previously stated that $6.2 million was the cost for the highest proposed plan. The Clerk Treasurer replied that Jim Dippel had submitted revised costs for the project based upon the start of construction in 2016, vs. 2014, upon which the earlier numbers were based.
MacGilvray also questioned why the Council had decided to ask residents for the full $7 million, given that it expected to receive assistance with funding from the state. He did not know whether having funding fully lined up would be a liability in requesting this assistance. He asked whether anyone on Council had asked this question of anyone at MORPC. Slemmer mentioned that the Mayor had spoken with representatives from MORPC, but he was not in attendance at the meeting. MacGilvray expressed concerns that going to voters to request more funding than was needed may harm the chances of passage. Schoenberger asked whether the infrastructure project could be funded for a smaller amount. MacGilvray replied that while initial estimates varied based on the amount of work performed, in order to complete the desired projects, that was the amount of estimated costs. He stated that another variable would be the amount of funding received by the state, which was unknown. The Solicitor suggested that if Council was not comfortable voting on the measure, they could postpone and schedule another meeting after answering these questions. In order to keep the timeline on schedule to get the issue on the ballot, Council agreed to schedule a special meeting on Monday, July 27 at 7:00.
Schoenberger moved and Blanchard seconded the motion to table the ordinance until the next special meeting. The motion passed unanimously (4-0). Jones had left the meeting before this vote.
Adjournment
KIRK M. MCHUGH, MAYOR
JOSHUA C. MEHLING, CLERK OF COUNCIL