Field of Dreams at the November 1 Town Council Meeting
As a newbie blogger, I'm still learning the ropes. One of the ropes, apparently, is not biting off more than you can chew.

Instead of writing a marathon blog on the whole 11/1/2004 Council meeting, I now realize, I should split it into pieces. Here's piece one.

CM Ray Badders, defying political reason, dragged the issue of selling the Field of Dreams back into the limelight. First he asked the town staff "How much does it cost the town to keep this as open space?" Included in this "cost" was lost tax revenue. Showing a lack of vision on the lost tax revenue, he just counted what it would be if someone else owned the empty lots, not if someone parked houses on the lots (quite a difference there). Also included in the cost was public works resources to keep it nicely mowed. Grand total: $7700/year.

CM Kiernan asked that a similar "cost" be generated for the recreation center used by the Boys and Girls Club. No-one asked that a similar "cost" be generated for the Volunteer Fire Department building; that might shed a little light on what is likely to happen over the next few years.

Under unfinished business, CM Badders brought up the appraisal of the Field of Dreams that was discussed at the previous council meeting (and incorrectly reported in the Town Crier). Town Admin Pat Prangley had gotten estimates for the cost of the appraisal, and it was going to run somewhere in the range of $1100-$1300. Badders moved to spend up to $1500 to get an appraisal.

The discussion of this motion was interesting. Mayor Tiberio took the position early on that this was a slap in the face of the voters, given the result of the referendum. CM Davis wanted the appraisal so she could have the "information" in case they had to sell the field to meet revenue needs. Read that sentence carefully -- CM Davis is ready to sell capital assets to pay operating expenses for the town. Would you raid your children's college fund to pay the cable bill?

CM Ray "Stick it to Ward 2" Badders was a little vague about his reasons for wanting to get an appraisal, but seemed to want to do it to show that the town wasn't having a fire sale when they tried to sell it for $300,000, that they were getting a fair price. We all need to remember that he's ready to drop $1500 just to show he didn't make a completely stupid decision, after the voters told him he made a stupid decision.

My new CM, David Hiles, wanted the appraisal "just to have the information". He has told me in the past that would like to have a non-profit foundation buy the lots and create a dedicated soccer field; an appraisal would help in making the political decision of how much the town was giving up in selling it below market value to a non-profit. Nice idea, but why not wait until the proposal process is further along?? Especially since the market price may shift.

CM Kiernan said that getting the appraisal should happen only after the town has a good sense of its current financial state -- if the town was in fine financial shape, why get an appraisal? If it was looking really bad, maybe an appraisal would be a good idea. Somewhere in between (which, of course, is almost certainly true) discuss getting an appraisal in the light of that knowledge. It's nice to hear reason from the council every now and then.

Then the public, yours truly included, commented.

Alan Tonelson, new resident in town, spoke about his addiction to information, and understanding the desire to have information, but this information would only make it easier to sell a capital asset to fund operating expenses, which would be really dumb except in a severe emergency. I think that Alan would agree that CM's losing their seats because they could not simultaneously maintain services and keep taxes constant doesn't qualify as a "severe emergency". (Remember that this is exactly the (dumb) reason given by CM Davis for wanting the information.)

I spoke, and said that while in the context of the budget $1500 wasn't a huge amount, it was more than I would pay this year in town property taxes, and I didn't approve of spending my entire tax payment going to getting information that probably would not, and probably should not, be used.

After the public comments, CM Taylor, finance chair, spoke and said that he thought delaying the appraisal until after a financial assessment was a good idea.

CM Davis made a moving and passionate plea for needing the information for budget planning purposes, and was gently but firmly criticized by Alan Tonelson, who said that you would only need that information if you were doing bad budget planning.

The council voted, as mentioned earlier, three for (Davis, Hiles, Badders), three against (Taylor, Kiernan, Webb). Mayor Tiberio seemed to agonize for a few seconds, and then voted against getting an appraisal.

The Finance Committee meets November 22 in joint session with the Legislative Committee.
- posted by Alan K. Thompson @ 7:27 AM