Baxter County Friends of the Taxpayers

MEETING NOTES

BAXTER COUNTY FRIENDS OF THE TAXPAYERS

Saturday, January 27, 2007

BCFT Director Frank Kaye called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm.  Treasurer Ken Blade was not yet present, so no Treasurer’s report was given at this time.

City Committee Meetings:  Still need people to attend the various meetings each month.  For schedule, please see the “Local Government” page on the BCFT website (http://bcfriendsofthetaxpayers.org/), or call 424-6235.  Frank said that he plans to attend all committee meetings, and had been assigned to the Water & Sewer and Public Safety committees.  The first round of committee meetings had been just routine stuff, electing committee chairmen and agreeing to meeting dates and times. 

Frank was asked to give an explanation of the “demand charge” on our water bills – he said that it is basically the amount required from every customer on the system to pay back the indebtedness (loans, bonds, etc.) that the water department owes.  Councilman Jim Neff brought up the issue of the department’s indebtedness at the last committee meeting and said the city needs to find a way to make it go away.  The committee agreed that a public workshop to find ways to reduce the debt should be scheduled in the near future.  How did the city get “bonded out”?  Many years of annexations (city had to provide services to property owners coming onto the system) and upgrading the water treatment plant (for example, recent filter replacement project) are the major reasons.  The comment was made that the city should do everything it can to explain the financing situation in the Water & Sewer department so that the average person can understand it. 

The question was asked why the city only uses Garver Engineering out of Little Rock.  Frank said it was because Garver was brought in “at the beginning” and has just always been there when something came up.  Garver has dozens of engineers with experience in all the different engineering fields, and they are happy to send as many as necessary (at $hundreds/hour) whenever needed.  At the last Water & Sewer meeting, a similar conversation was held, and the committee’s feeling is that City Engineer Arnold Knox is capable of handling many situations that Garver would ordinarily be called in on; for those things that Arnie cannot take care of himself, there are other engineering firms available that might be able to do the work.  These alternatives could save the city a great deal of money, and will be looked at closely in the future.

New Business

Election of Officers:  Bylaws call for a quorum of 50% to be present in order to hold election of officers.  Since a quorum was present for this meeting, Frank passed out blank ballots and called for nominations from the floor for each of the four positions:  Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Director and Director.  Each position received only one nomination, as follows:  Secretary:  Suzan Kaye; Treasurer:  Marlene Schapiro; Assistant Director:  Jim Bond; Director:  Frank Kaye.

Jo Anne Rodish made a motion to accept these candidates by affirmation; Ed Schild seconded the motion, and the vote was unanimous to accept these as our officers for the coming year.

The next order of business was to discuss amending the bylaws regarding the quorum required before official business can be conducted.  According to the bylaws, they “may be amended at any regular meeting or special meeting of the membership by a vote of a majority of the members present, provided that written notice of the meeting and the proposed amendment, and a copy thereof, will have been given to all members in good standing at least five days prior to the date of the meeting.”  After much discussion, it was decided that the proposal will be to lower the quorum to 35%; the vote was 18 in favor to 7 opposed.  This proposed change will be sent to every BCFT member as soon as possible, and will be voted on at the February meeting.

Next on the agenda was to determine dues for the coming year.  The suggestion had been made at an earlier meeting to change to a per-person charge rather than per household; the group agreed to this change.  After several minutes of discussion, Sam Ghianni made the motion that the dues should be set at $15 for one person and an additional $10 for each other person living in the same household who joins (“person” being adults over the age of 18).  Jo Anne Rodish seconded; the vote was unanimous to adopt this dues structure for 2007.  Any current member who does not pay 2007 dues by April 1 will be dropped from the roster.  (Secretary’s note:  If paying by check, you may send to BCFT, 1118 Heatherdown Trail, Mountain Home, AR  72653; you may also pay your dues at any BCFT meeting.) 

A member asked if the Treasurer would prepare a cash flow statement showing all regular BCFT expenses over the course of a year, to show where the money goes.  Ken said he would do that and present it at an upcoming meeting.

In other business, Frank reported that after 1½ years, BCFT’s proposed amendment to the AR State Code dealing with the A&P Tax is now in draft bill form.  State Representative Johnny Key carried our requests down to Little Rock, and had a bill drafted calling for every county/city/town that wants an A&P Tax to get their voters to approve it first.  We also asked for a “sunset clause,” asking that the A&P Tax be put on the ballot every four years to allow voters to decide whether they want to keep it in force.  Unfortunately, Rep. Key notified us that he had removed that portion of the wording, because his colleagues would not vote for it if that provision was left in the bill.  No word on when we might see the final bill, or when it will be filed. 

Jim Bond invited everyone to the next quorum court meeting, which will be held Tuesday, February 6, at 6:00 pm at the Courthouse.

Carl Graves pointed out that the 1-cent sales tax (that Water & Sewer Committee Chairman Marshella Norell would like to see passed to retire the Department’s debt over the next 4 years) might have a chance of passing if the current 6% grocery tax goes away.  Voters should have a say in this, if the tax ever materializes, since tax increases are supposed to be approved by the voters.  The bad part is that people who live outside city limits would pay the sales tax also, when they shop in Mountain Home (just like the A&P Tax situation).  Frank said he’d prefer to find another way to eliminate the debt, one that only the users of the system would pay.

John Miskelley notified the group that he was scheduled to be on the agenda for the first City Council meeting in February to discuss the city’s Farmers’ Market policy.  He asked for our support.

Treasurer Ken Blade (who arrived after the meeting began) gave the following report:  Balance as of 12-31-06 was $230.46; since then, deposits of $122 were made ($100 donation + $12 dues), and one withdrawal ($7.50 for room rental), leaving a balance as of today of $334.96 (Secretary’s note:  this is a corrected amount – in his report, Ken did not include the room rental in the total).

The Pass-the-Bucket collection was $22 (thanks, everyone!)  This money goes toward our hall rental, postage and copying costs, newspaper ads and other administrative expenses.

Meeting was adjourned at 2:40 pm.  Next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 24, 2007, at 1:00 pm at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Hwy 5 North.

Suzan Kaye, Secretary

Friday, February 2, 2007

Secretary’s Note (2-19-07):  Because these minutes have not reached you with 5 days to spare (my fault – they got buried on my desk), the vote to amend our Bylaws and change the quorum required for conducting official business (primarily electing officers, which has already been done) will have to be postponed until the March meeting. My apologies ….