Baxter County Friends of the Taxpayers

MEETING NOTES

BAXTER COUNTY FRIENDS OF THE TAXPAYERS

SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2005

BCFT Director Frank Kaye called the meeting to order at 1 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of Redeemer Lutheran Church (now our permanent time and location). Ten current members and one new member were in attendance.

Frank made the Treasurer's report, since Ken Blade (our new Treasurer) was unable to attend the meeting. Bank balance stands at $316.93.

Old Business: BCFT presence at city committee meetings. Still need volunteers to cover these meetings. A calendar was passed around, and members noted which committee meetings they might be able to attend.

Old Business: BCFT banner, for use at fundraising events, parades, etc. Bill Smith obtained a quote from Lewis Sign & Ne on of about $105 plus tax for a 3'x5' vinyl banner, printed both sides, with metal grommets and rope. Other local quotes will be requested before a decision to order is made. The members in attendance agreed that this should be done ASAP.

Old Business: Restrooms at soccer complex. No news to report. Jerry Caster said he was planning to visit with the soccer group in early June, and thought that the "Habitat for Humanity" concept of getting the facility built with community involvement was the best way to get this accomplished.

Old Business: Water rate hike update. Frank reported that he is still working on his alternate proposal, fine tuning the formulas and making sure every class of customer is included. So far he has met individually with 3 City Council members; has plans to meet with two more early in the coming week, and has calls in to the rest. Hopefully all 8 will have been consulted before the Council meeting Thursday night.

According to Frank's proposed plan, if Mountain Home were to switch to charging for water according to consumption ($1.25/1000 gals), and make all users equal (no matter where they live), the overall impact to the revenue stream would be an increase of 8%. By 2010, this proposal will get the city most of the money they were looking for, without doubling the water rates (for a "typical" 5000 gal/mo user, rates would go up an average of about 13%). As of May 2005, the Water Department's Depreciation Account has a balance of $508,000; about $13,000 goes into this fund every month. This money is supposed to be used only for repair and replacement of lines already in place, but the Water Department has been using this fund as an emergency repair account for quite a while. Bonds, on the other hand, can only be used for expansion or improvement of the system -- not repairs.

When asked whether he had spoken to the press yet about his proposed rate structure, Frank explained that he was working on the issue behind the scenes, to give the committee and the City Council a chance to come to a compromise out of the public eye. He said he had had favorable response from the people he'd already talked to, and hoped to be able to work with them rather than against them.

Chuck Barnes asked, "Where does all the money go?" The question was asked about obtaining a copy of the latest department audit (performed by Ballard & Associates) -- this report is available, but the request must be submitted in writing.

New Business: BCFT member plans new independent newspaper. One of our members, Catherine Abel (a retired journalist who moved here not long ago from California), has announced her intention to start a monthly free newspaper, featuring opinions, local news and features. She promises it will be "lively, informative and fiercely independent." In an e-mail to us dated May 27, she put out a call for help, in the form of a graphic artist, an enthusiastic salesperson, and a delivery person with a truck. If you know of anyone who might be interested in working with Catherine on this project, please contact us at 424-6235, and we'll put you in touch.

New Business: Strategy for City Council meeting Thursday night. All agreed that we need to assume the council will pass the ordinance to raise water rates if it comes to a vote. To that end, we agreed to prepare a petition for referendum and have it ready to start collecting signatures after the meeting if necessary. Once again, ONLY residents inside the city limits will be able to sign the petition and vote in the special election, since the rate hike is governed by city ordinance. Frank said he thought the only way to allow every water user on the system to have a say in the matter would be to take it to court, and that the ratio of inside to outside customers was about 80% -- 20%. (NOTE: The water rate hike only affects the water portion of a customer's bill -- the sewer charges and sanitation fees would be unchanged. Also, there is still a discount for usage during summer months, to allow for irrigation.)

It was also suggested that we have a press release ready at the Council meeting, to include the following information: that the Water Department already has about $15 million in outstanding debt and plans to take out yet another $15 million bond in 2007 without a public hearing; that their proposed rate hike would more than double water rates within 3 years; that nearly $1 million in existing revenue was not disclosed in the rate hike proposal from Garver Engineers of Little Rock.

Regarding holding public hearings to address water rate increases -- Frank reported that we had done research on the Internet and found evidence that cities all across the county hold public hearings as a matter of course, whenever utility rate increases are proposed. After reading the AR State Code, Frank said it appears that a public hearing is required for raising sewer rates -- he called the AR Municipal League to ask whether it's also true for water rates, but had to leave a message. Will report on this at a later date.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m. Next meeting will be Saturday, June 25, at 1 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of Redeemer Lutheran Church.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Suzan Kaye

Secretary, BCFT

424-6235