Town agenda gets a shuffle

After responding to criticisms, the Saratoga Town Council elected to move public comment to the beginning of the meeting at their Aug. 6 meeting.

Mayor of Saratoga John Zeiger said public comment was originally placed at the beginning of the meetings due to public requests, however, it was requested recently to be moved to the end.

“When we put this at the bottom of the meeting, we got (a positive response). Now people are wanting to put it at the beginning of the meeting,” Zeiger explained.

Councilwoman Sue Howe said she would like to see it moved “back up to the top.” Councilman Steve Wilcoxson said he did not have a problem with moving public comment back to the beginning of the meeting, but it cannot keep changing back and forth. Councilwoman Judy Welton said she had no problem with moving it, but with people commenting right before the votes take place, the end of the meeting appears to be the most appropriate place for it.

Saratoga resident Cindy Bloomquist said she does not mind leaving it where it is, but the biggest issue is insuring the public is heard before the council votes on important issues.

Saratoga resident Leon Hetherington said it was important to place a quick comment period at the beginning of the meeting, so people could make a statement and go about their business.

Another concern brought up was moving the public comment before executive session. Welton said they would try to keep executive session towards the end if they can help it. Many agreed the largest problem was having to wait until after a lengthy executive session meetings to make a comment.

Near the end of the discussion, the town council elected to move under correspondence. Zeiger said there will likely be a two-minute limit on public comment to keep the meetings flowing.

CP&L modification

The town council made a slight change to ordinance 827 before it passed unanimously on the second reading.

Under section six of the ordinance labeled “Rate Regulation and Consumer Protection,” section 6.1 was modified to read “Franchise Fee. Carbon shall not be assessed a franchise fee for the first two years of this agreement. However, the town reserves the right to review this matter of the franchise fee after the first two years of this agreement.”

Zeiger said what that specific change means is “whoever is sitting on the the council in two years, if they feel they want to revisit and potentially put on a franchise fee, then they can do that in two years.” He added there will not be a franchise fee in two years if the sitting council does not vote in favor of it.

“It just gives whoever is sitting on the council the opportunity to review that in the next two years,” Zeiger said.

The second reading of the agreement was agreed upon by both CP&L and the town of Saratoga. CP&L general manager Chuck Larsen agreed the town had made the changes that he was “going to check on” that night.

However, Hetherington accused the mayor of postponing the franchise fee as a political move.

Hetherington stated the town was “kicking the can down the road” with the franchise agreement to get past the election period, as mayor Zeiger is running for re-election in November.

Zeiger said postponing the franchise fee agreement was not at all a political move. He said he was responding to the public’s input.

“These other council members and myself received comments on it, so we decided to drop it, with the exception that it could be reviewed in two years,” Zeiger said.

Wilcoxson and

double-vote

Under the planning commission’s report, Wilcoxson made a statement on the “double-vote” situation with council members on town boards.

At the Valley Service Organization candidate forums, a question was asked to council candidates of their opinion on having a council member vote one way on a commission and another way as a council member. All candidates, including Wilcoxson, agreed council members switching their votes would be unethical.

Wilcoxson, who is a member of the planning commission and the airport board as well as a town councilman, said he has never voted one way on a board, and another way on the town council.

“If I disagree with something, the planning commission knows up front,” Wilcoxson said.

As a councilperson, Wilcoxson said, if he examines something and he does not believe it is going to be the best thing for the people of Saratoga, he is supposed to come back and report his beliefs to the council.

Bloomquist said the problem with the planning commission is that they put in a lot of effort into something, and Wilcoxson would argue the part of which he disagreed with. She added there should be an appointed commission member representing the board given there is a dispute between the board and Wilcoxson.

“I think that is a missing piece, and I think that would be a good piece to put it,” Bloomquist said.

Stopping the “rumor mill”

Zeiger began the meeting by clarifying the town is “not broke”. Zeiger said there have been rumors lately the town has no money, of which Zeiger said those claims are entirely false.

“We have to watch our spending like any other community,” Zeiger said. “I just want to put a stop to that rumor before we go forward tonight.”

According to a post, written by Zeiger, on the town of Saratoga’s Facebook, the town has 1.7 million dollars in reserves, and the town anticipates the revenues for the 2014/2015 fiscal year will be “[$]486,000.00 above expenditures.”

Near the end of the post, Zeiger said for residents to “please come in and ask questions.”

The next town council meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Aug. 19 at Saratoga Town Hall.