Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 09/08/2011 - WS Mins 09 08 11 (Migrated from Optiview)Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, August 8, 2011 at 6:00 pm Page 1 of 6 This summary is provided as a convenience and service to the public, media, and staff. It is not the intent to transcribe proceedings verbatim. Any reproduction of this summary must include this notice. Public comments are noted and heard by Council, but not quoted. This document includes limited presentation by Council and invited speakers in summary form. This is an official record of the Milton City Council Meeting proceedings. Official Meetings are audio recorded. The Work Session of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on August 8, 2011 at 6:00 PM, Mayor Lockwood presiding. Council Members Present: Councilmember Karen Thurman, Councilmember Zahner Bailey, Councilmember Bill Lusk, Councilmember Joe Longoria, and Councilmember Tart. Councilmember Hewitt was absent/excused from the meeting. Mayor Lockwood: • Work Sessions are an informal setting to update Council on business items. • No votes will be taken during these sessions. • There are three (3) items on our Agenda tonight. • Public comment is allowed that is germane to an Agenda Item. • If you wish to speak you are required to fill out a comment card and turn it into the City Clerk staff. • Public comment will be allowed for a total of 10 minutes per agenda item and no more than 2 minutes per person. • Public comment will be heard at the beginning of each Item. • Once the item is called, no other comment cards will be accepted. There was no public comment. City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item #1. Meet and Greet with Dr. Edward Spurka, Principal, Bethany Bend High School Site. (Chris Lagerbloom, City Manager) City Manager Lagerbloom: • We wanted to bring Dr. Spurka here to meet you all and give an update as to where the new site is in the building process. • I would like to form the relationship with the new principal early on. Dr. Spurka: • It's a privilege to be back in Milton. • 1 previously worked at Milton High School and then to Roswell High School. • We are going to be moving into the building next June. • I have been able to meet a lot of the parents and council. • There will be anywhere from 1,550 to 1,850 students that come into Bethany Bend High School. • We expect to have 1,650 kids. • We will have to work together on traffic when the school is finished for the safety of the children. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, August 8, 2011 at 6:00 pm Page 2 of 6 Councilmember Zahner Bailey: • Where are we in terms of funding on the connectivity to Highway 9 near the school? City Manager Lagerbloom: • It is finishing up its final engineering as well as being appraised. • It is on track at this moment and we haven't had any hold ups yet. Councilmember Longoria: • Have we looked at the surrounding neighborhoods for connectivity of sidewalks so students can walk if they want? City Manager Lagerbloom: • We do have a sidewalk plan. • It was reevaluated for the building of the new school. Dr. Spurka: • I am going to select ten parents that will represent the City of Milton. • 1 would like to have a representative from the City Council to be on this committee. • I will work with the Historical Society to have one or two on the committee as well. • The committee will be put together at the end of this month. • We will have three meetings in September and take it to the first reading with the Board of Education in October. • The final Board Approval will come in November. • I will let the students that are coming to the new school pick the mascot and the colors. • We will not let it be red, white and blue or green and black. • We have a website, Bethanybendsite.com which keeps the pictures of the construction updated along with any information that comes up with the school. City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item #2. 2. RZ11-15 — Text Amendment to Amend Chapter 64, Article VII, Division 5 (State Route 9 Overlay District) as it Pertains to Outdoor AmenityAreas. (Tom Wilson, Interim Community Development Director) Tom Wilson: • The Mayor and Council recently approved an amendment to the state route 9 overlay district with the exception to section 64-10-89, outdoor amenities. • Staff's recommended text amendment proposes to require all commercial and mixed use development, greater than 25,000 gross square feet to provide amenity areas based on their size of development. • These sizes can range from 5% to 15% of the gross land area. • On July 26, 2011, at the Planning Commission meeting, additional amendments were made to the text to require a flat 10% of the gross building size to be developed as an outdoor amenity area of which 50% must be contiguous. • The text amendment shows the red lines that were stricken by the planning commission. • The planning commission wanted to simplify it further. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, August 8, 2011 at 6:00 pm Page 3 of 6 City Manager Lagerbloom: • This item will be before you a week from tonight for second consideration under unfinished business at the council meeting. • If there are questions tonight that we can prepare for next week, please let us know. Councilmember Lusk: • Are the property owners on Highway 9 notified of this? Robyn MacDonald: • They get the normal notification that any area would receive. Councilmember Thurman: • How does this compare to other cities in the North Fulton area and what is required of them? Tom Wilson: • Other cities have similar requirements for amenity areas. • Some include incentives to provide this. We have no incentives built into this. It is just a requirement. Robyn MacDonald: • If it was required, it was incentivized which was found in general in the North Fulton area. Councilmember Thurman: • I believe that we need to make sure that we aren't doing anything to cause a business to go elsewhere because it's too hard to do it in Milton. Councilmember Tart: • I believe that we need areas that are more pedestrian friendly and we need to encourage green space whenever possible. • I think the two of those can be done in sync of each other. City Clerk Gordon read Agenda Item #3. 3. Discussion of City of Milton's Long Term Capital Project Financing Options. (Chris Lagerbloom, City Manager, Stacey Inglis, Finance Director & Dianne McNabb, The PFM Group) Stacey Inglis: • We have a public safety complex coming up soon. • I've had a lot of questions about what financing options the city has. • I have contacted some experts who have given recommendations on what route we should take. • The PFM Group has been in business for 36 years and is the nation's leading provider of financial investment advisory services. • Here tonight is Dianne McNabb and Michael McDonald. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, August 8, 2011 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 6 Dianne McNabb: • Good evening Mayor and Council. • We are an independent financial advisor group working with local governments in Georgia. • We do not provide financing or underwriting services directly to clients. • We are going to go over the project description and talk about the financing options for Milton. • Michael will talk about the analysis we did comparing Milton to other cities. • The first most conservative financing option is Pay as You Go financing or Paygo. • It uses funds on hand to build the facility in stages as you have money that will allow that. • With that approach, you have no interest costs but the project can be delayed as you accumulate the funds. • Some times with the pay as you go program, the cost escalations occur. • Another option is to set aside money yearly and once you have a good chunk, then start the project. • One downfall to that solution is as that money sits there for that capital project, it is not unusual to have other demands that may seem immediate and the set aside money can dwindle down. • The next alternative is a bank loan or private placement. • With bank loans or private placements, you are dealing directly with the bank which is effectively the investor. • Most municipal loans go around 20 years on average. • Banks usually don't go beyond 15 years. • General obligation bonds will give you the lowest interest rate. • If the bonds are approved, they are backed by your credit. • Having your credit rated will reduce your interest rate. • The next alternative is revenue bonds. • In Georgia, the Constitution allows for the city or authority to enter into an intergovernmental contract. • In that contract, you pledge your full faith in credit to make payments under the contract. • The contract is what secures your bonds. • The 111 1A would carry the highest interest rate. • It can run up to a full percent higher than a public facility bond. Michael McDonald: • The credit rating analysis would be for the public offering either through the genera or through the public facilities authority. • The first pass would break you down by population size and pull general statistics. • We figured you would fall within the double AA range. • That is one step below the highest level of a AAA. • The AA range has high credits. • There are some key measures to get a good perspective to see where you will fall. • The general fund shows your ability to react to economic change or any additional come up. • Milton falls highly towards the AAI side unreserved as well as general fund balance. • The larger counties can carry a higher debt load per person. • The millage cap that is built in will be a challenge. Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, August 8, 2011 at 6:00 pm Page 5 of 6 • They will want to know how effectively you are managing within that cap and what do you do when there is flexibility. • They will want to know how quickly that void is filled with other things. • Because this is a new city, the specialists will have to come down and see the city, meet the people, see the energy and allow you to make your case as to why Milton deserves the higher credit rating versus someone else. • This process would require some participation from the Council and from professional finance staff. • It can be as streamlined as you want or more detailed. Dianne McNabb: • Georgia is a AAA rated state. • Roswell and Alpharetta are both AAA rated cities. • The rating agencies have clearly identified Northern Fulton area as a highly credit worthy area. • Roswell and Alpharetta are not dealing with a millage cap. • Yours can be dealt with but I recommend providing projections into the future and long term planning that demonstrates that the cap will not be an issue in providing services moving forward. • I would expect you to be a high AA category city. Councilmember Lusk: • We don't have a long history on our own. In your equation, how much weight is given to history when rating us? • Do you see lack of history being a great impact in our credit analysis? Dianne McNabb: • I believe it is what you make of it. • The question will be what changes are being done from the way it was being done before with CH2MHILL? • You will need to be able to explain the differences over that historical time frame that shows what happened between CH2MHILL and the city. • The projections will be the more significant measure. • I think they will discount the CH2MHILL period as one that was not under direct management. Councilmember Tart: • In breaking from CH2MHILL, we foresaw a need for fiscal responsibility to save money and to be a more traditional government. • It was a unanimous decision in being able to do that. • We can add that to our story, that we were able to foresee fiscal issues down the line and we were proactive in leading us in the right direction. Councilmember Thurman: • What are the differences in basis points between AA1, 2, and 3 and AAA? Work Session of the Milton City Council Monday, August 8, 2011 at 6:00 pm Page 6 of 6 Dianne McNabb: • The difference now between the downgrade of the bond companies, it is very substantial. • The difference between AAA and AAI might be 10 basis points. • It may be another 10 basis points or 15 to AA2 and the same with AA3. • Once you drop to A, you are talking about 50 basis points higher • I would like to see you at least at a AA2. • If we can show them adequate forecasting and planning with your millage rate and cost of services, it is attainable. • Once you get a rating, you can be reviewed periodically until the bonds are paid off. Councilmember Zahner Bailey: • When you look at two authorities in parallel, would there be cost savings if they were relatively close? Dianne McNabb: • If the timeline is close, you will have a little bit of savings but not a lot. • It would be more important to have a well identified plan for the usage of those proceeds and know how those facilities would be managed on an ongoing basis. After no further discussion, the Work Session adjourned at 7:11 p.m. Date Approved: September 7; 201 1, Sudie AM ordon, Ci y Clerk Joe Loc ,Mayor