Before I get to my notes, I wanted to let you know about a couple of questions I asked Rob Smith about some of the items on the financial disclosure documents. There was a charge for over $148K to Zonar. I asked Rob what that was and he said they had put GPS units in all of the buses, driver's ed cars, and district vehicles. I think this was a smart move that will probably save us money long term. There was also a charge for around $3k for TNT fireworks-it was a fundraiser (I think maybe for Lehi soccer). There was also a payment to BYU for $15K for partnership activities.
My first impression when I walked into the board meeting was a lot of suits and a lot of handshaking. The proposed CDA for University Mall was on the agenda to be discussed and Orem had quite a lot
of representation there at the meeting, including the mayor. The public comments are always my favorite part. Autumn Cook spoke first about the chronic absenteeism study (she was in the study session) and felt the study was built on faulty science since they were lumping excused absences and truancy all together. Next up was Ed Barfus. He said that the fiscal analyst that was hired to evaluate the Orem CDA was related to a board member and he felt that was a conflict of interest (JoDee Sundberg's son, Jason, is the fiscal analyst who was hired to evaluate the CDA and his mother happens to be running for school board again, representing Orem). He asked that the district not pay employees to research out things like business ventures like the CDA and that employees should be working on things that were education related. He asked the 2 board members from Orem (JoDee Sundberg and Debbie Taylor) to recuse themselves from the vote on the CDA since it could be a conflict of interest. The last public comment was by Russell Stay who was representing parents from Rocky Mountain Elementary. Bus service had been discontinued and parents were told there were only 9 eligible students and they needed 10 to qualify. Parents realized there were actually 41 and were asking for bus service to be reinstated.
Brian Halliday asked for some clarification on the school board having spent 31% of their budget and it was only September. Rob Smith said that $41k had gone to pay dues to the Utah School Board Association, $23K had gone to payroll, $14K to legal fees, $1080 for telephone, $1115 for supplies, and another $1k for auditing. There was also an increase to school administration in the amount of $256K which translated into all schools getting an additional 8 hours in aide time.
On to the CDA discussion-there was a lovely presentation with lots of numbers and figures. CDA is basically a big tax break for a specified amount of time. If the developer gets a 50/50 split, it would mean that ASD would take only 50% of the taxes and the developer would keep the remaining 50% to put towards roads and other infrastructure. The timeframe we are looking at is 20 years. Basically, there was a breakdown as to how much the school district would MAKE on a 20-year CDA based on various options. The amounts ranged from $7.8M in profit to $25M in profit. But here is what no one really talked about-how much money we would be giving up. The developer who is applying for the CDA is the largest landowner in Orem. I am thinking he is probably not hurting for funds. The CDA does meet the following criteria: high-paying jobs, grow wealth, support from GOED/County/City, increased assessed value while minimizing impact on services required, and partnership opportunities. The criteria it does not meet are that it is a retail project and does involve housing.
I am opposed to the CDA. Our board members are elected to oversee the education of our children, not gamble with our tax dollars to help spur economic development. I understand that if this project goes through, it will be more valuable and increase the taxes we use to fund ASD. But it is a gamble. We are looking at projections and analytics and no one really knows. It is an educated guess at best. One of the benefits of sitting on the back row is that I watch other people and how they react to comments. There is no doubt in my mind that the district wants this to go through. The district employees were nodding their heads in agreement when anything positive was said in support of the CDA. Scott and Debbie both expressed opinions that demonstrated they would vote for the CDA. Wendy is a definite no and I believe that Paula and Brian will vote no as well. JoDee and John were surprisingly silent, but based on their voting record, they will both vote to pass it as well. The CDA will pass with a 4-3 vote. I believe this will be an action item on the October 14th board meeting. If you do not want the CDA to pass, please e-mail ALL school board members and plan to attend the school board meeting on October 14th at 6 p.m. in the district building.
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