Jeffersonville City Council overrides mayor’s pocket veto

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September 5, 2012

Jeffersonville City Council overrides mayor’s pocket veto

Vissing Park bonds pass initial offering

By BRADEN LAMMERS braden.lammers@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Wed Sep 05, 2012, 06:41 AM EDT

JEFFERSONVILLE — The Jeffersonville City Council again overrode a veto by Mayor Mike Moore at its meeting Tuesday night.

The resolution — 2012-R-12 — outlined that for any capital purchases, which is any item more than $5,000, made the rest of the year would be subject to pre-approval by the council.

However, Moore did not expressly veto the resolution. He failed to sign it within a specific time frame to grant its approval. As a result, the resolution received a pocket veto and it would still require a two-thirds majority from the council to be passed, said City Council Attorney Scott Lewis.

Corporation Attorney Tom Lowe offered an explanation why the mayor, who was not in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, did not sign the resolution.

“I think the concern was with the language, specifically the word ‘all,’” he said. “We understand where the council wants to get to ... [but] the inclusion of the word ‘all’ capital purchases gave him some pause. We were of the understanding that the council might be addressing a modification of the language of this at some point, but without knowing what that modification would be, he was going to leave it to the council to pass.”

Councilman Mike Smith reiterated his purpose for introducing the legislation at the previous meeting.

He explained that by having the purchases come through the council it would ensure the savings for a particular item, if it costs less than budgeted, would be returned to the city’s general fund and not used as a source of discretionary spending by a department. All capital expenditures were already approved by the council in the budget at the beginning of the year.

Smith said there was no purchase in particular for which the council was trying to have oversight or for which the resolution was introduced. The resolution proposed would only apply to capital expenditures remaining for 2012.

“I want to control the spending now for next year,” Smith said. “I don’t want to do any excessive spending.”

He added that he plans to present a plan that may resolve the issue when preparing next year’s budget. Smith said he wanted to consult with Jeffersonville City Controller Monica Harmon about the plan before he presents it publicly.

The council unanimously approved the override, 7-0, with Councilman Zach Payne and Council President Ed Zastawny absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

Vissing Park bonds approved

Funding to complete the ongoing rehabilitation work at Vissing Park, off of 10th Street, in the form of a bond not to exceed $3.5 million was unanimously approved by the council on its first reading.

The contract to complete the work was approved in May and awarded to Floyds Knobs-based AML Inc. at a cost of $4.1 million. The Redevelopment Commission dedicated $1 million toward the rehabilitation of the park, but there had been some question as to what would be the remaining source of funds.

With the passage of ordinance 2012-OR-38, the plan is to seek the funding by issuing bond anticipation notes through the bond ordinance.

Harmon said the city would pledge Economic Development Income Tax funds as the bond anticipation notes with the intent that the fund will be paid back annually from future parks revenues.

But the city may not need to issue the full $3.5 million to pay for the project.

“We don’t necessarily have to draw all $3.5 million,” Harmon said. “If we secure funds from other sources during the process we can then not incur that additional debt.”

She added the bond anticipation notes have to be paid off in five years.

The council also approved the first reading of the appropriation ordinance for the bonds. Both ordinances will require two more readings.