NEW ALBANY — Mayor Jeff Gahan announced Monday he vetoed an ordinance passed in April by the New Albany City Council that established a new interlocal agreement for the New Albany-Floyd County Parks Department.

The measure narrowly passed the council with a 5-4 vote April 19, as the issue has been a point of contention between the city and county since the News and Tribune reported last year on funding discrepancies in the department.

New Albany had paid about $2 million more toward the parks system than the county over the past five years, though the existing agreement called for the two entities to split the funding equally based on population, which has been close to even in recent years between New Albany and county areas outside city limits.

After months of discussion, the Floyd County Council, Floyd County Commissioners and city council approved the new deal in April which called for equal funding mechanisms to be put in place by Oct. 1. The new agreement would be void if either side failed to meet the funding requirements, but Gahan said Monday he vetoed the ordinance because the county had failed to honor past parks deals.

“While I vetoed this proposed agreement, we are still currently operating under an agreement which requires equalized funding based on population,” Gahan said. “The city of New Albany will continue to honor our agreements and fully fund the parks department. It is time for the county to do the same for the betterment of all Floyd County.”



NEGATIVE RESPONSE

There was an immediate reaction of disappointment from county and parks officials, who said Gahan’s action is a setback to the process.

“It seems like there’s an awful lot of looking backward and not forward, which is what we as the parks board have been looking to do for a long time,” said Steve LaDuke, vice president of the NA-FC Parks Board.

It takes six votes to overturn a veto. City Councilman Dan Coffey sponsored the ordinance, and said he intends to call for a vote to overturn Gahan’s veto.

“I’m just truly, truly disappointed,” Coffey said. “Mayor Gahan never came in and spoke to the council as a whole ... to give us his feelings about it.”

Steve Bush, president of the county commissioners, said he understands Gahan’s frustration over the past but added the city didn’t come forward and state there was a problem until the past few months.

“We can’t help what happened in the past,” he said.

Bush added there have been other joint agreements that have been honored, including the city-county deal over Scribner Place.

According to the Gahan administration, the city has paid more than $4 million more toward the parks department than the county over the past eight years. Those figures, which were provided by the administration, account for operational funding as well as money paid by the city to the parks’ cumulative capital fund.



LEGAL TALK

Members of the Gahan administration, including City Attorney Stan Robison, weighed-in on the veto Monday.

“Upon review of the adopted ordinance, I have found that there are certain ambiguities that could cause legal problems for the city of New Albany down the road,” Robison said.

As part of the new agreement, the county was to pay an additional $100,000 to the parks department this year to equalize funding. The county council had already approved that amount and a separate $150,000 appropriation, though Gahan said the money hadn’t been received as of the time he decided to veto the deal.

County Council President Ted Heavrin said the money hadn’t been collected as of last week because the city administration had failed to follow the correct process to garner the funds. Heavrin said the city had been instructed on the procedure and that any delay for New Albany in receiving the money wasn’t the fault of the county. He said the process, which involves filing a claim with the county for releasing the appropriated funds, is necessary in order to follow state audit rules.

Heavrin called Gahan’s veto “a little slap in our face.”

“I don’t know what they’re thinking, I really don’t,” he said.

Furthermore, the payment of the remaining $100,000 could be jeopardized by Gahan’s veto, Heavrin warned.

“Why give money to something that’s not going to go forward?,” he said.

And losing the additional $100,000 could lead to dire consequences for the parks system, LaDuke said.

“If that’s the case, absolutely, there will be immediate layoffs and immediate adjustment of services,” he said. “This funding was to get us through the end of this year.”

The parks 2012 operational budget is about $1 million.

Restitution for past funding discrepancies has driven some of the debate from city leaders who said they were hesitant to agree to a new deal with New Albany already having paid more in recent years for the parks. But Coffey said it would be pointless for the city to sue over past funding since New Albany taxpayers are also paying county taxes.

“The taxpayers don’t want that, they want us to work to accomplish things,” he said. “The only ones that would come out ahead in that situation are the attorneys.”

The city also recently declined to merge 911 dispatch centers with the county. Coffey described city-county relations currently as a “turf war” and he said continuity is needed.

“It seems like there’s an us against them mentality that all parties have to get rid of and start working together,” he said.