The Frankfort City Council conducted its Monday, April 13, 2020, meeting remotely from the council chamber as well as members of the council conferenced in via telephone due to COVID-19 precautions.
The Council addressed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the City finances by offering a resolution for “delaying TPA Aquatic Center project.” The resolution cited a number of items for the need to delay, ranging from cost estimates to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Frankfort Mayor Judith Sheets asked the council if there was a motion to read Resolution 20-07 in its entirety, the council did vote in favor of this request.
An excerpt of the resolution here:
“All bids exceeded the estimated and budgeted amount for the project.”
“The project as budgeted is based upon projected tax revenues the amount in timeliness of which may be impacted by emergency orders of the state of Indiana as a result of the current COVID-19 declared emergency and by the state of the economy in the state of Indiana in the near future as a result of a COVID-19 emergency”
“That it is in the best interest of the citizens of Frankfort that the project not be undertaken at this time, but reimplemented in the near future.”
Prior to voting on the measure, Mayor Sheets asked Carol Bartley, City Clerk-Treasurer, and Eric Woods, City Councilman and member of City Finance committee, to provide background on the decision for this resolution.
Bartley addressed the impact of local income tax and property tax on the city revenue in the future.
“The local income tax revenue will be impactful on the city’s finances in the year 2022, These funds are on a three-year cycle. The city and county may expect to see a loss of those funds due to current unemployment situations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“The full impact, of course, is unknown at this time, but with the high levels of unemployment it may lead to a significant decrease in funds.”
“Property tax revenues will likely be down with the 60-day extension of late fees that the state has implemented. Current projections are estimated at around 70% of the collections may arrive in a timely manner for June draw.”
Woods spoke of the “tough” decision.
“This was a tough one. We have a lot of projects going on. We have dealt with an awful lot that are a benefit for the city. No one could have anticipated the hardships that I think we are going to see over the next several months with reduction in income and delay in property tax.”
“So again, this was a tough decision that the finance committee took up with the Mayor and the Redevelopment Commission.”
“It was one that we felt was absolutely necessary because although financially, we could have made the payments in the best circumstances, we simply had no assurance. And when we went to Reedy Financial for guidance on this, they were not able to provide us with a positive suggestion on how to move forward.”
“So, when your Finance organization can’t give you the go-ahead from their professional viewpoint, the finance committee recommends that we take that as an understanding that we should not enter into something that could possibly cause us to default on bond payment and have to basically get into other property taxes for other services. And, maybe, salaries on down the road.”
“So, the diligent smart thing to do here is to wait a little while. We will definitely readdress this. The resolution clearly states we’re going to have an aquatic center. We just need to do this smartly, that the decisions we make today are best for the council in the community of Frankfort.
Councilman Steve Beardsley, also a member of the City Finance committee, addressed the council.
“We are in unprecedented time. Nobody can predict what’s going to happen financially in the near future. It just seemed to me irresponsible if we were to go ahead and with this not knowing for sure whether the money would be available in the near future for it.”
The City Council meeting can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/
