Veto Mayor strikes down park fee

Published 12:03 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Dennis Box

The Courier-Herald

The mayor's veto pen has struck again.

For the fourth time in his two terms, Mayor Bob Young has vetoed an ordinance passed by the City Council.

The Council adopted ordinance 1157, an increase in park impact fees, Aug. 23.

Four council members voted for the measure, Cheryle Noble, Phil DeLeo, Mark Hamilton and Deputy mayor Dan Swatman, and Councilman Jim Rackley abstained.

Councilmen Neil Johnson and Dave King were not present.

The ordinance called for an increase in park impact fees from the current $1,500 to $2,000.

When the city's finance director, John Weidenfeller, first proposed the measure it called for an increase of $2,500.

After the council heard objections from developers concerning the fee increase, they approved a smaller increase of $2,000.

The increase in fees was designed to pay for a loan from the general fund and the sewer fund used to pay for the nearly 13 acres of property next to Allan Yorke Park, which was condemned by the council in May 2004. A Superior Court jury decided the city would pay Schuur Brothers Construction, owners of the property, $5 million plus interest from time of taking possession of the property and legal fees.

Young vetoed the ordinance Friday.

"There is a question about the legality of using the impact fees to pay for this property, so I vetoed it," Young said. "I don't want to go to court over this. The council is not thinking this through. We already have $1,500 mitigation fees for parks that will pay for it. It will just take longer."

Councilwoman Cheryle Noble said she was perplexed by the mayor's action.

"The impact fee increase came from his staff," Noble said "The mayor would have approved it. Nothing is done without his OK. I thought we made a wise, well thought out decision. I'm at a loss why the mayor is vetoing this."

Young admitted that the ordinance was written by Weidenfeller and initially approved by the mayor.

"At the time I said go ahead, but I had questions about the legality," Young said. "I realized right away there were problems. John (Weidenfeller) and I don't always agree on everything. That's OK."

Young said one of his main objections to the fees ordinance is the newly acquired property is it not part of the city's comprehensive plan and must be added by amendment.

The mayor said once it was added he still would not commit to a hike in park impact fees.

"Once the park's plan is amended I'll have to look at that," Young said.

It takes a five-vote majority or super majority to override the mayor's veto.

"I'll probably get overridden," Young said. "Maybe not. But the majority of the time I do this so the citizens know the mayor does not agree with this."

The last mayoral veto was when the council condemned the Schuur Brothers property in May 2004. The veto was overridden 6 to 1 with Rackley voting against the override.

The mayor has used his veto power two other times and was overridden each time.

The first use was April 9, 2001 when he vetoed Ordinance 854A, which removed the city administrative assistant.

The second was August 22, 2001 when he vetoed Ordinance 886, which restricted any elected official from using or being assigned a city vehicle.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.