2007-10-15 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF UNIVERSITY CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION October 1, 2007 The Council Study Session, held in the Chambers of the City Hall, on Monday, October 1, 2007, was called to order by Mayor Adams at 5:30 p.m. In addition to Mayor Adams, the following members of the Council were present: Mr. Arthur Sharpe, Jr. Mr. Michael Glickert Ms. Stefany Brot Mr. RobertWagner Ms. Lynn Ricci Mr. Byron Price arrived at 6:00 p.m. Also present were City Manager Ms. Julie Feier and City’s attorney John Mulligan. The Study Session agenda was planned for reviewing of the Verizon cell phone tax litigation settlement proposal. Mr. Mulligan, University’s City Attorney, briefly gave the history of the six year tax litigation he was involved in against the cell phone companies. He explained the ordinance that would be introduced at the meeting that night included a provision to award a dollar amount to the St. Louis County Municipal League (League). The suggested amount was five percent of the settlement amount each City, which participated in the cell phone tax litigation, received. This amount would be put into a separate fund of the League to be used for future litigation needs and for educational programs; it would have a separate oversight committee. Ms. Ricci felt that this was an excessive amount for University City in lieu of the fact that the City had experienced a deficit fiscal year for 2008 and implemented many cuts. She felt that the League is a beneficial organization but assisting in litigation was part of their function. Ms. Ricci stated that under a healthier fiscal year for University City, she would not object to allocating some money to assist the League. She also recommended that the two issues be in separate ordinances, one for accepting the settlement agreement with Verizon and the other ordinance allocating a dollar support for the League. Mayor Adams stated that the League’s budget is not rich enough to be able to hire the lobbying necessary to protect Cities’ Rights in Jefferson City. He explained that all monies received from municipalities would be put in a separate account and would have an appointed oversight committee to govern its spending. Mayor Adams felt that there are some legislators in Jefferson City that are not protective of municipalities; for example, the minimum wage law that affected the uniformed personnel’s overtime salary. He also stated that the League was very proactive for the cities and presently there are 50 topics relating to the governing of cities that need to be handled in the next session in Jefferson City. Mr. Wagner felt there was a lot of money involved if every city would give five percent of their settlement fee for each cell phone carrier, not just Verizon.He was of the feeling that University City had more pressing fiscal needs to address first.