O’Rourke presses to upgrade S. Tahoe’s infrastructure
By Kathryn Reed
On June 5, the South Lake Tahoe City Council is slated to have a workshop on the capital improvement program, or the infrastructure of the city.
At the June 19 meeting, the council is expected to approve the certificate of participation that is basically a $5 million loan. That money is slated for roads, Harrison Avenue upgrades and revamping Linear Park. (This will be City Manager Tony O’Rourke’s last meeting before beginning a job in Washington.)
Infrastructure improvements will begin before the COP money is in hand.
“We don’t have to wait for the COP. We will reimburse the general fund,” O’Rourke told Lake Tahoe News.
In other words, O’Rourke is OK’ing the city to take money from one fund to be used in other, without a definite guarantee fund No. 1 will be repaid. O’Rourke is literally banking on the assumption the council still favors the COP process. Because it’s not a tax, residents don’t have to vote on it – though it will be taxpayer money that pays back the loan.
At a meeting in July 2011, Councilman Tom Davis said, “The interest is $32 million over a 30-year period so really it’s $10 million a year. (The COP) just doubled the cost.”
O’Rourke at the May 15 council meeting went over the five-year budget scenario in a big picture scenario without getting into the nitty-gritty.
As with most financial documents, it’s not stagnant and it’s built on presumptions that don’t always come true.
For instance, transient occupancy tax collections in March were 8.2 percent less than the previous fiscal year at the same time. This meant the city needed to make a $600,000, or 6 percent mid-year adjustment to the budget.
O’Rourke told the council it should cut the 25 percent operating reserve to 20 percent. The money in the fund now equates to 35 percent of the general fund. He said that excess, so to speak, should go to capital improvements over several years. This would include purchasing fire trucks.
Adjusting the reserve would need to be brought back to the council and four of the five need to approve it.
What wasn’t discussed at the meeting this month was merging resources with Lake Valley Fire Protection District.
While the city in March appeared hot to get to the negotiating table, no meetings between the departments have ever occurred.
O’Rourke told Lake Tahoe News the city is doing an analysis of what is appropriate.
He said, “We’re of the mindset of let’s date before we get married.”
O’Rourke added that consolidation is not off the table, but more research needs to be done before that would occur.
He also said going forward the budget has Brian Uhler remaining as police and fire chief.
When it comes to what happens at Harrison Avenue, that could be decided today as city staff meets with business owners.
“We want to see it improved, but if there is any delay by property owners or no interest, we can move the money elsewhere,” O’Rourke said. “There is no lack of needs.”
An item that could come with a price tag of close to $500,000 is upgrading the finance department’s software and hardware. However, the idea is it will create efficiency in the department, and therefore throughout the city. An RFP has been released.
A stream of revenue could be collecting more hotel tax. A request for proposal was released May 14 seeking firms that could primarily go after delinquent or non-existent taxpayers.
Why is it necessary to borrow $5 million for the road repairs??? Why doesn’t the City form Assessment Districts throughout the City and let the property owners pay for the improvements ?? It would them be paid over a 30yr period of time. Then the City will maintain the streets.
And for the City to cut the RESERVE is stupid, That is what they did to the Insurance Reserve years ago and why they had to raise every employees insurance rates buy 400%.
This O’Rourke is a piece of work, he comes in and fires 44 employees and takes the moral of the employees to the lowest point in history, them packs and leaves for another City, good job City Council, you sure know how to pick em.
How much of that $5 million will be used to fix the parking on Harrison Ave?
for the business’s there?? When it should be used for ROAD REPAIR.
Elections are coming and soon we will have the power to remove 2 of them and start fresh.
Few places other than South Lake Tahoe are able to successfully see their way by borrowing their way to prosperity and fixing the potholes. Why is the airport so protected by the automatic pay plan?
I am constantly amazed that no one questions assumptions made for budgeting.
Revenues seem to be always overestimated and costs seem to be always underestimated.
TahoeAdvocate,
You could change that intentional miss judgement by attaching the principle of FRAUD to the government accounting system.
It certainly fits.
Where do you see “WE” IN O’Rourke?
Don’t commit anything until it’s in the bank.
Does somebody need remedial math. At around 5%, interest will double the cost over a 30 year payback.
If Greece can borrow its way to properity, why can’t SLT.
Better get a lid on the cookie jar.
Why isn’t the reserve being used for things this town needs? It’s good to have a reserve if the City has taken care of all its responsibilities. But to be sitting on that money, when there is so much the town needs to get done, and when they clearly want to stick us with even more tax increases, could be considered bizarre thinking.
The only rationale reason for such thinking is that there’s a pension time bomb down the road that terrifies the City so much, that instead of confronting it, the hope is to get their hands on as much cash as possible, (at the expense of our town’s infrastructure, and at significant cost to the taxpayer) in order to ‘sort of’ deal with it?!
Millions of dollars of new SLT taxes, arraigned behind closed doors, without a public vote, is just one more example of the lawlessness and incompetence of the SLT City Council. We desperately need new council members who will follow the law and actually protect us. No new fees, taxes, bonds should be allowed to further burden homeowners or business owners. The City Council needs to focus on living within its means, focus on roads, plowing and public safety and stop all their other useless pet projects.