HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998 08-03 BudgetBUDGET WORKSHOP — ADMINISTRATION AND PARKS AND RECREATION
Kuntz: To real quick follow up items. There is discussion about Western Ada
Recreation possibly — I don't know how I want to put this — giving us their facilities, and
was approached by one of the board members and discussed it with another board
member who seems to be in favor of it. But they're working things out and it's really just
in the infant stages right now.
Rountree: I'm concerned about this "giving" business.
Kuntz: Well the plan would be is that they would give it back to the county and the
county would turn around and give it to the city.
Rountree: So they would by their own voice and own discussion disban the recreation
district?
Kuntz: That's one of the items of discussion right now.
Corrie: I think that takes a vote of district though to disban it.
Bird: Yeah, it does and you're losing — the thing I don't mind is —
Bentley: You lose your taxes.
Bird: I wouldn't mind coming and saying — and this is what I had thought. I'll be up front
with you that that's why we were going to hire a park director because they were going
to come and pay part of the salary by having our park director manage their facilities
too. I am like Bob. You have to go back and you have to vote throughout the district to
disban it. Then you lose that tax.
Rountree: Well that's not for sure. But go ahead and finish.
Bird: If you disban that district, you lose that taxing entity. Now whether the City of
Meridian can pick up that tax, I don't know.
Rountree: The way the law reads is a majority vote of the people, and it doesn't need a
super majority can vote to disban the district. The real property then becomes the
property of the county. And a preliminary discussion I had a couple of years ago with
the county commissioners they would be more than willing to see the City of Meridian
got those capital real property items in addition to the tax assessment to take care of
that. Now was a discussion. That's not a vote or an action on their part. Until that
becomes a reality, like I said this giving thing could become a liability for the city. And
until that's resolved — I mean that would be my biggest issue. If we could get their tax
revenue and add it, it's still a push, because they are just about on the verge of going
bankrupt now trying to maintain the swimming pool and Fuller Park, but I think one of
the problems they have is they don't have anybody full time to administer it. They don't
Meridian City Council Budget Workshop
August 3, 1998
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have any managerial structure at all. And they are just kind of at the beck and call of
the employees as they come and go.
Bentley: Charlie in line with what Keith was saying about them contracting with us to
manage it, I think that was kicked around before when we looked into it, and I don't think
it's legal. I don't think they can do it because they are one taxing entity hiring another
taxing entity to manage.
Rountree: They can. They are peculiar by the way they are set up in state code. They
can contract with anybody they want and they don't even have to get bids. They are a
quasi governmental entity when it comes to that, and it's a very peculiar set up, but they
can essentially contract with anybody they want to. At least that was my understanding
when I was the director of the outfit.
Bird: That's what I've always been told and they don't get bids when they need repair
work.
Bentley: Because I was told the opposite.
Rountree: They have some distinct advantages by the way the code is written. To my
knowledge a couple of them have taken advantage of that, Blaine County in particular,
but the Western Ada one has just never gotten off the ground.
Kuntz: I just wanted to bring that to your attention.
Rountree: I think we need to look at it real close.
Kuntz: I know the swimming pool for example we get numerous, numerous calls every
day and handling problems down there with our parks employees. Parents unhappy
because the pool has been closed and they dropped their children off. So if we are
going to take that kind of heat, it would be nice —
Rountree: If we're going to take the heat for that, it would be better that we owned it.
Corrie: We get the community center, we could do away with that pool on the record.