The Creston City Council agreed to continue to pursue changing the 1% Local Option Sales tax on utility bills to a 1% franchise fee during its biweekly meeting Tuesday via Zoom.
The proposed franchise fee would apply to gas and electric bills only and would not affect the 1% LOS tax on purchases or other utilities.
Mayor Gabe Carroll said it would not change the cost of utilities for residential customers.
“Right now everybody has a 1% Local Option Sales tax on their Alliant bill that they pay,” Carroll said. “This would replace that 1% so residential customers shouldn’t see any change.”
Entities that have received an exemption from the LOS tax would be the only ones to see an increase in their bills. Carroll said he was unaware of any entities that have an exemption. In a previous discussion of the change, Creston Community School District business manager Billie Jo Greene said the school currently pays the 1% LOS tax.
Creston currently receives a percentage of the tax. The change would benefit the city by keeping all of that revenue that is sent to the state and then disbursed to various communities in Union County.
The receipts from the franchise fee could be used by the city for repair and maintenance of public buildings, public safety, property tax abatements for properties damaged by a disaster among other projects but would not be used for property tax relief.
Mayor Gabe Carroll said the change would require a public hearing and three readings of the ordinance to be passed. After concerns from council member Rich Madison, Carroll explained that any future raise in the franchise fee would have to go through the same process.
Code compliance officer
Tim Meyers of Creston was approved by the city council as the new code compliance officer for the city. His duties will include enforcing the city’s zoning and municipal codes, conducting code inspections, hearing and following up on citizen complaints related to zoning and code violations and enforcing the city’s nuisance codes at an hourly wage of $24.04.
In other city business:
• after a public hearing with no comment from the public the council approved the maximum tax levy of 13.2% for FY21-22, an increase of 1.26% over the previous year, unanimously with no discussion.
• in a public hearing, Taylor explained the $5,000 from a proposed Community Development Block Grant for the Creston Area Food Pantry would be used for food, personal care products and costs related to keeping the food items fresh.
• the council approved the purchase of a new vehicle for the Police Department at the lowest bid of $25,836 from M&M Motors over a bid of $29,120 from Creston Automotive unanimously with no discussion. Police Chief Paul Ver Meer asked the council to informally approve his choice to equip the vehicle using the second lowest bid of $9,368.98 over the bids of $8,788.30 from a new company and $11,764.56 from a local company, because he has worked with that company previously.
• the council accepted the lowest bids of $75, $75, $100 and $80 per acre for leasing four parcels of land owned by the city for the purpose of hay production from Travis West unanimously with no discussion.
• the council approved a request by PEO Chapters AZ & LG to use the west depot parking lot for their annual trunk show May 15 unanimously with no discussion.
• the council discussed returning to in-person or hybrid meetings in the board room at the Restored Creston Depot. Council members voiced concerns over having space to accommodate the public safely. The council will continue to meet remotely for the time being.