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MINUTES - Executive - 12/6/2007 CITY OF SALEM PROOF READ & NUMBER PAGES DECEMBER 6, 2007 EXECUTIVE SESSION A Regular Meeting of the City Council was held in the Council Chamber on Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 7.00 P.M. for the purpose of transacting any and all business, at which time, the City Council, by recorded roll call vote, went into Executive Session with the Mayor, to discuss an update on the negotiations with Dominion. Notice of this meeting was posted on November 30, 2007 at 9.31 A.M. All Councillors were present. Council President Matthew Veno presided. Councillor O'Leary moved that the City Council adjourn to the Council Anteroom to hold an Executive Session, and at the end of the Executive Session, the regular meeting will continue. Adopted by unanimous roll call vote of 11 yeas, 0 nays, 0 absent. Councillor Sargent recused himself due to conflict of interest. See canister in vault for minutes of Executive Session. Minutes cannot be released without approval from City of Salem Legal Department. On the motion of Councillor Pelletier, the Executive Session adjourned, and the regular meeting continued by unanimous roll call vote of 11 yeas, 0 nays, 0 absent. ATTEST: CHERYL A. LAPOINTE CITY CLERK CITY OF SALEM 118 PROOF READ & NUMBER PAGES DECEMBER 6, 2007 EXECUTIVE SESSION A Regular Meeting of the City Council was held in the Council Chamber on Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 7.00 P.M. for the purpose of transacting any and all business, at which time, the City Council, by recorded roll call vote, went into Executive Session with the Mayor, to discuss an update on the negotiations with Dominion. Notice of this meeting was posted on November 30, 2007 at 9.31 A.M. All Councillors were present. Council President Matthew Veno presided. Councillor O'Leary moved that the City Council adjourn to the Council Anteroom to hold an Executive Session, and at the end of the Executive Session, the regular meeting will continue. Adopted by unanimous roll call vote of 11 yeas, 0 nays, 0 absent. Councillor Sargent recused himself due to conflict of interest. Council President Veno turned the meeting over to the Mayor. Mayor Kimberley Driscoll stated this was an update on Dominion. For better than a year Dominion has put no dollars on the table. They believe the value is less than the current tax of 4.5 million hopefully negotiations not contankorous but we are to far apaort. Six months ago we realized we needed to hire an appraiser/Lawyer. Our value 4.5 million the value of the building is 4.75 to 4.8 million. We are far apart in view of the value. We received a lot of documentation and are impressed with Glenn Walker and his experience helped frame issues. The plant is entitled to get environmental credits for any updates done. Knowing this we needed to seek help from the executive branch. We think the regulations are going to keep the plant open. The plant will get worse. No one knows what the impact will be. We went to the Governors office to get help. There were meetings held with a lot of arguing. We are far apart on what value is. Pressure from the Governors office will help with regulations. They come to the table forcibly they put an amount on the table before the blast at the plant. We took time to look at the additional amount they put on the table. Not having an argument we send a tax bill. They will to arbitration to file an appeal. We would be likely to fill an overlay account. Additional revenue would be 4.75. It gives time to see the impact of the regulations. The key benefit will enable us to seek new growth. Any investment in the plant was never collected for the past 8 years. If we had an agreement we could have collected. They have 25 million of coal on the property. Environmental has their own restrictions. One year agreement is best we can do right now. We do have state legislation to hold harmless the new REGI regulations. The REGI revenues have a portion that would come back to the communities. This is the first year we've seen any increase in revenue. After the explosion we didn't know what would happen. I'm acting quickly to get paperwork done. CITY OF SALEM 119 PROOF READ & NUMBER PAGES DECEMBER 6, 2007 EXECUTIVE SESSION Councillor Lovely asked when does the agreement begin? Mayor stated July 1st of this year. Councillor Lovely thanked the Mayor for pursuing this even though there are uncertainties. Councillor O'Keefe supported the previous speaker. Do we need this for next week? Mayor stated it would be better. Councillor Pelletier commented that we sat here with Harshbarger about this. Thank you. Mayor state the agreement has to come in for the Councils approval. Councillor Sosnowski asked what was the justification going from 8 million to 4.5. Mayor stated the deregulation was coming, it was agreed to keep revenue stream steady. Councillor Blair stated the unknown factor of deregulation. Councillor Sosnowski stated when it was recently purchased do we know what the purchase price was? On the motion of Councillor Pelletier, the Executive Session adjourned, and the regular meeting continued by unanimous roll call vote of 11 yeas, 0 nays, 0 absent. ATTEST: CHERYL A. LAPOINTE CITY CLERK CITY OF SALEM 120 PROOF READ & NUMBER PAGES DECEMBER 6, 2007 EXECUTIVE SESSION