Town multi-use issue lingers

Some town of Madison property owners had hoped to share additional suggestions about the town’s budget before its final approval last week. But they were told that the opportunity to comment on the budget had come and gone.

The town council – which hosted a public hearing regarding the 2009-2010 budget June 4 – met last week merely to vote, not to consider additional comments. (The town council scheduled the special June 25 meeting since it is required to vote on the budget at least two weeks after a public hearing.)
With little discussion, council members voted to unanimously approve the $181,000 fiscal year budget as presented. The recently OK’d budget – which covers expenses from July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010 – is about 13 percent less than the past fiscal year’s budget.

Despite the council’s approval of the budget, members noted that the council could amend its spending at any time during the year, without a public hearing, as long as the change is less than five percent of the budget, or $9,050.

Chamber requests money

Madison Chamber of Commerce President Zane Byram, who also serves on the town’s planning commission, had previously requested the town’s budget include $1,500 toward the Madison Chamber of Commerce to pay for expenses related to promoting tourism within the community.

The town had included this same amount in its previous budgets to help pay for the county’s former economic development position, which was also supported financially by the chamber. However, after Fritz Brittain retired from this post in 2007, the money was excluded from the council’s budget.
During the June 4 public hearing, council member Dan Painter requested that the chamber give a presentation to the council regarding the reason for its funding request. Byram arrived at last week’s meeting ready to give the presentation, however, he had failed to notify town officials of his plans and the item was not placed on the meeting’s agenda.

Mayor Willie Lamar said that he would instead prefer that the presentation be placed on the agenda for the council’s regularly scheduled meeting set for 7 p.m. today, Thursday, July 2, so the public would be aware of its expected occurrence.

DMV profits questioned

Another member of the public who had hoped to speak was North Main Street’s That Little Quilt Shop property owner Gay Kulenguski, who arrived at the meeting with a notebook outlining research she wished to share with council members.

Kulenguski was planning to speak to council members regarding her concerns about the town’s operation of a branch of the Divison of Motor Vehicles, she told The Eagle after the 15-minute meeting.

The town property owner thinks that the town should revise its annual budget to include a separate budget that outlines income and expenses specific to the Madison DMV office. That way, the DMV office’s anticipated profit, or shortfall, for the year will be clear, she said.

Kulenguski has made this suggestion to town officials in the past and she said she was told it was impossible to make that distinction within the budget. The town office and the DMV office operate in the same building, using joint office equipment and supplies as well as shared employees.

Kulenguski told The Eagle that she had made phone calls to some surrounding towns that operate DMV branches and found that they create separate budgets for town expenses and DMV expenses.

“If [the town of Madison is] making a profit, great, but they need to prove it,” she said.

In 2007, Madison Town Clerk Barbara Roach had said that according to her calculations using information from the town’s financial reports, the DMV office has made a profit every year it has been open since 2000. Roach estimated the DMV expenses by calculating an approximate percentage of employee salaries, rent and other expenses, she had said at the time.

According to recent budgets, the DMV had been bringing in about $100,000 in income each year (not accounting for the costs to run the office).
Starting in late 2008, Roach noticed a decline in DMV sales and in January, the council voted to allow Roach to cut the hours of the office’s two full-time employees if needed. The recently approved budget includes about $17,000 less in employees’ salary expenses, as well as less money toward employee benefits.

The current budget includes an anticipated $75,000 in DMV income for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

Multi-use re-considered?

In addition to Byram’s presentation, the town council’s July 2 meeting is also expected to include a vote regarding the council’s desire for the planning commission to reconsider a previously proposed town zoning change that would have allowed new stores to share their buildings with single-family apartments.

The ordinance revision, which has been discussed for years, seemed to be nearing a vote in April when council members decided not to act on the issue. This lack of action led Carter – who had served on the commission for nearly 17 years – to resign out of what he said was “frustration” with other council members’ response to the issue.

Following Painter’s appointment to the council in May, he had said he believed revising the current draft of this ordinance amendment was the council’s “first order of business.”

Painter told the council that the town’s planning commission members had said they weren’t sure the council as a whole had requested the commission to reconsider the previously proposed amendment.

Lamar agreed the council’s intentions weren’t clearly stated and said the issue would be discussed at the meeting this evening.