Meadville City Council on Wednesday looked back at its key priorities for 2022 and found both evidence of actions taken on those priorities and room for improvement as members look ahead to 2023.
“I appreciate folks’ willingness to reflect on the year we’ve had, which I think we made progress and that’s good,” Councilwoman Autumn Vogel said, “and to dive into next year.”
A slate of 10 priorities were divided between three subcommittees established by council early in the year, though one — the subcommittee on finance — was soon disbanded, leaving members Jim Roha and Gretchen Myers to pursue their efforts individually. Meyers and Deputy Mayor Larry McKnight were absent from the meeting.
Roha expressed disappointment in looking ahead to the city’s budget situation next year, saying that a 2-mill property tax increase for 2023 that is up for final approval Wednesday is effectively a 6.5-mill increase.
That’s because when council crafts the 2024 budget this time next year, it won’t be able to rely on more than $640,000 in federal pandemic relief that has been instrumental for the 2022 and 2023 budgets. With few options for generating revenue, additional tax hikes could be unavoidable.
Roha was also disappointed with an audit of the city’s tax-exempt entities. In March, council members voted unanimously to hire Pittsburgh-based Weiss Burkardt Kramer LLC to conduct a review of the city’s tax rolls in order to find whether any tax-exempt property owners should be paying taxes due to changes in use of property.
“Frankly I was not impressed,” Roha said. “I don’t think it was the job any of us expected would be done.”
The report essentially stated, “We didn’t find anything,” Roha said. City Clerk Katie Wickert added that city officials have found it difficult simply to receive the law firm’s report.
The audit cost approximately $3,000, according to Roha.
Vogel, a member of council’s subcommittee on community engagement, said council passed a climate action plan and launched an Environmental Advisory Committee to pursue the goals of the climate action plan. In August, council members voted 4-1 to approve a nondiscrimination resolution — not the ordinance that had first been discussed. Roha opposed the resolution.
The resolution states council’s support for an “inclusive, fair, and accepting city.” It did not commit the city to any concrete actions.
Voegel saw progress in making the city’s budgeting process more participatory.
Public information sessions on the budget drew only six attendees. An online budgeting simulation tool purchased by council for $3,500 produced 16 valid responses, but staff members balked at paying additional funds to separate analytical data for the valid responses from six other responses from people who did not self-identify as city residents or taxpayers.
But on Wednesday, City Manager Maryann Menanno said that another engagement metric showed more positive news. About 400 people had logged onto the system and experimented with it to some degree, though most did not submit their own final budget simulation.
Council’s subcommittee on housing and economic development, made up of Mayor Jaime Kinder and McKnight, spent much of the year developing an ordinance that would establish a rental registration and inspection. The ordinance is up for final approval Wednesday.
Council’s interest in establishing a land bank that would enable it to purchase blighted property at low cost requires cooperation from Crawford County and Crawford Central School District in order to achieve the most advantageous tax breaks.
Menanno said county officials asked for a land bank plan that focused on a specific geographic area in the city. That could still happen. Information assembled in establishing the rental registration program could be useful for the land bank proposal as well, according to Wickert.
Also still in progress is a comprehensive revision of the city’s zoning ordinance. Developed over the past several years by Meadville Planning and Zoning Commission, it would be the first such revision in nearly 30 years.
When the plan was presented to council over the course of several months, however, it met with skepticism from Roha in particular and was eventually returned to the commission for further consideration.
Menanno said council is likely to see the results of that work at its Jan. 18 meeting.
