02-14-1994 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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JWING COMMISSION MEETING fUARY 18, 1994 ed, to recommend approval of the variance rdcover, and the boats shall be relocated to Ayes, 1 nay. 1436 BALDUR PARK ROAD • rO BE RESCHEDULED [formed the Commission that this item had ION REPRESENTATIVE TO COUNCIL AL OF MINUTES OF THE NOVEMBER for approval of the November 15, 1993 yes 7, nays 0. :CT A REPRESENTATIVE TO ATTEND t OF THE CITY COUNCIL i that meeting. >adjourn the meeting. Ayes 7, nays 0. The Respectfully submitted, Charles Schroeder, Chairman __Mnnakritoi 9un»S«tof —WW., F«x ft LMCD says payments for milfoil were not voluntary Opinion is change from previous statements By Jolio Milord Lake Minnetonka C>N)ser\'8- tkm District (rfficiab have made an about face in an ongoing bat Ue with Spring Park and Orono. In a recent interview*. Gene Strominen, executive director of the LMCD. said LMCD officials were wrong in saying that payments made between 1990 and 1999 by the lake<u^'s 14 cities for the agency's milfoil harvesting program were voluntary. As it Uims out, the LMCD’s at torney, Charles LeFevere, has stated in a written opinion that the pa>ments were indeed man datory according to state law. "We’re not viewing the milfoil payments as voluntary and we sh^d not have adcfa-essed them that way," Strommen said recently. "This is a change in our position in that some of us and some al our board members had been recently defending payments received from the cities as voluntary." Strommen also said some cities were correct in saying they weren't told the LMCD believed the payments were voluntary between 1990 and 1993. Spring Park and Orono in re cent months protested the amount they’ve paid toward the LMCD’s budget since 1990. Each year since then, the LMCD has sent bills to the 14 cities that con tained two budget categories: administrative and milfoil harvesting. Last year when Shorewood received its bill from the LMCD. its council pointed out that the total amount the LMCD was go ing to collect in 1994 exceeded the amount the LMCD was legally allowed to collect under a 1993 state law. According to state statutes enacted in 1990, the 14 cities in the LMCD could not levy more than .00242 percent of their pro- p^ty values to pay the LMCD bill, according to LeFevere, However, LeFevere stated the law did not prohibit tlie LMCD from collecting more than than that amount from the cities. But in early 1993, U)e Legislature pass^ a law stating the LMCD could not collect more than .00242 percent of the combined property values in the 14 cities. Late last year, when several cities questioned the LMCD about Uie law, LMCD officials said ^e organization had abided by the law because only the amount it received for the ad ministrative ixKiget was a man- datorv payment from the cities. And that amount, they said, was under .00843 percent of the cities’ property values. LMCD officials said the payments for the milfoil han'esting program, which when collected put the LMCO’s total revenues higher than state law allowed, were voluntary. Wlwn firing Park and Orono council mcnibers found out about Shorewood's inquiry, they said they had no idea a portion trf their payments each year since 1990 was voluntary. Both cities demande<l refunds. Orono asked for close to $30,000. Spring Park wants a refund of about $4,600. In January, LeFevere issued a written option stating he does not believe the cities have a legal right to receive refunds. LeFevere also stated; “It would appear to me that the payments for the years 1990 through 1993 can be defended as mandatory payments. The only reason there seems to be any question about this is tliat the amount included in the LMCD budget and assessed against Uie cities by the LMCD exceeds the amount which the cities were autliorized by law to raise. Therefore, it seems to have been assumed by some that only assessments up to the amount of the cities’ levies were man datory and any excess amounts were voluntary." In an interview, Spring Park Mayor Jerry Rockvam said the LMCD's changed opinion adds to its lack of credibility. "It’s because of things like tills that the LMCD’s credibility Is lip,’’ Rockvam said. "We know what the LMCD's attorney has said. But as of now we re still asking for a refund We’re forwarding the LMCD's opinion to our attorney to get his opinion of whether we should still pursue the refund." Strommen said before LeFevere issued his opinion, LMCD officials were under the impression that when they sent their bills to the 14 cities, the cities were required to pay only the administrative half of the budget. LMCD officials did not think the cities were required by law to pay the milfoil portion of the bill. But .Strommen said It is now' clear that when the LMCD sent bills to its member cities, the cities were required to pay the full amount, tvea if the amount exceeded .00242 pn^cent of the cities’ property values. "The cities did not have a legal right to refuse us," Strom men said in an interview. The LMCD launched Its milfoil harvesting program in 1989. Late that year, after the LMCD's budgeting procees was complete, LMCD wicials asked the 14 cities to make voluntary contributions above and beyond their regular contribution, Strommen said. "That year there’s no doubt the payments made by the cities were voluntary." Strommen said of the $60,ouo the LMCD received from tlie cities for the milfoil program in 1989. "That ’s becaiBe the pavm«its were out side of the budget process. But since then, we’ve included the milfoil contributions during our normal budgeting process. That didn't give die cities any choice by iaw' but to pay them. Those pavments have not been voluntary." At a recent meeting, the LMCD board, aware of the new state law, voted to reduce the amount it will collect in 1994 from the cities—for botli the ad ministrative and milfoil budgets. Last year, the LMCD approv ed collecting $166,500 from the cities In 1994. Of that, $77,000 would have gone to the ad ministrative budget and $63,ooo to the milfoil harvesting program. According to the 1993 state law, however, the LMCD can collect only $140,742 — which e<iuals 00242 percent of the pro perty values in tlie cities — for both accounts. Gabriel Jabbour. an Orono council member, said the LMCD sliould have known earlier last year tliat it would not be able to collect more than $140,742 from the cities In 1991. "They’re now acting like this is n now development they didn't know atwut," said Jabbour But Strommen said LMCD of ficials were not Informed of the law change until recently. "Nobody informed us, but tlwt’s not to say we shouldn’t have known," Strommen said. "It's certainly our obligation to find Ihinp like that out."