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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, April 25, 2011 7:00 o'clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 19 of 25 (11. APPEAL OF ASSESSMENT FOR UNPAID BLLS - CREEKSIDE IN ORONO, Continued) of his purchase, the City did a pending assessment search and found no pending assessments at the time. In September 2010, the City did make a decision to assess this back to the effective properties approximately one year after the purchase. From the City’s perspective, the City of Orono is not in the business of developing property and it is has also held that each development must pay for itself. Based on that, the City decided to let a future developer come in and finish the development. Staff does not recommend that the Council make any changes to what was certified last fall. Franchot asked if all of the other property owners are requesting a forebearance. Gaffron recommended each property owner be asked that question. Franchot asked if anyone has paid the assessment. Gaffron indicated each person's share has been assessed to their taxes and he has not checked to see whether anyone has paid those. Tom Gonya indicated he represents Orono Creek, LLC, who is the owner of one of the lots. The lot was for sale and they purchased it in approximately September of 2009. They went through the work of getting the title insurance and checked to verify that there were no pending assessments or levied assessments by the city or county. They owned the lot for approximately one year when a letter came in the mail last fall regarding this assessment. The letter indicated the assessment was for things that had happened prior to when they had purchased the lot and even going back into 2008. Gonya commented it does not seem fair to put this burden on him after they have gone through the proper channels and asked the City prior to purchase whether there were any unpaid charges out there. Gonya stated the report in his view shows that the City knew there were outstanding charges but yet nobody from the City said there was a pending assessment. Gonya indicated he had no way of knowing that there was this looming charge that would be assessed. Gonya stated last fall was probably a more appropriate time to address this but that he neglected to do so. Gonya requested the Council not put these charges against this lot. Gonya reiterated the City was asked prior to purchase about outstanding bills and nobody responded that there was a pending assessment. Dean Johnson indicated he is the owner of five of the lots and that after they bought the lots, they worked with Tom Kellogg and Mike Gaffron on the development. As the engineering bills came in, they found they had old costs and current costs being charged to them. Johnson indicated he is certainly willing to pay for the costs that they incurred when they started doing the development work. Johnson noted he met with Mike Gaffron last October and he laid out what all the costs were. During this process they were in the midst of constructing a house and so all of these old costs, as well as the new charges, were put into one bucket. Their plan was to pay all of the current costs and then assess the lots. Johnson stated he does not want to pay for the costs that were incurred prior to his purchase and that he was told by Mike Gaffron that the City is not willing to let up on the old costs. Item #02 - CC Agenda - 05/09/2011 Approval of Council Minutes 04/25/2011 [Page 19 of 25]