We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties
It’s 90 minutes into tonight’s last CCC meeting of the year. This thing is really going to be a long one. Two Republicans are missing; Kent Smith and Barb Malone. Smith is fulfilling his military obligations while Malone is AWOL.
That could be a problem for the GOP tonight because of two measures on the agenda. The censure of former Council President Monroe Gray, which I’m told led to an “interesting discussion” in the Rules and Policy Committee meeting, or so I’m told. As well as the proposed cut in the County Option Income Tax. Due to Smith and Malone’s absence, the GOP only has 14 votes tonight.
They have a good chance of getting the 15th vote on the tax cut from Vernon Brown. Things aren’t so clear on the Gray censure. There had been some speculation that Malone did not want to be put in the position of voting against Gray. I sent her a text message tonight, but received no response.
Also in limbo tonight is a proposed amendment to an ordinance that would cut the pay of the township assessors. Republicans from Perry Township reportedly don’t want the current assessor, Katherine Price to take such a steep pay cut. Price currently makes nearly $60,000 annually and her pay under the new ordinance would be reduced to about $23,000.
There are couple technical issues that are important tonight. If a measure only gets 14 votes for it and fewer votes against it, it doesn’t pass and can be brought up again. But since this is the last CCC meeting, nothing could be re-introduced until next year. And since it will not be a new CCC, but the same, the body can take up the matter.
The measure that this would have the biggest impact on is Mayor Greg Ballard’s plan to cut the COIT. For the tax cut to go into effect in January it would have to pass tonight. If it passes next month, it could not go into effect until October.
And we still haven’t heard any grandstanding on the hybrid vehicles yet, but this meeting is nowhere from being over.
FYI, for those of you who care, Smith is stepping down as Council Vice-President. Taking over his place will be Ryan Vaughn.
I’ll post more when something major happens.
