Recall Drive to Proceed Despite Utility Tax Cut

A group of residents who mounted a drive to recall all five City Council members for approving a 9.5% utility user tax last month said they will proceed even though the council lowered the tax to 6% on Tuesday.

Virginia Vignol, who is leading the recall effort, said it will continue unless the tax is rescinded. She said she and about 20 other community activists have put together a computer list with names of 800 people who have volunteered. Two former council members also are among her supporters.

Last month, hundreds of angry residents packed council meetings pleading with officials to kill the tax, which was unanimously adopted Aug. 24, Because of the opposition, however, Councilman Robert Biancardi asked to have the item put on Tuesday’s agenda for reconsideration.

Without taking new public comment, the council, voting 3 to 1, gave preliminary approval to the 6% tax. Biancardi voted no, and Councilman Chris Lancaster was absent. Biancardi who suggested that the city put the tax issue on the ballot but was overruled by his colleagues who recommended that a fact sheet be sent to residents before the ordinance comes back for final adoption Oct. 6.

“I think it’s important to tell the public what the tax will do and show what other cities are doing,” Councilman John C. King said. “This is just an effort from a small group to oppose the tax. If we hear from the other side, then we may need to re-evaluate it.”

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The tax, effective Nov. 1 if adopted, would cost residents who pay an average of $210 a month for utilities $12.60 more each month, Finance Director Stan McCartney said. Commercial businesses, however, will have a cap of $3,000. There is an exemption for very low income residents. McCartney defined very low income as a family of two with a yearly income of $18,750, or a family of four with an annual income of $23,450.

The city expects to collect $2 million from the tax, which will expire in one year.

But former Councilman Tom O’Leary, an attorney who is acting as the recall committee’s legal adviser, said the one-year “sunset clause” has no teeth because “once you put in one of these taxes, the bureaucracy becomes addicted to it.”

He suggested that officials use reserves to offset revenue shortfalls.

The council first planned to use $1.4 million in reserves to balance this year’s $46-million budget but decided to raise additional revenue instead, McCartney said. He said the recession, increasing cuts in state and federal funding, and drops in sales tax revenue have hit the city hard.

Vignol’s supporters, however, accuse the city’s leaders of mismanaging funds and spending too much money on police and fire services and salary hikes.

“They’re not willing to sacrifice,” Mary Cantania said. “You just can’t tax people to death during these hard times.”

On Aug. 18, the council approved the 9.5% tax. For the final vote the next week, the council called a special meeting for 7 a.m. Mayor Henry Morgan requested the unusually early time because he was leaving for a two-week vacation in Hawaii later that day.

Officials said they imposed the higher tax because residents said they wanted the city to re-establish some of the services that were slashed last year when the council eliminated 33 positions, reduced library and City Hall operation hours, and used $600,000 in reserves to balance the budget.

Their action, however, angered Vignol and her supporters, who accused the council of trying to ram the ordinance through. Vignol served each of the five council members with recall notices.

Vignol said volunteers will begin circulating the petitions as soon as they are approved by the city clerk’s office, which may be this week.

“I’m confident that we will have the necessary signatures in 30 days,” O’Leary said. “Lowering the tax to 6% did nothing to massage the anger. People feel like they can’t trust the council.”

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City Clerk Joey Southall said proponents have 120 days to gather the signatures of 20% of the city’s 19,698 registered voters to get the recall measure on the ballot. They will need almost 4,000 signatures for each council member. If the measure qualifies, the council must order an election in from 88 to 125 days, she said.

Meanwhile, some officials are blasting the recall campaign.

“If I get recalled, then so be it,” said Biancardi, who was elected in April and voted against the lower tax. “I have no higher aspirations or political motives.”

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Councilwoman Chris Richardson said. “Changing the faces is not going to change the condition of the financial state.”

King said he is disappointed and frustrated about the recall effort. He said that if the tax is repealed, the city will have to close the library and lay off police officers and firefighters.

“The cuts would be like heavy, bleeding wounds,” he said.