By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
LAKE ORION — During its meeting on Nov. 28, the Lake Orion Village Council adopted a resolution which would give the village 75 percent of all future tax increment revenues (TIF) captured from the Downtown Development Authority TIF from all new captured taxable value.
The resolution was adopted by a 5-2 vote with council members Michael Lamb and Nancy Moshier casting the two “no” votes.
The resolution is the result of negotiations between a joint committee of three council and three DDA boardmembers. The committee met four times over the past four months to review finances and possible paths forward after concerns were raised by Lamb and village residents regarding the DDA receiving tax revenue from residential properties within the village.
This resolution would give the village 75 percent of tax captures on any new development within the DDA district, with the DDA retaining the other 25 percent. New development could include the proposed Moceri developments and the Ehman Center redevelopment.
This money is expected to go into a DDA District Public Facility Infrastructure account for the village to use to construct, renovate, repair, remodel, rehabilitate, restore, preserve or reconstruct any and all “public facilities” within the defined boundaries of the DDA district, the resolution stated.
While the resolution was passed, several council members, including Lamb, Moshier and Sarah Luchsinger, were vocal about wanting to table the item and vote on it during their next meeting on Dec. 12, stating that they had received the information right before the holiday and would like some extra time to review the legal documents before voting.
Despite the other members of the council being unable to give a valid reason as to why the vote needed to take place that night, a majority of the council were in favor of having the vote take place.
The DDA Board of Directors is expected to vote on the same resolution at its next meeting in December.
For meeting dates, agendas and council packets, visit the village website, lakeorion.org.
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Members of the public present at the meeting also asked for the vote to be tabled until a better understanding of the issue could be presented since there was no urgency in this decision.
They asked for an explanation of the 75% amount and the financial impact on both the DDA and Village. No explanation or information was provided. Councilmember Rutt was allowed to give a presentation directly related to this prior to the item being presented and discussed even though her presentation was not on the agenda and not provided as part of the meeting information. One must ask how that was arranged and why it was allowed as it is contrary to standard meeting policy.
It was obvious that four of the council members were going to approve this no matter what was presented and did not want those who questioned it to have an opportunity to prepare a rebuttal. There are no known minutes or notes from the subcommittee that worked on this, no known legal correspondence about the pros and cons even though it was stated that many hours were spent in legal discussions. The other members of the council and public know nothing about any of this other than the limited and one-sided information provided during this meeting.
The public and council need to remember that the DDA was not created by a public vote. Their use of taxpayer funds has never been voted and approved by the public. The members of the DDA are not elected by the public. It is unclear what rules and regulations they operate under as they spend taxpayer funds with little or no oversight and approval, often in violation of the rules and laws that apply to the Village Council and other government bodies.
All parties need to understand that the funds being used are not money that magically appears but instead taxpayer dollars, but it seems the taxpayers have no say in how and where it is spent.