Remarks by Melody Ryan
222 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 6 of 9
- Play at 3:08:11
“Well, I reviewed some of the details. Well, obviously, half of it is contingency. You know, $80,000 on electronic lines. You know, things like that.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:08:30
“That was not the response. It said when the scope was more defined, then we could look at the cost.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:08:43
“So anyway, I think that is an opportunity that perhaps instead of spending over $2 million on 2,500 square feet, we can reallocate that towards the animal shelter.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:10:25
“Well, I received the Excel spreadsheet, which is $1.1 million in contingency, and normal contingency is 15% to 20%. So I'm not saying that it doesn't need to be renovated. I'm just saying that 2,500 square feet at $2.2 million is a lot. But they're in the market.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:10:52
“Well, I think if we don't know what it's going to cost, we shouldn't have it.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:11:47
“Anyway, it's just in the market. Things cost more than we think they do. 2 million for 2,500 per feet. 58% contingency. That's what got me. I'm just telling you.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:12:38
“I'm cool with that part of it. Well, I said what I wanted for the budget was .5407.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:15:05
“so the other thing though is that you can't look at one year in a vacuum it's over time and so i did look at my own personal residence and you know just like when did when when values started really skyrocketing and so from 2020 until 2026 with this estimated my property taxes went up 1345 dollars a year just for the city So I'm just saying at one year, like, that's great. I mean, I'm in that 30%, you know, so, and I'm happy that 70% are going to get a reduction, but their, their increase from 2020 and over the last five years, it's been significant. And so, so yes, but we can, I think we can…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:16:17
“From 2028 to 2028? No, from 2008 to 2026, yeah. Well, I don't have it in front of me.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:16:45
“But most of the increase has happened in the last five years, five, six years.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:19:52
“So one of the things that we have said over and over, and I appreciate that PCDC is in the house representing, is that economic development is supposed to relieve tax residents. And we've grown and whatever. So the other thing is looking at it at a per capita basis, which I did. So 10 years ago, on a per capita basis, our property taxes was $366 per person. And now it's around 780. And so that's the other thing, is economic development and bringing up, we've brought in a lot of things. We have brought in a lot of things over these last 10 years. But yet, on a per capita basis, we are paying…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:33:16
“What about a motion for the no new revenue rate at 0.5407 with the amendment of moving the $800,000 out of the Justice Center courtroom to animal shelter.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:33:42
“Do I need to do it in any sort of requirement?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:33:49
“I motion that we adopt the overall no new revenue tax rate of 0.5%.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:34:26
“It wasn't a million between .5407 and .5407.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:35:25
“Okay. I wanted to reduce it by $336,000, which was my calculation to get us from 0.5436 to 0.5407. So the 5436 is the total of the two rates.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:36:15
“So I'm not suggesting that we go to the no new M&O rate. I'm suggesting that we go to, because it was listed somewhere that the overall no new revenue rate was 0.5407.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:37:22
“Yeah, that's why I was... All right, you tell me. I don't know what... I do have a...”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:37:30
“I have a question on this item still about something else, though.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:38:09
“I have a question. Does this include the policies, the financial policies that we're approving?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:38:16
“Okay, because there were changes that we have not discussed, but the ordinance said that it was discussed and that there was due deliberation, but there were changes. Changes in the policies and that I didn't find, I didn't recall and I didn't see it in our presentation that any of the changes.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:38:59
“Well, I saw new information added that wasn't redlined, um, and just wanted, uh, not from proposed to final financial management policy. I thought, and I just wanted an overview of the main changes in those because they had had effective dates in 2026 and we hadn't discussed them or we hadn't approved them separately, which is what the ordinance said, that they had been approved separately.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:46:10
“So just to clarify the math, when I use 0.5407, which is the overall no new revenue, not the maintenance operations no new revenue, it generates $67,157,186. And compared to the projected revenue levy in the budget, that is a reduction of $360,192. So that would be the debt rate of .2826 plus an M&O rate of .2581, and those together is the .5407. So that is what my proposal would be.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:47:25
“It would be a reduction of $11. Okay. So is this where if I wanted to make a motion, I could do it in this language and substitute the rate?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:49:00
“Again, again... The tax revenue is going up from $66.8 million to $67.5 million.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026