5/7/2024
City Council Meeting Public Hearing:
Good Evening:
My name is Theda Peck and I am a resident of the PVM MD. I see that the preliminary budget for FY24/25 is on the consent calendar tonight. I am requesting this item be removed from the consent calendar so that the public may be heard.
Since this board will not place on the agenda the issue of a rebate of over assessed fees paid by the residents from 2011-2022 for discussion, we have gathered signatures in a petition to have you contract with a qualified financial expert to perform an audit of the program, determine the overpaid amount and qualified residents.
Sixty percent of residents were contacted, of which 96% signed the petition for action to be taken. It only took 12% of residents to get you to pay $30,000 from the General Fund to remove PFowls, there should be no reason why our request should not be approved.
You have showed your lack of interest obtaining any facts of how bad this program was managed. How can any decision be made when you do not know the facts? Well, here are some:
You did not use basic budgetary controls or practices resulting in a reserve balance that is over funded by nearly $700,000.
According to my calculations, residents were over assessed by over $900,000, which is the primary reason the reserve was funded in 12 years when the industry standard is 40.
The reserve was front loaded so 52% of residents have paid 94% of the reserve. How is this equitable? You expensed $390,000 but collected $1,672,000 in fees.
Assessment fees were in excess of recommended budgets on average 400-723% The budget was under expensed 26 to 100% in some years. In the last two years, it was under expensed on average 40%. So, even when we are not actively replenishing the reserve, we are still contributing to it.
These are just some of the facts that you have failed to educate yourselves on. We need independent leadership, people who will ask the questions not followers. Each of you supposedly represent the residents of this district. From where we stand, you not only do not have our interest in mind, but actively go against what is fair and is the right thing to do. �w � � o n 5y3
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