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Minutes
WELD COUNTY COUNCIL
July 21, 2014
The Weld County Council met in regular session in full conformity with the Weld County
Home Rule Charter, Monday, July 21, 2014, at the Weld County Southeast Service
Building, Ft. Lupton, CO.
ROLL CALL: The meeting was called to order by Councilwoman Marge Klein
and on roll call the following members were present, constituting a quorum of members
thereof:
Councilwoman Marge Klein
Councilman Brett Abernathy
Councilman Don Mueller
Councilman Bernard C. Kinnick
Councilman Jeffrey Hare — Excused (listened in on conference call)
Also present: County Treasurer, John Lefebvre, County Assessor, Christopher Woodruff
and Sarah Mundt, Council Secretary.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Councilman Mueller made a motion to approve the
July 21, 2014 Agenda. The motion was seconded by Councilman Kinnick and the
motion carried. -
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Councilman Mueller made a motion to approve the
June and Councilman Abernathy seconded and the motion carried.
REVIEW PROGRAM: John Lefebvre, County Treasurer and Christopher
Woodruff, County Assessor
Duties of the Treasurer:
1. Collect Property Taxes
2. Distribute the taxes to the proper underlying authorities
3. Invest the difference
4. Sit on the retirement board (and is Chair of the board)
The first two items are the back half of the Assessor's work and 80% (based on taxes
collected) of that effort is for the underlying authorities.
Retirement Board: makes decisions of appropriate investments and plans.
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Weld County Council
July 21,2014
Minutes
Discuss Investments: investments in fix assets are planned out and only funded if the
money is available. Weld County is debt free, the past and present Commissioners as
well as Don Warden are responsible for that accomplishment.
Treasurer looks at "How collected" the County is in June to measure for on time and
voluntary compliance. The County is 97.9% collected at this point. The standard is that
the County is at 95% collected. The worst year was 2009 at 94% and the best prior
year was 2012 at 96%. The Oil and Gas industry is funding the 54% of current property
taxes in Weld County.
Related Work: Lunch and Learn John taught 4 of the 6 week series for financial
wellness (presented now 5 times) and worked at the State Legislature with HB 14-1371
(returning taxation back to the wellheads) with related maps.
Weld County Assets: As of July, the County holds $125,000,000 in Fixed Agency
Bonds, $ $130,812,284 in Liquid Assets, fora total of $255,757,284 and is receiving a
Total Weighted Return on all Investments of 0.665%.
Christopher Woodruff, County Assessor, update: Weld County assessed value has
increased since the last presentation to the Council in May. All assessed values have
increased except for Vacant lands, which has had a -8.82% decrease in value. The
28% assessed value increase will lead to 2 million dollar increase. Oil and Gas is
driving this increase. Oil and Gas is a volatile industry and should be used as a "one
time" funding source and should be used to fill reserves while it is active, but it is not
wise to be used as a base funding source. HB 14-1371 was the most difficult bill the
Treasurer's and Assessor's offices have worked on yet. Taxation has always been a
fixed point on a map and output is measurable at that point. Horizontal and level drilling
causes baffling confusion. There is no way to know how much is being gathered at any
point along the collection run and it is impossible to identify and allocate to all the
appropriate groups. The law stated allocation of production has to be made by the
operators of the wells. It is particularly difficult in Weld County because we have over
300 active taxing authorities and 21,000 wells. HB 14-1371 passed mandating
assessed value at the well head making it easier to allocate in a stabilized manner and
allow for auditing.
PUBLIC COMMENT: None at this time.
OLD BUSINESS: Discussion on Elected Officials' Salaries for upcoming salary
setting at the September Council Meeting.
Based on the January 2014 State Legislature Recommendations no increase in
salary is recommended. Considerations on cost of living and tenure should be
discussed. Elected positions are chosen by the people and tenure and experience is
difficult to consider, because of this we need to set the salary for the position, not for the
person to fill the position. Should the Assessor and the Clerk receive the same salary?
Clerk and Recorder manages 3 individual functions (elections, records and DMV) and
Weld County Council
July 21,2014
Minutes
the Assessor handles one function. What we have to set is the Commissioners (2016-
2018) and the others, Sheriff, Clerk and Recorder, and Assessor (2015-2018). Study
and discuss again with invitation for public comment while in Greeley and have
Councilmembers present their recommendations. Next Press Release list positions,
salaries, terms salary are set for and ask for public input.
NEW BUSINESS:
Coordinator Reports — Marge and Brett attended the Energy Picnic
Upcoming Meetings/Invitations —
• CU-Boulder's Mission to Mars-August 1, Noon-1:30pm at Greeley Country Club
• 3G-Greeeley's Great Group- August 20, 4:00-5:00pm at the Greeley Ice Haus
• United Way Annual Kick-off- July 23, 5:30-7:30pm at Highland Park Lanes
Pay Bills: Councilman Abernathy motioned that the bills be paid. Councilman Mueller
seconded, and the motion carried.
Roy Rudisell, Office of Emergency Management, is our next meeting speaker and
Councilman Hare will be the coordinator for the August 18, 2014 meeting at the Weld
County Administration Building.
ADJOURNMENT: By acclamation, the meeting was adjourned at 8:22 p.m.
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July 21,-2014 Council President Marge Klein
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Council Secretary Sarah Mundt
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