Posted: Jan. 26, 2010

Oak Creek — The city has a plan for how it will fund a new city hall, library and fire stations, and a new ordinance will now allow them to be built without additional public approval.

The ordinance aldermen unanimously passed last week gives the Common Council exclusive authority over the purchase and sale of city-owned land and for the construction of capital projects.

The council replaced an ordinance dictating that a new city hall, library or Fire Station No. 1, or an addition to those facilities worth $2.5 million or more, would have to go to referendum for voters' approval.

In defending the new rules, city officials said if a referendum was required for every capital project, it would severely hamper economic growth. It's unlikely a street reconstruction project benefitting a portion of the city, for example, would be approved by the entire electorate, officials said in a report to council members.

The Common Council can always decide to send a project to a referendum if it so chooses, City Attorney Lawrence Haskin said.

And if residents take issue with the city's decisions on such spending, they can make their feelings known to city officials, attend a meeting or hold the council accountable at election time, aldermen and Mayor Dick Bolender said.

Opposition to new rules

But not everyone agrees that the new way is the best way, especially given past issues that led to the passage of the previous ordinance.

The old ordinance was a compromise between the city and the Oak Creek Citizen's Action group.

Citizen's Action in 2006 filed a petition so that all city-orchestrated capital projects valued at $2 million or more would have to be approved through a binding referendum. The issue was in the courts until the groups settled with the ordinance passed in December 2007.

Under city municipal code, the ordinance couldn't be changed for two years, and the Common Council didn't wait long to change it.

Mark Verhalen, president of Oak Creek Citizen's Action and a former alderman and mayoral candidate, criticized the new ordinance in remarks to the Common Council.

"Two years down the road, it seems like the good faith agreement that everyone worked out is not palatable to people in the city anymore," he said. "It tends to take (away) all opportunity for the citizens of Oak Creek to question anything the council would do."

Using funds from utility tax

With the new ordinance in effect, the city is moving forward on its plan to use a state tax on We Energies to fund new municipal buildings.

The state collects a tax, called public utility aid, on We Energies for its new Elm Road power plant and then gives the city about $3 million each year.

The city plans to use that money to build a new City Hall, library and fire stations 1 and 2; reconstruct Puetz Road and Pennsylvania Avenue and refinance debt for construction of a street department garage and offices.

With the power plant scheduled to be up and running this week, city officials expect to start collecting the utility aid in 2011.

The city estimates the total cost of all the projects together would be about $40.5 million. The city would borrow $34 million over a 20-year period and make $2.6 million in debt payments each year.

Construction would begin in 2012, after the city has about $6.4 million in public utility aid in the bank.

A plan in phases

The council passed a resolution supporting the plan on a 5-1 vote, with Alderman Ken Gehl opposed. City officials stressed the plan was in concept only, and that each project of the construction process would be brought before the council for its approval.

"It serves to offer (city) staff some guidance on what this Common Council wants to do," then-City Administrator Pat DeGrave said during the council meeting.

City officials said by using the money for those projects, they can provide taxpayers relief because tax dollars would not be used on new municipal buildings.