The Fishers City Council Finance Committee voted 2-1 to recommend City Council passage of a resolution allowing an accounting measure recommended by the city’s legal counsel which will end up using up to $7.1 million of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) federal money to fund part of the plan to construct a new City Hall and Arts Center. City Controller Lisa Bradford says it is expected that $6.3 million of federal COVID ARPA money but the higher $7.1 million is cited in this resolution because the law says that is the ceiling and cannot exceed that amount.
Committee Chair John Weingardt described this resolution as an accounting “maneuver.”
The council action form provided for this Finance Committee resolution says the following:
“To avoid having the City Hall project potentially go to referendum if requested
by taxpayers, the resolution provides for the designation of funds in the general
fund to be applied to the project. The expenses that would be otherwise paid
from the general fund will be paid with ARPA funds, so the City’s budget is not
impacted.”
Committee member Jocelyn Vare asked for an explanation of this statement, and Ms. Bradford and Weingardt said the $6.3 million of ARPA funds to be used toward the City Hall & Arts project will lower the amount coming from bond proceeds. Without the ARPA funds, Deputy Mayor Elliott Hultgren says that would mean $24 million would be borrowed through bonds and if taxpayers request, the City Hall & Arts Center plans would require voters to approve the project through a referendum. Utilizing the ARPA cash prevents the need for a referendum for this project, according to the explanation provided at the committee meeting.
Vare voted no on recommending passage of this resolution by the full City Council, saying “I feel like the (council action) document is not clear.”
The item will go before the full council Monday night with a 2-1 vote recommending passage.
In another item, the committee recommended, in a 3-0 vote, to use $20,000, from a total of $34,000, in an excess levy fund that has not been used but will be transferred to the general fund under this resolution, funding community vibrancy grants upgrading local neighborhoods. There was not enough money to fund all the neighborhoods requesting the city grants, so Mayor Scott Fadness asked his staff to find money in the budget to fund all the requests. The remaining $14,000 in the account will be used by the Planning & Zoning Department.