Exh 9AAGENDA ITEM #9A
MARCH 28, 2005
March 21, 2005
MEMORANDUM
TO: The Honorable Mayor
and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jim Hanso
City~l~c
SUBJECT: City Manag is Report
Interest on Loans and Assessments; Recently the City Commission asked staff to look into the
possibility of lowering the interest rate on loans and assessments to line up with the new rates
recently approved for the septic to sewer conversion policy. Finance Director Nelson Van Liere
has prepared a report dated March 11, 2005, which is attached for your information. His
recommendation is to allow for the refinancing of the non-Section H assessments and loans by
request. For information about his recommendation, read the attached report.
Resorts on Suits Against the City; City Charter Section 61 was brought up in the last
commission meeting. It reads as follows;
"Upon receiving notice of any suit, the City Manager shall diligently investigate the
matter and file a written report with the City Clerk to be presented to the City
Commission at its next meeting. The City Clerk shall determine if a special meeting
should be scheduled to deal with an emergency situation. Upon receipt of a written claim
for damages by an injured party, the City Commission may, by ordinance, make a
settlement of the claim"
Our City Attorney thinks that this provision was created long ago in a time before cities typically
carried insurance to cover most claims. Now when a claim is received, it is immediately
transmitted to the insurance company and the City Attorney. The insurance company will then
appoint an attorney to investigate the claim and, if they think appropriate, discuss possible
settlements. Because the insurance company's cost for an attorney as well as any settlement
usually exceeds the city's deductible in any particular case, their recommendation for payment is
usually from the insurance company's money and not the city's. However, any defense costs
. and/or settlements made goes to the city's experience rating which will be the basis for future
premiums. The process for an insurance company to assign an attorney and then have that
attorney assess the case usually takes at least a couple of months. Consequently, any
recommendation for settlement of the claim at the next commission meeting is unrealistic in the
current legal environment.
AGENDA ITEM #9A
MARCH 28, 2005
' ' Nonetheless, any provision in the City Charter must be followed in some fashion. In recent
years, staffhas considered that the City Attorney's Monthly Report listing litigation against the
city and other assignments to met this code requirement. Additionally, any suits involving
' significant monetary liability or public controversy have been reported by phone to the City
Commission. If the Commission wants to receive more information on these, then staff can
either begin preparing a special report summarizing all ongoing cases each month or preparing a
summary of each case when it is received. Regardless of the form for reporting to the City
Commission, the amount reported publicly about claims would best be somewhat limited
because they are ongoing. .
- Strategic Planning Meetings; As a reminder, two strategic planning workshops have been
scheduled for the Mayor and Commission to consider strategic priorities for the upcoming year.
They will be held on Wednesday, Apri16`h and Thursday, Apri17`~'. Both meetings are scheduled
to begin at 5:00 p.m., expected to last unti19:00 pm and both will be held at the Sea Turtle Inn in
Atlantic Beach.
• Employee of the Quarter; Police Lieutenant Henry Bartle has been chosen as the City's next
Employee of the Quarter. Lieutenant Bartle has done exceptional work in the last quarter, which
was highlighted by the capture and arrest of an armed robbery suspect. This required the
• Lieutenant to not only be vigilant and attentive about the information being broadcasted about
. , the robbery, but also coordinating the police response to the incident. He then located a person
who matched the description, pursued the suspect on foot and, after a lengthy physical
' confrontation, was able to subdue the suspect, arrest him and recover the stolen money. During
.. , the initial "scuffle" Lieutenant Bartle's radio was disabled and he was unable to call for help.
Rather than let the suspect get away, he ran him down on foot and was able to subdue him
' ' without help. An employee luncheon will be scheduled soon to honor Lieutenant Bartle for
.. receiving this award.
Florida League of Cities Legislative Action Dav; Commissioner Waters and City Manager
Hanson will attend various legislative briefings and meet with state elected officials in
Tallahassee as part of the Florida League of Cities Annual Legislative Action Day. Meetings
will be held on Tuesday, March 29`t''and Wednesday, March 30`t'.
AGENDA ITEM #9A
MARCH 28, 2005
MEMORANDUM
Date: March 11, 2005
To: Jim Hanson, City Manager
From: Nelson Van Liere, Finance Director
Subject: Interest on Assessments and Loans Refinanced
In response to the recently discussed question of refinancing City of Atlantic Beach
assessments and loans my findings and recommendation is as follows. Keep in mind that
all of the below numbers change depending on how payments are made.
Background Information
V~ith respect to assessments for section H: The current rate of interest is 5.35% running
through the year 2010. The outstanding balance is roughly $166,000 and the payments
are collected through the Duval County Tax Collector. As a result of the payments being
on the property tax bill, the City receives less than 100 % of amounts due because of the
eazly pay discount. Therefore, the City does not realize the 5.35% but considerable less.
The cost to change the rate, change the method of payment and experience a lower level
of collection added with man hours to convert would be cost prohibitive and could not be
done until next year since these are paid annually.
Ocean Grove, Dewees and Seminole Assessments are at 5.91%. There are less than ten
of these assessments for a total outstanding balance of $4,559. These assessments are
due in 2006 and therefore the interest remaining is negligible. The savings for a citizen
on average would be less than $6 total.
T'he Beach Avenue assessments aze almost paid off, only $3,726. Left remaining. They
were assessed at 6%. The savings for a citizen if refinanced would be about $28 per
customer or $7 per customer per year.
The final group of loans is for impact fees and connections to the sewer system. There is
about $95,000 owed the city at 7% with an average term of eight years remaining. There
are about 15 customers affected and if we lowered the interest rate to 5%, the savings to
the customer would be roughly $75 on average. This is the group that already has terms
that are most like the offer being made now.
Recommendation:
Each of the assessment types or loans is different by how many customers, interest
savings, average amount remaining and remaining payments. Many of the loans are very
small and the savings to the customer is negligible. Over the past few years numerous
loans have been paid off due to turnover of property. Refinancing and the associated
paperwork for the citizen is in most cases is probably not worth the negligible savings
' ~ they would achieve and the cost of filing liens and release of liens would have to be
added back. It is therefore my recommendation not to offer a refinancing. However,
having said that, if a citizen came to us and requested a refinancing, I would not object to
" " lowering the interest rate only, with the exception of Section H. The administrative costs
associated with section H assessments on the property tax bill and the early payment
reduction justifies keeping the slightly higher rates as they are. I would recommend
" doing refinancing on non-Section H assessments and loans by request only. The city
already reduced the interest rates on Section H from 8% to 5.35 in 1999.
AGENDA ITEM #9A
MARCH 28, 2005
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