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The purpose of this memorandum is to provide comments concerning the CIP before the <br /> BOCC discusses it at our March 17th meeting under Agenda Item 6a, "Approval of FY 2009-19 <br /> Recommended County Capital Investment Plan (CIP)". <br /> My substantive comments are given below. A procedural comment is that the proposed <br /> changes to the Manager's Recommended October 2008 CIP are not listed in the March 17th <br /> meeting agenda abstract. Instead, we are referred to adjustments identified at the BOCC <br /> meetings of December 1, 2008 and March 5, 2009. The minutes for December 1st show that <br /> the BOCC did not discuss the item, which was deferred (to December 11). On March 5, we <br /> only had a very brief discussion concerning the CIP. There are other meetings at which we did <br /> discuss the CIP. Therefore it is hard for me to know specifically which items we will be <br /> including as changes to the Manager's recommended CIP. I am assuming that approval is <br /> only being requested for County projects and not for school projects. <br /> A. Recommended Changes to Specific CIP Items <br /> The BOCC has already agreed to the following changes to the CIP, I believe, and I <br /> recommend that the changes be made. <br /> 1. County Facilities Capital Repairs and Replacements <br /> Postpone a 1-cent tax rate increase (that was to have been effective July 1, 2009) to <br /> fund County facilities capital maintenance items, and thus delete $1,462,040 from this <br /> line item in 2009-2010. <br /> 2. Lands Legacy Items <br /> Two CIP line items, "Reserve for Future Land Purchases" and "Mountains to Sea Trail" <br /> will be adjusted to read as follows: "Lands Legacy/Reserve for Future Land Purchases" <br /> and "Lands Legacy/Mountains to Sea Trail," respectively; and the project descriptions <br /> will reflect the change designating them as Lands Legacy Program projects. <br /> 3. Twin Creeks Park AND the CIP Items for Farmstead Stabilization Projects at <br /> Blackwood Farm at New Hope Park and Millhouse Road Park <br /> Bond monies for Twin Creeks Park will only be used for Twin Creeks. Therefore, a <br /> source other than the 2001 bond will be used to fund the $275,000 required in <br /> these two farmstead stabilization projects. The $275,000 expenditure will be <br /> deleted from the Twin Creeks Park project and the money will be added back into <br /> the project funding for the park. <br /> B. Overall Comments and Recommendations <br /> 1. It is critical that when the CIP is adopted, there is an indication of how the <br /> increased debt service and the other costs of new projects, and accompanying tax <br /> rate implications, will be addressed. For the projects funded by currently proposed <br /> debt issuance, the associated tax rate impacts are given in the CIP, and we have <br /> recently been given the revised dollar amounts for that debt service. Not indicated <br /> is how the new debt service will be paid. We need to know what revenue is to be <br /> used to offset the payments. <br /> One thing the County should do is indicate which buildings will be divested (sold) to <br /> provide additional revenue to offset some of the costs. That would help us <br /> implement our goal of not raising taxes. I have stated before that, as new buildings <br /> are completed and County staff members move into them, the buildings vacated <br />