Hilliard City Council: Minutes Matter
Detailed Public Record Keeping and Sharing Remains Essential to Good Governance Everywhere
In our last diversionary outing we introduced the readers to Hilliard’s CivicWeb and the wealth of information contained there. This week we’ll be taking a few minutes to look into, um well, Minutes and their overall role in staying organized and coherent over time.
Generally speaking, public record keeping, particularly through detailed minutes, is the cornerstone of government transparency and accountability. These records provide citizens with an unfiltered view of decisions that shape their community, ensuring that every vote, motion, and discussion is preserved and accessible. Without comprehensive minutes, the public is left in the dark, undermining trust and engagement in civic processes. By documenting every step, public records become a safeguard against corruption, a historical record of governance, and an essential tool for holding elected officials to their word.
The City offers robust record keeping these days in many areas. You can even view a full video record of Council meetings if that’s your preference. But often, the most effective way to keep up with goings on in City Office is through a combination of Council Agenda, Legislative Bulletin, and Minutes.
While an Agenda lets a reader see the organization of the meeting at a glance and the Legislative Bulletin provides topline outcomes of the actions taken within the meeting, the Minutes provide the follow-up granular details of discussion and context created within the meeting and provide key insight to the overall process and actors.
Minutes are reliable city records because they provide an accurate, impartial, and detailed account of what transpired during a meeting. They make an effort to capture the essence of discussions, decisions, and actions without personal biases or opinions, offering a clear record of proceedings and insight to decision making. Consistency in formatting, thorough verification, and timely documentation further contribute to their reliability. When prepared by a designated, impartial recorder, as they are in Hilliard and reviewed for accuracy, minutes become a dependable source that can be referenced for legal, historical, and accountability purposes, ensuring that what was said and decided is preserved truthfully and transparently.
Last week, we had City Transportation and Mobility Director Letty Schamp on our program to discuss the evolving city view on infrastructure and enhancement of existing systems among many other topics. It was extremely helpful to understanding the overall picture around an upcoming key project because I was able to access the most recent Minutes on the issue without having to rewatch video records.
Minutes outside Council…
Our City also takes the appropriate steps to link and provide documentation for related meetings (subject to Sunshine Laws) in many instances - although more steps could be taken in certain areas and may well be expanded in the future. One such example - meeting only once per year - is our Tax Incentive Review Council.
With a decidedly mixed record over time - it’s become critical and necessary to review and monitor the use and potential abuse of these potent municipal financial mechanisms. The TIRC is one such effort to review compliance and fitness of the TIF / CRA agreement as they wind through the various multi-year durations of the deal.
Once the TIRC provides their recommendations (all approved, all continuing this year) to our Council it is up to that body to take the final, formal legislative actions to move forward with the individual agreements as they exist, if they need modification or even to cancel them.
These mechanisms, more and more, have decided what happens in many cities throughout the nation and are key decision points in different industries’ various development pipelines.
While highly desirable for developers, TIF’s and CRA’s have a range of key difference in their use cases in addition to a range of potential positives and negatives even if all baseline requirements are met and found in compliance.
Community Reinvestment Area (CRA)
A CRA is a tool that allows local governments to offer property tax abatements to encourage property owners to invest in improvements or new development within a designated area. Property owners can receive partial or full exemptions from property taxes on the increased value resulting from renovation or new construction. CRAs are typically used to revitalize residential, commercial, or industrial areas by incentivizing upgrades that might not otherwise happen. The abatement reduces the tax burden on the new value, making the area more appealing for investment.
Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
A TIF is a financing mechanism that captures the increase in property tax revenue (the "tax increment") generated by rising property values in a designated district. This increment is set aside for reinvestment within the district, funding public infrastructure or development projects. Unlike a CRA, a TIF does not abate taxes; instead, it proposes to use the additional revenue from the district’s growth to fund improvements or pay off bonds issued for related development projects.
Key Differences
Mechanism:
CRA: Offers direct property tax abatements, reducing the amount property owners pay based on the increased value from improvements.
TIF: Captures the increased tax revenue over time and reinvests it in the district, rather than reducing what property owners owe.
Use of Funds:
CRA: Directly benefits property owners by lowering their tax bill, encouraging them to invest in renovations or development.
TIF: Generates funds to support public projects and infrastructure that can be used to generate the development and potentially benefit the broader community through encouraging additional private development.
Impact on Tax Revenue:
CRA: Reduces immediate tax revenue for the local government because of the abatements.
TIF: Does not reduce existing tax revenue but diverts new revenue from the district’s growth to fund specific projects, which could and has impacted funding for other public services. If the projected increase in property values doesn’t occur, the TIF district may not generate sufficient revenue to projections, leaving projects unfinished or underfunded with the city having to make up various shortfalls.
Both tools are used to promote development but in different ways and often with widely varying user bases. Local governments must consider which mechanism aligns best with their goals and the specific needs of a given area over time.
Looking Back - Looking Forward
Last Year, we hosted Dr. Mark Partridge and Nick Messenger for a frank chat about the use (and often abuse) of these tools. While I continue to find their arguments compelling, pointing toward other ways of growth and dealing with development challenges, there is no denying the use rate of these systems of finance in our community is going back up.
At a later date we hope to have them back to discuss these new developments
Breaking the Magician's Code: Tax Abatement's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed
Dr. Mark Partridge and PhD candidate Nick Messenger visit our studio to help us understand the nature and burdens of Tax Increment Financing.
‘Folks, I’m afraid the prescription is More Reading…’
To finally wrap up, it’s always been clear that public record-keeping through detailed minutes is crucial for a transparent and accountable local government. Tools like CRAs and TIFs are powerful, but their use must be monitored and understood by the community they affect. By staying informed, reviewing meeting minutes, and engaging with these processes, residents can take up and enhance their growing role in ensuring that development serves the public interest, balancing growth and community needs.
We’ll continue to keep an eye on these issues as they evolve, providing insights and updates that keep our community connected and informed. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive—stay tuned for more coverage on the pulse of Hilliard’s civic life!
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