PERRYSBURG — Working from home has not negatively affected tax collections in the city, which are up 13.5%.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Councilman Mark Weber, who is the finance committee chairman, said that Income Tax Commissioner Steve Bronder reported the September tax collections were $2.1 million, which is a 13.5% increase over the same time last year.
Councilman Jonathan Smith was concerned that with so much remote work taking place it might affect city income tax and Bronder said that it had not made a negative impact at this point.
In other business, council also added the new Urban Forester position to the pay scale B and D, which puts the job in the $50,000 to $100,000 salary range.
Then and Now purchase requests were approved by the council, totalling $60,938. The finance committee agreed with unanimous approval and recommended approval to the full council.
That type of purchase is one which is required before a purchase order can be issued, but for which there is sufficient funds available, but when it also exceeds $3,000.
The items paid for through the process fell in four departmental categories, including: human resources, law, utilities and court. The largest expenditures came from human resources, for a human resources software subscription fee with NEOED of $20,342 and a $7,825 payment for governmentjobs.com through NEOED. The court recording system required maintenance totaling $17,115.
In the middle of the meeting, the city council went into executive session, for 30 minutes. No action was taken.
An ordinance authorizing the quarterly adjustment of city budget and related appropriations was also approved. In a related move, new financial software required the budget adjustments related to a new chart of accounts. Finance Director Amber Rathburn explained, during the prior finance committee meeting that category changes required amounts to be readjusted, but that there would be a net to 0 change.
In other business, council approved the auctioning of four vehicles as surplus property from the public utilities fleet, including a 2009 Ford F250 truck, a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 truck, a 2004 Ford Crown Victoria and a 2010 Ford Crown Victoria.
Five MRX Cardiac Monitors from the fire division were also approved for auction as surplus property.
All items being put up for auction will go on www.govdeals.com.
Also at the meeting, council:
• Approved an annual renewal of the Right Stuff scheduling and payroll software at a cost of $25,000.
• Authorized the city administration to pursue a grant through the Wood County Park District for $41,448, which would be in the form of three separate grants, covering additional Riverside Park trash receptacles, picnic tables for Woodlands Park and sun shades at Rivercrest park, to go over the fan bleachers at four different fields.
• Had a second reading, of three, to authorize an agreement with the Collaborative Inc. for $155,000 for the first phase of the new municipal building project.
