The Wright City Board of Aldermen approved an intergovernmental agreement to waive fees between the city and the Wright City Fire Protection District in a 3-0 vote at their July 24 meeting.
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The Wright City Board of Aldermen approved an intergovernmental agreement to waive fees between the city and the Wright City Fire Protection District in a 3-0 vote at their July 24 meeting.
Alderman Kim Arbuthnot works at the Fire District and abstained. Mayor Michelle Heiliger is president of the fire district’s board and also left the dais during discussion of the issue.
The agreement, which City Attorney Paul Rost said he would write up as a memorandum of understanding, would waive fees between the two organizations for items like building permits.
Rost said the agreement would prevent the district and the city from “handing money back and forth,” to review plans for items like building permits.
“It makes no sense, because one day we’re taking a fee from them, and then they’re taking a fee from us,” said Rost. “In other words, don’t do that, we’ll agree that we’ll review your stuff and you’ll review our stuff without charging each other.”
The board directed Rost to write up an MOU and prepare a resolution for their next meeting on Aug. 7.
Prior to the vote, there was some apprehension from board members as they discussed the issue.
Alderman Karey Owens was uncertain the agreement would be fair since the district’s jurisdiction is larger than the city limits.
“They had given us some breaks on doing the city hall because we’re serving the same taxpayers,” said Owens. “I don’t think that’s entirely true, because all of our taxation district falls within their district, but not all of their district falls within us.”
Alderman Ramiz Hakim specified that while he would normally be opposed to an agreement like this, the reciprocity of fees between the city and the district made it attractive to him.
Unlike other taxing entities with jurisdiction over Wright City, the city and the district are the only entities that assess fees for building permits.
Agreements with other taxing entities would not have any fees to reciprocate waivers on for the city.
“In this case there is a similar, if not identical, reciprocation of fees and that would make sense to me, so that is why, in just this very specific instance, I think we should consider it, if not pass it today,” said Hakim.
He also pointed out that aside from the district’s new Station 1, for which planning is underway, it had been decades since they had any new construction so the city would not be losing out on any significant revenue.
Once she returned to the dais after the decision, Arbuthnot confirmed it had been 50 years since the district built a new building and 20 years since renovations were made to any of their buildings.
Hakim also clarified that this MOU would be different from the one with the Wright City R-II School District that caused controversy surrounding repairs to Roelker Road.
Since the city and the district are only agreeing to waive fees, not shoulder any new costs together, he was not concerned with any similar issues.
