Last Updated: September 28, 2011
The Merger Study Committee did plenty of planning in under and hour at its September 12 meeting.
The group made management and steering committee assignments, and tagged the October 6 Merger Study Committee and October 10 Joint Town-Village Boards meetings as the place to present to the public its report on the projected financial impact of a merged Cottage Grove.
|
|---|
Representatives from financial firm and report author Baker Tilly will be at the Merger Study Committee's September 26 meeting to give the group a sneak peek at the report that will be officially delivered on October 3, three days earlier than initially scheduled.
The Committee spent a majority of the meeting brainstorming ways to get the public to attend the presentations. The marketing ideas included placing a message in the Village newsletter, putting neon flyers at area businesses and churches, and postings notices on the Town’s and Village’s websites, the local bank sign and public television Channel 98.
While the Merger Group continued to plan for the lead up to the public presentations, Committee Member Mark Hepfinger took a cautious tone. The Village resident suggested that before the Committee starts investing much more money into the study maybe it should conduct a community survey, especially among Town residents, to see if there would be support for a merger. With the Town being the likely recipient of any tax increase that may come with the merger, Hepfinger stressed the need for a survey to get resident feedback. As it stands right now the Town’s mill rate is 3.77 and the Village is at 4.25. A suggestion made by Village Clerk Treasurer Deb Winter to use an online service called Survey Monkey peaked interest and was ordered to be added to the next Committee meeting agenda.
The Committee also appointed Village Administrator Matt Giese to oversee the merger study project, and with one dissenting vote created a steering committee separate from the study committee. The steering committee, consisting of Wiedenbeck, Hampton, Giese and Town Clerk Kim Banigan will help in daily interaction with Baker Tilly.
 |
|---|
The formation of this committee was opposed by Hepfinger who questioned what a steering committee could do that the Merger Study Committee could not. Merger Committee member and Village Trustee Micah Zielke said that the steering committee would likely not even factor in the process and the only reason it was there would be to field questions Baker Tilly might have while doing research for its report.
Hepfinger questioned whether the Steering Committee would be subject to the Open Meetings Law like other committees and if that was the case how could it work any faster than the Merger Committee.
Mirroring Zielke’s explanation of the Steering Committee being an expeditor of information, Giese said the the new group would act as a stopgap, ensuring that Baker Tilly received information in a timely manner for creating its report. He added that since the group consisted of only two voting members, the Open Meetings Law would not be an issue.
Beyond potential legal issues were issues of funding, and Wiedenbeck stressed to the Committee the need to meet deadlines with Baker Tilly or face possible additional fees. But these remarks brought disagreement from Zielke who said that there would be no extra costs. He and Hampton were adamant that any charges would not be accepted beyond the agreed on $5,000 for the report.