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ELKINS -- Despite pleas from downtown business owners and internal dissension, Elkins City Council voted 7-3 to pass the controversial 1 percent sales tax ordinance on its third and final reading Thursday evening.
Public comment speakers asked that the ordinance be tabled, and, for the third time, Councilman Robert Chenoweth of First Ward made a motion to table it Thursday. For the third time, council voted down Chenoweth's motion to table.
When Chenoweth and other council members continued to discuss the ordinance before the third and final vote, a motion was made to end debate on the topic. The motion passed, and the final vote was taken.
The new ordinance creates a 1 percent sales tax on businesses within the city limits, which is possible now that the state has approved the city's application to amend the original Home Rule plan for Elkins.
In order to implement the new sales tax, Elkins needed to give the state six months' lead time. The 1 percent sales tax will go into effect July 1, with the advent of the new fiscal year.
Six Elkins residents spoke against passing the ordinance during the public comment section of the meeting, before the vote was taken.
Ellen Shepherd spoke first, noting she is not a business owner, but rather a school teacher and a parent.
"I'm looking at the cost from a different point of view than a business owner," she said. She noted many of her students live and shop downtown, and she worries that the new tax will lead to downtown businesses closing.
"I'm not 100 percent against the sales tax … what I'm against is (having) no concrete plan" for how to spend the revenue, Shepherd said.
Andrea Kniffen, the owner of Beander's in Elkins, told council, "It's getting tough to do business here." She noted the new tax will only make it harder for downtown stores and restaurants to stay open.
Downtown business owners Martha Metheny and Kathy Vance each asked council to table the ordinance. Vance pointed out that the city spends money with 25 businesses that could possibly be annexed into the city limits, including Walmart. She said she thought the city should spend that money at downtown businesses that offer the same products.
Vance said, according to the last fiscal year's financial statement, the city spent a total of $245,000 at the 25 businesses. "For that amount, the city could have brought in $61,275 from B&O" taxes if the money had been spent at downtown Elkins businesses, Vance said.
Joe Biola, of Prospect Street, said, "I can't believe that city council wants to put another burden on our (downtown businesses)."
Dave Rao also asked council to table the ordinance, and said Mayor Van Broughton could take the opportunity to "come out one way or the other, to back it or not."
Later in the meeting, when the ordinance came up for the third and final vote, Third Ward Councilman Christopher Lowther asked why the city did not have a third party look into the city's financial situation and offer input before the sales tax ordinance votes began.
Finance Committee Chairman Bob Woolwine said, "We've pretty much cut the budget over the years, a little bit at time."
Treasurer Tracy Judy said, "I've eliminated two full-time positions over the last three years."
"But we didn't bring an outside firm in to sit with us?" Lowther asked.
Woolwine said the city had not.
Chenoweth then made his motion to table the ordinance, adding, "We've alienated the downtown businesses. What trust we had has dwindled." Lowther seconded the motion to table.
The motion was downed 7-3, with Chenoweth, Lowther and Fifth Ward Councilwoman Linda Vest voting in favor of tabling the ordinance.
Chenoweth then asked "if it does pass, that we segregate a portion of the money -- say 75 percent" and keep it in an account that draws interest and determine how it will be spent with input from "the downtown business owners and other organizations. Then, 25 percent … spend it at our discretion to fill these immediate needs." Chenoweth then made a motion for the city to do that.
City Attorney Gerri Roberts said, "You can't make a substantive amendment on the last reading of a motion."
Chenoweth then asked that his motion be put on the agenda for the next council meeting.
Lowther then asked Judy, "Would 25 percent plug the hole?"
Judy said, "Based on what we're estimating, what the state told us, 25 percent would. But that's an estimate, I'm not sure."
Second Ward's Charles Friddle pointed out the new sales tax wouldn't go into effect until July 1, and it would be January 2019, the second quarter of the next fiscal year, before the city has some idea how much revenue the new tax would bring in.
Friddle said the city needs to have a "strategic planning session" about how the revenue should be spent.
Vest said, "I think all this should have been done before."
Friddle responded, "Well, yes, absolutely, Linda, that's correct."
There was a brief discussion about how long it took the ordinance to move through the Revenue Committee and come before council, and then Friddle made a motion to end discussion on the sales tax ordinance.
"I just have another question," Chenoweth said.
City Clerk Jessica Sutton then took a role call vote on Friddle's "motion to limit debate" on the proposed sales tax ordinance. The motion passed 6-3, with Chenoweth, Lowther and Vest voting against it.
Council then voted on the third reading of the sales tax ordinance. Voting in favor were Friddle, Woolwine, Third Ward's Carman Metheny, Second Ward's Gene Ochsendorf, Fourth Ward's Marilynn Cuonzo and Marly Hazen, and Fifth Ward's David Parker. Voting in opposition were Chenoweth, Lowther and Vest, with the ordinance passing 7-3.
Mark Doak, representing downtown business owners, made a presentation to council after the public comment section ended but before the sales tax ordinance vote was taken. Doak talked about ways in which the city and business owners could work together in the future to better Elkins and its business community.