By KIRSTEN LASKEYLos Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Council Discusses Regional Capital Projects Fund
When it comes to the Gross Receipt Tax (GRT) Los Alamos National Laboratory pays the County, Los Alamos County Council seems to agree the wealth should be shared with the surrounding neighbors.
Just how that money should be disbursed was debated at length Tuesday night during the council work session.
More specifically, the council discussed the Regional Capital Projects Fund. County Councilors David Izraelevitz and Sara Scott proposed issuing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with neighboring communities.
The draft MOA recommends entering an agreement between Los Alamos and Española and R’ Council Meeting io Arriba counties. The draft also recommends that the County, out of a desire to continue the Progress through Partnering Program, create a Regional Capital Projects Fund to support projects in Española and Rio Arriba County. Distributions will be made from the fund by the County through its annual budget process.
Others on the council including Councilor Sean Williams and Vice Chair James Robinson said they are in favor of tossing out the MOA and give the municipalities money with the freedom to use however they wish.
Chair Randall Ryti concluded the best course of action was to follow Scott’s suggestion, which was to review the draft MOA based on the comments made during the work session, broaden the scope of what the fund would cover and then discuss it with Española and Rio Arriba counties. After those discussions, the issue would return to staff with a resolution on how to move forward.
Izraelevitz also said he felt the MOA was the right direction to take.
“We wanted to have a concrete draft of the regional capital fund MOA … The importance of the agreement is to provide clear communication and mutual protection of different governmental parities,” he said. “We do this on a regular basis with other types of cooperative agreements and other types of division of responsibilities.”
Scott said, “I like the idea of this MOA approach. I think it does capture elements of previous discussions and uses a model of other previous successful partnering. I believe going forward with the MOA approach to expand Progress through Partnering has a benefit of acknowledging the value that our community places on partnering and our interest in moving forward with a new partnership initiative … I think it shows that we have heard there is a real need for support for regional projects that could have broader and longer-term impacts and benefits and the other thing this does is organize and clarify multiple considerations related to these types of disbursements.”
Williams expressed opposition to the MOA.
“My preference here is to in fact leave the determination of the need entirely up to what other governments judge their own needs to be,” he said.
“I do believe this is fundamentally about the regional tensions that are created by the extreme and in some sense unearned wealth of Los Alamos County compared to the poverty of surrounding areas,” Williams said later in the meeting. “Really I think the core problem with the MOA is: ‘LAC commits to inviting representatives of the Regional Partners to discuss respective strategic goals, emerging needs, and/or potential Projects for support by RCPF funds.’ That in itself has a decent likelihood of turning paternalistic and only making those tensions worse. I do believe the real intent in Los Alamos County right now … is to try to diffuse some of those tensions and I think we need to do that with an open hand …”
Robinson agreed with Williams, saying the MOA seems to narrow its focus to just capital projects when the money should be allowed to be used for different needs in neighboring communities.
“We have all changing needs and what we might discuss at the start of the year might not we’re needing by the end of the year so not formalizing this into an agreement gives these communities power to utilize these funds as they need,” he said. “As the program grows the County could find itself enmeshed in a number of MOAs at any one given point that we have the responsible of maintaining and ultimately if the agreements aren’t followed we might find ourselves in an adversarial position with the members in that.”
As a result, Robinson said a better method would be to provide a check or disbursements from this fund to communities based on need. This money wouldn’t come with any kind of entanglements on how it should be spent but allow the recipients the freedom to utilize it to address their needs not just for capital projects but for community health initiatives or for other items they need without violating a MOA, he added.
Other members of council weighed in. Councilor David Reagor said he felt specificity was necessary and doesn’t support open-ended funds. He added it needs to benefit everyone.
“If we want to do something we should make an impact – not scatter it all over,” he said.
Councilor Denise Derkacs said there are two options to consider: make a capital improvement fund or make direct contributions to operation funds. When weighing these options there are fundamental questions to consider, she said.
“Are we making assumptions about the wants and needs of our neighboring communities or do we actually know what their preferences are,” Derkacs said. “Would they benefit more from capital project funds or from increase operating funds. I think we should definitely determine that before we may assume to act on their behalf. Additionally, we should consider which option is fiscally responsible. Should we be contributing to neighboring community operating funds with no strings attached or should we designate funds for specific capital projects that allow the residents of Los Alamos County to readily identify how their monies are used in neighboring communities. “
Ryti said he felt a MOA might be valuable in some instances.
“I think there are probably certain regional projects that may warrant an MOA,” he said. “There are things we may want to invest regionally … I think there are cases that could involve the County assisting with funds or other expertise. There are lot of different options for us out there. I think what is kind of clear from the fund analysis is it will be difficult to build up a fund of significant monies even just taking the $12 million that we’re discussing and having that $30 million dollar number available for taking just the interest off that for distributions.”
He added there is a case to be made for reaching out to the County’s neighbors to see what their reactions are toward a MOA. Ryti said it doesn’t make sense to have multiple MOA for small budget items but would be good for large-scale projects such as mental health.
Members of the public weighed in the issue.
Los Alamos resident Aaron Walker criticized the MOA. Calling it “self-serving arrogance” adding that it isn’t right for neighboring communities “to grovel at the feet of the County for money that is rightfully theirs.”
“Scrap the notion of the County dictating on how the funds are going to be spent …,” he said.
Former County Councilor Antonio Maggiore offered an amen to Walker’s criticisms and added a few of his own. To narrow funding to only capital projects “… in light of what has happened over the past year and a half, two years to deny social programs as a viable funding opportunity is absolutely cold hearted, cruel … it is arrogant … it is absolutely arrogant. I want no part in a community that wants to stand in front of people and act that way toward them,” Maggiore said.
Scott emphasized that the intention of the MOA is not to be overly dictative, but to allow regional partners to highlight their needs. Scott added that it is a good starting point for broadening the County’s partnership efforts and it gives flexibility year to year with contributions.
"use" - Google News
September 26, 2021 at 05:03AM
https://ift.tt/3ALR7Aa
To Use A Memorandum Of Agreement … Or Not … That Is The Question Debated At Tuesday Night's Council Meeting - Los Alamos Daily Post
"use" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2P05tHQ
https://ift.tt/2YCP29R
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "To Use A Memorandum Of Agreement … Or Not … That Is The Question Debated At Tuesday Night's Council Meeting - Los Alamos Daily Post"
Post a Comment