City establishes maximum tax levy

Feb. 2—OTTUMWA — For yet another year, residents in Ottumwa will be rewarded for taking care of their property, or adding new value to it.

During Tuesday's city council meeting, the council approved the maximum property tax levy for the next fiscal year at $21.22, a $1 reduction per $1,000 of property valuation. The overall number is the most the city can collect from its residents, and includes all the city's levies; without debt service and library levies, it's $16.65.

It's the third consecutive year the city has reduced property taxes, even though city director of finance Kala Mulder is hopeful more of a reduction can be approved when the council certifies the budget. Also, the city has been able to decrease its trust and agency levy, which contains benefits for city employees. That levy rate had been the state's highest.

"This is the maximum we can have, but we can still reduce any of these levees during our budget process," she told the council. "We are still waiting for some of our insurance renewals to come in, so if they come in lower than the projected increases we have received, we could potentially lower some of our levies at that point in time."

Whether or not the maximum levy can be reduced, the overall rate is the lowest since fiscal year 2018. Taxable valuations for fiscal year 2023 are at just over $679 million, up over $50 million from the current year, and the highest in over eight years.

Earlier, Mulder said the city has been able to use grants to fund needed projects and purchases, which has eased stress on certain levies. However, the general fund, which houses salaries for employees, is still at the maximum of $8.10.

She said she is optimistic that debt service, which is in a sense the city's "mortgage" because it allows for bonding and borrowing, can come down as the city has been able to refinance some of its bonding for shorter term and at lower rates and "we're getting projects done that we needed to get done."

"For multiple years we didn't do some capital improvements or fleet improvements because we wanted to keep that levy low," she said. "Right now we're at a point where we're able to kind of catch up on some of that debt service. We used to borrow long term for a lot of debt, and we're starting to close that gap much quicker than we had anticipated."

Council member Marc Roe believed the last three years of reduced property tax rates should be a "beacon" for residents to continue to take care of their properties, as well as spur more housing development.

"It's really kind of a call to action to take care of the houses we do have and finding ways to think outside the box with incentives to make sure we get new housing stock in this community," he said. "This puts money in all of our pockets."

In other business:

—The council approved giving city staff and attorneys time to come up with a solution to Chapter 7 of the city code, which discusses the animal ordinance. Residents are asking the city to remove "pit bull" from the "dangerous animals" section of the ordinance.

"The larger issue is the ordinance itself, whether we're talking about tethering, proper shelter and conditions for animals, the licensing of dogs," city administrator Philip Rath said. "(Monday) was the last day to license before there'd be a fee or penalty, and I think our numbers are down. So either people aren't getting as many dogs, or just aren't licensing them.

"So we want to make sure that animals are cared for and treated appropriately, whether it's a pit bull or any other kind," he said. "So this request is to just kind of take a step back and work on this, continue to gather information, make sure whatever we do have on the books is enforceable and is fair to all animals."

—The council unanimously decided to table a resolution regarding a two-year renewal of Bird e-scooters in the downtown area. Last year the council approved a one-year deal for the scooters, which come with very little expense to the city.

The council sought more feedback from the community regarding the matter before deciding to renew under the same terms as the current deal. The city currently has a poll on its website gauging the community's interest in the e-scooters, though a vast majority of the respondents have a positive feeling about the e-scooters.

The poll is on the website until Feb. 14. There have been very few complaints about the e-scooters, city director of community development Zach Simonson said, but he said there are some issues that can be shored up to make the experience better.

Bird also supplied the city with ridership figures from July 2021, when the city approved the e-scooters. There were 7,582 total rides and 17,178 miles traveled, while saving 3.65 metric tons of carbon dioxide by not using vehicles.

—The council gave approval for the city to put out a request for proposal for mowing and nuisance cleanup services that would start April 1 and last through April 1, 2026. There are currently 75 city properties included in the to-do list, including a twice-a-year mowing of the 1.8-mile Jefferson Park Drainage Ditch, which snakes its way through south and southeast Ottumwa. Responses to the RFP are due Feb. 18, with the city to announce a selection Feb. 22.

— Chad Drury can be reached at cdrury@ottumwacourier.com, and on Twitter @ChadDrury