HomeMy Public PortalAbout08-31-2000 Village Meeting Minutes of the Special Meeting of the President and Board of Trustees
Of the Village of Plainfield
Held on August 31, 2000 at 7:00 p.m. at the School Administration Building.
The meeting was called to order by Mayor Rock at 7:00 pm. Present were everybody
except Rathbun, Collins and Calabrese. Additionally, Finance Director Minick and
Village Administrator Burghard were in attendance. Also in attendance at the meeting
were the Plainfield District 202 Board of Trustees, Dr. Stanfield, Mr. Langert, and other
staff members.
The School Board, already in closed session, asked if the Village Board wanted to make a
motion to go into closed session. Mayor Rock indicated that he was satisfied with
meeting in open session, as the Village's matter had nothing to do with Land Acquisition.
The School Board then came back into open session.
Mr. Kelly, President of the School Board, thanked Mayor Rock for his willingness to
continue discussion about the tap-on fees. Mayor Rock responded to telephone calls and
inquiries from Mr. Kelly and was a great assistance in setting this joint meeting.
Mayor Rock requested Administrator Burghard review the salient features of the issue.
Mr. Burghard pointed out that the District's request for a waiver or reduction of tap-on
fees in May of this year had originally been denied by the Mayor and the Board of
Trustees. At subsequent meetings, however, all of the elected officials inquired of the
staff as to why there was such a large discrepancy between the stated usage position of
the School District and the tap-on fees that were recommended by staff. The Village had
always applied population equivalent standards promulgated by the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency based upon current fees. The School District felt that
their usage required a fee of some $20,000 while the IEPA standards set the fee at
$468,000.
At the direction of the Mayor and the Board of Trustees, the staff contacted the IEPA and
other area communities, and began data collection for all the school usage within the
Village of Plainfield. This data collection showed that the usage pattern of the School
District was consistent with their appeal for assistance on the tap-on fees.
While the IEPA standard indicates that the population equivalent for a typical school is
25 per 100 students/employees, actual consumption demonstrates that the real number is
3 per 100 students/employees.
Based upon this data, the Mayor and the Board were willing to consider the following:
The reduction of tap-on fees for Heritage Grove and the Freshman Center
from $468,195 to $31,139.
b)
The fee will be charged based upon the tap-on fee in effect when the
schools were constructed.
c)
The Village will consider amending its tap-on fee schedule for schools
based upon a 3 P.E. per 100 students/employees, rather than the IEPA
standard of 25 P.E. per 100 students/employees.
Mr. Minick then passed out to all those present, including the media, a table of
comparison of the tap-on fee proposals. Mr. Kelly asked what the fee would have been
under the Village standards if the current tap-on fee would have been used. Mr. Minick
responded that would have been $65,000.
Alter some general discussion, the School Board indicated that it could not formally act
on the matter this evening, because it was not on its Agenda, but that it would schedule it
for the next available School Board Agenda. Mr. Burghard indicated that the proposal on
the table now is all inclusive, and if it is not accepted in total by the School Board, then
the Village will return to applying the current fee of $1,029 per P.E.
Mr. Kelly and other members of the School Board thanked the Mayor and the Board for
their cooperation in this matter, and indicated their individual personal support of the
Village adopting its own standard for schools and abandoning the unrealistic IEPA
standard.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m.
The minutes were prepared by T. L. Burghard.