Morgantown City Manager Paul Brake said the city’s administration has not withheld a report of potential annexation targets and relevant data since January in an attempt to be secretive, but because it needs time to prepare for what promises to be a complex and contentious process.
The report, provided through a $37,607 contract with Grossman, Yanak & Ford LLP, was leaked to the press late last week, prompting questions about why the information has yet to even be shared with all of city council, much less the public.
The report looks at the financial impact of adding a total of just over three square miles to the city by boundary adjustment, including, among others, areas like Suncrest Towne Centre, the Mileground and Haymaker Forest.
The annexation areas include 336 businesses representing 6,072 employees and approximately
43 miles of roads.
According to the report, the city could expect a gross annual revenue increase of $3.9 million if all of the identified areas are annexed.
This number is based on projected additional annual revenues of $7,356,836 broken down into: B&O gross receipts ($2,459,090), property taxes ($2,347,853), weekly user fees ($947,232), fire fees ($915,293), B&O residential rental ($423,708) and B&O commercial rental ($263,660) — and additional annual costs projected at $3,440,000 tied to needed growth in city departments, primarily police, fire and streets.
These costs do not include a new fire station with included police substation estimated at $5.5 million, or $1.8 million in new fire vehicles, which, the report states, would be needed within three to five years of expansion.
Additionally, the report does not contemplate the city’s plan to implement a 1 percent sales tax. With its existing boundaries, the tax is conservatively estimated to generate between $5 million and $6 million for the city.
Brake said he’s aware there is criticism over the lack of movement on the report. He said he’s just finished an expanded two-year budgeting process and generally hasn’t had the time needed to tackle such a sprawling issue, noting “anyone who wants to look at my calendar, I’m willing to open it up and show it to them.”
The city also points to an explanation provided by Brake immediately following receipt of the draft report in which he laid out how the process would proceed — specifically that he intended to meet with each member of council individually before the issue would be taken up. That information was received by council without objection. It did not include a specific timeline.
“I’ve fully anticipated that this is not only an avenue for growth, but it’s a contentious one, and so this is something, on my end, where I have to be prepared to spend an adequate amount of time answering the questions, the what-if scenarios, and the background information that we took into consideration leading up to this,” Brake said, explaining he still needs to meet with two members of council and the tentative plan is to take up the annexation effort in May.
Brake said once the city determines which areas it intends to target, his recommendation will be to present the entire proposal to the Monongalia County Commission as one request rather than one area at a time.
“In that case what we’re offering up to the county is a path of least resistance in the areas that are very problematic to them or that they just want to eliminate,” Brake said in explaining his opposition to the piecemeal approach.
He went on to explain he has no illusion the process is going to be easy, or even that it will be finalized by a ruling from the county commission.
“I have no idea what the outcome will be, but I can tell you based on annexations that have been pursued in other areas, not often are they approved directly by the county commission, but it ends up going before the court,” Brake said.
“I don’t know that’s going to happen, and that’s not anything that we’re contemplating. I’m just saying for sake of comparison, if you did a Google search on annexations, you’d see how the outcomes have been reached in other areas.”
