Council Defers Decision on Parks Bond Referendum

The Dunwoody City Council deferred a decision Monday night on sending two $33 million bond referendums to the voters.

The council was set to vote on a resolution that would approve – one to pay for parks acquisition and another to pay for improving the city's parks.

The bonds would be about 0.75 mills each.

But the council had a few issues with the resolution and the timing of it.

Councilman Danny Ross said it might be in the council's best interest to wait on a decision Tuesday from the DeKalb County Commissioners about county taxes ().

"There are some things that are happening in Decatur tomorrow that could impact a lot of what’s going on here,” Ross said at the Monday meeting.

The council will have to make a decision on the bonds before the end of the month in order to put the referendums on the ballot.

Councilman Robert Wittenstein said the resolution should be split into two.

While there are separate questions for each bond, Monday's resolution made it so the council could only approve both or vote against both.

“It’s my sense that the urgency is around over the next year or so trying to get properties for acquisition,” he said. He’d like the opportunity to vote yes on putting that bond on the ballot, and the opportunity to decide whether or not put the other bond on the ballot.

Finally, there was some question about both why the bonds are written to dollar amounts rather than set millage rates.

Denis Shortal worried that if the city’s tax digest were to go down, the taxpayers would end up paying more and wondered if the city could guarantee a tax rate.

The bonds have to be made in dollar amounts, not tax rate amounts, explained City Manager Warren Hutmacher.

“Once you make issuance of bonds you get the cash in hand,” he said.  “So bond holders have guarantee that if the digest goes down that ya’ll will create enough tax revenue to be able to make those obligations, and that’s what makes it an attractive investment.”

There was also some confusion as to how the interest rate would affect how much money the city gets.

City Attorney Brian Anderson explained after the meeting that the interest rate has no bearing on the amount of money the city gets with the bond, but rather the amount the city will have to pay back over the course of the 30-year bond payback period.

The resolution caps the interest rate at 7 percent, so if the city can’t get a rate of 7 or less, the bond will not go through. While interest rates change constantly, the current rate is around 5- 5.25 percent said City Finance Director Chris Pike.