The Brandenburg City Council received an updated on the proposed occupational tax ordinance during their regular meeting Monday (5+12) night.
City leaders have been discussing ordinances to help generate additional revenue for the city’s operational funds. In March, the council voted approving a scaled back version of the proposed ordinance to allow the city to collect data by a survey to determine an estimate of new revenue that the new tax would generate. City Clerk Amy Haynes reported 274 surveys were mailed to business owners asking for just their quarterly payroll amounts. The city received a total of 35 responses with 28 providing requested data which resulted in approximately 11 percent of the surveys submitted resulted in about $35,000 based upon a 1 percent tax rate.
After learning of the findings, the council got entangled with procedural conflicts as some members wanted to move ahead with a vote while others questioned what should be done with the tabled ordinance 637. After several minutes of discussion, City Attorney Jessica Roberts advised the council to abolish the previous ordinance and restart the ordinance process with a new number to reflect the new consensus of moving ahead with adapting a simple 1 percent occupational tax with no caps or minimal amounts to go into effect on July 1, 2025. After further discussion, the council agreed to have a the first reading of the ordinance during their next regular meeting on Monday, June 9, with a special called meeting for the second reading to be scheduled within the following days in order to meet requirements for the tax to start being collected on July 1.
In other business, the council began the meeting with awarding the first Yard of The Month of the mowing season to Sim & Rebecca Richardson. City leaders provided Certificate of Appreciation to Bryan Revell of HANCO LTD, who donated the cost of repairing many hoses for the City of Brandenburg to contribute to flooding clean-up in Riverfront Park.
City leaders read and approved a resolution honoring the memory of Joseph E. Greer, who was Brandenburg Police Chief and long time Meade County Sheriff, who passed away Friday night. The Resolution will be provided to the family during the funeral visitation later this week.
City council members continued conversation related to a planning and zoning ordinance request on fencing requirement heights for R-2 zoned property. City Surveyor Tim Smith had asked the city planning and Zoning Commission to request and amendment to fencing requirements to allow for 6 foot tall privacy fence from the back corner of the lot to the front facing line of a structure. Currently, the ordinance calls for 6 foot tall privacy fences could only go up to the back corner of the structure with only a 4 foot tall fence along the side of the structure to the front line of the structure. After some discussion, the council appeared to be evenly spit in opinion. Mayor David Pace said that he would ask the chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Surveyor to the June regular meeting to allow the council to gain further information before voting on the issue.
During departmental reports, Mayor David Pace informed the council that clean-up from flooding continues in Riverfront Park with some areas remaining blocked off from the public due to flooding debris and major erosion concerns. Pace said the work continues despite being short handed and additional water leaks that have had city maintenance crews strained.
Mayor Pace announced a special called meeting will be held on Monday, May 19 at 5 PM to allow the presentation of the proposed 2025-26 city budget.
Yu can watch the entire regular May meeting of the Brandenburg City Council in our “On Demand” section.
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