Judge's ruling supports formation of CID

The Community Improvement District and the city of Springfield prevailed in a lawsuit filed by property owners disputing the formation of the self-taxing center-city district.

A ruling issued Dec. 15 in Greene County Circuit Court by Judge Timothy W. Perigo found in favor of the CID and the City of Springfield. Property owners in the CID are taxed on the assessed value of their property, and they pay additional taxes based on the front footage of their property.

Dudley Martin, a center-city property owner and one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case 29 property owners in the CID said the plaintiffs are now being polled to determine whether they want to accept the ruling or file a motion for a new trial.

A motion for a new trial must be based on errors of fact or law made by the judge in the case, Martin said.

He added that, in his opinion, there were several problems with the CID ruling, based on the state statute that allows for the creation of community improvement districts.

While Missouri statute calls for petitions creating CIDs to provide limits for the borrowing capacity and revenue generation of the CID, the petition for Springfield's CID did not include limits for either, Martin said.

"The judge ignored that ... if the judge's view stands, the CID can tax an unlimited amount on the property downtown. I don't say they will do that, but they can," Martin said.

Martin said there are problems with other findings of fact in the ruling, including specific issues related to the timetable for forming the CID.

"They published the (public hearing) notices late, they held the public hearing after the deadline, and I think the judge found all that as true, but he said it doesn't make any difference. So, we've got a judge that said the city can ignore the law ... I've never heard of that," Martin said.

In the ruling, the judge determined that no substantial rights were dependent on holding the hearing within the allotted 45-day time frame. The judge also found that no rights were harmed by the delay, but rather, the delay was for the purpose of making sure that each property owner in the CID was properly notified of the public hearings.

Allen Casey, chairman of the CID board, said he felt the board did what it needed to do in order to be fair to downtown property owners.

"We felt that by actually delaying its procedures for implementation back when all of this started, that we were complying quite well with what was intended by the law," Casey said.

"We've had to be aware that the lawsuit could impact what we have been doing, but we've been moving right ahead, making our plans and getting cleaning crews in place, that kind of thing," Casey said.

Maintaining common public areas has long been a problem in center city, Casey said.

"Now that everybody's paying into that pool of money, so to speak, we can afford to hire people who, in fact, are doing a very good job of cleaning up and keeping a better eye out for problems that need resolution," Casey said.

"Already, we've had some very positive comments," he added.

But not all property owners in the CID see the benefit of the additional tax.

"My complaint has always been that it's the night clubs that are causing the problem. Why don't they pay for their own problems rather than wanting me to clean up after them, to get rid of their beer bottles and people urinating in the doorways?" said Windsor Warren, owner of the building at 420 South Avenue, the home of Warren & Goodin Engineers-Architects Inc.

Warren said he can't think of a service provided by the CID that directly benefits his business, but his CID tax this year runs about $800.

"I have recessed windows and (downtown patrons) put their beer bottles in there. But then (CID workers) can't come onto private property, so they can't pick up a beer bottle that's in my window recess. They can pick up a beer bottle that's on the sidewalk," Warren said.

"It's just for providing services that we were getting before. (The city) has a street cleaner, a street-sweeper that goes down here, that has been paid for by city taxes, our property taxes ... and now, we're doubling that so we can get someone with a little grasping thing that can pick up cigarette butts," Warren added.

Casey said the CID board is now planning more improvements downtown, such as maintenance, signage and enhancement of parking areas.