GLADSTONE — The Gladstone City Commission recently approved moving delinquent bills to resident’s winter tax bills. However, the decision was not without discussion, as some of those bills were related to special assessments.

How to address the special assessments was a concern primarily because the final costs of the assessments for the 9th Street Project cannot be known until the commission and the Gladstone Downtown Development Authority meet to determine how savings from the city’s low bond rate should be allocated. City staff Monday weighed the idea of dropping a 10% penalty from the assessments being moved to winter taxes, at least until the final cost could be determined early next month.

“We’re just thinking if there’s a payback, it can get confusing with this number of people and with then (throwing) penalties in there also, but it’s doable. It’s just going to be a little more complicated,” said City Manager Eric Buckman during Monday’s regular city commission meeting.

Somewhere between 80% and 90% of the more than 200 properties that were special assessed for the project have already paid the amount they were assessed under a resolution approved by the commission earlier this year. Those property owners could already be looking at a payback, but they were not subject to the penalty because they paid before the Nov. 15 deadline.

While the commission understood eliminating the penalty for the late payers or holding off on moving the unpaid bills to the winter tax bills would make the process easier, commissioners felt it would be unfairly rewarding people for nonpayment.

“We waive the penalty everybody else had paid to avoid the penalty, and next time they’re going to go ‘well, I’m just not going to pay, because they’ll waive the penalty,’ and we’ll go from 90% paying to 90% not paying,” said Commissioner Brad Mantela.

Following a unanimous vote to push the bills — penalty intact — to the winter tax bill, the commission noted that “wrong advice” about the assessments could be a significant part of why the 50 assessed property owners forwent payment.

“They’re probably listening to MOC News,” said Commissioner Darin Hunter, referencing ex-city commissioner and long-time litigator against the city, Mike O’Connor.

O’Connor, who is among the names of those whose assessments will be moved to their winter tax bill, gave a lengthy radio interview earlier this month, alleging impropriety in the assessment. He also sent out letters to people who were assessed, asking them to be plaintiffs in a legal action over the special assessment districts in charges for both the 9th Street Project and the recent 4th Street Project.

As of Tuesday, the city had not been served with any lawsuits related to O’Connor’s search for co-plantiffs, but a series of Michigan Tax Tribunal appeals — including one by O’Connor — were recently denied.

The assessments weren’t the only unpaid costs moved to the winter tax bill Monday. The commission also voted to move $2,211.52 in costs and penalties related to miscellaneous invoices and $26,351.61 worth of unpaid utility bills.

Commissioners and city staff noted the amount of unpaid utility bills was higher than the $13,108 moved to the winter tax bill in 2019, but that was largely due to a single commercial utility customer that was nearly $20,000 behind in payments.

“If we pull that 20 grand out of there just from that one large commercial account … we’re only talking about 65 hundred dollars, it looks like. That’s really good. I mean, not ‘good,’ but that number’s very low,” said Mantela.

Also during Monday’s meeting, the commission

— set the city’s audit presentation for Dec. 14 at 5 p.m.

— approved the city’s recreation department applying for a Michigan Costal Management Program grant to replace the boardwalk, which was destroyed by high water levels.

— approved the city’s revenue sharing report, required by the state for the reimbursement of tax dollars.

— went into closed session for an attorney opinion on a lease agreement for Irish Oaks.

— tabled the adoption of agreement amendments for the city’s Michigan Municipal Employee Retirement System (MERS) defined benefit and defined contribution plans.