City Councilmen Don Beal and Johnny Brown balked at an across-the-board $50 fee to businesses for fire and safety inspections during budget discussion Monday at the City Council meeting.
Both councilmen own small businesses, which they said the fee targets.
"This is not a charge. In essence it's a tax," Beal said. "Businesses are suffering enough."
"The problem I have is the small businesses where you can go in, check a couple of drop cords and be out of there in 15 minutes. Then there's the large businesses that may take the better part of a day," Brown said. "Somewhere down the line there needs to be some equity."
Beal owns The Hair Connection on First Street, West. Brown owns Brown Oil Co. on Sixth Street, SW.
The councilmen's argument won out. The fee will remain the same regardless of the size of the business, which determines how often inspections are mandated.
The City Council approved its $7.9 million budget for 2009-10, a 15 percent decrease from the 2008-09 budget of $9.3 million.
The City Council took the proposed inspection fee and the expected $10,000 revenue from it out of the budget.
City Manager Donald Duncan said the amount of the fee can be revisited later in the year easier if the item was removed from the budget document rather than accepted.
Fire Chief Mark Hinson said Conover has 387 businesses, 300 of which require inspections every three years. The remaining businesses have to be checked either annually or every two years. Due to businesses being on different schedules for inspections, the checks would bring in between $10,000 and $14,000 a year, depending on how many were done.
"I know this is a token amount, but every penny counts," Beal said.
Hinson said no fines are lodged against business owners when problems are found. The checks are more for the safety aspect. The only time a business has been required to stop operating is when major renovations are done.
The fee was taken out of the budget document, as well as the city's proposed schedules of fees, before it was adopted following the budget's adoption.
The budget also included a 4 percent increase in water fees, which Duncan said was passed from Hickory, where Conover buys its water. In turn, Conover sells water to Claremont and parts of eastern Catawba County and will increase their charge for water services.
The average homeowner will see a 70- to 83-cent increase in their monthly water bill.
In other action, the council approved a $12,000 incentive to BSN Medical, which announced plans to expand its business last month. The expansion would bring 25 new jobs to the area.
The incentive, payments of $4,000 for three years, is basically a refund of half the company's taxes, Mayor Bruce Eckard said.
For its part, the company will retain its current 44 employees for the three-year period, in addition to hiring 25 new employees, and will add 50,000 square feet to its facility on Keisler Road, SE.
The approval is contingent on site plan approval from the council for the expansion.
BY THE NUMBERS:
$9.3 million - 2008-09 budget
$7.9 million - 2009-10 budget
15 percent - Budget decrease
$61,000 - City attorney 2008-09
$52,000 - City attorney 2009-10
15 percent - Decrease
$301,000 - Planning department 2008-09
$260,000 - Planning department 2009-10
14 percent - Decrease
$148,000 - Mayor and City Council, 2008-09
$128,000 - Mayor and City Council 2009-10
13 percent - Decrease
$1.7 million - Non-departmental money 2008-09
$590,000 - Non-departmental money 2009-10
64 percent -Decrease
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