Lake Havasu City Council adopts tax levy, appoints planning alternate and approves contracts, 6-0

Lake Havasu City Council unanimously approved a slate of fiscal and operational measures Tuesday, adopting the city's fiscal year 2019-20 property tax levies, appointing an alternate to the Planning and Zoning Commission and awarding multiple professional and purchase contracts.

The council acted on a final series of budget-related hearings before adopting the general property tax levy, multiple special-improvement district levies and the irrigation-and-drainage levy. Council also approved routine and planned procurements for water and wastewater equipment, awarded a compensation-study contract and authorized an intergovernmental agreement for water service.

Why it matters: The adopted levy and the equipment and service contracts set the city's near-term revenue and repair/replacement priorities for water and wastewater systems. The compensation study will inform next year's budget decisions about pay and classification. The votes were unanimous, 6-0.

Most important actions (in order of council presentation):

- Property tax levy: The council adopted Resolution Number Nineteen-three332 setting the Lake Havasu City property tax levy rate at $6.6718 per $100 assessed value for fiscal year 2019-20. Finance staff told the council that because assessed valuation increased, the city will collect more revenue even though the rate remained the same.

- Improvement districts and irrigation levy: The council adopted separate resolutions for special districts: Improvement District No. 2 (London Bridge Plaza) at 0.737 per $100 (Resolution Number Nineteen-three333), Improvement District No. 4 (McCulloch median) at 0.504 per $100 (Resolution Number 19-3334), and the Lake Havasu Irrigation and Drainage District levy at $268.85 per acre (Resolution IDD 19-7-1). City staff characterized these as the final step in a multi-step budget and levy process and said the districts are self-funded by assessed property owners.

- Planning and…