Finance committee backs substitute amendment on stormwater fee after hours of testimony; Wolf opposes

City staff, council members and residents spent more than an hour debating a contested ordinance on March 3 as the Finance Committee weighed whether to delay, repeal or otherwise amend the city’s stormwater-fee ordinance.

City Attorney John Brody told the committee the ordinance before the body would delay the effective date of the stormwater-fee implementation to March 5, 2027. He said the delay was proposed to allow state-level conversations about stormwater management and funding to proceed: “It delays that effective date to, I believe, 03/05/2027,” Brody said.

The meeting included repeated reminders of the 1985 flood. Councilman Wolf recounted his family’s experience in that event to underline what he called a public-safety dimension of stormwater planning; Wolf asked whether repeal or delay would affect ongoing litigation related to the fee. Brody replied that city actions could affect litigation but declined to predict an outcome, saying only that “the actions taken by the city council…