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Resident urges council to rescind 100% homeowner cost-overrun assignment for septic-to-sewer project
Summary
At the Cocoa City Council meeting, resident Todd Riggs asked the council to remove language that assigns 100% of cost overruns to homeowners for the J & K septic-to-sewer conversion; the city attorney and council members said a newly adopted ordinance creates a later procedure to decide assessments, so no immediate erasure of the prior vote occurred.
Todd Riggs asked the Cocoa City Council on April 28 to rescind the portion of an earlier decision that would assign 100% of cost overruns on the J & K septic-to-sewer conversion to homeowners.
Riggs told the council the assignment was unnecessary for moving the project forward, inconsistent with precedent and harmful to roughly 88 homeowners who would have to disclose a contingent liability during property transactions. "A contingent liability is like radioactive," Riggs said, urging the council to wait until costs and grants are known before deciding who will bear overruns.
Several council members, including Councilwoman Weeks and Councilwoman McCalls, expressed sympathy and said they wanted to protect homeowners from unexpected harm. Weeks said she understood the disclosure problem and that a review should be considered once budgets are clearer.
City Attorney Garganesi told the council that an ordinance adopted after the earlier discussion establishes a process and procedure under which future projects will be implemented. Under that ordinance, any decision to allocate costs to property owners would be determined later, when the council follows the procedural steps and reviews project budgets and grant awards. "Regardless of what may have been said prior to the adoption of that ordinance...the council will make that determination at another time," the attorney said, adding that the procedural law supersedes earlier informal record statements.
Council members and the city manager noted the city is pursuing state and federal grant funding for the project and that, in some scenarios, homeowners could end up paying little or nothing depending on awarded grants and the final assessment process. Several council members warned that rescinding the previous language could jeopardize votes or grant progress that had helped advance the project to its current phase.
The council did not take an immediate vote to rescind the earlier decision during the meeting; the attorney and staff described the assessment question as one reserved for the future ordinance-driven process.
What happens next: city staff indicated project timelines and grant applications remain underway; if the project advances to the implementation phase, the council will follow the newly enacted ordinance and vote then on any assessment or cost-allocation measure.
