Linley Valley Purchase Required Some Fancy Financial Footwork
Everyone agrees that preserving the tract of land in the Linley Valley is a wise, forward looking decision. However, putting the financing together seems to have required some fancy footwork on the part of city staff in order to facilitate the deal.
They had to amend the 2014 - 2018 Financial Plan which they had just approved two weeks ago in order to complete the deal. In order to put the $7.9 million in cash together they had to use funds in 22 different accounts, all of which except three now have a zero balance.
I made a presentation to council suggesting that funding the purchase through long term borrowing would have be a preferable way of financing this purchase. This would mean those who benefit from the park in the future would also be able to assist with paying for it. I presume the referendum this would have triggered would have made the deal harder to put together. Either that, or council did not want to risk a referendum turning down the borrowing authority.
It does make you wonder how many cookies the city has left in the surplus jars when they have to raid 22 different accounts to come up with $8 million..
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