York County Council gives final OK to bond issue, administration building

A York County bond issue passed final reading without any changes Tuesday, but not with any more agreement among members of county council members.

After weeks of discussion, the council approved a $108.9 million bond for a slew of construction and renovation projects that was approved by county voters in a November referendum, plus funds for a new county administration building. Like the previous vote two weeks earlier, the council split 4-3.

The vote marks final passage of an ordinance that went through two major changes in successive meetings, with $19 million for the administration building removed, then put back in to the bond package.

Council members Bruce Henderson, William “Bump” Roddey, Robert Winkler and Chad Williams voted in favor of the bond, while Britt Blackwell, Christi Cox and Michael Johnson voted against.

Blackwell said after the blowback the council received on the issue, “it’s worth the minimum delay to maintain the public’s trust.” Johnson said the council needed to “give taxpayers time to digest this.”

“This will fail to do that,” Johnson said. “I’m disappointed that council has decided to move in another direction.”

But Winkler, whose district includes York, said the project had already been vetted, and pointed out “all but one of us believed that on the first vote, until one certain group started to speak up against it.”

The initial proposal for a bond package included money to build a new administration building on South Congress Street in downtown York, next to the 60-year-old county Agricultural Building that currently houses offices and council chambers. An additional $5 million would be taken from the county’s fund balance to build the new admininstration building. County officals say debt service on the bond would be equivalent to $6 a year on a $100,000 home.

That proposal, which passed 6-1 at council’s Dec. 7 meeting, angered conservative activists who had supported the referendum and thought adding a bond for the administration building went beyond what voters had intended. Members of the GPS Conservatives for Action PAC called on York County to delay any action on an administration building until the voter-approved projects were completed.

On Dec. 21, the council voted 4-3 to remove the administration building from the bond package and instead assign the issue to a “study group” to report back to the council by April, despite a vote last March to move forward on the project after a review of the proposed building site by a construction management company.

But the administration building was revived when Roddey changed his vote at the next meeting Jan. 4, citing the expected money saved from bonding all the projects at once and the reluctance of the group that reviewed projects for November’s referendum to take up the issue again.

Roddey reiterated that point Tuesday night, and Winkler said he hoped the county would put the issue behind them.

“Let’s quit beating this thing to death,” he said.

This story was originally published January 19, 2016 at 8:32 PM with the headline "York County Council gives final OK to bond issue, administration building."