A healthy carry-over from 2011 helped convince Bellevue Council members that no property tax increase is necessary for 2012.

Council voted unanimously at its Dec. 30 meeting not to enact a proposed .25 mill tax increase, although members reversed themselves and voted for a 25 cent increase in the sewer surcharge per 1,000 gallons of water used. Council member Lisa Blaney-Stewart was absent from her final meeting.

The first of three planned construction phases that will create a skate plaza in Bellevue’s Bayne Park was approved Tuesday evening, however reluctantly by some officials.

Citizens -- including some from Sewickley and Pittsburgh -- urged Bellevue Council to move forward with the project, which had been stalled after officials discovered they had been misinformed about the cost.

Although it appeared that few people on Bellevue Council actually wanted to pay a new part-time office clerk $15 per hour, a resolution doing just that was approved by officials at Tuesday’s work session.

Miscues, misinformation, lack of preparation, bad acoustics and outright distrust factored into a series of events that ended with the hiring of a temporary office clerk at the same salary paid to the former assistant director of administrative services.

DAS Doug Sample defended the higher hourly pay rate, arguing that job would entail more than just clerical work.

Bellevue’s engineer will be asked to provide alternate plans for parking and handicapped-accessible ramps in Bayne Park while council wrangles with what work should be done in conjunction with the construction of a skate plaza there.

Plans to extend the current lot and widen the driveway to accommodate two passing vehicles met with opposition from elected officials and residents due to the amount of “green” space that would be lost.

Bellevue Council will have to decide between PAMS and Jordan Tax Services for collection of borough fees and delinquent taxes, but first may have to decide exactly what fees the companies may collect.

Although the collection fees charged by PAMS are lower, according to council members, the finance committee recommended hiring Jordan to collect sewage, per capita and possibly garbage fees.

Council members Jane Braunlich and Linda Woshner both objected to hiring Jordan because of the higher collection and delinquency fees that would be charged to borough taxpayers.

With support from a number of people who attended Bellevue Council's work session Tuesday evening, council approved a fund-raising art festival that will include the sale of alcohol.

The proposed ordinance that will mandate the inspection of rental property in Bellevue has advanced through its second of three required readings, with officials still undecided about what fees to charge.

During Tuesday’s regular council meeting, council member Jane Braunlich expressed concern about the financial impact of charging the proposed $45 per unit to people who own large apartment buildings. She suggested charging $25 for the first unit, and $10 for each subsequent unit in the building that is inspected.

Bellevue property owners may pay a bit more this year in sewer surcharges, but it won't be as much as it could have been. With two members absent, a hotly divided Bellevue Council voted Tuesday to set a usage based surcharge at $2.25 per 1,000 gallons of water used at a property.

An ordinance adopted in December had set the fee at $3 per 1,000 gallons of water used, but that ordinance was vetoed by Mayor George Doscher shortly after it was approved. Doscher argued that it would be more "compassionate" to increase the fee in stages over a two-year period.

Bellevue Council has approved SwimAmerica to operate the Bellevue Memorial Park swimming pool this summer.

Council Member Jane Braunlich stated at council’s work session on Tuesday that raising the price of pool passes to pay for this company was not a good idea. Director of administrative services Doug Sample argued that the pass prices were comparable to what neighboring communities were charging. Other council members commented that SwimAmerica had managed the pool extremely well in the past.

Although Bellevue's 2011 budget remains intact, Mayor George Doscher has vetoed three supporting ordinances that have a tremendous impact on the coming year's spending plan.

Doscher notified Bellevue Council on Dec. 30 that he was vetoing the sewer surcharge ordinance, as well as the salary ordinance and the ordinance amending the borough's personnel code to add several new positions.

Despite an early start to this year’s budget process and every intention of actually getting a bud-get adopted before the end of the year, Bellevue officials hit a snag when it came time to vote on the first reading of the budget ordinance at Tuesday’s regular meeting.

Lingering concerns over a hefty increase in the sewer surcharge and salary increases were complicated by a change in adoption procedure introduced by the borough’s solicitor to send officials back to the drawing board before a substantive vote on the bud-get is taken, probably on Dec. 14.

For the second time in recent months, Bellevue Council did not have the votes necessary to approve paying the borough’s bills due to concerns about the hiring of a new solicitor last December. That solicitor, however, says that his hiring was completely legal and no further action is necessary.

With three council members and the mayor absent from the Sept. 28 meeting, a motion to pay the borough’s bills failed in a tie vote. Voting in favor were council members Kathy Coder, mark Helbling and David Gillingham Jr. Opposed were Jane Braunlich, Linda Woshner and Susan Viscusi.