City of Merced, county expect to reach revenue-sharing agreement

The city of Merced and Merced County hope to announce a revenue-sharing agreement Thursday morning after ongoing negotiations this week.

The announcement will come after two days of meetings on how to divvy up property tax revenue.

The on-again, off-again negotiations have been contentious. The city needs a deal to annex land and develop the Bellevue corridor near UC Merced, but the city and county have not been able to agree on what a 50/50 deal would look like.

This week’s meetings came after Merced City Manager Steve Carrigan accused Merced County and its CEO, Jim Brown, of standing in the way of an agreement. In a column published in the Merced Sun-Star last week, he called for county and city leaders to meet for negotiations after the Merced City Council took action to pursue a third-party mediation process.

After Tuesday’s meeting, both sides agreed they were close to a deal. Carrigan and Brown met along with council members, county supervisors, and city and county staff.

The two sides discussed a nontraditional revenue-sharing proposal currently being used in Kern County.

Lisa Cardella-Presto, county auditor-controller, said that method would use different language in the agreement but her office could carry out its terms.

Brown and Carrigan described Tuesday’s meeting as “productive.”

The two echoed those sentiments Wednesday, but the waters were rough leading up to that point.

Brown said he was surprised Wednesday morning when the city returned with another proposal that “appeared to reverse the (city’s) position.”

Cardella-Presto agreed the city’s proposal Wednesday was far different from the previous day of meeting. “I’m shocked,” she said. “This was not the gist of the meeting yesterday at all.”

Carrigan called Wednesday morning’s proposal “very specific.”

“The difference is, counties and cities are very different,” Carrigan said. “We’re in different businesses. It’s not comparing apples to apples. Cities and counties provide very different services.”

“It is a challenge in these negotiations when there is an inconsistent message,” Brown said.

Carrigan called the conversation Wednesday morning “spirited and contentious” and said the trick is not to take things personally.

Brown and Carrigan continued their conversation Wednesday, eventually massaging out the two sides’ differences.

“We’re truly interested in trying to resolve this issue and successfully negotiate an agreement in the best interest of the overall community,” Brown said.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 6:09 PM with the headline "City of Merced, county expect to reach revenue-sharing agreement."