The Westbrook City Council gave its final approval to the $48 million city budget Monday night, despite protests from two councilors that the budget does not bring the tax relief promised to residents last September.

Republican Councilors John O’Hara and Gary Groves cast the only two votes against the budget. Councilors Brendan Rielly, Drew Gattine, Suzanne Joyce, Ann Peoples and Council President Jim Violette, all Democrats, voted in favor of the budget.

The budget, which goes into effect July 1, sets the city’s tax rate at $23.43 per $1,000 of assessed value, a 33-cent reduction from last year’s tax rate of $23.76.

While the 2005-2006 budget does lower taxes, Groves and O’Hara said they could not support the budget because, in their opinion, it did not go far enough in bringing property tax relief. Both councilors took issue with the school budget, which used $980,000 of the additional state money. While the bulk of the additional money was needed to cover contractual costs in salaries and benefits, the budget also includes $130,000 to begin an all-day kindergarten program in September.

Groves said he wished the council had held true to the resolve it passed in September, pledging to use all of the $2.1 million in additional state education money that Westbrook received with the passage of LD 1 for property tax relief. The council passed that resolution by a vote of 6-0, with Violette absent from the meeting.

“I’m very disappointed in this budget and I feel very strongly that six of us made a commitment to the public that we were going to hold firm on tax relief,” Groves said. “We didn’t put the energy and time that was needed to do a better job in looking at this budget.”

O’Hara said the budget lowers the tax rate by “a token 33 cents, and that to me was shameful.”

Responding to Groves and O’Hara, Rielly said he felt the council did not break the promise it made in September to bring tax relief to the city. He said the resolve did not pledge to keep budgets flat, it pledged to use 100 percent of the additional money for tax relief, and in his opinion, that is what the council did. He said to cut either side any further would have jeopardized operations.

Rielly said he felt residents would be pleased with the tax cut. “I think people will be very excited when they open their bills and see a tax cut,” he said.

In other news, the council unanimously voted to give final approval to the city’s plan to purchase 40 acres off Saco Street to be developed into a business park.

The city has reached a purchase and sale agreement with the Boivin family to buy the land for $550,000. The Boivin family has been attempting to develop the land into the Westbrook Heights Business Park for the past three years, and about six weeks ago made the decision to pull out of the project and offer the land to the city.

O’Hara said while the project is not without risk, he is excited about the possibilities it brings. “The idea is to bring the best available product to the city of Westbrook,” he said.

The administration estimates that when the park is fully developed, the park will bring approximately 150 to 200 new jobs to the city. In addition to the new jobs, the park would bring in approximately $210,000 to $265,000 in real estate taxes annually, $100,000 to $132,000 in personal property taxes and $50,000 to $100,000 in excise taxes for vehicles and equipment.

Rielly said he also supported the project, saying the new tax revenue generated by the park would bring tax relief to residents. “The best way to bring taxes down is to diversify our tax base and grow our business tax base,” he said.

The council also unanimously voted to give final approval to an agreement with developer Tim Flannery on parking for One Riverfront Plaza. The council voted, 6-0, to approve the deal, with Rielly abstaining because of a conflict of interest.

Rielly explained that he abstained from the vote because another lawyer at Jensen, Baird, Gardner and Henry, the law firm where he works, worked with Flannery on another project in Portland.

Rielly said he decided to abstain from the vote to make sure there would be no apperance of a conflict because of the firm’s prior work with Flannery. Rielly said there is no conflict of interest from the fact that Jensen, Baird, Gardner and Henry is the city’s law firm and represented the city in the talks with Flannery.

The agreement amends the city’s agreement with Flannery in regard to the municipal parking garage next to the office building. It also clears up questions raised in a 2002 letter from former Mayor Don Esty promising Flannery the use of nearly half the spots in the so-called “CVS” lot between Main Street and William Clarke Drive without the knowledge of the City Council.

The new agreement gives the owner of One Riverfront Plaza the right to lease 90 parking spaces from the city. Those spaces are not limited to the CVS lot; they can be located anywhere within a 1,000-foot radius of the office building.

In addition, the new agreement grants the owner of the office building eight five-year options to extend the lease agreement for the parking garage after the initial 20-year lease expires. While the new agreement gives the owner the right to extend the lease, it also gives the owner the right to purchase the parking garage outright from the city at a fair market value when the initial 20-year lease expires

The new agreement calls for the owner of the office building to make an up-front payment of $250,000 to the city, and it commits Flannery to invest a minimum of $1 million in new development in downtown Westbrook within five years.