CAPE ELIZABETH – Despite a charter provision overwhelmingly adopted by voters just 15 months ago, which requires that capital spending of $1 million or more on a single project go to a public vote, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council has decided that a $1.75 million bond requested by the School Board will not go to referendum.

The provision, preemptively proposed by the council when residents grew antsy about a 2012 proposal to borrow $6 million to rebuild the library, was passed by voters 4,157 to 1,372.

According to the change, a referendum is triggered by “any vote by the council for a single capital expenditure of town funds or a single capital improvement not arising from a fire or other casualty loss, nor arising from a federal or state mandate” that totals $1 million.

However, the proposed bond is made up of several projects, none of which exceeds the mandated $1 million limit.

At a Jan. 29 workshop, the Cape Elizabeth School Board presented a request that the town authorize borrowing $1.75 million to repair roofs on all three schools in town. The bond also would be used to install a new heating recovery unit at the middle school and electrical upgrades at the high school.

“We’ve had three failures in the last five years,” Michael Moore, chairman of the School Board Finance Committee, referring to the electric feed that services the high school. “It’s from 1968,” said Moore. “It’s old and deteriorated. We need to replace it to avoid having a massive failure.”

Moore also pointed out that the school roofs are, on average, 26 years old.

According to Bruce A. Coggeshall, an attorney from Portland-based Pierce Atwood, who was solicited for an opinion in a Jan. 27 email from Town Manager Michael McGovern, the school request does not meet the threshold for a public vote.

“As long as the council approves each expenditure as a separate item, and each is under $1 million, I do not believe a referendum is required,” he wrote.

Coggeshall then advised that the council vote separately on each project, but stipulate its rights to transfer excess funds between projects, provided no more than $1 million is spent in any one place.

“There are totally different contractors, different bid procedures,” McGovern summarized for the council at the Jan. 29 meeting. “These are multiple projects. We’re just looking at the money being borrowed at the same time.”

Despite a lengthy presentation from Moore, based on the school board’s $11.8 million capital investment plan through 2024, not all councilors are on board with the borrowing request.

Councilor Katharine Ray, in particular, seemed nonplussed.

“I’m very uncomfortable that we don’t have the information that we need,” she said, suggesting that the school board should have obtained three estimates from contractors for the work to be done.

“If someone says I need X number of dollars, I want to know what it’s based on,” said Ray, who also rebutted Moore’s argument that the bond makes sense because an outstanding school bond will be paid off in 2016.

“I don’t immediately assume when we retire a bond that we can use that money for something else,” said Ray.

The council is slated to review the bond proposal, which the school board voted to champion back in November, when it convenes as a finance committee in March.

Given the ruling on the charter rule, the $1.75 million could become part of the annual budget approved by the council.

In his “big picture” overview of the 2015 spending plan, McGovern predicted a flat tax rate on a $9.2 million municipal budget. Overall spending will increase 1.64 percent. However, that’s mitigated by a $150,000 savings since ecomaine, the regional trash and recycling center, is no longer assessing municipalities, and $60,000 the council had appropriated for ambulance services in town is ultimately not needed when it turned out that insurance billing for rides covered the increased cost of the service.

Additionally, McGovern has projected a $118,000 growth in non-property tax revenues, $40,710 in new taxable value for properties and a $158,710 windfall in the property tax overlay, because Cape Elizabeth bases its tax rate on the previous year’s assessment.

However, McGovern’s projection does not include potential losses in state revenue sharing.

“The Legislature, whenever they’re in session, that’s danger,” he said.

McGovern did add that employee insurance costs are expected to jump 20 percent in January 2015, which could lead to changes in plans before then.

Still, even with anticipated revenues resulting in the flat tax bill, at least on the municipal side, some councilors hoped for ways to cut further to hedge against school spending. However, that search did not range far.

“Nothing comes to mind as to what we could do to save a chunk of money,” said Councilor David Sherman.