The Jefferson City Council met last night in special session.

The Council approved hiring Roxanne Gorsuch as the new administrative assistant and payroll clerk for the City.  She has 27 years of experience in banking and works for People’s Trust and Savings Bank.  She will start at an hourly rate of $14.75 with two weeks of vacation.  Her job is effective September 22nd.

The Council also approved making three transfers for the 2013-14 fiscal year budget for three different projects.

The Council passed a 3-2 vote to go a head with final approval of an $800,000 Tax Increment Financing request from Cobblestone Hotel to build a 71-room hotel that is attached but is separately operated from Wild Rose Jefferson.

Mayor Pro Tem Shannon Black, council member Lisa Jaskey and Larry Teeples voted for the financial incentive and Gary Von Ahsen and Harry Ahrenholtz voted against it.

Black said that if they voted to deny the request, would that make them look like bad business partners and would people look at them as the reason why they put the brakes on the overall project from completion if they stopped it not.

Jaskey cited economic development impact and the overall job market would increase and Teeples echoed her statement by adding that if they voted no, then it may not help to locate other businesses to the community.

Von Ahsen voted against it, not because he was personally against the casino from the beginning, but because he felt he had a fiscal responsibility to the residents of the City and couldn’t justify why they were taking money away from people to giving to a project that was going to be built regardless of who the operator was.

Ahrenholtz cited having local investors a part of the hotel project was a positive message and he didn’t know if Wild Rose would be able to include investors if the vote was to deny the request and he thought that it wasn’t the right use of taxpayer money.

However, now that the vote has passed, Ahrenholtz says he will be behind the project going forward.

“It’s done now and I’m going to go for it.  I’m a team player in this thing and I always will be.  But I will also vote my conscience or my opinion.”

City Administrator Mike Palmer says the next step is for the Council to vote on the final proposal of the agreement by the next Council meeting.