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The DeLeon City Council met Monday,
September 25, 2006 for a budget workshop and to approve the proposed
budget. Mayor pro tem Howard Gifford was absent, as was Councilman
Avery Carlisle.
Results of previous budget workshops, as
well as Monday’s discussion, ultimately resulted in a small increase
in water rates and taxes, as well as budget cuts in many departments.
It has been noted several times by City officials that having to
budget for a loan to finish the Community Festival Gardens Park
project has made things especially difficult this year.
“At our last council meeting it appeared
that we had a little extra surplus,” Mayor Danny Owen said, “but after
doing some calculations we found ourselves with about a $34 to $37,000
deficit. So we had to go back and do some more looking.”
Owen then discussed some of the extra
cuts that were made to the budget.
“We’ve taken some from the street and
water department,” Owen said, “and I went ahead and had Karen take
everything out that was budgeted for the code enforcement. Also on the
swimming pool. We’re hoping with some of the changes we’ve made in the
departmental areas,” Mayor Owen said, “that maybe after we get started
into the new fiscal budget we can appropriate some money, at least for
the swimming pool area. We’re going to try to take care of code
enforcement strictly through the city. If we need the officers to
assist us with it, we’ll handle it that way instead of having it as a
budgeted salary.”
The mayor then asked Karen Wilkerson to
“bring us up to date on everything we’ve changed.”
Wilkerson touched on the same changes the
mayor had, adding that the possibility of a grant was being
investigated for renovations to the pool. Wilkerson then added, “We
went down to a three percent pay raise (for city employees), so that
took out quite a bit.”
Wilkerson also discussed the funds for
repair and maintenance on the animal shelter, saying that although the
money had been taken out of the budget completely at one point, that
it might be possible to put some back in. Work needs to be done on the
shelter in order for the city to begin “picking up cats again.” A
previous inspection by the state found that DeLeon’s current
facilities do not meet requirements for housing cats.
“On the utilities, we raised the water 15
percent,” Wilkerson said, “and we cut supplies and materials in half,
to $7,000. The only other change, was with the police department, for
vehicles and maintenance. It was $7,500 and we made it $5,100.” When
all the changes were figured, Wilkerson noted that, “You should be
$33,600.37 to the good.”
“This is figured with a three percent
employee (pay) increase and a 15 percent increase in the water rate,”
Councilman Holdridge said, “but does that include the tax increase?”
Wilkerson responded that it did reflect a
tax increase of less than two percent. That increase would result in a
little more than a one dollar increase, per year, on a $50,000 home.
“Since we didn’t take any kind of
increase last year,” Owen said, “if we didn’t take it this year, we’ll
sure be behind next year.”
Wilkerson then addressed the animal
shelter issue again. “If you took $5,000 and put it back in,” she
said, “you can do the work on it.”
“We have an animal control shelter and we
hired an animal control officer,” Holdridge said, “and we ought to be
able to offer animal control services. People call in and we say
‘sorry, we can’t pick up cats’ that doesn’t make sense. I move we do
whatever is necessary within reason to enable our animal control
center and animal control officer to control cats, as well as dogs. If
it requires $4,000 or $5,000 so be it.”
Mayor Owen thanked Burl Lowery, auditor
for DeLeon, for “all his help” working on the budget and everyone
discussed how difficult this particular budget has been. “I believe
this zero deficit will make us look a little better for our loan,”
Owen said.
“With that payment staring you in the
face for the next seven years, you’ve nearly got to balance the budget
to start with,” Lowery said.
Wilkerson explained later, that the
payment that Lowery referred to is an $86,000 annual principal and
interest payment for money to be borrowed to complete the park
project. This action will require the council to pass an ordinance,
which will be addressed during the September 28 regular meeting.
“In the 3 1/2 years I’ve been on the
council, it seems like we’ve been kind of forced to take the lesser of
several evils, several times,” Councilman Holdridge said, “and I
haven’t learned to like it yet. I don’t really like this budget. I’m
not happy or proud of the fact that we’ve put the city in debt for
something between a quarter and a half million dollars. But having
said that, I see no way around it. In the situation we find ourselves
in, this appears to be the best that we can do.”
The council then voted to “adopt the
budget for the coming fiscal year.”
Wilkerson then asked Lowery his opinion
on future grants.
Lowery said that he’d recommend the City
get advice from someone who dealt with grant management “day in and
day out” but he did note, in part, that “doing the matching grant is
great, but you’ve always got to come up with your match. You need to
look at them pretty closely to make sure it’s something you want to
do. That match has to come from current revenue or reserves, one or
the other.”
“Those are both pretty slim,” Mayor Owen
noted, adding that the buzz words for the next fiscal year would be
“spend sparingly if we can.” |
