City budget rejected before approved

Tax asking remains the same

The 2018-19 Grant city budget of nearly $9.3 million was rejected on a 1-2 vote and later passed on a 3-1 vote at the city meeting Sept. 11. The property tax asking was also accepted on 3-1 vote, remaining the exact same as last year at $235,320. 

On the rejection vote for the budget, Councilman Darrell Pierce voted yes while council members Matt Greenwood and Andrea Brueggeman voted no. Brueggeman later changed her vote to yes. Mayor Mike Wyatt voted yes for the needed third vote to pass the budget. 

Following the meeting, Brueggeman stated she first voted no because she felt Greenwood was not given the opportunity to address his concerns on the budget during the public hearing.

Street sweeper

Transferred from the electric budget to the street budget was $155,000, leaving the electrical budget upside down by this amount. 

Included in the street budget were funds for a new street sweeper. Greenwood said he was against the purchase of a new street sweeper if it was going to leave the electric budget upside down. 

Wyatt said the maintenance and repairs of the current street sweeper are costing them $7,000 a year. 

“I would expect that. To me, that’s really not that bad,” Greenwood replied. 

Councilman Pierce said the balance would be taken out of the electric fund’s cash reserves. City Clerk/Treasurer Jessie Faber said the electric fund is what funds “a good chunk” of the departments because not enough is raised by property tax.

As of July 31, the city’s cash reserves were at $5 million. 

Wyatt asked Greenwood if he understood that by no means would the street sweeper put the city in a negative position. 

Greenwood said he realized that, but he did not think they needed to purchase a street sweeper. 

CRA loans

Greenwood also expressed concern with money being taken from the city’s pooled checking and economic development funds for the CRA. 

Listed on the CRA budget is a loan from the economic development fund in the amount of $225,000 and a loan from the city’s pooled checking for $457,470. 

It was confirmed by City Attorney Phil Pierce and Faber that the money can not be moved from these accounts without further approval from the council after a request from the CRA. The CRA can apply for a bond without approval from the council. 

Budgeted in capital outlay for the CRA is $800,000 for infrastructure of a new subdivision, which Greenwood said he is against. 

Wyatt asked Greenwood if he has studied the housing needs. Greenwood replied that he has, and he sees the need for basic housing, not large housing. 

“If the city doesn’t invest in itself, who else is going to invest in it?” asked Wyatt.

Brueggeman questioned if the CRA could buy dilapidated properties in town and rebuild them. Faber said they would have to be in the blight area. 

Library

Councilman Pierce noted there was $1,000 in the library budget for capital outlay. He said the library either needs the carpet cleaned or replaced, and asked Library Director Robin Quinn who takes care of that.

Quinn said they have cleaned the carpet many times, but it’s old. She also emphasized they have to be very careful with the carpet cleaning process due to the humidity damaging the books. 

She noted the library board didn’t anticipate being able to increase their capital outlay expense for new carpet, but perhaps it was something to look into for next year. 

Pierce said 2,080 hours were budgeted for the library in salaries. He alleged they don’t work 2,080 hours so asked why that many were budgeted.

“Ten to one and 1:30 to four is only seven hours. You only work about 37 hours a week according to your sign in the window, and 40 hours times 52 weeks is how you get to 2,080,” he said. 

Quinn explained they are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1:30-5:30 p.m., but they are there working before 10 a.m. doing things they don’t have time to do during business hours.

She said she usually works from 7:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., with a half hour for lunch. She’s scheduled for 40 hours and the two part-time employees are scheduled for around 20. 

Pierce then asked if she worked all those hours at the library or worked from home, because the council hadn’t approved city employees to work from home. 

Library employee Val Foster asked if other city employees were paid overtime. 

Attorney Pierce told the mayor they were in a public hearing for the budget. Quinn replied the matter being discussed related to the budget and Councilman Pierce asked. She offered to explain her weekly work schedule, to which Pierce said they did not have time for that. 

Budget voting

After the budget hearing, the council voted on the resolutions to set the tax request the same as the previous year, adopt the budget and approve a 1 percent increase in the base limitation in restricted funds. 

The tax request resolution passed on a 3-1 vote and the resolution for the budget originally failed on a 1-2 vote as stated previously. 

Greenwood made a motion to approve the budget with an amendment to remove the CRA income loans and to change the capital outlay from the street fund from $250,000 to $95,000. The motion died due to lack of a second. 

Brueggeman then made a motion to approve the original resolution to the budget, which passed 3-1. 

A 1 percent increase in the base limitation in restricted funds was approved 3-1, with Greenwood voting no.

An ordinance to compensate all officers and employees and to waive its three readings were both approved 3-1, with Greenwood voting no.

 

 

The Grant Tribune-Sentinel

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