“This is why I get paid the big bucks,” Mayor Quordiniah Lockley said as he mulled an almost $13 million budget proposal trimmed by about $500,000 from its original presentation.
“We’re looking at $1 million in new income, and I just don’t feel comfortable with that.”
Lockley spent long moments considering the budget in front of him, shaking his head and chewing his lips before eventually casting the deciding vote in favor of adopting the budget devised and then revised by City Administrator David Myers.
“We may have to come back in three months and do some whacking,” he said.
The mayor voted for the budget despite noting that the city has recorded receipt of a little less than $11 million of the almost $12 million it budgeted for this year.
“The books aren’t closed, but we’re a million dollars short, and it’s Sept. 15,” he said.
Board members split 3-3 on the budget to set up Lockley’s deciding vote. Tabitha Felder Isaac, Bruce Mullins and Eddie Thompson voted in favor of the budget, while Matt Codding, Tommy McKenzie and Terri Waterman-Baylor voted against it.
Myers told board members he had cut $521,000 out of his original proposal by removing five newly approved police positions and two police car purchases. He also cut the travel and training budget for board members and the utilities budget in public works.
Raises of 6% for public works employees and 3% for others stayed in the budget.
“In my opinion, there’s no more that can be cut,” Myers said. “I added money in professional services so we can complete our audits. Money is there in administration because a lot of things are paid from there. I have cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.”
He acknowledged the city is short on its expected collections for this year, but said not everything received has been loaded into the city’s financial software. With two weeks left in the fiscal year, he said, “the gap is going to close.”
Myers said the city has not spent everything it projected to pay out, either, but the budget would have to go up to cover the raises. After cutting other items, “the raises are where we are,” he said.
McKenzie continued to question Myers’ revenue projections during the meeting.
“I can’t justify the increase in income we’re showing here,” he said. “No one is giving me a warm, fuzzy feeling about how we’re going to make up the money. If we’re going to give these raises, we need to cut something else.”
He joined Myers in applauding the building and opening of new businesses, but said neither the likely sales taxes nor the property improvements would justify Myers’ projections for increased revenue from both sales and property taxes.
Lockley said a problem with utilities billing could also make revenue estimates difficult. Credit card payments had been set to deposit into the general fund instead of the utilities account since credit cards payments have been accepted by the city, and the movement of those funds to the proper place could skew perceptions of how much money should be going to each account.
“The city board was presented a budget with make-believe income projections,” McKenzie said after the meeting. “We discovered the city needs an independent audit on the utility fund due to taxpayer money being mishandled for several years and was unreported until Friday’s meeting. How did the utility fund run dry in December? Everybody paid their water bill. Where’d the money go? The more questions asked about the financials, the more surprises uncovered.”
Lockley said the collection of utility payments was part of the city’s day-to-day operations, which are not the board’s responsibility.
“Tommy McKenzie is surprised because he was just informed,” he said. “He wouldn’t know if I hadn’t told him.”
Lockley said he helped Myers and City Clerk Rosezea Scott figure out that problem, which was uncovered due to deposits to the general fund that couldn’t be reconciled, because of his prior experience as city administrator, and he otherwise wouldn’t be involved in much of the day-to-day operations himself.
“If Tommy McKenzie wants to be informed about all the day-to-day operations, he needs to become a full-time employee,” the mayor said.
Passage of a resolution to levy property taxes for the city and the school district next year went more easily, with board members voting 5-1 for the same rates levied this year — 64.30 mills for the school district and 46.84 for the city, for a total of 111.14 mills. Codding voted against the tax resolution, saying he had questions about the school district’s use of federal funds tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
