Title
Consider Minutes of Special City Council Meeting of September 6, 2016.
...Summary
City of Killeen
Special City Council Meeting
Killeen City Hall
September 6, 2016 at 5:00 p.m.
Presiding: Mayor Jose L. Segarra
Attending: Mayor Pro-Tem Brockley Moore, Councilmembers Jim Kilpatrick, Juan Rivera, Shirley Fleming, Gregory Johnson, Jonathan Okray, and Richard Young
Also attending were Interim City Manager Lillian Ann Farris, City Attorney Kathryn Davis, City Secretary Dianna Barker, and Sergeant-at-Arms Ache.
Approval of Agenda
Motion was made by Mayor Pro-Tem Moore to approve the agenda as written. Motion seconded by Councilmember Fleming. The motion carried unanimously.
Public Hearings
PH-16-030 HOLD a public hearing on the tax rate for the fiscal year October 1, 2016, through September 30, 2017, and set the date of September 13, 2016, to adopt the tax rate. (2nd of 2 Public Hearings)
Staff comments: Jonathan Locke
City Council set the preliminary tax rate for the FY 2017 Proposed Annual Budget and Plan of Municipal Services at the current adopted rate of 0.7498. The effective rate for FY 2017 is 0.7368. The first of two public hearings was held on August 30, 2016.
Mayor Segarra opened the public hearing.
Bryan Thym, 3902 Salt Fork Dr. - urged council members to look at budget closely and gave three options council could consider to help reduce deficit; vehicle expenditures, wage freezes, and sales tax.
Chalitta Moore, 2212 Silverhill Dr. - opposed tax rate increase and suggested city have a check and balance system that regulates all money in the budget.
Milsa Hazarn, 1212 Wales Dr. - opposed tax rate increase and suggested discontinuing some items such as travel expenses and city cars for employees.
With no one else appearing, Mayor Segarra closed the public hearing.
PH-16-031 HOLD a public hearing on the FY 2017 Proposed Annual Budget and Plan of Municipal Services for the fiscal year October 1, 2016, through September 30, 2017.
Staff comments: Jonathan Locke
Local Government Code requires that one public hearing be held prior to the adoption of the final budget. The budget adoption is scheduled for September 13, 2016.
Mayor Segarra opened the public hearing.
Dan Corbin, 6009 Stillwood Cr. - requested an extra minute to speak. Submitted for the record and read a written document of his comments. See attached.
Claudia Brown, 2502 Waterfall Dr. - requested an extra minute to speak. Spoke on behalf of Thundercreek Community Association. Ms. Brown thanked council members for their work and asked the council to not spend what the city doesn’t have.
Daryl Peters, 3513 Bamboo Ln. - requested an extra minute to speak. Mr. Peters asked council to make sure a check and balance system is done with expenditures and budget.
Brigitte Roman, 1302-A Loyal Ln. - requested an extra minute to speak. Ms. Roman suggested the city’s accounting methods are not working correctly, departmental reports should be consolidated and that this financial problem has been going on for a while, not just a recent development; wants more transparency.
Renata Reams, 6705 Alvin Dr. - feels council should collect back taxes owed by citizens, wants more transparency, and suggested the city concentrate more on code enforcement.
Mellisa Brown, 6105 Melanie Dr. - requested extra minute to speak. Ms. Brown is concerned about budget, threats of loss of jobs for first responders, clarity of financial documents presented monthly, and suggested looking at outsourcing.
Sandra Johnson, 4702 Jim Ave - requested extra minute to speak. Ms. Johnson wants an audit done and suggested looking at combining jobs within city employees.
Bob Kelly, 504 Elan - requested extra minute to speak. Mr. Kelly suggested austerity measures should be used to fix lost money and asked why certain expenditures could not be put on hold for a year.
Nance Travis, 408 Southbrook Dr. - Asked the council to cut back every place the city possibly can, have an audit done by outside firm, and thanked the council for their work.
At this point, Mayor Segarra gave everyone 4 minutes.
Larry Smith, 4306 Teal Dr. - believes city staff is stonewalling the council and suggested the council implement measure to balance the budget without hurting tax payers.
Arturo Cortez, 406 Alexander - believes council has failed the citizens and believes the council is controlled by staff.
James Ralston, 408 Yates Rd. - discussed previous year’s income and expenditures and feels the council requests some citizens to make sacrifices but not others.
Araceli Cook, 2803 Derby Dr. - wants council to have an outside audit conducted and feels there’s no communication between council members.
Chalitta Moore, 2212 Silverhill Dr. - wants to know exactly where the deficit money has gone and would like to see two committees formed, Regulatory committee to review expenditures and Enforcement committee to make sure what the city is paying for is received. Also suggested if investments do not generate revenue, stop investing in it.
Bob Blair, 1307 Ruiz Dr. - request the city look into an outside municipal budget service company, doesn’t feel the council has the skills to navigate budget issues and is concerned about loss of confidence in staff.
Ty Birdsong, 1600 Jeffries - doesn’t blame the council for the current budget problems but requests the council trim the budget.
Hal Butchart, 309 S. 2nd Street - concerned about unfunded money for retirees, employees that make 6-figure salaries, and suggested consolidating staff responsibilities and cut salaries.
Steven Suralie, 3905 Edgefield Street - feels council should be accountable for money it’s going to spend, show justification for the item the money is spent on, and suggested selling city property the city doesn’t really need to help with deficit, i.e. golf course & skylark.
Bill Paquette, 515 Ray - asked council to first determine if expenditures are a need or a want before spending money.
Frank Plowick, 6303 Flat Slate Dr. - concerned about budget cuts having an adverse effect on citizens and suggested council strongly consider any budget cuts.
With no one else appearing, Mayor Segarra closed the public hearing.
Mayor Segarra announced that the city council will vote on the FY 2017 tax rate and budget with any proposed changes at its regular city council meeting on Tuesday, September 13th at 5:00pm, City Hall Council Chambers.
Adjournment
With no further business, upon motion being made by Councilmember Young, seconded by Councilmember Rivera, and unanimously approved, the meeting was adjourned at 6:36 p.m.