City Council - Special Meeting

I call this meeting to order. City of Bastrop City Council special meeting. Can I get a roll call to determine the time, please?

Ms. Angela Tappan, District A.

Here.

Mr. Henry Doty, District B. Here.

Mr. James Green, District C. Here.

for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Just come along.

I ain't going to try to get my tongue moving in here yet.

A couple of comments as we relate to the matter on the agenda. Anybody in the public got anything? You want to come forward too, sir? All right. There's nobody in the front. Five, approve resolution 26-21-58.

Good evening, members. Mr. Chairman, Madam Pro Tem.

This is Q4, general fund budget.

Just quickly, the highlights. These are the actual numbers of the revenue that we collected, which is $14.4 million. And we expended... million dollars we ended the fiscal year with uh 4.2 million dollars uh again overall we were under budget uh but to answer your question uh to go back to something uh thank you mr councilman lock there was one two departments that was slightly over budget uh That was the garage, which is public works now, and I believe the sewer. But overall, the police department was 1% over, and the sewer was 0.02% over. But overall, expenditures were down. 5.7%, which again, that's 3% over what we, uh, budgeted in. So due to cost cutting measures that we had, uh, it was about, uh, three, three and a half percent difference, um, and, uh, more additional savings, uh, that we, uh, didn't anticipate. And. that could be attributed across the board. But again, those cost saving measures are going to be, uh, they are continuing. Um, we have, um, and don't look at opportunities to add more cost saving measures moving forward. But again, um, um, not to get into the current fiscal year but the current fiscal year we submitted a budget proposal that didn't have any uh one-time money in it and the one-time money that was subsequently appropriated was tied directly to one-time spending so again this budget um i believe was a good representation of how this administration physical responsibility is going to be employed and how we're going to move forward because again the main thing is is The main thing that I focused on is again, one of the first things that I sat here in July initially and pointed out that we had $1.6 million of one-time money and most of that was tied to reoccurring expenses. So that was one of the major concerns that we, you know, and through efforts of administration and the council, you have to be committed as well. Because again, we submitted, this will be the third amended budget. Again, Mr. Green reminds me that I missed Q2. But I was glad that the council was patient because this is something that, has never been done before and in my estimations and again it was something that we had a vision to do and you know we implemented we got out the gates pretty good but kind of got hung up toward the end of the year and then we picked back up with q3 q3 and q4 I know Ms. Councilman Dee Green is out, but when I submitted these budgets, I had a conversation with him, because if y'all can recall, he and I had a conversation during the budget proposal in regards to these projections that I make quarterly. And based on that, we had a conversation, and I told him that I ran it again based on I think the end of April numbers and the variance based on from what I did was less than a half a percent. So I told them, moving forward, I'm confident in my forecast models that I use, again, because they're based on data. And again, and they look at the five-year actuals and they also look at the trends of the last two fiscal years. And to give you a good indication of the work that we've done is just looking at the revenue side of it. Even though this is a 2% collected less than what we projected, and that was mainly due to some of the monies that are going to come in, but for whatever reason haven't come in. I'll give you one example. There's a $70,000 insurance rebate. That is a pass-through money that we get from the police jury, and for whatever reason, we have conversation with them, and that comes from the state. So that's one item that, had we received, would have been closer to my numbers. But again, the state variance is 5%. Um, even though this is two and a half, uh, percent variance, um, is in the ballpark that, you know, we try to stay within plus or minus that standard deviation. So I feel real good about the, um, forecast models that we use moving forward, uh, regards to calculating, um, revenue, uh, again, We spent about 5.7% less than anticipated, which is a good thing, because, again, anything that's over that 2% threshold is based on some of the things that we tried to put in place. We're trialing there, and then we're going to continue that and look at opportunities to build upon that. So with that, members, again, there's a... surplus of almost a half a million dollars and with some of the money that still probably come going to come in during the fiscal year that's not going to be appropriated but you'll see that being reflected in the fund balance because we do anticipate that money coming in along with a couple of other categories that may reach uh a little over a hundred thousand dollars once it's all said and done which would further increase that fund balance i have a point of information um mr smith you mentioned that the police department um salaries went over right no i said the overall budget was over about one percent

They were over by 1%. Yes, ma'am. Okay, my question is, I know on page 12 or 13, I know we budgeted for their department to run 24-7, and they're not running 24-7. So I am questioning, how can the salaries be over 1%?

Salaries are not over 1%. Salaries were under 8%.

You're talking about overall budget.

The overall budget. I just did overall numbers. When I went through my little opening, I just did top-end stuff. But to your specific point, that's line 4 or 8, it was under budget by 8%. And then related benefits, another 3%. So they were under budget, what is that, 11, almost 12%.

I guess when you're just generalizing, because that's going to be my next question. Right, that's what I always do.

I do top-end stuff. I don't go.

I'm saying, so I guess what Ms. Tappan is talking about, when you say the budget was over 1%, what was it, the operational cost versus the salary? So that's going to. give you the overall projection of that department. So operational costs, what was it versus the seller?

If you look at that increase was due to Because first I've got to calculate what's 1% of $2 million. So that had to be... Calculate that. I have to come back to you and do that because I have to run these numbers again. Cause see, that could have been something rounded up, but, um, I, I get to you again. Uh, I just have to go back and back out the decimals on that to make sure that it was actually 1%.

And I think for future references, um, when we do amended budgets, I would like to know like what particular line items cause the concern.

Great.

You know, I want to know which, why are you concerned, even if it's less than 5%, what line items triggered your concern?

Right. Oh, I could do that. I could do that moving forward. Yes, ma'am.

And the next question, what procedure, though, how are we going to address those over-budgeted areas?

Doing one of the quarterly reviews.

Okay, I know we do the quarterly review, but now what procedure are we going to use to make sure that those departments stay in budget? Is that an administrative question?

That's a question for the chief because he should be looking at his budgets and seeing what category That is. But just off the top of my head, Madam Pro Tem, I can tell you workers' comp was one. Okay. And again, that workers' comp was out of whack in every area. His office expense was a little elevated. I mean, a couple other things. But I mean, I think it was less than 1%. because I'm sure these numbers rounded up. But I can tell you those two categories probably attributed to that amount. And the chief could tell you what caused those things.

OK, Mr. Mayor. I need to address the floor. Can you be a little bit more specific? How many workman's comp cases do we have?

That's something I can't give you because I don't know. Again, I'm going to have a conversation with... the insurance company, and that's probably something that we have to discuss. Like I alluded to in the public hearing, that's something we have to talk about and disclose in the executive session.

Again, this, I'm looking at police forfeiture. I can't see.

You got 10 pages in line, though.

2 of 13, number 46. This is the closeout.

And what I'm, I'm sorry. I'm trying to see where you're at.

Page 2 of 13, item number 46. Okay. Police forfeiture. I've been I've been seeing that zero number there for a pretty good while now and again all I'm asking is For the entire year and probably two before that An arrest that involves some type of forfeiture Whether it be a vehicle, whether it be drugs, whether it be cash, are we saying we haven't made any of those type of arrests? Any at all?

Well, that's a forfeiture process that's probably a question that the prosecutor would have to be able to answer.

all i can tell you is we haven't collected any money that's the only thing i can do yeah right that's one of the reasons why we asked for the department here to be here so we can ask those specific questions to them that's the you said the prosecutor attorney right yeah

Yes, if they're on here for something, they will be here. If they're not on here, they don't especially mean they would not be here.

Yeah, I'm just talking about going forward.

If they don't like that Councilman Locke, yes, they will be here if you need them.

But something like that, Mr. Doty, again, to me, especially if you wanted me to get the information, that's something we could talk about during finance. Right, right, right. Again, I'm just bringing it up. Yeah, finance, and then I have it at. You know, either following finance meeting or following council.

Right, we're going over the Fourth Ward closeout, and that is one of the numbers that I'm concerned about because, again, I've been seeing it at zero for a pretty good while now. And so if I don't ask it now, then, you know, again, it's to put the information out there so, again, when we meet again, maybe we can have those exact numbers because I'll say it one last time. If there is an arrest by the Baxter PD and they have taken something from an individual, then that should show up somewhere for the city of Baxter.

simple as the question that you posed but it's still an answer can be given right okay it's just not as simple as that it got an arrest and we should be collecting now i agree with you that you know anytime we can bring in revenue we need to bring in revenue but um i just don't know okay we can move on we don't beat that to death same thing same thing again since we're on that uh i would include the police drug seizure in that in that uh as well um And I'm all about identifying potential revenue sources, Mr. Doty, so I'll get you on that.

Okay. Number 48 as well, to police pay incentive grant. What is that?

That I have to ask. That's something that the chief probably would know, but I can look it up and get back to you on that one in finance.

Okay.

If anybody else has any, I have one, um, page three of 13 line item 92. I see we budgeted 120,000 92. Okay.

Let me see. Yeah.

It says we're on the budget. What? 31%. Correct. But when we calculated those salaries, It amounted to, I think, one...

This is closed out for the fiscal year.

I know it, but it was a whole year. So why are we under budget for these salaries knowing that the attorneys got paid?

This is July 1st, 2025 to June 30th.

I understand that, but it's for an entire fiscal year for closeout. So it should not be under 31% if we paid everybody is what I'm saying.

Well, I will have it on the budget. I will have to go and look at that because it's under, but it shouldn't be under.

We calculated all the salaries you did. Yes. And it was 136.

I think it was.

So how is it under budget if we paid everybody?

every month i have to go back and look uh because again this is this is q this is fy2526 professional services didn't include everybody that that should have been moving forward because you have i'm gonna give you example uh i think mr jones has paid out a different line item

No, he wasn't supposed to be.

It got changed. That's how it was originally. Let me go to it.

Mr. Smith, again, The budget, the budget on fiscal year 20, 25, 26 was $120,000 for professional services. That included three contracts.

There was no, no, it did not conclude three contracts. I'm going to Mr. Jones was not paid out of professional service. Mr. Jones should have been paid out of professional services. This is closed out. This is the money that's actually spent Mr. Doty. Um, without, cause these kinds of questions, if, if I would've known ahead of time, I could tell you, I just know there were two people paid out of professional service for last fiscal year, moving forward. There are multiple people. There are at least three people paid out of professional services. Um, and if you give me a second legal, not 90, this is how we, this is what we inherited. We didn't change it. Mr. Jones is paid out of 94.

okay so wait wait wait wait wait wait okay let me let me chime in this chairman okay so the council

Well, I'm looking at it. They actually thought they was calculating up three sellers out of here. But Mr. Smith is telling y'all that it actually was not done in a way. Actually, even if we calculated it up, if you figure it up, that's what you're going to come up with them three salaries. But actually, he said he didn't change that. He just kept paying. Mr. Jones has been paid out of... uh... uh... he'd been paid out of additional legal services now he'd say he can't he can't answer for that as to why i can't answer yes yes sir we have had too many conversations

about these salaries and professional services to just now coming to the end of the fourth quarter to realize that Mr. Jones is being paid out of a different category. We've had too many discussions about professional services. And now we're getting to the end of the fourth quarter closeout. And you mean to tell me we're just now realizing that Mr. Jones is being paid out of a different category? Because that would have... Can you yield for a second and I can clear this up? Let me finish this up because I don't want to forget because if we calculated those three contracts for the following fiscal year, why would we calculate it for the following fiscal year and then calculate it for the previous fiscal year?

Two things. You're looking at two different things that don't relate to each other. FY25-26, this is this budget. You're talking about discussions based on the budget recommendation for the fiscal year that we're in now. That's what you're talking about. Because when I did that budget recommendation, I did not pay Mr. Jones. This is under professional services. You're talking about two different situations that don't relate. That was pursuant to the budget. Recommendation for this fiscal year that we're in now, because that's how I did that budget. Every line item in this budget I inherited and I used those same categories. He was getting paid out of that category. When I presented that budget to you all in March, and that's where the calculations came in, Mr. Doty. We were talking about a whole different budget that you all adopted at the end of June. So that's why you calculated because that's what was in it. Those had three salaries in there.

So again, why would we calculate?

Because we were doing the budget development.

No, no, no, for 25-26.

We didn't do that for 25-26. That's what I'm trying to tell you.

How much money was in the budget for 25-26? $120,000.

Why was it $120,000? largely because it had to be more than just two salaries we were calculating yes there were we anticipated hiring uh we anticipated possibly uh using uh miss flowers that we didn't do then we anticipated bringing on mr mrs doe this this i'm not making this this is the conversation that we had when in july when that budget was put together We had these conversations. These are separate conversations that you're merging, and they're separate. There was never three, there was never three full, I won't say full-time, because we're all part-time. The 120 was 120 since the first budget that we put out, and it had... My salary, Mr. Mayo's salary, anticipated for, remember we had Mr. Glossman we were trying to bring on, and then if we needed assistance with Ms. Flowers, because we talked with her during the first three months to help reconciliation of the bank accounts. We ended up didn't doing that. That's the reason why you have this surplus because we didn't enter into contracts we anticipate. Now you're talking about once we put out the budget for this current fiscal year that we're in, which is different than what we're talking about today. That's when we got in calculating. Yeah, calculate those three based on this, that, and other. And I had a little extra in there because I've always, that's my 2%, I spread it through everything to be liberal on my expenditures and conservative in that. That's that. You're just confusing the two. And I understand. No, no, no, no, no, sir. Yes, yes, you are.

No, no, I'm not confusing the two because, again, What you have is 26, 27 is totally different. I understand that. What happened? from 25 26 to 26 27 to recognize that we were paying mr jones from 25 26 we were paying him out of the other category what precipitated the change to pay him out the budget recommendation that i've submitted for this current physical gear i put everybody that need to be in professional services and professional services because i was weeding out unnecessary object categories because

That's the sort of thing I told you I was going to start purging object categories because we have too many that we don't need. Mr. Jones didn't need a separate object category for his budget. So that's when the conversation came up is when I submitted the budget recommendation that we started looking at In April. That's when that discussion, that's when the calculation, I can tell you what happened. Man of Pro Temp was calculating, and when we first looked at it, because we had budget meetings, a couple of them, before we adopted. So that's what I'm saying. It's no fault. You're just confusing the two and that's just all you're doing. You're just confusing the two. This is the closeout for FY 2526. These are the actual numbers. You can look at Mr. John, you can look at Ms. Matt approach him, acts the two people that are professional services. You calculate that up for 12 months. That's what that is. You calculate what Mr. Jones billed for those 12 months. That's what he got. Period.

Okay, so again, let me put this out there. I do thank you for the clarification, but let me say this once again. I am not confused about the process. I understand more now, but can I ask the question, was there anybody on this council that was aware that Mr. Jones was being paid out of a different category?

Yes.

Cause I said, because I'm talking about the council members. Is there anybody on this council that realized that point of information?

When I look at this and I'm glad you brought up miss flowers there. Cause that's additional services. I think the disconnect is because I'll be, you know, I believe in accountability, so I'll be the first to say, hey, I actually, when I seen professional services, I thought that it was two attorneys which would come up to, you know, I ain't going to call the sellers out, you know, but what, you know, what you guys had. Then the other 24, I thought that. So that was my, that was, when I interpreted, that was my interpretation, but I never really said nothing about it because I just looked at the numbers. I'm just thinking, well, okay, well, I'm going to be honest with you, you know, I just, I thought actually that's where y'all was getting paid and it says additional. Correct. Legal fees. So I'm thinking that we put that money aside just in case we had to go how higher outside consultants, which that would include them because it, if you read it, it kind of makes sense to William. Right.

And that's probably what y'all intended to before we got here. But when we got here, that's how he was getting paid.

I don't know why.

I was doing the calculation of I'm kind of like with him and I thought me when we looked at the numbers, I didn't realize because I was just thinking, hey, we got this here in professional services with you guys were professional services along with Mr. Mayo was in there, but it didn't quite The numbers didn't go all the way up, but then I was like additional. So additional mean help, like in case you need. So I'm thinking the 48 was just in case we had to do it. That was my assumption when I looked at it. But like you say, it wasn't the case. Maybe it should have been like, and I recommend going forward that it be like that, that we put additional money for additional services if it's required.

Right, and that's totally within the prerogative of the council. I'm not saying that you can't.

I understand what you're saying. You're saying it wasn't paid like this, but we didn't realize, and I'm just going to tell you, I didn't really, because I'm thinking that it should have been a self-explanatory. I'm thinking that professional services, I didn't realize that he was being paid, and on the financial, I didn't realize that. You know, because I would think that he would be paid out of this, but he wasn't. And Hey, that's, and that's, that's why correct.

Again, I don't want to be critical of what we inherited. It is what it is. Going forward, that's where we put it at. So in the event that you need to have additional legal, the category is there. There's just no money in there right now.

I guess I'm just trying to bridge the gap because I can see his point and I can see your point. You're saying, hey, it was not paid like that. But when you, a lay person or a councilman, look at it like this, you see it look like that they would have been paid out of this. But you're saying it never was paid.

I thought the same thing. No, we're saying the same thing because the reason why I took it out because We can and we did, I think we turned, you know, lemonade made lemonade out these lemons in a sense because there's a lot of stuff that we inherited that reason why we're here in some of these regards.

Let's not lose the fact that this is pertaining to last year. Now this is the fourth quarter.

Right. And that's the reason why it was being paid out of there because that's how it was when we got here. Why I don't know, that makes sense what you're saying because that's what I would think, that it would be some type of outside service. All your inside services should be professional service. That's why I changed it.

Okay.

Yeah. Okay. See, that's why, I guess that's why you're looking at the variations like the 31%.

16 so all questions were valid no no no i just didn't want to confuse the situation because that was never the the when we did the budget in july it was that was never come we just took what we got we changed the numbers made them balance and we moved forward and we corrected a lot Yeah, I got a couple. Moving forward.

So we look at our budget, the first quarter coming up, all these remedies should have been rectified. Well, it has been. Okay.

Yeah, it has been because that's the budget you adopted.

We might have to tweak some other things as we go forward.

Correct. I mean, yeah. That's why you revise your budget quarterly is to do that. All right.

Councilman Doty? Where we at?

Okay, I'm saying where we at? Number 121, the demolition expense.

Where?

Now, we amended the budget. It had 85,000. We amended it to 5,000. Is that correct?

That's what we spent the every, again, I don't want anybody to get lost and the amendments and for Q4 are actuals actual is what we actually spent for the entire, no, no projections and what we actually collected. So that's what we actually spent and demolition.

But what, what I'm, what I'm, what I'm also trying to correct is that we did amend the budget before the fourth quarter.

We amended in Q3. Yeah, we amended the budget twice. Yes, sir. Right. Okay.

All right. I think we may have discussed this already, don't remember quite just yet, number 134 under the materials and supplies. Did we have a specific reason why we amended it up to 200,000?

We, this was, uh, and I have to go back and see, uh, no big deal. If you don't, if you don't, I don't know off the top of my head. I mean, I, I think we had the discussion in Q3. I just don't recall off the top of my head. I have to go back to my Q3, but, uh, okay.

Listen, um, I have, um, uh, on some of these like departmental charges and things like that.

You got to tell me what page in line.

I just passed it, sir. Let's see. If anybody else has anything, please jump in. I lost my place.

You was on 134 first.

No, I already, that's the one I just got through with. No, it's in the department. I'll find it. Just give me one quick hot second.

Take your time.

OK.

I thought I saw it on here. Maybe my eyes are getting red.

Uh, while I'm looking for that, I do see here, uh, we were talking about, uh, item 1 0 2 on the administrative side, page three of 13 1 0 2. And I just wanted to spotlight that.

Yeah, that was one of those again, we, we get some answers on that because I need to know whether or not we need to amend, uh, the current fiscal year. Uh, cuz a lot of their workers comp came in doing the, doing the Q4. So we would, we would have to add possibly, I, um, I don't know exactly what triggered it. Mm-hmm um, and whether or not it's we gonna, um, have to expend at the same rate. I don't, I don't know that cuz you know, insurance is insurance. So it's just kind of never.

Okay. Okay. Item number 208, page 6 of 13. This is the first one I see, but I know I've seen it on here before.

It says departmental charges. Do we have... An exact list of things that we spend For departmental charges or is that just something are those incidentals or or what?

I have to give that's something you can ask miss Monica and doing finance and again a lot of these a lot of these a lot of these categories could be amended to better reflect what they actually are. I'm not sure why it was named that. So a lot of times you can't really, it's a guide, but sometimes we probably should reword something. I have changed the verbiage in some of these categories to make them make better sense. Because it's one thing knowing what it is when you're inputting information. It's another one when you're looking at it without knowing those inputs. So that's something we might have to rework.

Right. And the last thing I'll say about that The reason why I'm concerned is because you have a line item that says departmental charges, and then you have another line item that says miscellaneous. So again, it's kind of compounding the issue when you have a lot of money spread out, and you're using all of them basically for the same thing.

Yes and no. If you look at the current budget, we've kind of went away from using that catch-all outside of administrative. Um, so that's moving forward. That's something we, uh, we shine away from using, probably have eliminated in some instances and in the department of budgets miscellaneous. Cause I don't think you see it much outside of, um, admin.

Okay.

Cause I want to say we went through and scrubbed those.

Okay. Back to one or two. We talked about, uh, what number you said? Uh, one or two. It's just in general. I think going forward, this work of compensation expense, right? I think going forward, you ain't talking about the person, none specific. I think that each quarter it should be, we should keep up with actual, the payments, not the person, not the illness or none of that. I'm just talking about the process. I'm talking about the payout for that particular quarter. And I think towards the end of the year, you won't have to be doing all this. You could just go from quarter to quarter and actually see what we are spending the year to date.

Well, we've done that. It's just the fourth quarter, this is what was skewed. It got skewed in the fourth quarter. Not the first, not the second, not the third. Because we tracked it. So that's one of the conversations I want to have is why did it spike in the fourth quarter? So those are answers I don't have because we just got that number. Right. So that's what I'm saying. You caught me before I can do an in-depth analysis because we just got these numbers.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. So I don't know why it spiked because I need to know because I need to know if I need to amend the budget.

And that will come in the first quarter of next of this year.

We need to, I need to know that before. So I have some answers cause I need to know if I need to amend it.

I guess what I'm saying is you, you on the right track. Yes, sir. We do it each quarter. So now you need to find out, and it's easier for the administration to find out what caused it to spike. I see what you saying. You could actually, was it to claim like, you know, I ain't talking about nobody's supposed to see the claims or, or, or it went up some, you, you can better track. better track it and see what caused it. You can, you know, root cause analysis. You can say, Hey, it was going along with all of a sudden it spiked in the fourth, in the fourth quarter. Why? That's what I'm, I'm looking at.

No, that's, that's coming. That's why I alluded to early on. Right. We did that. Right. But I want to have it for the Q1. Okay. So we can make adjustments. So we're going to have that surprise.

And then you'll be able to kind of tell the reason that it spiked. Yeah.

I need, I need to know. So I'm going to tell you. We need to know. Yeah. When I know I'm going to tell you. Okay. So yeah, absolutely. Look at the other benefits too. Just go through and look at it.

Yeah, it's the other benefits that go along. It's the other benefits that go along with that work.

Yeah, I think I know what it is, but we'll just make sure that we're... Ms. Tappan, you got... I just can't get anything.

I'm good.

Okay, did we get everything situated about the... the 5% variance before we vote. Yeah, again, everybody satisfied?

Yeah, I did make a request that from here on out, if something is concerned and would trigger like a 5%, that he would list it out for us.

Yeah, okay. All right.

I'll make a motion. No.

Mr. James Green, District C?

Yes.

Mr. Darren Green, District D?

i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna be here i'm gonna ask the dd to make sure he is second